The Danish eldorado

We crossed the boundary (the authorities let us go even with our dirty smelly socks...). We passed the first step....Second step, here we come!

Our minds are still in Norway, thinking of wild territories. Some many landscapes, how lucky we were for the weather, and the last but not the least: the erasmus life we left in Tromso. Amazing life! What a wonderful trip!

So, what did happen since we left Trondheim...?

Adios Trondheim: We took a good rest in the city even if we cycled 80km in the morning to reach the city center, crossing the Trondheimsfjorden. Trondheim was a BIG STEP in our trip: in our mind entering the city we definetly leave the Wild Norway....Back in the civilized world. We cycled around in the city and finally left the douwntown to go back to the countryside at the end of the day. After 20km we food an very nice place looking like Tocana's landscape....Tomorow will be another day through the Norwegian mountains....

Trondheim - Oppdal: The hardest part of the nowegien route! That's what we expected, but we were trained with the first 1500km and it was not the hell we we could imagine! Hopefully! However we had the first rainy day and we rented a hytta to dry up all our stuff!!

Oppdal - Vinstra or Thank you Gore-Tex: "Det er ikke darlig vaere, bare darlig klaer" which means "There is no bad weather, only bad equipments"! The morning in Oppdal was uncommun! We started cycling up from 500m a.s.l. towards the Dovrefjellet Nasjonalpark at 1000m a.s.l where stones are the only inhabitants! unfortunatly we had nothing except 4cookies for the breakfast and we were rapidly hungry!!!! But Norway is a big country with only few inhabitants, and the have had to cycle 80km in the mountains before we reach the first supermarked!
Then, the way down the valley was wet (lot lot of rain), cycling on the E6 (the biggest road southward), passed by endless procession of cars and huge trucks.....just unpleasant!
It was still raining when we reached Vinstra, hopeless to find a dry place to sleep....but Jérôme was there! He is a French guys living in Oslo, who has a hytta in Vinstra! We met him by a fluke and we spend the evening together in his Hytta! A wonderful place, typically norwegian, just "koselig" (means cosy). Thank you so much!!

Vinstra - Lillehammer: Two cycling days will be necessary to cover the 180km between the cities. We now left the mountains, but the rain still remains! We are crossing forests, countryside landscapes with fields and mud tracks just next to the Airport. We are so close to Oslo, but we don’t feel it at all! After being lost in the Oslo’s “suburb” we officially entered in Oslo city!

Oslo for a few hours: The last kilometres to reach the city center were the wettest of the trip! Millions of cubic meters felt on us! It was the great escape through flooded roads and parks! We finally stopped in a shop entrance! We only have 4hours before the fery left Norway So we start the quickest city visit passing by the Norwegian “Champ-Elysées”, seeing the Parliement, the University of Oslo, the National Theatre, and of course the Royal Palace! And that’s all! We cycled down to the ferry and got on board!

Oslo - Frederikshavn, The myth is over: We left Norway and ended our Erasmus Exchange year at the same time. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for the Erasmus students we were! But it was also the half way to Nantes, already 200km covered within two weeks, as we expected to do!
OSTIA!!!
Then on the ferry everything was luxury: 4 restaurants, 5 cafés, Jacuzzis, cinema, swimming pool….but we slept on the floor in resting room. Norwegian ferries are expansive too. So we spent the night in a café where a pianoman was playing jazzy music! Smoky jazzy mood!

And after a short (too short) night, we woke up in a new virgin territory, full of expectations: our Danish Eldorado!