The Atlantic Highway

The next port of call was Molde. On the southbound journey, you could take an excursion on the Atlantic Highway. It wasn't offered on the northbound journey, so we decided to drive the Atlantic Highway on our own.

The Atlantic Highway (also known as the Atlantic Ocean Road) is an 8.3 km section of Route 64 that runs through an archipelago. It's been dubbed one of the "World's Best Road Trip," but I beg to differ. I can imagine how spectacular it is in stormy weather but we were there on a calm day and it was just crossing eight bridges.

Here's a youtube video showing it in stormy weather:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_GPf8jUNDs

We got off the Hurtigruten in Molde and told them we would meet them in Kristiansund 5 hours later. We needed to get to the airport to pick up our rental car. There were no taxis at the port so we asked a nearby hotel to call a taxi for us. The taxi arrived within 5 minutes and the 10-minute ride to the airport cost NOK210. 

We picked up a Budget car at the airport. I wanted to drop off the car in KirstianSUND but when I was renting the car only KristianSAND showed up on the Budget website. They are NOT the same city. No problems though with the Budget agent. We could still drop the car off in Kristiansund.

The view was spectacular but it was such a short trip on the Atlantic Highway. We got to the end and drove back to the beginning then back again.

There are places where you can stop and walk a portion of the highway on pedestrian paths. There is also a little museum but it was closed when we arrived. 

On the way to Kristiansund, we took a detour to Kvernes Stave Church. It was built around 1300.

The setting was beautiful.

On our way to Kristiansund, we had to drive through a 5.2 km long underwater tunnel. Toll was NOK204 ($25). This was the only toll we encountered on this trip.

The drive to Kristiansund from Molde, with our detour to Kvernes, took us around 3 hours. We arrived at the Kristiansund Airport to find no one there. I couldn't believe there was not a single soul, not even an administrative person. The airport handles nearly 350,000 passengers per year and it was deserted.

The bus to town had just left and there was no taxi in sight. Fortunately, someone drove up to drop something off and we asked him if he could call a taxi for us. He was kind enough to do it. When the taxi arrived, I dropped the car keys into the drop box and we headed to the Hurtigruten port, which was near downtown. Since we still had another hour before the ship arrived, we asked to be dropped off in the downtown area. The taxi ride was NOK217.

All in all, the trip on the Atlantic Highway cost $250. Was it worth it? Probably not, but we had to do it or else we would always have regrets that we didn't drive one of the "World's Best Road Trip."

2016 05 23