Guide To Norway – TravelTaggers

Hi Hi (casual Norwegian greeting for hello). This is kind of an alternative Norway, when you see the instagram posts of Norway, you have shots of massive fjords and mountain views. We needed a bit of r and r on this trip so opted for a slight less strenuous option and slowed our experience speed down for this new country to us. However, carry on reading as we still saw lots and learnt lots.

So we hired a car from the airport, drove past Oslo and headed south, we had found an Airbnb on a lake and what a glorious place to start, so we got back to nature, it was so quiet. The odd duck quack and in the evening you could hear the sheep munching their dinner in the next field, we would highly recommend this kind of stay…wind down time.

We hired a car online before we left the UK, which got upgraded at the airport from a Golf to a Rav 4 (woohoo this never happens to us). The roads in Norway were well maintained and a good drive and we arrived on a Saturday afternoon so we were really surprised at the ease we travelled at, to Horten, which was our base in Norway.

Lake Borrevannet

This is the lake we were staying on, in our little cabin, no neighbours (apart from the sheep we alluded to earlier). With all that everyone has been through, looking after yourself is a definite must. Just look at the view, at 4 km long, 800 metres wide the freshwater lake is a sight. You can swim and take boats etc out. To the south of the lake is a designated bird sanctuary with ducks, swans and waders to name a few, in the lake all kinds of fishes such as perch, pike and eels. (No we didn’t swim).

Horten Natursenter

So we came across purely by accident, we decided to go and explore the surroundings. After about 2km of path in a wooded area, there are signs that we believe we’re a nature trail. We came across the centre. Opening from 8-330, we turned up after 4 and it was all closed but they had little row boats etc around. They do have an online booking centre and I’m guessing it gets busy (we were there at the end of August) and they were echos of fun noises first thing in the morning. What we enjoyed about this was the old pump house as pictured. The light around the lake was really good for photos.

Midgard Vikingsenter

If you are in the area, this is a must, especially if you are interested in viking history or if you watched Vikings or the Last Kingdom. Interest peaked? OK then. Adult tickets were 100 Norwegian Krone with cheaper prices for children and seniors. This centre is situated near the Borre burial grounds, where many of the exhibits have come from, it was interesting to find out the history of the area before you move on to a recreation of a viking Hall – Gildehallen. We then went further and walked the grounds and saw the Borre mounds. We ended up on a trail which took us to waters edge and then carried onto to a marina. We spent 3-4 hours here including picking up the trail, it gave us a good understanding of the area and history.

Saga Oseberg

After our visit to the Viking Centre, we found that there is a replica of a viking ship here so we wanted to see it. We drove to Tonsberg, What we didn’t know was the this was built from a find made in 1904 from the viking era just outside Tonsberg.

Tonsberg

Tonsberg is the oldest city in Norway founded by the viking era in the 9th century. Now, it has an up to date boardwalk along the waters edge (where the Saga Odesebrg is moored), along with eateries running parallel to the waterside. This area had a good vibe to it and they were boat excursions that could be had here.

What we didn’t realise or make the connection to was another of our loves the marvel universe, and how many times it had featured in the films, Tonsberg is New Asgard.

Tonsberg Fortress

The fortress was a medieval castle and fortress, there are ruins from Castrum Tunbergis which was Norways’s largest castle in the 13th century. There is quite a steep walk up to the top, with a few things of interest to look at on the way up to catch your breathe. When you get to the top you can see for miles, with sweeping panoramic views.

Lovoysand

We like to explore the local area to us so off in the car and we had seen three small island, so we went for a look. So, unfortunately, Lovoysand was as far as we got as the bridge had a barred gate restricting access. It wasn’t a wasted trip as we took some great pictures and there was a little beach, where people were enjoying the last of the summer days.

Trollfoss

Google maps had us going all over the place, took us up different roads and inclines then we came to a blocked gated access, then another way, eventually decided to call it quits and stopped at Pinas. Which we believe to be the bottom end of the waterfall. After we read up on Trollfoss and you have to go up the river over rocks and the water for about 4 hours to reach the waterfall itself, so we settled for the bottom which we spent about an hour at, exploring and grabbing a few shots. There were a couple of wooden picnic benches, ideal lunch spot.

Verdens End

‘End of the world’ is the translation for the next place we visited, Faerder National Park and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. There is little stonehenge, visitors centre and restaurant, along with sculptures, views and islands to explore by foot. A truly great place to visit and explore. The islands and rocks are smooth, sloping so just make sure you have good footwear to explore.

Sandefjord

Sandefjord located about 120 km south of Oslo, was our next city to visit. Sandefjord has a long history of whaling and vikings, there is a museum about the history of whaling and a whalers ship and a whaling sculpture. There is a park which had different art work and points to see like huge deckchairs, bird box tree which were all brightly painted, with a children’s play area, benches and places to picnic. There are museums and arts so caters for all tastes.

Horten

Horten is a town located along the Oslofjord, population of approx 26,000, and an area 70km2. The home of the afore mentioned Borre Mounds. There is a naval museum and church to visit and great view from land over Oslofjord.

This is where we leave our Airbnb and decided to base ourselves at an airport hotel to visit Oslo, Lillehammer to name two things so the direction of our travels have changed.

Small waterfall

We were looking for a stop whilst driving from Horten to Lillehammer, outside of Oslo. So we found a place called Haugfoss which has a waterfall, however, if you go to Blaafarvevaerkets Foss you will see the waterfall a bit further up and there are museums and galleries below about the Cobalt mines in the area. We walked from the parade of shops and a restaurant over the bridge and took some really great photos. We were really pleased to find this area and enjoyed watching the force of the waterfall and water mill.

Lillehammer

You know the name, so we guess its for one of two reasons – it held the 1994 winter Olympics or there is a series on Netflix’s of the same name starring Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) from The TV series The Sopranos. This is also a well known ski resort, but we liked the other suggestions. Lillehammer is situated at the northern head of Lake Mjosa. The drive up had some fantastic view point and rest stops well worth a little break. We were here in August so you could see the ski slopes with no snow, wow! Getting into Lillehammer, the Olympics are a big scene for this town with a museum and a leading art scene in Norway. We saw lots of street art around so you can see where they got their inspiration. What struck us most was the quaint high street or main shopping road with all these strong attractions around, they seemed to have retained some originality of a ski town or what our imagination conjured this to be.

Oslo

You couldn’t visit Norway without taking time to visit the ‘Tiger City’. We would suggest having 2 days to cover off the City of Oslo, if you’re not wanting to visit museums at length. We dropped off our rental car and took the train from the airport into the city. We are covering off what did actually looked at in Oslo on another blog so don’t forget to check it out.