More or less each summer since I've moved to Norway, we've been on at least one road trip. Most often it has been a trip somewhere in the country, sometimes elsewhere in Europe. The first summer though, I didn't yet have a car. But we did go on a weekend cycling trip along the famous Rallarvegen.
This year of course, we'd already done the weekend cycle trip to Grimsdalen last month, but for the proper summer trip we came up with something rather special! Six days of cycling, starting at Nesbyen, a couple of hours' train ride away, on to Geilo up along the Hallingdal valley and then over the top and down the Numedal valley to Kongsberg!
Well, that was the plan for the first five days. Then we were going to see how we felt on day 6 and decide if a local train back was a preferred option to cycling the last 75 odd kilometres back :D. I'm happy to say, we managed to cycle all the way back home!
Unlike most of the weeks in July, the weather turned out to be perfect! Sunshine, temperatures ranging from mid teens to mid twenties and enough clouds to prevent overheating :). Except that is, on the day we were heading up the steepest section from Geilo. That day was somewhat more miserable with nearly single digit temperatures and a more or less constant drizzle. In retrospect though, over 800 vertical metres in bright sunshine and 20+ degrees may have been a bit much :).
For much of the first couple of days we were close to a river and the Oslo - Bergen railway track. The twists and turns of the cycle route meant that we continuously played hide and seek with some spectacular views up and/or down the valley! And the sunshine meant leisurely breaks for lunch and a lot of stops to take photos :).
Our last trip to Geilo was back in the winter of 2016, celebrating Christmas with family (at the time to-be :D) and skiing/snowboarding. As with everywhere else in Norway (and I imagine the world), snow-covered winter appears very different compared to sunny late summer! So much so that it was almost hard to recognize some parts. But then some differences were just caused by the intervening years.
Cycling from Geilo to Rødberg was definitely the hardest and longest day of the trip, but the gradually increasingly uphill climbs of the previous two days helped us I think, as did the weather. In between keeping our heads down and pedalling away up-hill or hanging on for dear life on steep downhill sections, the views were spectacular!
We climbed up and down three hills within the first 30km or so and the landscape slowly changed from lush green with loads of trees to scrub forests and more and more bare rock and then back to forests of green and valleys covered with almost white lichens. That was also the day without any train tracks. But as with cycle routes in Norway in general, there was always some form of water flowing alongside :).
Arriving at Rødberg Hotel was an amazing feeling :). We'd booked ourselves a hotel or hostel room for each night. Didn't really fancy going all in with lugging around camping equipment and everything. And nothing feels better than a nice warm shower after a very long day of cycling :). Except maybe a nice dinner after said shower. And then a nice bed after said dinner :D.
The next couple of days were a relative breeze :). Shorter distances, almost always downhill and with proper asphalt roads more or less the whole way. Once again we had train tracks alongside, but this time it was largely unused tracks, some of which get used in the summer by tourists on Draisine bikes. And of course there were some lovely stretches of lakes or rivers!
For the four middle days of the trip we had also planned on visiting some stave churches. The first couple, at Torpo and Uvdal were quite a cool experience. The first time (as far as I can remember) I've been inside a stave church. The other two, at Nore and Rollag unfortunately seemed shut, so we had to satisfy ourselves with a look around the outside. Good for a pitstop though :).
After a quiet evening and a slow morning exploring the old part of Kongsberg, we found ourselves winding our way back towards Asker along largely flat and very picturesque routes. The local train that runs from Kongsberg and through Asker stops seven times in between, and we practically cycled past or through every one of those stations :D. But at no point did we feel the need to hop on a train for the rest of the way back. That, I think, was one of the most satisfying things on that last day. As was the ginormous ice cream we had at the service station just before the last climb back home :).
It's not that I didn't feel parts of my body complaining for a couple of days afterwards, but in general I think we'd (inadvertently) planned the trip very well to be left with only minor aches after 340 kilometres of cycling! The inevitable thought now of course is, what next?!!
