Gosh - it's been a while since we wrote anything! But hopefully the pictures have told the story. It was wonderful to have Ben & Tom here - for them to see the fjords and the snow and to share the experience. And it was good to explore Bergen - a much bigger city than Stavanger but still with an old quarter and the Hanseatic, colourful wharf making the classic harbour view. We visited the home of Edward Grieg and drove to the end of the Hardangerfjord and up over the snowy pass. Difficult to wave them off at the airport though!

Mulling it over with them we've made a decision about what next. We'd lovely to head North to the Arctic Circle but realise that the distances mean that would be our entire trip so, sad that we won't see Tromso or Copenhagen as we circled back, we're heading East and staying true to our original idea which was a circuit around Europe.

We re-met the cruise ship Brittania at Flam - this time looking dwarfed by the mountains and incongruous 'inland'. We've seen cascading waterfalls - the rivers often glacially blue hell bent on getting to the sea, but still needing to cut through snow and ice. We had an extraordinary drive up and over a pass in the Jotundheimen National Park - the road had just reopened and we felt like it had been cleared specially for us - cutting through blueish ice and snow, sometimes taller than Archie on either side. We were up among rock dotted peaks - above clouds swirling in crevice valleys. It felt on the edge of safe - we were glad to pass a few cars!

Coming down off the plateau the landscape really changed - Heidi-esque meadows and dark log cabins and agriculture beginning to warm up after the winter. We've been rather confused by the seasons - the snow areas, which you'd expect to be thriving in the winter all seem closed, and the warm, lower slopes and towns are not yet open for the summer - we seem to have hit the perfect quiet moment!

We've visited two ancient stave (wooden churches) whose design echoes a Thai temple - complete with dragons at the end of the roof beams. We walked to the top of the Lillehammer ski jump - 900 open metal steps with views across the vertiginous landing slope. From the top of the jump you look right across the town to the ski slopes on the other side of the valley - it must be like flying … but who does it?!? And through endless miles of pine forest and straight roads we've entered Sweden and found a peaceful lakeside campsite to pause, reflect, plan and rest in.

One month in - two to go! At this rather late stage we have acknowledged it is a road trip and it's ok to put in the miles. We're excited to have decided the way ahead - next stop Finland!