Heading to the Midnight Sun (Day 7)

Heading to the Midnight Sun. A Velomobile Trip with Brigitte and Fritz.

Germany > Denmark > Norway > North Cape (Nordkapp) > Finland > Germany

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Discover HERE All the Days from "Heading to the Midnight Sun" Trip

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Day 7 | Larvik - Oslo | 142 KM | 1.057 HM

A beautiful day awaited us with the most beautiful sunshine. 6:00 a.m. we got up, had breakfast and at 8:30 a.m. we started. First on a very small path to get onto a bigger road. After a few 100 m we had the first surprise. This small path was closed. We pushed these pipes aside and continued. This was repeated three more times until we reached the right road. Now we went through a landscape in many small waves. That means short little climbs of 3-10 m with 5-9 %, then immediately just as down again and on and on. This can be quite tiring if you try to take the next hill with momentum. That means pedaling hard to accelerate. In between, there were elongated valleys, which rise towards the north. Norway and Sweden have these channel valleys in the south, running from north to south. If you want to drive from west to east, you have to keep crossing these valleys and over the ridges. Essentially, we had four of these ridges to cross today. The route led past Sandefjord to Holmestrand. Partly on small side roads, sometimes also on the E 18, but even this big road was easy to ride and there were very wide good cycle paths alongside. The cycle paths are also only partly used by Norwegians. Road cyclists often ride only on the road. So nobody got upset when we rode on the road. By the way, the Norwegians have so far kept to the rules and ride very cautiously and carefully.

In Holmestrand we stopped for lunch directly at the quay. With a view of the ships and arriving boats, we enjoyed our lunch. People kept talking to us about the velomobiles and thought they were cool or fancy. Two older ladies said we should be in the newspaper. We still felt like an ice cream and I went to get some. When I came back, a strange man was sitting on Biggi's bench and talking animatedly with her. It was the reporter from the newspaper. He wanted to know all kinds of things about velomobiles, why we had come to Holmestrand and where we were going, and much more. When his thirst for knowledge was satisfied, we set off again. Along the Holmefjord towards Drammen. Drammen was an important industrial site and is a transport hub. Then came the last longer and steep climb for today. Shortly before the highest point, my front derailleur cable broke. Too bad. We were actually making very good and fast progress so far. It would take a little longer now. In addition, below the road was a beautiful her with bathing possibilities. Instead, I now had to repair it.

When I replaced it, I found that it was actually the derailleur cable housing that was broken and so the derailleur still didn't work. I needed a new sleeve and they had them in the next shop, which was in Oslo. So I blocked the front derailleur with a tool so that the chain rode on the big chainring. On the outskirts of Oslo we found a small bike shop. The friendly boss gave us the tools we needed and a derailleur cable cover. Now that my red velomobile was restored, we could finally ride into Oslo. Through a maze of roundabouts, tunnels, subways, cycle paths and bridges, we finally arrived at our friend's house.

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