Fjord fiesta - Scanorama

FJORD FIESTA
tinues. “There’s a lot more traffic now. That said,
before the youngsters would move away to Kristiansund
or Molde. Now they can stay here since
they don’t have to take the ferry whenever they
want to go somewhere.”
Tourism is a growth industry, albeit largely during
summer, with cabins for hire, diving courses
and cafés.
IF THE ATLANTIC ROAD has one shortcoming, it’s
that it’s not long enough. It doesn’t make any difference
that the tarmac is the smoothest we have
driven, that the curves are perfectly banked and
that the Atlantic is whipping us from the right, because
all too quickly we’re back on the mainland
again. Except now we have acquired a taste for
it. Instead of driving straight to Molde, we take
the coast road out to the village of Bud where the
restaurant Bryggjen is said to do an excellent bacalao.
Tradition weighs heavy in this part of the
country, though, and on Thursdays people eat
fish balls. These prove to be the size of tennis balls
and come with sausage, bacon, boiled carrots and
potatoes; hearty fare made for laborers, not idle
drivers.
Our hunt for bacalao drives us on toward Molde
and the sail-shaped glass facade of the Rica Seilet
Hotel, but the restaurant does little more than
hamburgers and Caesar salad. The view over Aker
Stadium, one of the world’s most stunning soccer
grounds, does, however, provide some consolation.
We begin to wonder if bacalao is the stuff of
legend, too.
The 60km from Molde to Åndalsnes and Trollstigen
shouldn’t take more than 90 minutes but
with the photographer muttering “My God, how
beautiful,” at every turn, forcing us to pull over
wherever we can, it easily takes twice that long.
There are plenty of beautiful places in the world,
but here nature changes shape constantly. Green
mountainsides conjure up Sicily and I play with
the idea of climate change turning this into a wine
Affjordable luxuries: Coffee
at Camilla Rönneberg’s
Villa de Sving; bacalao at
the Juvet Landscape Hotel;
watching the Hurtigruten
coastal steamers plying
Geirangerfjord
52 FEBRUARY 2013 SCANORAMA