Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We were due for a day of rest, so we got up and drove down to the town of Kinsarvik and found a good free internet connection. We had some future travel planning to take care of!

We've had our flights back to Canada booked for quite a while. We leave from Amsterdam on August 5th. 

I checked out the prices of overnight accommodation in Amsterdam because we figured we would do some exploring before we leave. Yikes. Amsterdam in August is out of our price range! We decided that we would only stay one night. I booked us a room on a boat for €103 ($140 CAD, $108 USD) which was pretty much the cheapest I could find. But the location is great and it'll be fun to stay on a boat. I think.

But first we have to get to Amsterdam. We have unlimited free storage at the dealer where we bought Max, so that's where we'll be dropping him off in Dulmen, Germany. They'll be looking after a couple of minor repair and maintenance issues while he's there.

From Dulmen, it's a three and a half hour train ride to Amsterdam Central Station. I got us a bit of a discount for booking in advance. We will arrive Amsterdam just after lunch, so we'll have all that afternoon and evening to wander around.

Our daughter and her family are moving back to Nova Scotia, so we've changed our plans to meet them there. We'll still be going to Ottawa, but now we won't arrive in Ottawa until September 1st. Our Canada itinerary is a bit of a jumble, but somehow we'll make it work.

Last thing we needed was a car rental in Nova Scotia. Pick up and drop off at Halifax Airport was $1,085 CAD ($843 USD) for 15 days. Another "yikes". $72 a day. But we have no choice. We need a car there.

It's going to be an expensive trip to Canada.

With that taken care of, we had some lunch and headed further north.

We did not have to take this bridge yet, but we'll be taking it today.

Narrow roads. This bus is pulled over as much as he can, and Max managed to squeeze through without me having to pull the mirror in!

There was a tunnel up ahead into a mountain, and as we pulled into the tunnel there were road direction signs. Inside the tunnel. Strange. Then we realized that they had built an actual traffic circle inside the tunnel. Amazing.

4 directions of traffic at a circle inside the tunnel.

One of those lanes is the only way you can get onto the bridge I showed you above.

Out the other side.

There's a cruise ship in town!

The AIDAperla is doing 10 day Norwegian fjord tours out of Hamburg, Germany.

It sure is a pretty area.

Another tunnel.

Check out the route... it's all one road!

This tunnel turned out to be a corkscrew tunnel. As you drive higher through the tunnel, you do a circular route to gain altitude. How do they build stuff like that?!

We ended up at the parking lot for the Vøringsfossen waterfalls. It's a pretty spot, but a bit overrun with tourists. It didn't help of course that the cruise ship was in port nearby and there were a lot of tour buses coming and going. But they have a nice new fairly large parking lot where motorhomes are (so far) allowed to spend the night for free. 

Later in the evening we went and had a look at the falls after most of the people had left.

The main viewing area is actually above the falls, but they also have some trails we will take this morning to explore a little better.

You can see the main viewing platform on the left.

Looking down.

The Fossli Hotel was completed in 1891.

Remnants of what was the gift shop.

A couple of other motorhomes and vans spending the night.

Max, at GPS 60.426187, 7.25521

Today, we will have a walk on some of the other trails at the falls, then head to the town of Vossavangen where it looks like they have a nice cycling route.

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