The Flyin' Liz Ryen

I made it safe and sound! My bike however, did not. Hopefully it will be on the next plane to Oslo. I was assured that it will be here in one or two days at the most. In the meantime that means I don't get to change my socks. I realized as soon as I sat down on the plane that they don't feed you...for NINE HOURS. I tried my best to swallow the cranky angry hungry side of me as I waited for my bike. Finally I gave up on the waiting, grabbed a $15 sandwich the size of a twinkie, and walked to my hotel.I am staying at the ever so lovely Ellingsens Pensjonat for 500kr per night. A little narrow, but clean comfortable, and the best patio around. Off to explore the city!

6 August 2014 Ten hours of sleep and I was ready to tackle Oslo. You can buy an Oslo pass for 300kr that will give you access to almost all the museums in the area. I woke up at 6am only to realize that I had 3 hours to kill. I made my plan for the day over my SEVEN dollar americano. If I find cheap food in Norway I will eat until I can't move. I took the ferry over to the Viking ship museum where they have three ships housed in a tall airy building. All the ships were found in burial mounds and date back to about 800AD. The best preserved ship was intricately carved with figures and patterns on the bow and stern. Each piece was disassembled, steamed and pressed into its original shape, and then reassembled. 90% of the ship is original wood and metal. All 3 ships in the museum were buried with food, oxen, jewelry, rich fabrics, wagons, and sleighs. Not much is known about the vikings whonwete buried other than the two skeletons in the main ship were women and most have been ve...

From Oslo I traveled 18 hours north by train and 3 hours north by ferry to land in Moskenes on the Lofoten Islands. Everywhere you look is a postcard picture. The islands used to be supported by cod fishing but tourism now helps the economy quite a bit. For the train ride I bought bread, cheese, and cookies. I didn't realize that I bought stinky cheese. Every time I opened my bag the strong odor of stinky feet and baf gas permeated the train. I started to feel really bad for all the other passengers so I limited myself to granola bars and waited until ibwad out on the deck of the ferry before I ate a sandwich. The town of Reins was the reason that I really wanted to come up here, but so many places along the way were just as beautiful. I didn't expect the white sandy beaches. When the sun shines on the water it turns a brilliant turquoise and looks more like Greece than somewhere in the arctic circle. I had to kick off my shoes and run around on the beach. The water...

 While some of the biking is terrifying (narrow roads with cliffs and large fast moving semi trucks) some places have bike paths that stretch on for miles and miles. I keep expecting the views to be getting more boring as I get farther from the Lofoten Islands, but the mountains are even more grand as I go on. There are picnic tables that magically appear on the side of the road, usually about the time when my butt goes numb and it is the perfect excuse to stop.  After three days of gas station food, I finally found a grocery store and was thrilled to find beer for only $4 a bottle. A loaf of bread and a jar of nutella and lunch was served. The main highway, the E6,  connects with ferry crossings in some places. On one ferry another biker, Stijn (pronounced Stiene) came up and thrust his hand out introducing himself. Since we were going the same direction we decided to stay together. He was on holiday from university in the Netherlands, very cute, and very youn...

 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 fl...

 The Atlantic Road is supposedly one of the best roads to bike in the country and one of the reasons I wanted to go to norway.  I had to take a $12 bus ride to get to the start of it! Once I was on the other side of the tunnel, the bus driver let me off and for the next 30km I threaded my way across bridges and over wind scoured islands as I made my way to the bridge I had been itching to bike over for months.  It is much more impressive in person, I assure you. From here there is nothing but open ocean to the west. Norway is one of the most sparsly populated countries, but in the loneliest reaches of the outer islands there always seems to be a house or a cabin accessible only by rowing a boat from the mainland.  As I made my way back inland, I passed farm after farm harvesting hay. This made it harder to find a quiet field to camp in, but it also meant there were strapping young norweigian farm boys everywhere you looked. I biked slowly that day. In ma...

Trollstigen, or the troll's ladder is a 12% grade climb up a steep valley. If you want to feel like a cycling rock star, I highly suggest biking up. Tour buses full of people take pictures and cheer as you huff and puff your way past. At the top, people shake their heads on disbelief and tell you that you are amazing and strong and all sorts of things to make your head swell.   The ride itself is spectacular. You Climb so far so fast that you reach the top before you know it. Once there, the visitor center is full of food, beer, and the Norwegian afternoon treat of waffles with sour cream and jam. When I was in line to buy my snacks the cashier asked if the man in front of me and I were together, he replied to her with a wink, "Not yet!" And left me smiling for the rest of the afternoon. Continuing on the road climbs through a valley of high peaks, waterfalls, and glaciers. The landscape is so beautiful that I am amazed people don't drive right off the road. ...

I left Geiranger on a rainy mornin , planning on biking at least up the the next rest area. Foetunatly the weather mostly cleared and I decided to press up, and up, and still up. I ended up doing a 17km climb up a 10% grade that put me on the top of a beautiful but very cold plateau.  True to Norwegian style, in the most desolate areas you will find mountain cabins, in this case, chained to the rocks that they wee built on. The road is only open May to September and often gets 12 feet of snow! At the summit there was a hotel which gave MW a chance to drink a beer and a coffee and dry my cold toes on the heater.  The way down drops gradually down to Lom, a town full of sod roofed wooden buildings and a beautiful stave church.  I camped a little ways out of town and read my guide book. Without knowing, I had chosen the Sognefjellet road. My book described it as the highest road in western Europe rising to 1434m (4700 ft) "should only be undertaken by the highly fi...