We had an early breakfast and I then went down to the car deck to drive the car off the ship. I picked Wendy up from the passenger gangway and we drove into the centre of the city. Being Sunday, it was very empty and we spent about half an hour driving around looking at the main sights.
Here is a selection of photos Wendy took.
The very old Nidaros cathedral where the Norwegian monarchs are crowned.
The central square with its statue of Olav Tryggvason, the founder of Trondheim.
We then left the city, driving due south and then west for about an hour and a half, The weather improved dramatically as we left Trondheim and within a short time it was sunny. Our planned route involved us taking three short ferry crossings and we had intended catching the first ferry at 11am. The drive was so much quicker than we expected, as the roads were virtually empty and also very good, that we thought we could catch the earlier 10am ferry. We drove through lovely countryside with the occasional snow-capped mountain.
Unfortunately, owing to a silly error on my part of driving the wrong way at a junction, which cost us five minutes, we arrived at the ferry to see the 10am sailing leaving the terminal. Onboard, as we learned later, were both Ahmad and Eric. They apparently saw us drive down the road to the ferry as it pulled out!
We had an hour's wait at the terminal and not long after we had arrived, Bob and Thelma turned up. They brewed some tea as we waited for the ferry to return. It was a short journey and we were soon on our way to see the famous Atlantic Road. At one point, Bob and Thelma took a suspension bridge across a fjord near to the Atlantic Road, whilst we went through yet another amazing tunnel. This one was 6.7 kilometres long and went down over 230 metres!
We reached the start of the Atlantic Road, which runs only for about 5kms, linking small islands. As we drove along it, who should be coming the other way but Bob & Thelma! The Road has to be one of the most over-hyped 'attractions' I have ever seen. It was a huge disappointment and, apart from one rather impressive curving bridge, it was like many other coastal roads we have driven along. Here are a few photos.
After the disappointment of the Atlantic Road, we drove across Averoy to the town of Molde to catch our second ferry of the day. Once again we were out of luck! We arrived with 15 minutes to spare. There was a long line of cars plus one or two trucks waiting to board the ferry. They started loading and then, when we were eight cars from the front of the line, the loading stopped. A man came along and explained that, as one of the trucks they had loaded was a petrol tanker, Norwegian law stated that no more than 40 cars could be loaded with it. So, the ferry left without us, virtually empty!
We waited a further half an hour before the next ferry came and we crossed to the mainland. As we left Molde, we went past the Akers Stadium and this very modern glass-fronted building, that looked like a sail..
Once across the fjord, we had a wonderful drive to our final ferry. The road ran alongside a magnificent fjord, with incredible views of the water far below us and the mountains rising vertically.
We reached the next ferry with plenty of time to spare. We waited in beautiful sunshine for the boat to arrive and watched a collection of classic cars offload and drive past us.
The last part of the drive was a mixture of sunny skies and then showers. The mountain and fjord scenery was magnificent. Here we were driving uphill towards the mountain wall at the head of the valley. It can't get much better than this!
Further on we had another magnificent view of a fjord.
As we crossed the mountains, we were faced with darkening skies and then quite heavy squally showers. I liked this photo that Wendy took of the clouds and the mountains.
We reached our hotel at around 6pm but, without the delays at the ferries, we could have arrived two hours earlier!
We are getting rather blasé about this incredibly beautiful scenery and I apologise for repeating the same descriptions as well as posting more photos of fjords and mountains!
Finally, a story of how the efficiency of the Norwegian ferries caused Ahmad a big headache, but resulted in a wonderful unexpected bonus for him and Reza. Ahmad and I had discussed the ferries we would be taking on the road from Trondheim to Stryn, so he knew he needed to be at Molde at a time to coincide with the ferry sailings. Unfortunately, we did not realise when we were looking at the sailings from Molde, that there were two different ferry routes. So, when Ahmad arrived, he saw a ferry about to leave and raced straight onboard. The ability to board a ferry without needing to buy a ticket beforehand, definitely speeds up the loading time, but this time it created a big surprise for him.
As Ahmad was paying, he asked where the ferry was going to and was told it was heading across the fjord to a totally different place from where he wanted to go! He then found out it was possible to take a different, but longer, route to Stryn. The road took them up into one of the glacier regions of Norway. They drove along roads where the snow was piled high and through ski areas that were still operating. He and Reza both said it was a 'drive of a lifetime'. We learned later that Bob and Thelma had driven the same road, but had reached it by taking a tunnel rather than a ferry from Molde.
We have one night here in Stryn and then we head to Bergen about 250kms south of here. For those interested in facts, we have now driven over 7,500 kms.
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