Bergen is the Fjord capital of Norway. It also milks the cash of its visitors to show them the amazing breathtaking natural sights of the post glacial Fjord landscape panoramas. The ticket prices it charges for the organized tours of the fjords by coach, train and bus are very expensive.

They were three times the price of my return air flight ticket from London. I looked at other ways of seeing the same beautiful scenery at a cheaper price and not being surrounded by herds of other tourists at the same time. It seems strange to want to sample the remote Nordic sparsely populated fjord country side with a large crowd of strangers.

I always take my driving license with me when I go on my travels. It came in very handy on this winter weekend city break to Bergen. I hired a rental car. It came with winter spiked tires which made the vehicle very hard to skid. I was a little bit upset about that as I was looking forward to trying out my anti skidding skills in the first large iced over car park we came across.

Ask at the car hire desk or the Bergen Tourist Office for the local fjord vehicle ferry time tables and a road map of the surrounding fjords. Then go to a coffee shop and plan your route around the fjords.

The secret to driving in the ice and snow is to keep your speed down and double your normal breaking distance between you and the car in front. When you come up to a junction start to slow down a lot further away from the junction than you normally would do.

Plan a circular route that visits different valleys and little villages. Include a couple of ferry trips. Try one of the longer ones rather than just a hop over to the other side of the fjord. Give yourself time to stop and take lots of photos of fantastic views and winter wonderland frozen roadside waterfalls.

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