Europe India Trip: Day 12-13 - Bergen - Fjell Festning - Forde & first time taking my bike for a repair [Apr 25-26, 2023]

Visiting German bunkers built around Bergen during World War 2 & riding with some doubts when the 'CHEC' sign started to show on my motorbike dashboard

This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip . Please read the post for more context.

map link

In the morning, I was deciding on my itinerary as to what next in Norway. The two waterfalls were on the list which I had visited & it is time for the Fjords now. Fjords (pronounced Fiords) are backwaters (ocean water coming into the land) surrounded by tall mountains. Apparently only Norway, Canada & New Zealand have those. Visiting Fjords is the most popular tourist activity in Norway, after the Northern Lights thing.

Visitnorway.com website mentioned about GierangerFjord which is one of the two Unesco World Heritage Fjords. I also wanted to see the Atlantic Road as I had seen pictures of water hitting the bridge & coming on the road. So I put the two on the map & this is how my itinerary looked.

The path passes through Forde & I decided to have that as my next stop if I could get a cheap place to stay there. I looked up Booking.com, hotels on Google Map & Airbnb. I usually put the dates & use the map view to find the places that have price close to my budget. I found a place in Forde & a hostel in Stongfjorden . I messaged to the Forde owner telling her about my ride & if she is ok with a reduced price & surprisingly the response came pretty fast & she agreed. I was happy that my next place was decided.

I had called over Lucas for breakfast (like the previous day). Lucas had mentioned about Fjell Festning (Norwegian word for Fortress) & how Germans had build bunkers to defend if a sea attack happens in Norway, but it was never completed. He had suggested for a trip to the place the day I had arrived to Bergen but then motorbike tweaking took time & we dint go. We decided to go there & then I would continue to Forde.

We drove in Lucas car to the place. Lucas was very fascinated with the place & on the way, he showed submarine repair center on the shore which were also built during world war but still functional. So their picture taking is forbidden.

Soon we reched Fjell Festning

The big boulders had small pebbles support which could be blown with a charge. As per Lucas, this was done to block the path of enemy’s artillery.

We parked the car & Lucas took us to the place where there is a coffee shop. Apparently it housed a very large canon & the underground system below it has levels to load up ammunition in it. I did not take its picture but it should be on internet.

Lucas told the name of this canon but I forgot. Apparently it was dreaded by the Allies. I noticed how the term ‘bye’ was written on the right

Thats Lucas explaining about the canon. I wanted to take a casual pic of him but when I started to take the pic, he ended up posing :)

During the conversation, I did suggest to Lucas if he ever thought of running a tour of the place as he seemed very passionate about world war & history. He did say he will think about it :)

We came back to the hostel at around 1 PM & I loaded my bike & left for Forde. I messaged Hege, the Airbnb owner that I am leaving Bergen then & had decided to book her place (she had extended a discount that made the price of the place around 350 NOKs for me) when I will board the ferry to Larvik.

Somewhere I noticed that the Chec sign on dashboard had come on. This had happened before as well when my kill switch malfunctioned. So I tried flipping a few times & things became normal.

The CHEC symbol with the temperature bar showing full

I noticed this again during my pitstop & this time flipping kill switch dint help. I got a bit concerned with the temperature bars all up. I felt the engine & it was reasonably cold. Soon, it started to snow & I was like - hmm, now I have two problems to deal with. The snow subsided quickly though.

I called Lucas & told him about the problem. He became concerned & asked my location & suggested if I am not too far, he would drive in his car to the place with tools to see what can be done (it was off time for him). I told him it isnt a big problem & the engine temperature etc seem fine. After a bit of talking on phone & googling, I decided to ride it to Forde & show it to a mechanic/garage there.

Somewhere on the way, I think I had to ascend to cross mountain & it was snow & pretty cold. I stopped at a parking to wear my shoe cover as my feet started to freeze. The toilet is on the right side.

I was 2nd in the ferry queue. The ferry approaching. Hege had told me that ferries are at every half an hour & I did not have to wait much.

Thats Jorgen (pronounced Yorgen), the ferry inspector. I had registered my bike on ferrypay.no & the ferry inspectors are suppose to upload the registration number picture so that the vehicle can be charged.

Jorgen got curious about my bike ride & I told him about my plan to ride it to India. That is when he got impressed & said that he would offer this ferry ride for free. Thanks Jorgen :).

My bike parked on the leftmost lane. It was the only bike on the ferry.

As soon as I got down from the ferry, I booked Hege’s place & rode to Forde. Hege’s place was probably one of the nicest place I have stayed as a guest in an Airbnb. She stayed alone with 2 cats. The place was nice, big & warm.

View from the living room. The house overlooks the river that flows through the city.

It was a very nice gesture. Usually, I have found in western culture is a bit private & people space is very personal. The whole sharing culture is common in east. But Norwegian culture felt different.

Thats Hege reading a book. You can also see one of the cats.

Hege actually prepared food for me & lighted the fireplace seeing that I was very cold as I had to ride through snowy mountains & I really appreciated her gesture. We also ended up talking a bit & one thing I remember from our conversation is - she mentioned about how a cat crossing road is considered a bad omen in Norway & people would stop. This came as a surprise because in India people had similar belief & those who continued it, are considered old school & superstitious :). But it was surprising to see similarities between the cultures & traditions. Maybe, it is because Nordic culture was also a pagan culture like Hindus (having multiple gods etc).

If you are in Forde, I would recommend staying at her place. Her Airbnb listing link

I also wanted to visit a mechanic & figured there is one garage in Forde called Forde Motorsport. Hege first spoke to a motorcycling friend, who is slated to visit India in October & ride a Royal Enfield in Himalayas with the group :). He also suggested to visit the garage. So I decided to take my bike there the next day.

I thought of writing the blog post in the night but was tired & decided to sleep.

Next day I was up & took my motorbike to Forde Motorsport. I met Loun on the reception & he called the manager. I told them about my trip & if someone can check the coolant level if nothing more. They told me that they are fully booked & asked me to leave the bike outside & they will try accommodating it between 2 bike checks.

I thought to myself that maybe I should get my laptop & while they look at the bike, I can write the blog. So I rode back to the house, offloaded the topbox, brought the laptop & handed over the key to Loun. Loun & I had some chat as well but since he was at work, I dint think of distracting him much.

Thats Loun

The Forde Motorsport is a nice shop with collection of bikes that are considered rigid & resilient. It had a 2023 version of my bike as well :). Mostly there were Suzukis, Hondas & a few Kawasakis.

Thats 2023 Suzuki DL650 Vstrom. It is selling at 13k Euros. I had bought mine for 2k Euros :)

I did not realize when they took the bike in for checking but when I noticed, I spoke with Loun. I was hoping they would ask me some questions or diagnostics but well, they dint. After an hour or so, the bike was parked outside. They mentioned they topped up coolant with anti-freeze.

The total bill was 1500 NOKs (130 Euros)

I asked for the mechanic who worked on it & the person came out ( I do not remember his name). He was from Finland & owned a 2008 Vstrom but 1000cc. He suggested to change the spark plugs in the next service. Also mentioned that the front tyre need replacing (I have got same suggestion in Germany when I saw a mechanic north of Hamburg). He also mentioned that CHEC sign is not a major problem & he was right as I later consulted the manual & it does say that CHEC sign means you should check the kill switch or the side stand.

Thats the mechanic who worked on my bike.

Anyway, I did pay them in full but I did ask Loun about the price part a bit. My guess is, they tried to fix it but guess in an hour of their time, they could not & decided to just give up so that the cost does not rise much for me :).

The rest of the day was uneventful. I had told Hege that I would be staying for one more day & we agreed to pay to her offline. I went around finding an ATM but could only find the Nokas ones that charged 50 NOKs for withdrawal with foreign card. I told this to Hege & she suggested that I can instead buy her Rema 1000 vouchers as she anyway had to do grocery shopping. I roamed around city a bit, visited Rema & clicked pictures.

I came back & cooked dinner for both of us in the house. I wanted to cook something Indian but eventually settled with a curry ( that I bought from Rema), toasted bread & an omlet (so that we have protein). I am not sure how much Hege liked it but we did eat it together.

We had rest of the day free & we decided to walk to a pub in a city & grab a drink. The drink in Forde was around 100 NOKs (more expensive than Bergen but guess it was because Lucas was able to take me to a cheap pub there :) ). We also bought the Rema vouchers on the way.

Hege also showed me traditional Norwegian houses. They are usually built like 3-4 on piece of land. The main living house is the biggest one. There is a house for storing food grains, which is built above the ground so that rats dont get in & there is another one with shrubs on the roof. I forgot what was it used for. But she did mention that the grass & shrubs helped keeping the warmth in during winters & warding the sun off during summers as the summer sun is very harsh in Scandinavia.

We had drinks in probably the only pub in the town & then walked back home. We talked about my next destinations & I told her about GierangerFjord & Atlantic Ocean Road. She said that once she had someone visit her as Airbnb guest & she came back later with a hired car & they did the ride to Atlantic Ocean Road. She liked the road & they also went to a town named Alesund which she liked too. She said she has seen a lot of Fjords & Gierangerfjord was ok & the whole cruise felt a bit boring.

Listening to her, I decided to change plan & skip Gierangerfjord. My new plan was to ride directly to Atlantic Ocean road & visit Alesund on the way. I checked for cheap places in Volda, Orsta & Alesund. I messaged an Airbnb host & I was lucky to get quick response & acceptance of my request for a cheaper price. This place is in Volda. So my next destination was decided & I went to bed then.