UK to Norway | FindPenguins

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21 juli 2022
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Dag 1
torsdag 21 juli 2022 21:26
☀️ 20 °C
Höjd över havet: 44 m
Frankrike Forêt de Marchiennes 50.436078, 3.30040650°26’10” N 3°18’1” E
Off we go again!
21 juli 2022, Frankrike ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
After too many disrupted flights (and wrong airports) I decided the only way I wanted to spend my last few weeks of my time off getting back on my bike... my new bike!!... and heading off to Europe. The bike is a slightly newer, but otherwise exactly the same, version of skippy. Just with a few extra bells and whistles... for £4k it really is a fantastically good bike.

With the bike loaded up I got on the road at 10.15 - 15 minutes behind schedule due to a little old lady stopping me outside the house to tell me my bike looked very impressive, so I had to tell her about my journey. She looked bored and thoroughly unimpressed after the first 3 minutes but she started it so she was going to have to listen.

The ferry left Dover at 2.40, getting me into Calais at about 5pm. From there it was a quick stop at the shop for snacks and beer and then I headed east... yes I know its the wrong way! But I want to go to Brussels so I was going to have to go east at some point! And this way I could find a nice wild camping spot in France before I go to Belgium. Which is exactly what I've done... the mosquitos beat me here though... and i fear I may be an empty sack of skin by the end of the night after they've drained me.

Not much to see today really, in fact until I get to Denmark I expect the scenery will be pretty uneventful. But the cities and towns will be good fun to visit along the way!

Planning to get up early, and get to Brussels for breakfast tomorrow, lunch in Ghent and finish off with dinner in Bruges.

As usual, all photos have the bike in them... none of the photos have me in them.Läs mer
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Resenärdoesn't look like there is nothing to see, it looks so green and pretty!
2022-07-22Svara
1 gilla
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Dag 2
fredag 22 juli 2022 19:00
☁️ 19 °C
Höjd över havet: 9 m
Belgien Damme 51.257541, 3.26097451°15’27” N 3°15’40” E
Brussels to Bruges
22 juli 2022, Belgien ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Breakfast in Brussels, lunch in Gent, dinner in Bruges.

Feels like I'm being the worlds speediest tourist! arrive at location, run around seeing the sights, grab some food or a coffee and jump back on the bike for the next bit!

3 brilliant cities though, good live music festival going on in gent in the town so was able to check that out for a bit. Bruges was the best if the 3, every part of the city was beautiful!Läs mer
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Dag 3
lördag 23 juli 2022 21:14
⛅ 20 °C
Höjd över havet: Havsnivå
Nederländerna Amstelsluizen 52.362545, 4.90352852°21’45” N 4°54’13” E
Into the Netherlands
23 juli 2022, Nederländerna ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Lovely ride today, managed to stay mostly off any big roads and found a few cute little towns along the way.

Started in Bruges this morning, spotted a windmill a couple of miles off my road so went exploring to see what I could find and found a town called Damme, kinda wish I'd waited and got breakfast there, either way I had a quick wonder round and then slowly made my way up to Amsterdam with a stop for a pint in the sun in Leiden.

No need to do the sights in Amsterdam, I've done them twice already so instead I'm sitting by the river enjoying a beer.

Early start tomorrow and lots of miles to cover!Läs mer
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ResenärGreat photos!
2022-07-30Svara
3 gilla-markeringar
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Dag 4
söndag 24 juli 2022 14:00
☁️ 27 °C
Höjd över havet: 15 m
Tyskland Bekau 53.918768, 9.44763253°55’8” N 9°26’51” E
1
Camping in Germany
24 juli 2022, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Great little campsite outside Hamburg for the night!

The riding through Germany was nice, found some fun little dirt roads but otherwise pretty flat, pretty green and everyone drives everywhere at about 120mph.Läs mer
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Resenär That’s our campervan!
2022-07-30Svara
2 gilla-markeringar
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Dag 5
måndag 25 juli 2022 14:00
☁️ 24 °C
Höjd över havet: 9 m
Danmark Svanemøllen Station 55.716453, 12.57826455°42’59” N 12°34’42” E
Copenhagen
25 juli 2022, Danmark ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
Great city!

Found a nice little bar with a barman who had ridden my route a couple of times so got some useful recommendations. Also a friend if a friend of a friend is a biker in Norway so have pretty much been given the best route to ride by him 😁

Also found a burger bar in a tram (or at least it looks like one! Best burgers in Copenhagen... apparently.Läs mer
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ResenärSo many countries you’ll be able to scratch off the world map 🤣
2022-07-30Svara
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Dag 12
måndag 1 augusti 2022 19:00
⛅ 21 °C
Höjd över havet: 24 m
Sverige Stockholm Palace 59.327052, 18.07183859°19’37” N 18°4’19” E
Sweden stuff!
1 augusti 2022, Sverige ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Lots of goings on in Sweden!

First and foremost I was in pretty desperate need of tyres... again... lesson learned (again), plan tyres in advance!!!! They take much longer to order than you might expect!!

Slight issue get the right tyres, so long story short, I'm riding with the wrong tyres for anything other than wet concrete... not so great for the dirt roads I've got planned 🤔

Got out to the islands around Stockholm this time which was great for a night camping, some swimming and Mosquito splatting.Läs mer
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Dag 14
onsdag 3 augusti 2022 19:28
🌧 17 °C
Höjd över havet: 4 m
Norge Trondheim S 63.435875, 10.39617963°26’9” N 10°23’46” E
Trans Europe Trail then onto Trondheim
3 augusti 2022, Norge ⋅ 🌧 17 °C
With new tyres fitted I'm into Norway!... annoyingly after a little bit of tyre polava I don't have the right tyres, in fact they're still road tyres which made today an interesting challenge.

From a very very wet camping spot by the river on the border of Norway (turns out my tent has quite a significant design floor... its not overly waterproof) I took theTrans European Trail all morning across dirt and gravel making a mess of my bike, my boots and my trousers and having a lot of fun in the process, except for constantly having to try and stop the front tyre from slipping and throwing me face first into the mud. Successfully avoided all day.

The Trail was followed by a spectacular road (fv665) up to Tynset and then onto Trondheim from there.

Trondheim is pretty much the cutest city in the world by the looks of it, and to end the day on a real high my hotel room is big enough to lay the tent out to dry! Camping was the plan but with 99% rain all night I've forked out for a roof.Läs mer
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Dag 15
torsdag 4 augusti 2022 21:00
🌧 11 °C
Höjd över havet: 28 m
Norge Nordsundet 63.118077, 7.78569263°7’5” N 7°47’8” E
Atlantic Ocean Road
4 augusti 2022, Norge ⋅ 🌧 11 °C
This was pretty cool!

So many bridges all weaving and curving over the fjords, as with all these things traffic was pretty heavy so couldn't enjoy it quite the way I'd want to but none the less, pretty spectacular!

Then onto my airbnb for the night, owned by a chap who must have been no more than 25 and it was basically a mansion he'd inherited from his mum as she didnt want to live there anymore... where my mansion mum?? 😂Läs mer
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ResenärHaha! I’m living in it!
2022-08-08Svara
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Dag 16
fredag 5 augusti 2022 16:00
⛅ 13 °C
Höjd över havet: 478 m
Norge Bjørkhaugen 62.125013, 7.17607362°7’30” N 7°10’34” E
1
Mardalsfossen, Trollstigen, Greiranger
5 augusti 2022, Norge ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Today was a good day of great roads and amazing views and best of all it didn't rain for about 40% of the time.

Started off with a 1.5 hour drive out of my way and a 1hr hike to get up to a couple of waterfalls called Mardalsfossen. I didn't really know what to expect but my god was ot worth it! Looked like the kind of scenery you'd only find in a national geographic magazine!

Amthen onto Trollstigen, a superbly brilliant windy road up into the snow, the kind of road dreams are made of, spectacularly ruined by the train of tour buses ensuring that it takes at least 30 minutes to do 5km. The views were good at least!

Lastly it was a ride through the clouds and snow before my final climb... into more clouds and snow at Greiranger (you can just about make it out winding up the hill on the right in photo 5! Less busy but much wetter, much colder, and by this point I couldn't feel my face... but nothing was going to stop me being a big kid blasting up the road and zipping past all the cars that were trying to ruin my fun!Läs mer
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Resenär That’s incredible!
2022-08-08Svara
1 gilla
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Dag 18
söndag 7 augusti 2022 21:00
☁️ 12 °C
Höjd över havet: 84 m
Norge Haugane 60.474833, 5.32836860°28’29” N 5°19’42” E
Lom to Bergen, Bergen to Eidfjord
7 augusti 2022, Norge ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
2 very very very rainy days so not many photos. I'll describe them to you instead. Mountains dropping hundreds of meters into fjords, but not like a soft slow descent, more like sheer cliff edges straight down into the water, each one with maybe 7 or 8 waterfalls all running down it.

Amd when it wasn't that it was windy roads through barren snowy scenery in the clouds. the roads lined by 10ft wooden poles so when it snows you still know where to drive. It could honestly have been a different planet.

However, due to being completely soaked all day for the last 2 days and too cold to move my hands I haven't taken photos of the good stuff, just occasional photos if I had to stop for a pee break anyway!Läs mer
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Dag 19
måndag 8 augusti 2022 02:00
🌧 8 °C
Höjd över havet: 769 m
Norge Tjodanpollen 59.040863, 6.70978459°2’27” N 6°42’35” E
Mystery road to Lysebotn
8 augusti 2022, Norge ⋅ 🌧 8 °C
This was my last day to explore so that's what I did, there was a little road I'd seen on Google maps that looked like it could be worth a look so despite being an hour and a half off my route down a road that only gets to a dead end off I went.

The road was spectacular, twisting and turning through mountains before reaching 8km of back to back hairpins working down from the mountains to a small town at the bottom.

The sun was shining and it was a wonderful reminder of why seeing the world on my bike is undoubtably the best feeling in the world... I needed that reminder after 2 or 3 very miserable days.

I finished the day hunting around this amazing road for a good place to pop the tent for a night. It was beginning to look like all the good spots were taken and I might have to just find a roadside patch of grass when I spotted a little road turning off, this then became a dirt road that steeply (scary when you can't switch off the ABS!!!) took me down to a little lake, with a little waterfall and a fantastic camping spot with incredible views!!

I did end up with some company for the night, a German pair of lads and a German couple had both had the same idea as me. So we finished off my beers and their homemade banana wine around a fire.Läs mer
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ResenärBanana wine??? Is that a Norwegian thing?
2022-08-13Svara
ResenärNo I think its an everywhere thing. I have a friend at home that makes it as well!
2022-08-13Svara
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Dag 21
onsdag 10 augusti 2022 11:00
⛅ 17 °C
Höjd över havet: 14 m
Danmark Klostergrøft 57.374436, 9.71236957°22’28” N 9°42’45” E
Playing on the beach
10 augusti 2022, Danmark ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
So it turns out there are beaches in Denmark you can drive on!!!

I bumped into another brother on the ferry over (also on a white CB500x) so when the ferry docked we both jumped on our bikes and went playing on the beach. He was slightly better equipped with his dirt tyres but we both scrambled through mostly without incident... I did get stuck... and I did crash... but otherwise it was without incident!Läs mer
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Dag 22
torsdag 11 augusti 2022 22:13
🌙 22 °C
Höjd över havet: 10 m
Frankrike Loon-Plage 50.998152, 2.203150°59’53” N 2°12’11” E
Home time!
11 augusti 2022, Frankrike ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
Norway was a billion times better than I expected. Genuinely one of the best places I visited in the last 4.5 months!

But the fun and games has finally come to an end and I might actually have to have another go at being an adult.

... I wonder if work will let me take a sabbatical later this year 🤔Läs mer
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Resans slut
11 augusti 2022