Tag: Rain

Once Again – Rain

Posted on by

Perhaps it was best I headed back to Kristiansand yesterday and to the Budget Hotel as today is decidedly a rain day, pretty much non stop all day. The Budget Hotel is one of the more unique places I’ve stayed. It sits literally in the middle of a car park next to the ferry terminal and train station. Not pretty but basic. This is the view from my window.

But, it’s fine and I’d stay here again. So with not much to do, except get wet, I wandered around the centre which didn’t take too long and found a kid’s dream shop.

This is less than a ¼ of the shop.

Apparently it’s been a wetter summer than normal. But on whole I’ve been lucky with the weather. While it has rained a fair amount, either through luck, planning or being prepared, I haven’t suffered from rain that much. The wind though has been a bit of a bastard at times.

A Road less travelled…

Posted on by

the better. Once again, I woke to the soft sound of rain on my tent. Actually I woke several times during the night curtesy of drunk or snoring campers next to me.

I am now adept at packing up my tent from the inside so only the fly sheet looks like it just came out of the bathtub. The campsite kitchen was off limits til 8am, and I couldn’t be bothered cook outside in the rain so I headed off in search of a good bakery. 2 coffees, 2 chocolate fidled croissants and 2 almond swirls later I was on my way.

Dancing in the rain

A Rain Dance – Aalborg

Today would have been another 100 plus day but, with the humidity and rain, I decided to take a more direct route to the coast. Now Denmark has really good bike paths and routes, but the direct ones are alongside the main roads so the trade off is that traffic is heavy and the scenery is wee bit monotonous.

Denmark

Of course I could have hopped on board one of these but that would have been too easy…. Anyway the rain had stopped.

Tomorrow it’s back to Norway via ferry…

Heading south by ways other than a bike

Posted on by

It is not often one gets the chance to have a 9 hour coach ride immediately followed by a 14 hour train journey and it be enjoyable! The day started at 6am, although the coach wasn’t scheduled to leave Tromsø till 7:30, after all, I needed my coffee and finding good coffee in Norway is problematic.

Bus

I would show a photo or two of the lakes and woods of Finland but we had rain, hail and thunder the entire 600 kilometres to Rovaniemi so there was not much to see really apart from rain-deer and the odd moose.

At Rovaniemi, after a ¾ hour break, I managed to get the sleeper to Turku in south west Finland that had a lovely old dinning car to compliment the modern sleepy carriages.

All in all a much better option than fighting the wind, rain, hills and mosquitoes on a bike. By the way, didn’t see a single cycle tourist on the way – except the two who also rode the coach south.

As for the weather, we’ve reached Oulu at the top of the Baltic and it still raining

Oulu

Hopefully tomorrow will be different.

Last Leg to Tromso

Posted on by

Well, today was going to be either great or grating. The winds were still stronger on the south (the route mostly east) and there was rain looming. But there there was also a couple of relaxing ferry rides……

Ferry Terminal

Turned out to be a great day despite the early rain, the views, as ever magnificent.

4 years later

The final run into Tromso was a breeze, I was free wheeling on the flats – I just felt sorry for those going the other way – not really.

So after 540 kilometres of riding from NordKapp, I’ve completed a circle of the top of Norway.

Mt Ulriken

Mt Ulriken

Posted on by

Last time I was here with Alex the gondola up Mt Ulriken was out of service, so we climbed up – more like stumbled and scrambled up. This time it was out due to wind – to be fair they were willing to let me go out but I might then have to wait a sone hours before getting down again. I declined the opportunity. So, this is what it looked like last time…

Walk up the mountain

And this is what it looks like today…. At least the wind has gone.
Mt Ulriken
This afternoon I hop aboard the Ms Lofoten to cruise on up thru the fjords to Honningsvag and Nordkapp where the hard work begins.

Bergen-dee

Posted on by

For some reason I thought there was rain (or snow, sleet etc) for 300 days of the year in Bergen. Indeed the website weather-and-climate.com notes that the rainy season starts in January and goes thru December. But I was wrong, it only rains on 233 days of the year and this month it normally rains on 2 out of 3 days. I can now verify that this is true as today it is raining and tomorrow it is meant to rain, but, yesterday was beautifully sunny. The good news is I get to fully test my rain jacket, the bad news is I get to test my rain jacket.

So I’ll just remember what it was like yesterday…
Bergen