Ferry to Norway - Southern Norway by Motorcycle

Good morning from Herschels. We woke up quite early this morning and found that all of our equipment was nice and dry. The radiator did a great job last night. So we've headed to Herschels to the ferry line. Yeah and we're going to be heading on the ferry across to Norway but the ferry leaves at 8 30 and you have to check in an hour before so we need to get on the road and get to the ferry port now. Yeah it's an early start but it's looking promising as the mist is starting to clear and there's a little bit of blue sky above us so I hope today at least we're going to have one nice dry ride. About five or ten minutes before we embark on the boat it's just pulling up it's a huge ship it looks absolutely fantastic but the check-in process was really simple you're pretty much straight through after showing your passports so we're probably going to get back on the bike now and get into the boat. All right here we go Em. Follow the man in the high-vis vest. First in. Just to make it extra difficult. Nicely done Sean. Shadow's parked up. Right Em's carrying the bags this time. For once. I'm hands-free I feel like I've I think so the skyline is on the telephone which was an extra 10 euros wasn't it? Yeah. Unlimited drinks or something. I think so unless I've read it wrong. But there is a Starbucks on here apparently. Very American. Don't tell Evan. Oh look at that it's getting snazzy. Oh cool. Wow should we go in the elevator? Yeah take the lift up to the tent. That's goodbye from Denmark now it's been brief but it's been nice and we're heading out into the open sea now. We won't be back in Denmark on this trip will we Em? No but we'll definitely be back in the future but we are in the Fjord lounge which you can pay when you book an extra I think it's 15 euro to be in so we're going to be spending the next four hours in here and enjoying the sea views. It's so cool being on a ferry it's just something so adventurous about it. It is yeah this one is especially nice it's absolutely wonderful it's really quiet as well. It's nice and relaxing there's even massage chairs over there. Don't get too comfy I'm going back on the bike soon. Welcome to the Fjord line I'm Emily and I will be your guide for the day. I'm just joking but I am going to take you around the boat so we can see and explore it because to be honest when I was looking and researching taking this boat it was really difficult to find a lot of information about it so let's go and check out the Fjord line boat from Herschels to Kristiansand. The boat is really nice to be honest so this is the reception area and then these are the stairs that run there's three one at the front middle and back and as you can see here this is the layout of the boat so we deck number seven which is kind of the main deck with everything on it through here we've got I guess the canteen area really and a shop for all the girls watching that want to do a little bit of on-boat shopping and then through here we have kind of the canteen area there's there are good food on options there's not a lot of like allergy friendly or vegan options on the boat so I'd recommend like bringing a packed lunch if you're coming on and so through here we have this is the canteen I'm not too sure about the conversion rate of the Danish money but they're 45 for a fresh juice and I think this all opens at 10 o'clock and then you've got your pastry section of course having a Danish pastry in Denmark it's one of those things that has to be done right and but this area is really busy it's kind of like I guess the main hub of the boat and then on the upper two floors you have all of the cabins so you can take this boat overnight I think but a lot of people still get a cabin for in the morning we didn't because we're going to be quite like awake the boat left at 8 10 so it was pretty easy for us to just get in get into the lounge which I'll show you guys later then you have a starbucks like we mentioned before it's not a real starbucks it doesn't actually have like a proper expression machine it's still just a button press then you have the buffet area here which I think offers a lot of fish courses and different stuff like that I'll show you guys the menu if you and the prices you can research that yourselves because I don't know the conversion of the DKK and now let's head to the more exciting area which is the tax-free shopping which is on below so it's the deck six you have to head down it's such a nice boat there and then you have a full-on duty-free shopping area inside has got um I think a lot of alcohol I think a lot of people um buy alcohol on this boat and then bring it over to Norway because it's quite expensive over in Norway and other than that it's got loads of chocolates and sweets and stuff for you to pick up let's see what else it's got in here meats fishes and yeah it's just everything that you can pick up in here it's good if you need to grab a snack on board and everywhere has M&Ms right and there's also local chocolates and for all of the for all of the girls watching there is also perfume and a makeup section so there's always room in the pannier for that isn't there so have a look here there's quite a lot of offers and deals on as well so then we're going to head back up back up to deck seven and on the top deck which is I think deck 10 and that's where like the um so you've got like the views out to the sea however it's really cloudy on our crossing so I will show you anyway let's head upstairs I'm out on the deck now of the ferry and it's actually really warm outside here as soon as I opened the door a nice warm breeze greeted me which is a good sign for the ride to come later on today there's something about starting a trip or an adventure with a ferry ride and arriving in a new country by boat makes it even extra exciting it's really nice to be out on here get some fresh air and the seas are really calm today apparently two or three days ago they had swells of eight meters which would not have made a nice crossing but as you can see out there it's only about one meter and it's really calm today so it's a perfect day to be making the crossing the next thing I'm going to show you is the fjord lounge which is what Sean and I decided to do it's kind of like um like a private lounge within the boat uh this is the entrance to it nice fjord lounge line and everyone's ticket has a qr code on so you just scan it here and then you can go in so the lounge itself has free tea and free coffee as you can see and then in here is just like a really chilled vibe as you can tell there's like no music it's super quiet and Sean is in our spot just here in the corner and we have a great view of the sea as we do the crossing as you can see after about four hours on the ferry we have our first sighting of land it's a little bit gloomy out there but it looks really exciting there's christian sand on the left as we're just about to dock well I think I've lingered on the deck a little bit too long that was a final call to go and get the vehicles so I'm going to run back to Em who's probably stressing us to whereabouts I am go and get our bags and get our gear back on and go and explore Norway but it looks mysterious already so really looking forward to exploring Norway the door is opening we can see a little bit of daylight and we're all just waiting here ready to um disembark there's hundreds and hundreds of camper vans I've never seen so many let's get far away from them but let's just uh oh I'm so excited I'm like shaking coming into the uh to christian sands there with the little islands popping up was amazing it's uh yeah I love arriving by boat yeah is it you can imagine like how people felt years ago where they put like discovered a new island or something pulling up with the mist all of a sudden these little little islands pop up with all greenery on them if uh if the rest of the country is anything to go by then everything people have said about Norway must be true oh okay I'm so excited let's go here we go that's a lot of bikers waiting to get on the ferry back it is I finished their trip I've had a good time they look a bit weathered which is good all right guys let's do this port of christian sands it's not raining that's nice it's not it's damp but we can deal with damp we can deal with drizzle we're prepared for drizzle we are so while we got like a three four hour ride now to the fjord uh we've booked a hostel for tonight and it's right in the valley and it's gonna be it's gonna be a nice place to stay tonight because we've got an early morning ferry in the morning that's going to take us through the fjord so we didn't really want to be packing up a tent at 6am with all the moist air so I think it's a good choice I think it is I think it's the right move and it also gives us that little bit of extra time because we don't need to set up camp this evening so we can take our time on our first little road trip of Norway so we have we have just gone into the back of this Prius we've got a learner in front um what was I saying we have just left christian sands and we're heading on route nine heading north of course um towards Lisebotten which is where we'll be staying tonight so far we've just been riding through some Norwegian little towns which has been lovely to stay it's a lovely welcome into the country and the houses are exactly how you would imagine them which is really cool and I think now the road is just about to start to get good right Sean yeah I think so um we didn't really have any exact plans for today because we want to spend most of our time at the northern part of Norway don't we because this yeah this area we can get to quite easily maybe with a week or so but so far it's really beautiful um and it's really nice when you get off the boat into a new country for it to actually feel like a different country in that like the house is different the lampposts are different it's yeah the houses are like wooden structure here it's totally different to the rest of Europe and the landscape is completely different yeah the trees growing on the side of the rocks before there's probably something we're going to see like day after day but today for our first half an hour here everything is new and everything is amazing it's like whoa I haven't seen a Norwegian dog before and we've been off the boat for about 10 minutes and look yeah there's been a sign for moose as well to watch out for them I hope we see some look at that that's spectacular my heart is like so happy at all this natural beauty I think by the end of this trip I'm gonna be overjoyed yeah we might you might be wanting to move here oh there's another moose sign I will be overjoyed if we see one no we won't because we've not got the camera in the front yet oh yeah after saying about the the reason for the tank bag yeah as long as it's behind the barrier as well like the middle of the road around the corner I've seen video of them literally just in the middle of the road just strolling I think that would be my dream for the trip seeing moose and um some reindeer a reindeer yeah anything else is a bonus it is I think we're just out of season for the whale watching yeah and also the puffins as well I think they're quite harder to see now okay wow the water's so dark isn't it yeah it must be really deep oh it's absolutely spectacular look at it we've only been in Norway an hour we've already used up our quota of wows and spectaculars I'm gonna have to find some new words in the thesaurus tonight somehow shadow just fits in here already he is he's blending into his surroundings I've got a feeling we're not going to get anywhere quickly on our tour of Norway we've been here around an hour done around 35 kilometers and just pulled over for the first time and the scenery is already magnificent Sean and I've been planning this trip of Norway for three years we've actually been doing the route and it feels overwhelmingly exciting and just like you can feel it in your heart in your chest just like I'm so excited to be here and it's everything so far I wanted it to be and I've only seen 35 kilometers of the country so pulled over at the lake and as you can see there's just a tiny little red cabin there which is my idea of a dream house and then we're going to continue the 185 kilometers it is to our final destination where our hostel is for this evening and I just I don't know what else this country can already throw at you it's it's just magnificent spectacular lake number two we did go past some other lakes they were I think they were just standard lakes they weren't spectacular this one's another good yeah this one's got a little bridge across it there oh yeah little dam I love seeing all of the towns and like little villages makes me feel like we're really going to get to see the country yeah yeah you don't really have to search out the things you want to see here you just have to ride just go right through the roads and you'll see everything you wanted there's so much flora and fauna here that I've not seen before like flowers and trees and plants yeah lots of color oh there's a coffee shop there oh I like coffee we're here at the spa shop in Norway everything's a new experience but I think we found our new staple food which is going to be these crackers they're so nice they're quite high so they should be quite filling and they're reasonably priced as they are made here in Norway whereas we've just realized everything that's not made in Norway is really expensive it is it's very expensive in the shop so do just be careful what you select and make sure you use your converter app because you could be in for a nasty surprise but yeah we're gonna have a little bite to eat so we can head back on the road and get on to enjoy the day so our surroundings have started to get a lot more rocky and a lot bigger hills and mountains around us but we're still at the lake level and riding through I think soon we're going to be passing an even bigger lake so we'll show you that when we get to it but you just can't stop all the places can you Sean? No we can't we think we've still got two hours to get us to where we need to go tonight and I think the entire country is going to be a place where you want to stop every five or ten minutes but we're gonna we're gonna be selective about what we stop at. I haven't seen one pothole yet. No the road conditions are really good it was was a little bit slippy up there before but yeah it'll be interesting to see if the condition of the road stays the same the more north we get and further the moment we're still like an hour away from christian sands aren't we so we're still in the thick of it yeah this lake is absolutely stunning so we are on the 337 yeah you think Sean? and this road is kind of in between two mountainous regions it's kind of like you're riding through or riding on the bottom of a canyon but there's just trees and a river running through we've been riding this for about 30 minutes and we still have an hour and 20 to go and we've been very lucky because we've had a couple of rainy spells but nothing more than a shower and so far the rain is keeping up yeah just passing shower we didn't stop for it was tempting to put our waterproofs on but now we've powered through also a deer ran across the road before that was nice to see but also a reminder to keep our eye open for them and yeah keeping the speed limits i think for everyone's safety safe our first on road wildlife it's a good little overtake that sheep stop here as i said walk through the windproof on soon we've just got a bit of rain windy road this one is it is yeah it's like a little mountain pass and the funny thing is we're not even going like on one of the top roads in norway this is just a road that we found and decided to go on and we're heading there was was actually the quickest way to where we're going oh that wind is cutting oh that wind is so cold we started our day this morning in herschel's denmark got the ferry over to saint christian sands about four hours it was a lovely ferry crossing really smooth and a little bit of time to relax so yeah we docked here in christian sand and now we've made our way all the way up here it's been beautiful going past all these lakes we're somewhere around here at the moment which is one of the higher points in the area i think it's about a thousand meters and the plan for now because it's about four o'clock now it's getting cold it's about 12 degrees is gonna go and drop down onto this pass here which is the fv500 so join us in the next episode as we take that amazing pass into the valley