Links and Tips

I planned this trip almost entirely via the net. All the information you need is out there somewhere!

Getting there

• The Unofficial train timetables were the ones I actually used, being in useful tabular format. It would also be sensible to double check times at the Official NSB site.
• The Hurtigrute coastal steamer has its own homepages, which include a complete timetable.
• Timetables for the car ferry from Moskenes to Bodø are also on the web.
• I also looked at the possibility of getting to Norway by train or ferry.

The Islands

Tips

• I spent a long time looking for an alternative to flying, as I thought that this would pose problems with a bike. In fact it was very straightforward, and British Midland didn't even charge me extra for it. It was simply necessary to remove the pedals and front wheel, turn the handlebars parallel with the frame and deflate the tyres.
• By contrast, the train gave me many more headaches when it came to transporting my bike. It seems the accepted practice in Norway when transporting a bike is to deliver it to the station of departure 24 hours in advance. It is transported independently of you and collected at the destination station. This was clearly impossible - I never had longer than 6 hours between arriving somewhere and leaving on the train. Going, I fell back to plan B - special pleading with the conductor persuaded him to put the bike in the luggage van as it would have been in Britain. Coming back, however, there was no luggage van! I was reduced to plan C, which consisted of dismantling the bike to the degree that it fitted in the ski rack in the main carriage - this meant removing both wheels and handlebars, and it only just fitted. Plan D would have left the bike behind, so I was getting desperate! However, this worked, and I don't really see what alternative I had, short of building in an arbitrary 24 hour pause to the schedule each time I wanted to catch a train! Nonetheless, be warned that your bike is not altogether welcome on a Norwegian train.
• The Hurtigrute steamer is quite reticent about taking advance bookings. You can't (on board) buy anything other than a single ticket for the journey you are currently making - even when the return, as in my case, happened to be on physically the same ship. I think you can book in advance through their "agents", but I didn't come across any - enquiry at a tourist office brought the response "You buy your ticket on the boat". Thus in theory you could presumably be stranded due to a full boat. In practice, it almost never seemed anywhere near full (the exception being the Bodø to Stamsund leg of the trip, when it filled dramatically - presumably fulfilling the role of a local ferry here).
• You don't need a cabin on the Hurtigrute, although they are available. Sleeping in the lounge, as I mention in my account, was almost actively encouraged and certainly not in any way frowned upon.
• The return train trip cost about £100, while the Hurtigrute journey was about £100 each way.