M
Not really a ride, but I’ve just spent 2 weeks campervanning with the French family. Two camper vans, one for Lynette and I and one for the daughter, son in law and 3 kids. 

The good:
Spent our time mostly in fjord country, the wilder and steeper parts in the South of our range and the softer and greener parts further North. We didn’t go as far as the Arctic circle, sadly, but I have quite brightly lit photos of the landscape at 11:45pm. 
The roads, particularly in the wilder parts were steep and winding, and reminiscent to me of pictures of Stelvio Pass. Lots of very narrow roads with frequent passing points. People in both directions were courteous and helpful in letting people pass, with friendly waves of acknowledgement. 
We saw lots and lots of bikes. Not many Ks, but lots of BMWs with R1200GS being prominent, and not a few K1600s. Funny, but we saw very few Harleys and their clones until we got to the softer, less tight parts. I did see a Spanish registered K100RS SE at one of our overnights. A brief chat with the owner - very brief because of his lack of English and my lack of Spanish. 
English was almost universal, even though many started with Norwegian until they realised I was English monolingual. For a few, basic but most were very good. 
We went to Hell and back, though it wasn’t frozen over. It’s about half an hour East of Trondheim. 

The bad:
I’d hoped to be able to catch up with the venerable Inge K, but the family women weren’t up for a deviation to Fredrikstad. Their information on our actual itinerary came too late for me to be able to take up his offer of a meeting in Hønefoss. 
All the fault at our end, none at Inge’s end. 

I really have to come to Europe some time, perhaps in advance of a family visit, to do some bike time, catching up with people and also to ride some roads I’ve only done on four wheels. 

Bill

Interested to hear more Bill, as it is on my bucket list   

I believe it is what we would consider, very expensive.

Tackler: believe it. The one and only time I've been to Norway (okay, so it was back in the 70s!), a pint of beer cost 30p at home and £1.25p in Norway/Sweden. Needless to say, we didn't do much drinking

I don't doubt that Dai.  

A bloke I work with was doing the cruise ship thing last year and a beer in a pub cost him $22.  That's four to five times the cost of one here.  

I'll buy my whisky in France on the way through and take teabags with me.  Bloody hell that expensive.  I best start saving now.

Cost was a bit of a mix. Even the locals said that alcohol is expensive, but we mostly drank Aussie wine which was very reasonable, and I was familiar with the brands. We didn’t go to any pubs or equivalents. 
Fuel (diesel) was more expensive than Luxembourg, but the taxes there are low, so there isn’t a fuel outlet in any neighboring country anywhere near the Luxembourg border. Inside Luxembourg, say at Frisange, there are multiple fuel outlets just inside the border. I didn’t do careful comparisons, but not drastically different to the rest of Europe in my experience. 
We only had one meal at a sort of outdoor BBQ outlet at Flåm, which wasn’t too unreasonable. No conventional restaurants. 
Virtually all our meals were in-house, so food was from the supermarket. A Norwegian couple we met in Port Macquarie recently said that they found supermarket prices similar to home. It seemed to me that wasn’t too far off the mark, but that was mainly Lynette’s and Nikki’s realm.
Under those circumstances we found it pretty OK. Camper hire was about 27,500NOK for the 2 weeks, but I’ve never done it before and have no basis for comparison. Campgrounds where we used them (about 1 night in 3, the rest in the wild) were about 150NOK a night, plus electricity if used. Some had pay showers, 5 or 10K, some free. Staying in hotels and eating in restaurants might put me off, but I wouldn’t be afraid to do it again outside that scenario, though in winter it might be a different kettle of fish.

Bill

PS. The light beer in the supermarket (Tuborg) was 4.5%. 


Not like some Belgian beer I’ve seen at 13.5%.   


Bill

indian036 wrote:Fuel (diesel) was more expensive than Luxembourg, but the taxes there are low, so there isn’t a fuel outlet in any neighboring country anywhere near the Luxembourg border. Inside Luxembourg, say at Frisange, there are multiple fuel outlets just inside the border.

I know very well Frisange. This is where I shop when I am in Metz(France)
As you say, you don't find a lot of gas stations on the French side near the Luxembourg border. They all went out of business. You cross the open border and you save big time.

Here are some examples:
Prices in France: Gas: €1.54/l, cigarettes: €80 a cartoon, Captain Morgan rum: €20
Prices in Luxembourg: Gas: €1.26/l, cigarettes: €40 a cartoon, Captain Morgan rum: €8

Fill up in Luxembourg (40 liters), buy one cartoon of cigarettes an one bottle of rum and you save yourself close to €65 (almost $100).

Inge is a great host. I was lucky to meet him a few years ago.

Note: the Guinness that we brought from Dublin. It was not my first trip to Norway so we were well aware of the prices

Crazy Frog wrote:I know very well Frisange. This is where I shop when I am in Metz(France)
As you say, you don't find a lot of gas stations on the French side near the Luxembourg border. They all went out of business. You cross the open border and you save big time.

I went past Frisange today, to fill up the Nissan at the Total after I moved the Cortina to get to the Torana. (Aussie in-joke the last bit.)

I checked the gas stations as I went past. Aral, Shell, Esso, Gulf, Total, Texaco and Goedert - all within the last 500 metres or so before the border. I think the next I've seen is at Thionville, half an hour into France.

Bill