Kristiansund, Norway and the Atlantic Ocean Road – September 9, 2026

After our very rainy day in the Lofoten Islands and a sea day of charcoal gray skies and an angry ocean, we woke to overcast skies again. I was resigned to another rainy day of seeing Norway, but if I learned anything while we were there, it was that the weather changes frequently and quickly. Even though the forecast called for rain, the skies cleared throughout the morning, and most of our tour was in perfect weather. We had sunny skies, moderate temperatures, and brilliant blue skies.

We got off the ship a little earlier than we needed to, but after our experience in Leknes, we weren’t taking any chances with finding our tour and boarding our bus. Our worries were for nothing. The tour meeting point was no more than about 50 steps from the gangway, and since we were early, our bus was not there yet.

We had another reason for getting off early, and that was to go to a grocery store or a drugstore. Jim and I had both been fighting colds, and we wanted to get some cough drops to supplement the medicine we had brought with us.

The grocery store was literally across the street from the port. We found what we needed quickly, but we also enjoyed just walking around and seeing what it’s like to grocery shop in Norway. I’m jealous of the freshness of their food, but not their prices! We decided we could bypass the Tex-Mex aisle. We get enough of that at home!

We chose another bus tour! It seemed like small group tours were tough to find in most of the ports — it was either bus or private, or should I say pricy?💰🤑💰 Despite it being on a bus, we thought the provider, West Norway Travel did a great job. The bus we were on was comfortable, our guide was personable and knowledgeable, and Jim and I got on fairly early and since there were no passengers with mobility challenges we were able to sit in the front row.

Things didn’t look too promising at the start of the tour. Despite sitting in the front row there wasn’t much to see except the cute trolls on the dashboard!

Things improved rapidly after the first few minutes. We drove through beautiful countryside before we reached our first stop.

Our stop at the Storseisundet Bridge was spectacular! By that time the skies had cleared, and even though we could see some rain and a rainbow in the distance we enjoyed bright sunshine and brilliant blue skies during our visit.

Storseisundet Bridge is the longest and most famous of the bridges on the Atlantic Ocean Road, and there is a pathway around the rocky shore so visitors can enjoy views of the bridge as well as all the surroundings.

We left the Storseisundet Bridge area and headed towards Bud, a small fishing village and our turn-around spot. I thought the bridge was just as interesting to drive over as it was to view from land.

The scenery on the way to Bud was beautiful and tranquil.

Bud was quaint and quiet. There was a restaurant, but it looked very crowded and our time was limited. We were glad we had purchased snacks at the grocery store before the tour, because it was close to 1:00 and time for lunch!

We walked around a while and thought it was pretty, but there wasn’t a lot there.

The day we were there was the day of King Harald’s funeral. All the flags were lowered to half staff and all the residents and visitors across the country observed a minute of silence at 1:00. Right after the minute of silence we boarded the bus for the ride back to Kristiansund.

We retraced our route to return to Kristiansund. The scenery was just as lovely, and it was interesting to see things from a different perspective and catch things we missed on the drive to Bud.

We walked around a little bit when we got back to port, but we were tired so we didn’t spent too much time before we decided to go back to the ship. We just relaxed when we got back. A nap might or might not have been taken!😴

Sailaway was beautiful. We were reminded again why we love an aft cabin.

Up next is Alesund, the Troll road, and some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve ever seen!