Monday 14 August 2017

Finally, there's some photos!

Let me start by apologising for taking so long to put these photos together but I have to say, it is hard and time consuming, to scan through the best part of 800 or so pictures and to choose a small selection, that I think you might like. If I had my way, I'd just publish the lot but that is more than likely to send you all to sleep before the end of Day 3, as I've already discovered!

I hope you enjoy the selection. I've tried to make it a varied one. Waterfalls and spectacular vistas can be very nice but you'd soon get bored with looking at nothing but those. It's different when you are actually there, experiencing the power of the water or the sheer height and scale of the mountains.

To access the photos (and I hope it works) scroll down to where it says Scandinavian Tour Photos on the right hand side and click on the aerial photo of the Atlantic Road below. That should take you to the tour album on Flickr. If not, then please post a comment so I know what's happening and I'll do my best to sort it out.

And with that, I'll leave you to the photos.  Enjoy.

Thanks

Odinn

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Well, it's taken me a while but I did promise some statistics. Despite the title of this post, there won't be any lies. Some things may be hard to believe but believe me, they are true.

So, here we go.

  • The trip covered 3622.5 miles. (Knutr covered about another 900 miles)

During those, the Sprint 

  • used 262.92 litres of fuel or 57.84 gallons, costing £318.31
  • returned an average of 12.25 miles per litre or 55.67 miles per gallon
  • and cost an average of 9p per mile

  • We travelled through 7 countries.
  • We rode on at total of 8 ferries, 1 waterbus and a canal tour boat....
  • .....and through untold tunnels
  • We twice we saw people skiing off to the side of the road.
  • We stopped at, at least 7 waterfalls.....
  • ....and travelled on one funicular railway. 

In Norway, our most expensive drinks, were in a bar in Stavanger, where we paid NOK220 for 2 beers, (see below). That's approximately £21.

Best make it last Knutr!

In a brew pub in Flam, we were at our most extravagant and spent £37.60 on 4 x 500ml beers!, yet we somehow managed to come away with about 40% of the NOKs we took with us. Probably down to the junk food we were eating.

Overall, we were very lucky (lucky in summer to have sun?) but it did rain in every single one of the 7 countries we rode through. I think you can make that all 9 for Knutr.

No word of a lie though, we both had a fantastic time and a wonderful experience. The views were stunning, the waterfalls majestic, the mountains, well mountainous and the fjords either dark and foreboding or turquoise and tranquil.

The roads were exciting in the main, one, scary in the extreme and on the whole, of a very good standard, as many had recently been re-surfaced.

The tunnels were simply amazing, going up, down and around, some brightly lit, others near pitch black. Some long, some short, some warm, some cold, some wet, some dry. Not to mention those with roundabouts, deep inside the hillside or those exiting the side of a mountain straight onto a bridge over the water.

It's a month since we set off and already it seems like an age ago. The memories will fade but I have loads of photos to remind me of what we saw and got up to and I promise, my next post will confirm that I have sorted some and attached them to the blog.

For now though, that's it.

Storseisundet Bridge, The Atlantic Road