Haugesund; Wednesday, 28 May, 2025

Considering Bergen is reportedly the wettest city in Europe I managed to avoid any rain on the way to the hotel the previous evening and on the way back to the bus station in the morning, despite the ominous looking clouds floating around the city’s mountains. Bergen had literally just been a pit stop, getting to the hotel after 9pm and leaving again mid-morning to get the bus on the next leg of my journey down to Haugesund.

The journey starts with a gentle meander around the outskirts of Bergen stopping off to pick up at a few locations before diving into the massive tunnel network that surrounds much of the city and appears a bit overengineered as at 11:40 on a Wednesday morning there was just us and one other car in the many kilometre long dual lane tunnel heading south towards the ferry port at Halhjem where, after just 40 minutes on the bus, we got off and spent 45 minutes on a very pleasant crossing over to Sandvikvåg.

From Sandvikvåg the bus continued without any further ferries to worry about all the way to Haugesund arriving pretty much on time, from the bus station I walked the 10 minutes or so down to the harbourside and my hotel for the next two nights and after checking in and dropping my stuff off, and partaking in the Scandinavian ritual of Fika (late afternoon coffee and cake), which comes free with the hotel, I headed out for a wander around the city.

Haugesund city centre sits on the mainland, but just a few meters across the waters are the island of Risøy and Hasseløy which between them form the Smedasundet, a narrow but deep channel of water that allowed ships to avoid the worst of the Atlantic swells as they navigated around the coast and turning Haugesund into an important location. Today the Smedasundet is home to hotels and restaurants as well as still providing mooring for fishing boats and the local fast ferries – though the bigger ships now pass the other side of the islands as the channel isn’t that large.

After exploring the Smedasundet I headed up and over the Hasseløybrua and had a wander around Hasseløy before crossing back to the mainland and repeating with the Risøy bru and Risøy – having a leisurely wander around the island whilst panicked cruise passengers running late were racing back to the AIDANova which was shortly due to depart – given the very steep incline on the Risøy bru and then the half kilometer from the bottom of the bridge to the cruise port – not something that you’d really want to be doing.

From Risøy I wandered back to the hotel to have the free evening meal that’s included in the room rate, before heading back out again and heading to the north of the city to walk along a section of the Kyststien or costal path that follows the bays and inlets of the coast for a couple of kilometres. I took it as far as the Kvalen fyr a light beacon at the end of a headland that helps guide shipping into the channels around Haugesund, which was about 4Km walk from the hotel.

I then started heading back, diverting to visit the Haraldshaugen, a monument built in the 19th century to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the unification of Norway. Built on a mound at the centre is a large obelisk and surrounding that are 28 standing stones, each one from one of the 28 traditional counties of Norway to show the unification. I had a brief wander around the site, but I was pressed for time as I didn’t want to have another 3km walk back to the hotel and there was a bus in a few minutes time so after taking a couple of photos I headed to the bus stop and saved a good 45 minutes of walking and reduced the likelihood of everything aching in the morning.

Back in the city centre I quickly popped into a supermarket that was still open to grab some water for the following day and then headed back to the hotel for a very well earned sleep.