WORLD’S LONGEST TUNNEL DRIVE: Norwegian Road Trip with Incredible Views!

[@ankra12]

I love my country ❤🇳🇴 Its so beautiful. Taken the exact same trip many times.

[@michaelhortin]

Agreed, such a beautiful country.

[@smk4224]

I totally agree, one of the best places in the world to live and love. But, I have been working and living in South Korea for nearly two years. I miss that country a lot. There is something special with every country you manage to fit in. I think I could enjoy tons of country under good surcumstansens.

[@johnnierainey5761]

Epic is the word, Michael, the end product is truly stunning. What a body of work! Thank You.

[@michaelhortin]

Thx. Couple of slightly different films next two weeks, one quite festive. Then we are off to the Baltic states..😉👍

[@johnnierainey5761]

@@michaelhortin Teasing!

[@michaelhortin]

Cant give it all away 🙃

[@adipy8912]

I live in Balestrand, 45 minutes from Sogndal by car and 20 minutes by boat😃 Really good video as always

[@michaelhortin]

Wow must be absolutely beautiful. Not sure photos and film can do the area justice 👍

[@muttersmenu2422]

Lovely travel and interesting information 🇦🇺👍

[@michaelhortin]

Thx 👍

[@bjokvi91]

9:14 Approaching my hometown.

[@michaelhortin]

I enjoyed my time in Norway..

[@bioliv1]

I met the man who suggested, projected and built the Lærdal Tunnel this summer, Petter-Jon, as I'm Petter-Øyvind. We're both descendants of our great forefather Petter, who lived in the village or "klyngetun" Kvåle, at Petter-Kvåle. In the Viking Ages this was a great chieftain farm, but developed into a "klyngetun" later on. Petter-Jon too built the Fjærlandsvegen Road together with other roads and hydro power plants, like the one in the Mørkisdalen Valley. But the Lærdal Tunnel was the only project that was entirely his own, from idea to the opening of the tunnel.

[@michaelhortin]

Wow, thanks that is really interesting. I have a question. Do you know why Aurland is not mentioned in the tunnel name? As it connects the two places, I did wonder.

[@bioliv1]

@@michaelhortin No, I don't know. By the way the other engineers wanted to build a 17 km long tunnel that entered somewhere high up in the mountains by Stegastein Viewpoint, as they told it was impossible to build a 25 km long tunnel. But I guess Petter-Jon gained some reputation after just finishing the Fjærlandsvegen Road as the project leader, and eventually he got his will. Now Petter-Jon is a pensioner, but that was so boring that he started a small company for projecting small hydro power plants.

[@michaelhortin]

@ I love that. I have no plans to stop. We have a long time to rest 🤷‍♂️ a tunnel coming out at Sagastein viewpoint would have created some challenges…

[@kurtløvaas]

Kurt from Bergen says hello . Really nice video

[@michaelhortin]

Hi Kurt, really pleased you enjoyed it👍

[@janhansen554]

How u say flåm is so perfect, a norwegian would not tell u are from other country.. grats. Some dialects in norway would say this as u did.

[@michaelhortin]

Thx, I do try and get them right…and all to often don’t succeed.👍

[@LaughingOrange]

​@@michaelhortin Even when you get it wrong, effort is appreciated.

[@michaelhortin]

My Spanish and Portugese can go somewhat adrift 😳

[@bioliv1]

I would recommend landing in Bergen, take the high speed ferry to Sogndal, rent a car there and make a roundtrip, many possibilities, deliver the car in Sogndal and take a bus or ferry to Flåm, then take the Flåmsbana Railroad to Myrdal and the train from Myrdal back to Bergen. My favorite place is inmost of the Sognefjorden Fjord at Skjolden, I recommend a couple of extra days there🙂

[@michaelhortin]

Thanks for the recommendation. When I can go full time on the channel hopefully I can return here.👍

[@bioliv1]

@@michaelhortin Hurry up, there are plans for four wind power plants along the Sognefjorden Fjord. Motvind Norge (Headwind Norway) stops most new wind power plants for the time, but I'm uncertain of the future. The EU wants our hydro power as balance power, to leave us with damaging wind power. I want to settle in Skjolden, but don't move there before the wind power mafia is thrown out of our country.

[@mustaville2346]

Nice video. Love Norway and have travelled there many times. Only problem is, that with all the beauty you get a "sensory overload" even if you take it easy. Have been there by car, but enjoyed one of the trips for which I chose a small & light cruiser type motorcycle (but solo, with little baggage). It is fast enough (low speed limits, anyway) and great fun on those twisty mountain roads.

[@michaelhortin]

Agree on the sensory overload. Did the Hurtigruten cruise before which was incredible…thinking about going back for some northern lights early next year👍

[@VidarLund-k5q]

The planking covering the stavechurces are not the staves, they are ordinary planks. The staves are the upright poles holding the structure, yes, upright.

[@michaelhortin]

Thx for that

[@MariusClausen-bf2kw]

Last year i drove from Førde to Skei, then past Fjaerland and Sogndal to Mannheller and ferry to Fodnes then the 24,6km laerdal tunnel pased Flåm through the 5km Flenja tunnel and 11,6km Gudvanga tunnel to Gudvangen, where the rest of the group tok the ferry to Flåm, so returned through the tunnels to Flåm, picked up the group and throug the Flenja and Gudvanga tunnels again, pasing Gudvangen and later Voss and all the way to Bergen. I think it must have been 150-170km of tunnels in one day.

[@johnnierainey5761]

Awesome!

[@michaelhortin]

Yes there are a lot of tunnels…😳🙃

[@RuneVenes]

When driving from Førde to Voss you passed trough Kjøsnes tunnelen, Fjærlands tunnelen, Bergs tunnelen, Frudals tunnelen, (Sogndal) Amla tunnelen, Fodnes tunnelen, (Lærdal) Lærdals tunnelen (Aurland) Onsstad tunnelen, Fretheim tunnelen ( Flåm ) Flenja tunnelen, Gudvanga tunnelen (Gudvangen) Stalheims tunnelen. Then you are at Voss. If anyone wonders why we build all this tunnels... A picture us more than 1000 words, what is then a youtube video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp25nqGwn7ejbJY

[@michaelhortin]

@RuneVenes thx for sharing the video, it was really interesting to see….👍

[@mikeandersen8535]

Drove through it once. Just entering, I heard my daughter from the back seat: "Dad, I really really have to go to the rest room"... Well, in norwegian it was much more direct, but I guess you'll get the frustration... 😄🤣

[@michaelhortin]

😳eek Mike…From what I saw those caves had no restrooms.!

[@mikeandersen8535]

@@michaelhortin True. But we were lucky... she managed to wait until we was out on the other side. 😄

[@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188]

In the seventies I passed the first 11km of the tunnel (dark and foggy, only a lighted rescue post at long intervals), later to become the Record Tunnel, and I remember the ferries being packed, with passengers leaving before driwing aboard (At one time I couldn't even - leave my car, but would have to jump out the window, if anything had happened!

[@michaelhortin]

Blimey, thx for that

[@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188]

@@michaelhortin Luckily I didn't drive my former MINI, with sliding windows! If so I would have been lost!

[@12388753]

Yea, we have a lot of tunnels, but more should be (and are being) built. In a couple of years time, Rogfast will be the worlds longest tunnel. It's going under the sea, too :)

[@michaelhortin]

That will definitely go on the bucket list 😉👍

[@OlavAlexanderMjelde]

In Bergen you can walk or bicycle in a long tunnel made for it 🙂

[@michaelhortin]

May try that when I’m back in Bergen…

[@RuneVenes]

Some tunnels are built because its easier to connect to cities/towns trough the mountain than over it. Some tunnels is built because its dangerous outside. Lærdalstunellen is an example of that for the first, and Kjøsnestunellen is an example of the later one. And here you can see why we built tunnels sometimes. Stones double the size of a car is falling down. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp25nqGwn7ejbJY

[@michaelhortin]

Thanks the video was interesting, amazing the damage that gets done. Michael

[@labhrainn]

You do realise that you can drive OVER the mountain rather than under it. The old road is still there and is highly recommended. There are only 4 reasons to take the tunnel, 1: You are unaware that you can drive over the mountain, 2: You can't drive over the mountain - it's winter & the road is closed, 3: Your driving a big lorry, 4: For some wierd reason you don't have the time to drive over the mountain.

[@michaelhortin]

Unaware, but I love a bucket list world’s longest tunnel👍🤷‍♂️

[@labhrainn]

@@michaelhortin 👍

[@grahamkearnon6682]

The Rockies in Canada desperately needs a tunnel, the Canadians aren't very good at infrastructure building it seems.

[@michaelhortin]

Norwegian infrastructure is hugely impressive…👌

I'm normally more pro free market, but unfortunately, the reason why is because the anglo countries are more free market/gov austerity oriented. It just ends up becoming so money focused and want to save on everything, and austerity everywhere. In Norway they don't fully care THAT much about money and more about people (with that said, we have become more greedy and capitalist in recent times). Sometimes tunnels get built to villages smaller than 400 ppl, even if technically the rest of the country pays quite a bit extra for that. Meanwhile, Canada doesn't want to build tunnels on Rocky Mountains roads that connect Vancouver and Toronto, because it's cheaper to build surface highways.