Roads 55 and 51, the Laerdal Tunnel, Flam, Bergen. Days 16 to 18

Morning of August 1. We packed up, cleaned the cabin, returned the key and drove on. That day we were going to travel along scenic Road 55. As we approached it, we filled up at the last Shell gas station. I was puzzled by the large number of broken-down cars there. I even thought that perhaps they sold bad fuel. But there was no alternative, so we filled up and went on. Later I understood why so many cars were stranded there. The road was extremely steep, and we had to drive almost all the time in first or second gear.

Road 55 is beautiful, but only if you have not already driven Road 17. To put it more bluntly, we had chosen our route badly. We should have driven from southern Norway to the north. Then the beauty would have increased gradually, whereas in our case we had already seen the best scenery in the north and after that we drove on without much excitement. "Another mountain, another lake, another fjord? Fine, let's keep going, we have already seen something similar." Of course the south is beautiful too, but after traveling through the north, photographing the most impressive places there and getting a bit tired, the south did not hit us as strongly.

We came down from one scenic road, still had some time left, and decided to start driving along another one, Road 51. We climbed onto it via a winding mountain road and ran into a good inexpensive campsite, where we decided to spend the night. There we met Russians who lived in Norway. We had not heard Russian speech for a long time by then.

Road 51 seemed completely ordinary to us by that point, but we still had to take it because it was the only road, apart from 55, that could bring us back to our route. Roads 51 and 55 run parallel to each other.

Then came the road to Bergen, and once again the navigator led us off the highway onto some rural road where it was difficult to pass oncoming cars.

Along the way we entered the long Laerdal Tunnel, 24.5 km long. There we started noticing speed cameras, so we had to keep our speed in check. Inside the tunnel there were signs every kilometer showing how much we had already driven and how much remained. There were also two places along the tunnel where you could stop and rest.

After the tunnel our route passed through Flam. There, if you turn off the road, in about 20 minutes you can reach another beautiful viewpoint with a view of a fjord somewhat similar to Geiranger.

After Flam we reached a famous waterfall, but could not get close to it, so after quickly taking a few photos from afar we moved on. On the way we also stopped at the much prettier Tvindefossen Waterfall.

We reached Bergen and found an inexpensive hotel that looked more like a dormitory. In the room they gave us, one of the beds had a caricature of a Russian tourist wearing an ushanka and holding a bottle of vodka. We decided to dedicate the next day to Bergen. We took the funicular up the mountain from which the whole city was visible. There were also lots of sheep there, and they were not shy around people. I was very tired and decided to lie down and rest next to one of them.

Then we went to the city center, parked the car, and walked around.

To be honest, visiting Bergen was our mistake. There was nothing particularly interesting there for us. True, we had come down from the north, and perhaps if we had started from the south it would have felt different. Everything in Bergen was expensive, and there were already more people there than outside the city. When traveling through Norway, you start getting used to living without much human society around you. Cities exist everywhere, but beautiful nature does not, so in my opinion, when traveling through Norway it is better to avoid big cities.