Norway 2007

Friday/Saturday - Look out Norway, here we come!

Fri/Sat - Sun - Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu/Fri

A trip to Norway was suggested while we were wandering around the London Motorcycle Show in January, the main reason being it was very easy to get to from Newcastle, and if we found reasonable accommodation in Bergen, we could drop all our gear off, and just ride out to a different area each day, nice and easy.

Accommodation was the first problem. I couldn't find a B&B that would take all our group, and hotels were just too expensive. The problem was resolved very economically by booking in to the Montana Hostel just on the outskirts of Bergen at around £19 per night, sorted! all I needed to do was book the ferry.

The only ferry going to Bergen is DFDS Seaway, which I booked on line, outbound Friday 22nd June, returning Thursday 28th at a cost of £195 each return, including motorcycles. This would give us four uninterrupted days touring the Bergen area.

Route of the DFDS ferry, Newcastle to Bergen via Stavanger and Haugesund.

The riders are:

Patto       BMW 1200RT

Ebbo       BMW 1200RT

Dave J    Suzuki SV650

John        Honda CBR600rr

Dave S   Suzuki Burgman 650

Friday 22 June 2007

08.40 Friday morning, all I had to do was drop my bags in to the panniers and I was ready to go, just one last check that I had my cash, plastic and passport. GPS on, route set, off we go. I picked up Dave S on the A59 roundabout above the A1, then it was a steady 77 mile run up the A1 to Newcastle. It was an excellent start to the trip, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and for once there didn't seem to be too many lorries hogging the right hand lane. After a quick refuel at Washington North service, we arrived at 10.30, 'good and early' for our 11:00 meet.

While we waited for the others to arrive, Dave S checked out why his bike to bike radio had suddenly stopped working and found a blown fuse. With the fuse replaced he was up and running again, but if it goes again we'll have to put a nail in, that was his only spare :-)

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Soon after 11am the last of our riders appeared, so we booked in at the DFDS kiosk and passed through to await boarding. Our boat is top far right in the picture below, the M/S Queen of Scandinavia. Boarding should have started at 11am, but we never moved again till 13:47, thank goodness it wasn't raining! what the hold up was, we never found out.

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After being waved on board we rode through to the front of the ship and parked the bike in a gap between two other machines, just then one of the officers came over and asked me to move it over to allow another bike to park alongside. I moved it over as much as I could, but looking at the gap created only a moped would have fitted, after a few more words he suddenly lost interest and moved on to bother someone else.

With the bikes secured with a shiny new ratchet strap over the seat, we went up to inspect the cabins. This was one of ours, on deck five, sleeping three with two drop down bunks, the bathroom was ensuite and ruthlessly tested. John and Dave J had another two berth cabin higher up in the boat somewhere, but it will have been very similar.

Next door to us was the swimming pool & sauna area, this isn't the best picture I've ever stitched together, but it does give you some idea of what it looks like. Behind us is a bar and seating area with news showing on a flat screen TV.

We finally got away from Newcastle at 15:12, making us just over two hours late, perhaps they'll make the time up on the crossing, we'll have to see.

A little later we went on a tour of the ships restaurants. and ended up booking in to the Seven Seas (buffet) restaurant at around £22 each. As usual there was loads of sea food on offer making John very happy, plus Beef Bourguignon, Pasta, Chilli, and a cheese board with crackers, fresh bread, salad and heaps of other things too.

The bars like everything on the ship were quite expensive, Patto got well stung just buying three drinks from one of the bars, not helped by the lack of any visible price list, so that was the end of that! We ended up buying numerous cans of Tuborg lager, Coca Cola and half a bottle of Bacardi from the duty free shop and settled down in the seating area just outside the cinema to enjoy it, this was the effect it had some hours later.

Much later, tucking up in bed, it soon became apparent just how noisy it was down in the depths of deck five. In the background was the continues rumble of the engines, not as bad as our last trip to Norway mind, that boat suffered from thumps and clangs too! I rolled up my earplugs and popped them in, all was quiet again...

Saturday 23 June 2007

08:30 We were due to dock in Bergen at 16:00, but we could be later than that due to our late departure. So, to keep us going during the day ahead it was down to the Seven Seas Restaurant again, this time for breakfast (£11). Breakfast turned out to be better than the evening meal with a half decent fry up, including bacon, scrambled egg, sausages, beans, chipped potatoes and freshly baked bread. All topped off with four cups of coffee, we're ready to face the day!

10:00 While we'd been enjoying breakfast (and making it last as long as we could) our ship had docked in Stavanger our first port of call in Norway. We seem to be around 90 mins late, so we hadn't picked up much time during the night's crossing. On deck we found Cunard's new luxury liner the Queen Mary 2 in the next berth up from us. For the fun of it I waved to passengers as they walked passed on the stern decks, but none waved back, what a miserable lot! :-)

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Next stop was Haugesund to off load and re load some cars, bikes and cargo before setting off again through the Fjords, its quite a pleasant trip really, sat on the aft deck basking in the sun and watching the occasional near miss with power lines and bridges as they skim over the ships funnel, well it certainly looked close from where I was sat!

Dave J & John lapping up the sun.

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Much later in the afternoon there was an announcement for all passenger 'not on a mini cruse' to leave their cabins 2 1/2hrs before docking in Bergen so the cleaners could get a head start! they never mentioned that when I booked it! Soon the decks were littered with people and their luggage, including us! Stepping over numerous children and their sundry luggage. I asked at the information desk what was going on? I was told it was standard practice from the start of the summer season :-( We ended up in the Columbus Club with all our clutter to wait it out. Not good DFDS, not good at all.

Two hours later when we got down to the car deck to load the bikes, there weren't as many on as I thought there might be, I guess quite a few must have left at Stavanger and Haugesund. 

We rolled off the ferry in to Bergen at 17:45 making us just 1 3/4 late, the GPS did its usual silly thing and routed us up through the town instead of straight up the main road, but for once I wasn't concerned, at last we were in Norway! It took us just 20mins to ride up to the Montana hostel, the waypoint was spot on.

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After a little confusion (my fault) at reception, we were booked in and given room 101 (the rejects room), the first surprise was it wasn't ensuite and the second surprise was the fifth bunk, which turned out to be the settee! Without drawing straws, that became my bed, I'll have to make it up each night, oh joy! (Ren & Stimpy)

Oh, I must mention this, the men's showers are communal to some extent, ie individual showers, but no doors, you just hide around the corner in the shower cubicle, just thought you might want to know :-)

But at least our pantry was looking good, this should keep us going for a couple of days. The chocolate is for those 'low sugar' moments...

To keep it simple this evening we decided to have the pizza available from reception (with a little beer of course). But maybe ordering five pizzas all at once had overwhelmed the staff a little, because the pizza's would all have benefited from a longer stay in the oven. An English couple we meet later said theirs had been fine.

A last drink in the very comfortable lounge before bed, but it's still broad daylight outside. Our trip dates have coincided with Bergen's longest days, the sun sets at 23:11 and rises again at 04:11. In all the time I was in Norway I only woke once to find our room in darkness...

And so to bed (after making it first) for tomorrow, we hit the road!

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