Hundreds of miles of highways were built throughout Norway in the late 1800s and early 1900s to connect the communities. Since most of the work was done by hand, building tunnels and even blasting large sections of rock away was prohibitively difficult. Where no appropriate route was available, some rather impressive engineering resulted in narrow,…

Varbak Hill is the highest point in Farsund and provides wonderful view to the town and the Lyngdalsfjorden. On our second day in Farsund, we took a more extensive tour through town, including a walk up Varbak Hill. We also watched two of the Farsund FFS tugs assisting the 742-ft (226m) Hawk, one of the…

Our pilot guide describes Farsund as “ice free”, but the entrance to the guest harbour was blocked by ice when we arrived from Andabeloy. Two recent paths through the ice were evident, and we could see clear water beyond, so we selected one that looked from a distance to be mostly clear but with loose…

The air temperature was just below freezing as we continued south along the Norwegian coast late January, and the surface ice levels increased, particularly near freshwater inflows away from the warming effects of the Gulf Stream. After departing Kvitsoy, we anchored for a night at Nordragabet near Egersund and saw little ice on a tender…

Kvitsoy, with its historic lighthouse and millennium-old stone cross, was on our list of places to visit since our 2018 Norwegian cruise. We finally stopped there on our way south, near the end of our current visit to Norway. Getting there was a little more interesting than usual: we encountered a surprising amount of ice…

On our third stop in Haugesund, the town was much quieter than our previous visit in early August, when we took the last available berth. Dock space was not a problem late January, and we had the place mostly to ourselves. We spent a peaceful two nights there, and enjoyed a visit from two Stavanger…

Vestland is Norway’s newest county, established on January 1, 2020, and lies directly south of More Og Romsdal county. After departing Vestland’s administrative center, Bergen, we spent a week cruising coastal Vestland between Austevoll and Lammavagen. We’d already explored much of inland Vestland, including Nordfjorden, Sognefjorden, and Hardangerfjorden but hadn’t spent much time in the…

We returned in January to the beautiful city of Bergen, made even more so with a fresh coating of snow. While there, we enjoyed several walks through the winter landscape, particularly at dusk and dawn. We also refueled, restocked and learned about an awesome new piece of winter gear, shoe grippers, a wonderful invention that…

We spent the darkest and most northerly part of our Norwegian winter cruise, from early December to early January, in the the More Og Romsdal region directly north of the headland Stad. This area encompasses several major centers, including Alesund, Kristiansund, Andalsnes and Molde, plus spectacular scenic destinations such as UNESCO World Heritage site Geriangerfjord,…