Bergen, Norway

The 8 hour road trip from Oslo to Bergen is far more spectacular than these pictures suggest, and also much more tretcherous. I took the more direct back roads through the fjords and mountains, taking in thick snow, horizontal rain and glorious sunshine in equal measure before getting to the campsite.

The roads were tough on Vanny but he survived the task pretty well going from snow covered peaks to winding valley roads beside lakes and rivers. Every now and again a long tunnel gives you respite from the elements and gives you another wonderful backdrop when you emerge from the other side.

The campsite is small but resonably priced, with a great view, on a clear day, about 5 miles from Bergen. Unfortunately after getting a closer look at the map I realised that the city centre was the other side of a range of steep hills and to get there by bike is closer to 15 miles than 5.

If you are in Bergen at any time, it is a statistical certainty that it is raining. All you can hope for is that you get a lovely day of constant drizzle rather than a day of driving sleet. My first day in Bergen was the latter and despite my best efforts to bike into the city in the morning, I turned around - freezing and soaked through - after a bout 20 minutes. The day was instead spent huddled in a duvet watching the Star Wars trilogy and drinking soup. Why had I driven 7 hours from Oslo in the wrong direction for this?

What is more, I was running off only battery power as the polarity checker in my electrical system was showing both the green and red lights and buzzing wildly. After hours of cursing, checking, cursing, and then rechecking with the multimeter, I could not for the life of me find what the problem was. I really hope it is not broken as finding a replacement UK version in Sweden will be impossible and means I cannot hook up to mains power.

All is well and back to normal at the time of posting this in Stockholm, it must have been dodgy Norweigan electricity at the campsite? - phew!

Take two. The next day I was able to make it into the city centre, a long trip by bike, and it was well worth the wait. It is a great city in stunning surroundings with forests and hills surrounding three sides and the sea to the east. In the centre of town is a big lake and water fountain with the city's four main art museums on one side and various statues around the edges.

Entry for all the art museums is a total of 50Skr (about £7) which is pretty good and features both Renaissance and contemporary work by Norweigian artists like Munch and Dahl as well as a few Picasso's etc. The modern art wing is well worth a look. In the show room gallery, the King and Queen of Norway were opening an exhibition and I managed to sneak past the guard in time to neck a free glass of champaigne. He probably assumed the scruffy kid in a hoodie and trainers was a roadie among the various gentry in fitted tuxedo's.

Elsewhere, the Grieghallen is one of the only modern looking buildings in the centre of the old town, with it's glass walls and odd concrete roof. Other churchs and buildings of interest are pretty grand and similar to those in Oslo. The Johanneskirken is probably the most impressive of the bunch.

At the end of the harbour is the Bergen Aquarium which is expensive (about £22) but well worth a look. They have areas dedicated to Noweigan coastal wildlife as well as various sharks, seals, pengiuns, crocodiles, and monkeys.

The 16th century castle is not very traditional looking, again like Oslo, but good for a look round while the harbour also features a well reknowned fish market and the Bryggen - the site of the original settlement and now a quayside area of local shops. Finally, I took the cable car up to the top of one of the hills to get a view of the city from the top. It is a great view and you can also see right out to the islands off the coast and a long way inland too.

In the end, it was definitely worth taking the time to visit Bergen despite the 8 hour drive west to the campsite and the 90 minute cycle journey from there. Now it is time for the 8 hour drive east to Lillehammer, my stopover point before heading to Stockholm.

Oslo, Norway

I wasn't entirely sure I would make it to Norway, as it is not part of the EU and therefore required my first proper border crossing since arriving in France. Needless to say, the border guard spotted the foreign plate straight away and signalled for me to pull over. After a grilling and a search of the van, he was happy and I was on my way to the Norweigan capital. Note to self: Border guards do not appreciate sarcasm when they are questioning you!

Anyway, I decided to try again to find a hostel in the city rather than a campsite - which are actually often more expensive here than hostels. I booked 4 nights at Oslo's largest hostel, Haraldsheim, where I got a bed in a 4-person dorm. It is about 15 minutes to cycle downhill to the city centre (and about 30 minutes to bike back again).

A lot of the popular major buildings can be found on the main street Karl Johans Gate which runs east to west through the medievil city centre from the main train station to the Royal Palace in the Slottsparken. It houses the Domkirke, Parliament Building, University and National Theatre on the way with the City Hall and Marina located just to the south and the Historical Museum and National Gallery just to the north. It also has a variety of grand hotels, shops and bars in between.

Above: Domkirke Church interior - is there not anything else more worthy of the church money than these gold leaf carvings and chandeliers though?

Above: The Parliament Building

Above: The main university buildings - it beats the concrete jungle of Brunel any day.

Above: The City Hall building with it's two large brick bell towers

Above: The vast Royal Palace in the park gardens.

The harbour features mostly small yachts and boats (as well as a few cruiseliners) rather than shipping containers and is spread out along the fjord to the south of the city. The Aker Brygge region on the water's edge used to be the shipyard but has now been reborn into an area of fancy (and expensive) new shopping complexes, flats, and offices.

Also built out on the water, near the central station, is the new Opera House. It is a modern angular building made from white stone and glass, with a wood panel interior. It is a strange looking building splitting the old town from a newly emerging banking sector (with cranes putting up glass tower blocks to the east). The design of the Opera House means that you can walk up the side of the building onto the roof and have a great view of the city and the fjord to the south.

To the north west of the city centre is the Vigeland Sculpture Park, a large green area of rivers, statues and artwork with a large fountain in the middle and a sculpture of a tower of people on the top of the hill.

Oslo is probably a nicer place in the daytime than the night as even the old town centre becomes full of homeless people, working girls and smack addicts - I saw a couple of guys shooting up in right outside the parliment building - even before 10pm. The nightlife is not the most exciting in the world, even on a Saturday, and a small beer normally costs about £8-10.

In the morning I went to the Viking Ship Museum outside the city centre which is definitely worth a visit. It features 3 viking ships which were excavated locally from the blue clay which preserved them so well. Each one was buried in the end as a ceremonial tomb for an important person. The various artifacts found with them are also on display.

The last place I visited was the Akershus Castle and it's surrounding fortress. It ceratinly doesn't look like a traditional castle but it is still worth a look round if only for the view across the harbour and the military guards constantly on patrol.

Oslo is certainly a great, if expensive, place to visit. Now I head west for the first time on the trip, if only briefly, towards Bergen.

Gothenburg, Sweden

Heading north, my next stop was Gothenburg. The campsite I found, Lisebergs, was quite expensive (about £32 per night) but with good facilities and close enough to the city centre for easy biking. To the other side of the campsite was a vast network of forests, gravel tracks and wide river bends, a runner's paradise, and it gets packed with locals after work on a nice evening. Unfortunately, the rain was rather stop-start for most of my stay but I managed to clock up a good number of miles.

Gothenburg is Sweden's second city and the centre is split by a series of canals and the Gota River. North of river used to be the industrial harbour, an important port in it's day, but now the huge redundant cranes sit motionless on the docks. It is now a region with nothing of interest to visit. On the south side of the river, there are still plenty of smaller private yachts and the area has been spuced up with the addition of large sculptures as well as the Utkiken Building and the industrial style Opera House.

The City Hall is right in the middle of town in a square next to the canal. Outside is a statue of city founder Gustav Adolf pointing to the ground and saying "this is where I will build my town". These blue-green bronze statues seem to be a feature of Scandinavia in general but Gothenburg also features a few old buildings where the roof has been clad to a similar effect.

Other museums, sculptures and interesting architectural buildings of note are also located in the centre or towards the southern region of Vasastan. In the south of Vasastan is the Gotaplatsen Square surrounded by several museums and a sculpture of Poseiden. When it was unveiled, the sculptor was told to reduce the size of the poor bloke's genitals after it caused so much outrage!

Next to one of the canals is the Tradgardsforeningen (or Garden Society Park) which is a large area of flowers, gardens and water features. It even has a big conservatory with desert and tropical plants in. The park apparently gets full of locals later in the summer when the weather is nice.

The nightlife in Gothenburg is pretty quite and boring without much going on, much like Helsingborg really. Onwards towards Norway me thinks...