Where we were staying meant every where we went at some point we had to use a ferry, be it as foot passengers or on our coach.
High Speed passenger Ferry
On the second day of our holiday we had a day excursion to Bergan, this was on a high speed ferry from just behind our hotel right into Bergen by the fish market. The journey takes just on 4 hours so the same as the coach. We left Balestrand at around 8am arriving in town at mid day. We had 4 hours ashore before the return 4 hour journey to the back door of our hotel. When I say these ferries are fast they travel at a steady 36 mph. only slowing down for some of the narrows sections.
I don’t know how many passengers these ferries could carry but the seating was very comfortable with rows of seats across the hull with two walkways running bow to stern, There were three seats in each outboard row and probably 12 in the centre isle. There was also a small snack bar, toilets, luggage area and access to the rear upper deck.
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Electric Vehicle Ferries
As I mentioned in the first page to reach Balestrand we had to use the electric car ferries, These can carry 80 cars or a mixture of cars, lorries and coaches. The shore mounted loading ramp adjusts automatically to the height of the ferry as it comes in and once docked there is a very clever fully automated charging system to recharge the batteries while the ferry loads and unloads. For those that are interested there is more information on these ferries online HERE
This is something your really don’t want to see when you are on the ferry at the start of a 3 hour coach ride, the driver tightening the front wheel nuts. It turned out they had fitted new front tyres the afternoon before and its routine to go round and check them after driving a short distance.
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