Weon

So it’s up early, scoff some breakfast and head out to the train station for our journey to the beginning of our ride. Train is a great way to see the country except that the many tunnels you go through when you are near sea level can get slightly tedious. That said, our trip to Haugastøl was full of great views although sleeping on the train proved inevitable for me! It wasn’t a problem though as the train follows pretty much the same route as the biking so I was able to see it all on the way back!

So we hopped off the train and walked down to the bike hire place to pick up our transportation for the next three days. To say that our bikes were awesome would be, well, a lie. Heavy steel frames? Check. Seven speeds? Check. Back-pedal brake? Check. Comedy back-sweeping handlebars? Check. Off-road beasts these weren’t. Still, once we were on the go, and had stopped laughing, it was all good. Twenty-eight kilometres of uphill riding was ahead of us so we headed off.

After skirting round our first lake we were greeted with our first real climb. Sure enough, the bikes and panniers proved too much for us and we ended up pushing up the hill. Having had a rest and a bread roll we headed off again. Upon rounding the next corner we were greeted but a great view across a lake with mountains on the left and the railway line on the right.

At this point I decided that I should only stop and take a picture when I saw something great. This would prove a nightmare as every corner threw more awesome views in our direction! The weather held for us as we rode on with the occasional sheep and train for company.

There was a surprisingly large number of people riding the route with us, most of which overtook us! I’ve never craved my own bike so much! The route was the road they used when building the railway and once it was complete it was left for the locals and, latterly, cyclists to use. It’s pretty much the most popular cycling route in Norway meaning there were people from all over the country riding.

By the time Finse (our overnight stop) rolled into sight we were ready for a rest. We knew we were getting close when we could see the glacier working its way between the mountains across the valley. From our room we had great views across the lake to the glacier. our room was basic but clean and dinner was awesome (and, thankfully, included in the price).

We watched the sun set and then turned in for the night…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Travels, Bike, Friends/Family, Free Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.