Nidaros cathedral, the holiest place in Norway and the end of st Olav's pilgrimage was beautiful and huge. But the fish houses on the edges of the downtown were my favorite.
I stopped for a lunch of fishcakes and beer at a little cafe and started talking to a man who looked like Varys in the Game of Thrones. Before I knew it he had bought me 2 more beers and I was loving Norway. He quoted philosophers and said statements like "there are no problems, only solutions." But it was wonderful to have someone to talk to for the afternoon. When he suggested that we share a bottle of white wine and a shrimp dinner, I knew I should be moving on. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and thanked him for the afternoon. He returned my kiss with a rather slimy one on the side of my neck. After a week of hard biking and no shower it had to be rather foul!
I biked along bike paths and small roads and found a beautiful place to camp for the night on the side of a fjord on a grassy flat spot. The sunlight was giving everything a golden glow and fell asleep feeling content and happy. At 2:40am, I woke up to the sound of water gently lapping... About 6 inches away from the door to my tent! The tide was rising and I was in danger of being cut off from the road as the water rose over the grassy bench. I packed up my things in record time and barely made it up onto the highway. I found a grassy driveway to fall asleep on until a normal morning hour.
The ferries that run in between islands and across fjords are fast and easy. I prefer them to the tunnels that drop under water. I had a big one to go through this morning, 5km with an 8% grade down and up. When I got to the other side there was a huge line of cars and red lights flashing saying that the tunnel was closed. I told the first few cars that I didn't know why because it had been clear the whole way. A man looked at me and said "it closed because of you, bicycles are forbidden." CRAP! I had to bike uphill past every single one of those cars as they shook their fingers at me
When I stopped at the tourist office in Kristiansund the lady at the desk said that normally when bikes go through the tunnels they call the police to pick them up, and that the last time it happened the newspaper got there first and the biker had their picture on the front page! Fortunally I made it through without all that, but when the tourist lady checked the news, they had a write up about a "cyclist" going through the tunnel and closing down this morning. Oops.
Now I am waiting for a bus that will take me 4km through a tunnel that is also closed to bikes so that I can bike the North Atlantic Highway, one of the best cycling routes in Norway that is inaccessible by bicycle.
Both kristiansund and Molds, the next big town I come to, are known for their rose gardens and the streets are lined with them. When creepy bar guy from Trondheim asked me why I chose to come to Norway, I replied without hesitation, "because it is beautiful." So everyday I get to bike through the mountains and coastlines and there is something so nice to realize that it can truely be that simple.
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