The Atlantic Road (Norway) is the most picturesque tourist route. The most beautiful road in Norway. Or maybe Mira The most beautiful road in Norway show

If I were making a list of the most beautiful places, which every traveler should visit, in the top ten would undoubtedly be the Atlantic Road in Norway. Winding for several kilometers through islands and skerries, the road leads to the ocean coast. Built at the end of the last century between small islands, it was instantly recognized as the “Major Norwegian Construction of the 20th Century”.

The British The Guardian awarded the route first place in the category of the most picturesque roads in the world, and this is well deserved. But its main feature is the magic bridge. When you drive along it, you get the impression that this is Ledzepellin's "Stairway to Heaven" and approaching the middle, you instinctively group yourself, preparing to jump...

The road from Ålesund towards Molde. Ahead is a mountain with “teeth marks”: it seems that a fairy-tale giant bit it right at the top:

Another ferry goes to Molde for 1,700 rubles (217 CZK):

The ship and cabin are small:

We didn’t spend much time in Molde itself. Last time the town seemed boring and unremarkable to me. We limited ourselves to going up to the observation deck and took a couple of shots:

We parked next to a funny car. I deliberately stood next to her so that my Discovery could match her. The car turned out to be almost twice as long:

In 2007, when I came here for the first time, there were no quadcopters yet and it was impossible to assess the scale of the road in one frame:

The highway is almost 8.5 kilometers long and consists of several roads and large bridges, viaducts:

Until 1970, a ferry operated between the islands, but even then it became clear that the waterway could not cope with the growing flow of cars. It was decided to pave the road. The construction was designed and planned for several years, the beginning was made in 1983:

10.

Construction was difficult. Over six years, the road survived 12 powerful hurricanes (fortunately, there were no casualties). In the period from 1989 to 1999, the Atlantic Road was tolled, then, when the construction was fully paid for, it was opened to all motorists:

11.

Storsesandet Bridge is the longest and most famous bridge on the Atlantic Road:

12.

Locals call it the “Drunken Bridge” because it does not stand like ordinary bridges - straight - but meanders left and right, up and down. If you look at it from a certain angle, it seems that the top is directed upward and the cars driving along the roadway are about to fly into the sky:

13.

The Storsezandet Bridge is also the same high point the entire route. It is raised above the water to a height of 23 meters. The design of the bridge is made to allow ships to pass under it:

14.

That day we stayed in an excellent hotel just 2 kilometers from the Storsezandet Bridge. I took several photos from a copter right from my hotel room, since modern drones can fly within a radius of 2.5 km. True, I did not take into account one thing: it was flying towards the bridge in the wind at a speed of 12 meters per second, and back - twice as slow. There was a risk that the battery would not be enough, but everything worked out:

15.

The hotel is located on an island and to get to it you need to sail a little by boat:

16.

Departure to the island of Hoholmen cottage village Håholmen Havstuer occurs every hour. Moreover, this is not just a “water minibus”, but a historical restored ship. Please note that the steering wheel is not in the center of the boat, but on the side, like the Vikings:

17.

The boat only accepts passengers. Cars must be left in the parking lot near the pier. Parking, by the way, is free:

18.

Our hotel on the island:

19.

20.

A hotel in Hoolmen cost about 12,500 rubles per family per night (1,590 CZK). A large cottage with 5 bedrooms (sleeps 8), with a bathroom and a large living room was booked for us:

21.

The bedrooms are small but very cozy:

22.

View from the window:

23.

Track of the day can be downloaded

It’s not for nothing that the national roads scattered throughout Norway are called real pearls. Allowing a different look at the picturesque nature of the harsh country, these highways are of great interest to tourists.

The best way to get to know an unfamiliar country

An exciting trip by car is a great way to get to know the country better. It must be said that it was Norwegian architects who recently loudly declared themselves by installing unusual art objects along the routes, emphasizing the exceptional beauty of the local landscapes.

National roads, which combine nature and design into a single whole, are a unique project of the state in which local and foreign experts are involved.

The most scenic highway

In 1989, a new road was opened - Atlanterhavsvegen (Atlantic Road), recognized as the most picturesque in the world. laid along west bank the highway, more than eight kilometers long, passes through numerous ocean islands located between settlements. The Atlantic Road (Norway) is a section of a two-lane highway with an unusual design.

The history of the emergence of a popular tourist route

The miracle of Norwegian engineering is a fairly powerful road route with bridges whose height exceeds 23 meters above sea level. The highway running through the Eide archipelago was planned to be used as a railway line, but at the beginning of the 20th century this idea was abandoned due to the complexity of laying tracks.

In 1983, large-scale work began, interrupted by many problems and unfavorable weather conditions: 12 major hurricanes are known to have hit this area. Six years later, the Atlantic Road (Norway), declared the best highway for travel, was opened. Within a year, all the funds invested in construction paid off.

Part of cultural heritage

We can say with full confidence that a highway more than six meters wide has become part of not only the country’s infrastructure, but also cultural heritage. The Atlantic Road (Norway) includes eight bridges and four panoramic observation decks.

The most visited attraction in the state Northern Europe - favorite place tourists who dream of taking a breeze through an amazing century-old building with unique architecture, illusory effects, and amazing views of the ocean.

The Atlantic Road (Norway), the photo of which demonstrates its steep turns, is equipped with spare sites-pockets where you can easily park your vehicle and go to the rocks to go fishing.

The bridges of the road arouse incredible interest among visitors. For example, Storseisundet is popularly nicknamed “drunk” and reminds everyone famous attraction“Roller coaster”: from a certain angle, the trampoline-like structure appears to end in the sky, an optical illusion that delights and terrifies travelers. As tourists themselves say, you need really strong nerves to drive along the road.

When creating a 260-meter-long structure, the architects pursued the idea of attracting the attention of travelers, and in addition, it was necessary to ensure convenient access for ships to land. The Storseysundet Bridge, which offers a breathtaking view of the ocean, is a truly unique structure that does not inspire confidence in those who travel along the Norwegian road for the first time.

Atlantic Road (Norway): reviews

Guests of the country admit that the zigzag highway causes not only admiration. Particular feelings arise during a fierce storm, when rolling waves that want to swallow tourists break next to the road. During an extreme journey, adrenaline is released into the blood, and emotions go through the roof. This is not only a beautiful road, but also one of the most dangerous. So, in 2003, a tourist from Israel was washed into the ocean by a huge wave, but despite the tragedy, the highway attracts millions of visitors to the country.

Thanks to the amazing design of the bridges, passengers cannot see where the Atlantic Road (Norway) ends and begins while driving, and such an unusual journey, combining the romance of adventure and thrill, will be remembered forever.

Many people note that there are cozy hotels along the highway where you can relax and admire the bad weather from the window comfortable room. The area is also ideal for diving and attracts scuba diving enthusiasts from all over the world during the summer. Fishing tours organized by sports centers are also very popular.

Tours to Norway

The Atlantic Road (Norway), intended for visitors, has enjoyed great interest for many years. The Fly&Drive tour allows everyone to get acquainted with the main attractions of the northern country, where, according to legend, trolls live.

This is a unique opportunity to visit the main cities of the Scandinavian state, see the picturesque fjords with your own eyes and drive along serpentine mountain roads, including the most picturesque of them.

However, in some places the ferries have already been replaced by bridges, which is good news - the bridge is much more convenient and faster. Although, of course, not so romantic. :-)

That's how we got to the Atlantic Road. This road, frankly speaking, is not a completely standard structure. It is located on two small archipelagos, consisting of dozens of tiny islands and villages. From above it looks like this:

The idea of connecting these islands wandered in the minds of Norwegians for a very long time. At the beginning of the 20th century, projects even arose on how to implement this plan, but in the 30s they were put an end to them. However, in the late 70s, the Norwegian authorities returned to the idea of building this road, and construction began in 1983. It lasted 6 years, during which the builders survived 12 hurricanes - these places are not protected from the open ocean, so the weather here leaves much to be desired, especially in the fall. As a result, the road was built - its length is just over 8 kilometers, but 10% of it goes over bridges, of which as many as 8 were built. In 2005, the road was declared "Norwegian Construction of the 20th Century", and The Guardian magazine called it "The World's Most Landmark Road".

Naturally, I couldn’t miss it, especially since the hook turned out to be quite small. :-)

When we arrived at the start of the road, the entire area was shrouded in fog. It was visible through the veil great amount small islands, most of them uninhabited.

Deciding to wait until the fog subsided a little, we walked around the area. The nature there is harsh, the vegetation is stunted. The bright red berries, which we initially mistook for lingonberries, turned out to be tasteless bearberry.

Bluebells are everywhere in Norway. :-)

One of the sides has already cleared up and the sun has come out.

Finally, the fog began to clear, and it was already possible to see the Storsisundet Bridge, which locals call the “Drunken Bridge” and tourists call it the “Road to Nowhere.”

Why “drunk” will become quite clear if you look at the whimsical curve of this 23-meter bridge.

But if you drive along it, then at a certain point it seems that the bridge is simply unfinished - it breaks off like a springboard. And a few more tens of meters - and you will fall into the water.

On the other hand, it looks like a completely normal bridge:

What do you think of this perspective? :-) From the outside, I can’t believe that ordinary cars, and not roller coaster trailers, are driving along these turns.

We were quite lucky with the weather - after all, we were there in the middle of summer. But in the fall the period of hurricanes begins, and then a trip along this road turns into a truly dangerous attraction. From open sea There are giant waves, completely overwhelming the road. It looks something like this (photo not mine):

We, marveling at the man-made miracle, drove further along our route, enjoying the beautiful views.

Navigator for travel reports to Norway.

Since we are talking about Norway, and lately I have had to spend quite a lot of hours “in the saddle,” it would be logical to connect these two topics and tell you about the unique Norwegian road, known throughout the world.

This is not only the most beautiful road in Norway. Dear British "The Guardian" in 2006, awarded this route first place in the category of the most scenic roads in the world, even in comparison with such world attractions as the Coastal Road Northern Ireland or the path through the Himalayas. So if you have visited Norway
and you didn’t drive along this road, it means you haven’t seen Norway.

Atlanterhavsveien / The Atlantic Road / Atlantic Road - a section of a two-lane highway of original design in the Kingdom of Norway.

Yes, there are bridges that are much longer and higher. But there are few highways in the world that fit so harmoniously into the environment. The Atlantic Road seemed to have been created along with the landscape - mountains, islands and ocean. And this is perhaps the main thing why it is so amazing. The ability to live in harmony with nature is generally one of the main qualities of the Norwegians as a nation. Atlanterhavsveien is one of the most striking confirmations of this.

The Atlantic Road is part of a recognized national tourist route passing along the highway Rv64, which connected Molde / Molde(there is an airport in the city) and sea port Kristiansund (Russian tourists often mistakenly call it “Kristiansund”) (directly fishing villages Vevang and Kårvåg county (province) Möre og Romsdal / Möre og Romsdal. Loopy 8274 meters through islands, islets and reefs, the road leads to the ocean coast, after which it is named. In Norway itself it has the status of “The Main National Building of the 20th Century”.

The road consists of eight bridges and many viaducts. Often, impressed tourists “count” 10 or even 12 “bridges” on this road. But in fact the situation is exactly as I said: there are actually eight bridges; the rest are viaducts.

According to Norwegian Wikipedia, the road cost 122 million NOK (Norwegian kroner) (in 1989 prices). This is approximately 110 million euros. Atlantic Road is the eighth most visited tourist attraction in the country.

Almost no one knows that the prototype of this route was planned back in the 1900s as a single-track railway: while people and cars in Norway are usually transported by ferries, with large loads this is expensive and problematic. However, the project did not go further. But when the ferry crossings could no longer cope with the increased volume of passenger and vehicle traffic, in the 1970s they remembered the shelved grandiose project, which began to be converted into a two-lane highway.

The construction work itself began only a decade later, on August 1, 1983. For six years, which is how long they lasted, the builders had to face many problems, among which were 12 powerful hurricanes, which are not uncommon in these places, and which persistently tried to wash away the unfinished structure along with the builders into the Atlantic Ocean. It is not surprising that the whole of Norway followed the construction with interest and concern, and the construction process was covered in detail in the media. On July 7, 1989, the “construction of the century” was completed.

Another challenge was the bridges. The main difficulty was that one of the bridges had to be raised high enough above the sea surface to allow large ferries and fishing schooners to pass underneath. The builders came out of the situation with honor by building Storseisundbrua Bridge, connecting the mainland to the island Averøy / Averøy- the longest and most famous bridge on the Atlantic Road, which has become a real masterpiece of bridge-building art, known throughout the world.

If you are driving across a bridge for the first time and do not know its features, at some point you may experience a strong desire to press the brakes: from a certain angle, it seems that the bridge is unfinished and looks like a springboard. The 260-meter bridge looks like a roller coaster: it makes a dizzying turn over the water, deviating 23 meters into the sea! This is probably the only bridge in the world that has curves in the transverse plane, resulting in a unique situation in which from some points of view the bridge appears to end or lead straight into the sky, and it seems that cars moving on the bridge must be lifted off its surface like jumping off a springboard and soaring into the clouds. That's why the bridge has another name: "Bridge to Nowhere." Well, how can we not remember the famous “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin?

There are four free parking lots along the road and viewing platforms for guests, from which you can admire the surrounding mountain and sea views. There are along the road, especially near the famous “humpbacked” bridge, and small pockets for several cars, where you can park your vehicle and take a walk.

And now I will do my favorite thing - I will deprive you of a couple of illusions associated with this bridge and this road.

To my surprise, I discovered that the Russian part of the Internet is filled with publications in which the same phrase is repeated like a mantra: "Locals call this bridge "drunk." Apparently, one “clever guy” wrote it, and diligently bred thousands of other smart guys.

I'm disappointed - this is not true. They don't call it. The legend was probably born because of the name of the bridge - Storsezandetsky (the name is a speech therapist's dream; Eyjafjallajokull is resting), which 99.9% of "Russian tourists" are not able to pronounce, so they came up with an acceptable alternative. To local residents The epithet "drunken bridge", of course, is known, but they use it only when communicating with Russian tourists, which, apparently, created the impression that the Norwegians themselves call it that.

There is another legend - that this road is “deadly dangerous” in stormy weather. Some people, out of fear, went so far as to even include this road in the top ten dangerous roads peace.

Of course, no one has canceled hydroplaning either. But I’ll tell you for those who don’t know - Norway is one of the world leaders in security traffic and it simply does not allow itself to build “deadly” roads for its citizens. The rule here is simple: dangerous sections of roads are blocked - and not with barriers, but with steel barriers like those at railway crossings, which, if raised, can only be overcome with a tank; and if the road is open, it is safe. Over the years, there have been several minor accidents on Atlantic Road and none fatal. So ride it to your health. Just not only admire the surroundings, but also watch the road.

The Atlantic Road opened on July 7, 1989. In the summer of 2011, travel along the road cost 20 NOK (about 2 euros), now, to be honest, I don’t know. Some say the road is free now.

Atlantic Road has another name - "et eldorado for sportsfiskere / paradise for anglers." In 2010, special fishing bridges were added to it - 80 and 100 meters long, which cost 12 million NOK. This is another uniqueness of the bridge, and not only for Norway. There are no similar analogues anywhere else in the world. Fishing here is free, and fishing spots are carefully provided even for wheelchair users.

They say that in cold weather they even saw whales here several times, who swam closer to wonder what these restless people had built up here... Has anyone managed to hook a whale, and what happened to such lucky fisherman, I personally don’t know.

West of the road is the infamous bay Hustadvika / Hustadvika, where, under the thickness of grey-greenish water, lie numerous remains of sunken ships, wrecked during storms or washed ashore by the capricious northern sea... Diving enthusiasts have a unique opportunity to swim among sunken ships... They say the impressions are unforgettable.

On the Atlantic Road you can see one of the most famous Norwegian traditional wooden churches - Kvernes / Kvernes Stave Church / Kvernes Kirke, built back in the 14th century, which in its traditional architecture is one of the most typical Norwegian traditional stave churches. This is an incredibly beautiful building, especially inside, which you simply cannot drive past, but it should be noted that the church is open to visitors only in the summer.

After the Atlantic Road, the equally famous Atlantic Tunnel begins, more than 5,700 meters long, carved into granite rocks, which connects the island of Averøy and Kristiansund, the depth of which reaches 250 meters, but that’s a completely different story.

This picturesque is located in Norway and connects Molde and Kristiansund - the most densely populated cities Governorate of Møre i Rumstad. The length of the route is 8 kilometers. It starts at 47 km. from Molde, and ends 30 km. southwest of Kristiansund.

The Atlantic Road runs along low bridges that connect the islands between Molde and Kristiansund, located on the fjords.

In particular, the path passes along Hystadvika - a fairly famous seaside area, where during a storm you can watch a breathtaking spectacle. According to The Guardian, whales and seals can be seen here in cold weather.

The Atlantic Road, thanks to its special road architecture, bridges and stunning seascapes around it, is recognized as one of the best national tourist routes.

Attractions on the Atlantic Road

Even though whales are not often seen here, the sight itself Atlantic Ocean amazing. A wide variety of birds live here, and seals are also found.

Winding, the road seems to jump from island to island with the help of 7 bridges. The tallest of them is the Storseysund Bridge - unusually curved, it represents an achievement in bridge construction.

Many tourists come specifically in the fall to see how storms rage. So, just before the opening of the route in 1989, builders witnessed 12 hurricanes.

On the Atlantic Road you can see Kvernes Church, built in the 14th century, which is one of the most recognizable of Norway's traditional stave churches. You can see it near the majestic fjords Freyfjord and Kvernesfjord.

Just south of the top of Bremsneshatten Mountain, Bremsnes Cave contains many traces of the archaeological Fosna culture, dating back about 10,000 years.

The exhibition of many exhibits from different eras is presented in the Kvernes ethnographic museum, consisting of 11 ancient buildings.

Things to do on the Atlantic Road

In these places you can enjoy excellent fishing. In summer there are daily fishing tours. To join it you need to contact sports Complex Stromsholmen Sea Sports Center or one of the fishing organizations on the island of Hoholmen.

Also in this area perfect place for diving. Clear water and strong tidal currents allow you to enjoy aquatic life.

Not far from Hystadvika Bay there is the island of Hoholmen, on which, in the 18th century, fishermen lived, and the main income came from the production of dried fish. The fishermen's huts have now been restored and are ideal for have a relaxing holiday far from civilization.

The island cycling tour starts in Molde and travels west through the municipalities of Aukra, Sandøy and Midsund. When crossing from island to island, you will have time to rest on ferries and speedboats. Upon arrival on the mainland, tour participants travel to the fishing village of Büd, while enjoying the view of the coastal skerries and small islands along the Atlantic Road. The tour ends ferry crossing from the island of Averøy to Kristiansund.

At Deringgarden Farm you can buy homemade cheese, yoghurt and other products. During the summer, the store is open daily.