NORWAY: MY FIRST 3 DAYS

I am in Norway and I have found someone inside a bubble! Is this person completely mad?

I am 3 days into this part of my journey and so far Norway is everything the advertising pictures say. It is incredibly beautiful. I am cycling across islands linked together by ferries and monster bridges. The scenery is rugged with forests, rocks, lakes and the North Sea is weaving in and out with enormous tentacles, My friend, Jaana, joined me in Bergen and had an instant problem when her pedal sheared from a new crank. Fortunately, a bike shop dropped what they were doing and replaced the offending parts.

Bergen is a bike friendly city and I cycled 12 miles from the airport almost entirely on cycle lanes. In fact, everywhere seems to be bike friendly. Cars stop for cyclists at junctions and crossings in such a way that they go to jail if they don't. Little children either walk or cycle to school where there are numerous cycle racks.


Jaana is one of a small group of friends and we all go cycling together. Here she is setting off into a forest

We met Martin yesterday. He lives in Oslo but has no car. He had to work in Bergen on Wednesday and his next appointment is in Stavanger tomorrow, so he decided to cycle there. This is about the same distance as Plymouth to Bristol but has many more hills. We cycled with him for about a day and we learned many things about Norway. Jaana is from Finland so we shared some Finnish and British culture with him. Martin thought his wife might like badger, my ever patient mascot, so he sent her a photo. Martin's wife said the picture was not good enough so badger had his picture taken a second time .

Badger is doing fine. He has got over the shock of the scarecrow in Norfolk, the ostridges in Scotland and the wind in the Shetlands. He is taking Norway in his stride and is very happy to find out that other badgers live in Norway and for his photo to be sent to Oslo. Unlike me, he is not all weatherbeaten. In my case, my daughter, Jo, keeps on sending me messages to put on moisturiser. This bloke does not do moisturiser but I am told it is normal these days. Maybe I should if only because daughters are always right.