The first time I visited Norway, it was to spend almost five months sailing up and down the craggy coastline and into its majestic fjords. I’d never witnessed scenery so spectacular in all my life. But while that Norwegian summer may have been beautiful, it was also freezing cold, and the rain was persistent. After the first few weeks, the novel of mountains and waterfalls wore off. I’m sorry to say it, but until recently, Norway was a country that I loved to hate. And then, the day we went cycling in Eidfjord came around.
*This site uses affiliate links, where I may earn a small commission at no cost to the reader.
Welcome to Eidfjord
My hatred for Norway is more of a performative thing than a real one, and the pretty little port of Eidfjord is actually my favourite of all the Norwegian cruise ports. The picturesque village consists of a cluster of buildings nestled at the end of one knotted arm of the Hardangerfjord, surrounded by mountains. In springtime, apple blossom speckles the trees, and lambs frolic in vivid green fields. In winter, there’s snow. Lots and lots of snow.
If Eidfjord had its own soundtrack, it would be a full-blown classical orchestra. In fact, listen to a bit of Edvard Grieg and it’ll transport you right there.
The best thing about it- aside from the delectable buns for sale at Vik Café– is that you can strut straight off of the ship and be in nature within mere minutes. (Which is perfect when you’ve only got an hour’s break, but desperately need some fresh air, or a supermarket run.) And unlike teenier tinier villages like Geiranger, I’ve only ever seen one ship docked in Eidfjord at a time (and that’s the one that I work on), so it’s never felt saturated with visitors.
My Complete Guide to Docking in Eidfjord
Continuing to free myself from cycling-phobia
Unless you personally know me this may come as a surprise, but I am terrified of most things. One of those things is cycling on roads. When traffic flies past, I immediately see visions of my own bicycle-related death, and it results in a grip so tight that you’d think I was a woman in labour. Prising my own hands off of the handlebars as I dismount a bicycle is truly a painful experience.
And yet, I do genuinely enjoy cycling. Provided that there isn’t a car in sight. I loved every moment of cycling in Cát Bà in Vietnam, and I even managed a super long bike ride across Croatia’s Stari Grad Plain (once I realised cars were few and far between.) So when a bunch of pals asked if I wanted to join them on a bike ride in Eidfjord, I’ll be honest: I had my reservations.
I needn’t have worried, because Eidfjord is as quiet as quiet can be. These are ideal cycling conditions for me- and most of the journey was through forest or field, anyway. The sun was shining, the grass was greener than green, and the bikes were completely free of charge because we’re all crew members! That’s right, pals, our ship has a collection of bicycles for crew to jump onto at the gangway, and it’s bloomin’ glorious I tell you.
Calloo callay! What a top time to be alive in Norway, that’s what I say.
Cycling in Eidfjord
We whooshed along the flat, tree-lined path that follows the river, all the way to the sandy beach at the lakeside, where crystal clear water washes glassy pebbles. It was easy-breezy and wonderful, but also deceptive because post-beach, it was time to head upwards. (Very steeply upwards, might I add.) I am not overly in favour of steep uphill inclines, but luckily neither were two of my companions. We admitted defeat when it became clear that we were practically sliding backwards downhill, despite using all our strength to furiously pedal forth.
Cycling in Eidfjord is great and everything, but walking meant we could take in the scenery at a more relaxed pace, and I refused to feel defeated. The path was lined with pine and birch trees, creating a sun-dappled floor, and at the top the view opened up to the rough mountain walls in the distance. Icy water carved pathways down them and through the trees, like teardrops running through laughter lines. I completely understand how Norwegians came to believe in trolls and faeries; there’s something truly magical about places like Eidfjord.
Mounds of moss-covered rocks lay in the fields, amongst lambs and their woolly parents. It’s hard to picture them as they once were, but these are ancient Viking burial grounds, now mowed around by tractors and seemingly insignificant in the majestic landscape rising around them. We fed the nearby ponies handfuls of grass and some apples from our bags and carried on. I for one was particularly relieved that we were once again on a flat path- praise the actual lord.
Barbecuing in the great outdoors
“Lovely- come to us! We have a lot of food!”
Who could resist a message like that? Firstly, because of the food and the cycling exhaustion, but secondly because it gave me the ultimate social butterfly feeling of having appointments to get to, in a ‘we’ll swing by to show our faces’ style. Fancy. We promptly zipped downhill to follow the road back around the fjord, following the smell of sizzling sausages and charcoal, to where a group of our colleagues were gathered.
On a ship, it’s not what you know but who you know that matters, and my lovely friend Fey had somehow managed to acquire the sausages from the galley to grill outside. It’s all about contacts, people. And this was no disposable barbecue set-up, oh no. Norway, it turns out, is far classier than that.
As a nation that prides itself on its eco-friendliness, you can’t get far without discovering an invitation to embrace nature yourself. Barbecue spots, camping sites and saunas are plentiful, so the barbecue site in question was an extremely professional set-up. The stone table, picnic benches and a steel barbecue grill are a permanent fixture here. Set against the glorious backdrop of the mountains and the last smiling wrinkles of snow melting away, what more could you ask for?
The art of the Norwegian sauna
The Norwegian practice of de-compressing in a boiling hot room began during the Viking age; saunas were known as badstuer and were an important aspect of daily life during the lengthy and bitterly cold winters. Skip ahead to the 1980s, and people were building saunas in their own homes. Nowadays, there are more and more saunas popping up- whether floating saunas in Oslo, or even to my own fair town of Eastbourne. (That’s right, they’ve even spread across the pond to England.)
There’s an incredible wooden sauna overlooking the lake in Eidfjord, sat comfortably on the boulders that line the water, from where the view couldn’t get much better. It’s also completely free to use. What an absolute bargain.
Being on a cycling journey that particular day, I didn’t have any swimwear with me, alas! But a select group of pals were alternating between sitting in the intense heat of the sauna, and plunging off of a wooden jetty into the icy fjord, pulling themselves out with a rope across the seaweed-fringed rocks.
The best things in life are free
We strapped on our helmets and pedalled further along the flat road that follows the fjord, until it turned eventually into a stream. Stopping at a bridge, my lovely Indonesian pal Samian produced some fruit as if by magic from his bag. Thirsty like never before, we dipped our bottles into the stream to sample the most naturally chilled, delicious water, before beginning the pedal back to the ship. The waterfall that we were searching for never materialised, but we’d heard that the snowfall had been far less over the winter; maybe it was more of a trickle by the time we reached it.
It was only May but already the weather was so much warmer than I was used to in Norway, and I was having a whale of time in the open air, away from the metallic hum of the ship’s engines. Passengers spend a lot of money to stay on these mammoth ships, and the irony of the fact that I was so eager to get off of it and outside, was not lost on me, pals. In a world where almost everything seems to have a price tag, this glorious day in Eidfjord was truly one of the best- and the one that didn’t cost a single penny.
Cycling in Eidfjord- all you need to know
- Here’s the exact location of Eidfjord Public Beach on Google Maps.
- And here’s the local supermarket, in case you can’t get your hands on sausages from the galley!
- In Norway, cars drive on the right side of the road. There are plenty of cycle paths, too.
- When cycling in nature, you can pretty much follow any path in Norway- you just can’t carve out your own new one- i.e. don’t destroy the environment by running it over with your bike!
- If you don’t have access to bikes in Eidfjord, you can easily rent them from Eidfjord Tourist Office. This is located next to the cruise pier in the middle of the village.
- If you want to follow a route using your phone, make sure you have an eSIM installed on your phone. Here’s a discount for your Norway eSIM!
Snow on Mayday: Beautiful Olden
Discovering Nordfjordeid, Norway
My Favourite Bergen Restaurants