Journal

Longer pieces written on the road: a pass in the week it opened, the ferry system that governs every western itinerary, and the small mechanics nobody prints on a brochure.

Dispatch indexMost recent first

Alpine river valley beneath a steep mountain pass in Norway

Dispatch · Møre og Romsdal

Driving Trollstigen in the first week it opens

Eleven hairpins, a 9% gradient and snow walls still standing in late May. What the pass is like before the coaches arrive, how the clearing crews work, and how to time the drive.

Road trip
May–June
1,400 words

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Dark sea swell seen from the open deck of a coastal ferry

Dispatch · Vestland

How Norwegian car ferries actually work

AutoPASS billing, queue etiquette, which crossings need booking, and why the ferry timetable should dictate your entire western itinerary rather than the other way round.

Transport
Practical
1,600 words

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In preparationSpring 2026

Forty-eight hours in Ålesund. Art nouveau, the Atlantic and a town rebuilt entirely after one fire.
Skrei season in Lofoten. Following the cod from the Barents Sea to the drying racks, February to April.
Cycling the Rallarvegen. Eighty kilometres on the navvies' road from Haugastøl to Flåm.
The last dairy in Undredal. Four producers, one goat cheese, and a stave church that seats forty.

Editorial

How we work

Every dispatch is written after the journey, not before it. We pay our own fares, we name the operators we used, and we correct errors in public. More in About.