Happy New Year

I am back in Canada after an absolutely phenomenal Christmas holiday in Norway. I was just outside the city of Bergen on the west coast of Norway staying with my brother and his family for 2 and a half weeks. My sister, who is attending school in Bergen was also there so it was a family reunion of sorts. I had not seen my brother in 2 years since the last time I visited him at the same spot. He has 3 children who grow up so quickly it was great to see them again and maintain our close relationship. I secondary motive for going to visit this time of year is the relatively favorable weather than Norway's west coast offers. It is a very similar climate to Victoria, although a few degrees colder on average. I was very lucky and only had one day of rain the entire stay. The first week was very cold at -5. Clear skies were to culprit for the cold temperatures, but this also meant some sunshine and no rain so that was great. The roads were always wet due to the heavy salting, but thanks to a great pair of fenders mounted to my cross rig I think I managed to reduce the damage to my machine after over 1000 km of riding...I may retract that statement after I overhaul my ride in the next few days.
I had some incredible rides including a 130 ride of which 80% was along the Bjornfjorden or bear fjord. The road is windy, narrow and never flat. Long sections wind along the rugged rocky terrain hundreds of meters above the fjord. One morning I witnessed the low morning sun break through the clouds just as I was making my way along a particularly idyllic section of pavement. The sun cast its warm orange glow on a tiny fishing village along the fjord as I descended and ascended in and out of the miniature inlet it was situated in. It reminded me of grade 9 Norwegian class when I lived in Tjolling, scenes such as these are what fostered and sustained the Norwegian national romantic period when this rugged nations population was completely engrossed by their country's natural beauty. Its hard not to fall completely in love with this country. Unfortunately I didn't think to pack my camera on most of my rides, and these of course turned out to be the best for photography. The pictures below should give you a little taste of the area though.
I learned a few things while riding in the Hordaland province; a 30 km/hr average is nearly impossible for rides over 2 hours, 5 hours of riding at 80% gets you 130 km even every time, -5 degrees is like riding in -8 in Calgary, always wear a neck warmer, bring fenders, riding through roundabouts is very dangerous due to the seemingly always icy conditions even when the rest of the road is dry or just wet, guard rails are only good for preventing you from falling off cliffs or falling in the ocean not for preventing you from being crushed by semi out of control Scania double trailer semis, you can meet a semi or bus anywhere on any road no matter how narrow, and finally that cross is really handy especially dismounting when you meet a bus hurtling down a mountain road and the transition to the ditch requires you to be off your bike. The later statement can be clarified through my experience of climbing out from a tiny cluster of houses at the end of a remote country road and meeting a bus that took up absolutely the entire road and had no intention of slowing down forcing me to swiftly dismount, jump into a shallow rocky ditch and squeeze myself and my bike up against a rock wall to avoid scraping paint off the bright yellow Volvo bus.
Other than riding spending time with family was great. We went on several long hikes in the surrounding terrain and enjoyed countless rounds of the board game "Settlers". I don't know if this game has come to Canada yet, but if it has it is a must to own. I know boardgames are not as widely popular here as they are in Europe, but if complexity, strategy and infinite tactical situations are something you look for in a game Settlers has it all. It is important to note that if you want to experience all that the game has to offer you need to also acquire the "City and Knight" expansion. You all might think this is crazy but I played this game 7 evenings straight and it was just as engaging every time.
I took a few good shots which you can see in the next post.