Telemark

Before leaving Bovallstrand, we thought long and hard about our next step.  If we were to bike north to Oslo and then south towards Telemark, it would add at least three days to the trip.  We decided instead to take a ferry from Strömstad, Sweden and Sandefjord, Norway.

While planning this trip, one of the things I wanted to visit was the area where the Kittleson name came from.  Over the past few years I have learned that they lived in the Telemark region of Norway and they left for the United States from the Porsgrunn port. So as we left Sandefjord, we biked towards Porsgrunn spending Sunday night in Larvik.  Museums are closed in Europe on Mondays so we were unable to visit any museums, but we were able to check out the area.

After leaving Porsgrunn, it was time for the biggest decision of the trip, how we would get to Kristiansand, Norway.  By far the most common way would be to follow the coastline and major cities of the south, but we wanted a little more adventure.  It took about an hour of research but we had come up with our plan.  We would ride straight west towards a series of lakes in Telemark and then south to Kristiansand.  This would give us the chance to see more wilderness as well as more of the Telemark region.  While the total distance would only be around 250km, it would be much more mountainous and the most challenging of the trip.



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