Norwegian Summer 2026 – Day 15: Horten to Son

Last day on the bikes! A short but sweet finale to the whole thing. Yesterday we staged ourselves right at the ferry dock in Horten so we could cross the Oslo Fjord to Moss first thing this morning. There are at least five (that we’ve counted, likely more) of these huge ferries running the 35-minute crossing every 20 minutes or so, all day, every day of the week.

The ferries are all electric, and the bigger ones swallow 200 cars at a go. Bikes and pedestrians ride free. We’re set!

It was a beautiful morning to cross. A breezy wind out of the north had our hackles up about a headwind later on, but out on the water it was nothing until the ship turned into the wind to complete the docking, at which point we went inside to keep our hair from getting mussed up.

Bikes and peds get off right away with our own separate gangplank, so we rolled down the ramp ahead of the entire car deck and then took a few minute to recombobulate on the far side. Getting out of central Moss went smoothly right up until a road closure knocked an essential bridge crossing out of commission. The detour was a bit nuts, if I’m honest, 20% grade down on cobbles, which is exactly the surface you want for that… Oh well. “Stengt vei” indeed.

We picked our way through, lost a few minutes, and pointed ourselves north toward Son. Easy Norwegian routing, a mix of on-road and separated bike path. The headwind showed up like we figured it would, but it wasn’t worth making a fuss about.

We rolled into the Son area a bit before noon, right on schedule for a lunch date with Geir and Grethe. As we got close to their place outside town we dropped into a little subdivision with gravel roads and some pretty nice ramps as a welcome (yay!). We found the right road name, started following it, and then came to a closed gate. Now, a closed gate has never stopped us before, so around it we went, and promptly found ourselves smack in the middle of a farm on a road that didn’t appear to go through.

Then a Norwegian farmer poked his head out of the house and began politely suggesting (read: yelling) that we ought to turn around and go back, or something to that effect. There was no version of a conversation with him that was going to land beyond a very clear message.

“Go back!”

So back we went. Then we broke down and called Geir to admit we were lost. Hundreds of miles of navigating all over Norway, and we get foiled by a couple hundred meters at the very end. He worked out where we’d stranded ourselves, pointed us to a beach path that skirts the farm, and said he’d meet us on the other side. And he did! We made it. 😂

We spent the afternoon catching up and poking around the area. We hadn’t seen Grethe in years — Geir we’d caught up with last summer — so there was plenty to get through. There was also an exciting World Cup match on, Egypt vs Argentina, which we half-watched between stories and dinner.

Geir grew up spending his summers at the Son cottage. It was rebuilt back in 2008, though under some serious restrictions, since the rules for redeveloping anything this close to the fjord are strict. From the deck you can see Horten and Moss and Holmestrand, plus a lot of other interesting comings and goings. It’s a busy stretch of water, for shipping, transit and for everyone out playing on it.

The long days up here make for beautiful, stretched-out sunsets.

It’s a good feeling to have the main part of our trip in the bag. A bit bittersweet, sure, but hard to complain when the reward is relaxing and eating wonderful meals with old friends.

Tomorrow we’re leaving the bikes behind and taking a drive to visit Geir’s children and grandchildren in Fredrikstad.