Sometimes the weather doesn’t always cooperate. The entire sky was filled with layers of white cotton candy and for most of the day it rained. Even in the bad weather, we still managed to see an amazing landscape. Vertical mountain faces enclosed narrow valleys with lakes dotted by a handful of unoccupied cabins. The valley floors were linked by a series of swift rivers carving a path through boulders and pines. And the chilled air filled your lungs.
Norway is a nature lover’s paradise.
We had a brief window today between the rain just long enough to see Bergen. The Bryggen warehouse district was the only area of real interest. The highlight today was lunch. We wolfed down a foot long sausage sandwich and washed it down with some sugar loaded Kool-Aid.
Hopperstad is another impressive stave church. Sited on a knoll the church stands proud like a knighted horse.
If you flattened out Norway it would be at least as big as the United States.
Borgund stave church is a must. My initial impression was the exact opposite of my preconceived notion. My imagination had associated the great stave churches of the north with the cathedrals of central Europe. In reality, Borgund is just the size of a chapel, but equally impressive.
Norway’s park system is being transformed into a collection modern viewing stations. The most spectacular is Stegastein. I wish the weather had cooperated more, but we bought a post card for what my camera could not capture.
Yosemite’s granite monolith, half dome, is just a boulder in comparison to the immense granite monoliths that rise from the fjords. Today was incredible. We traveled about 400 kilometers through some of Norway’s best landscape, but at least 50 kilometers must have been through tunnels. We went through the world’s longest tunnel today at 24.5 kilometers.
Today has been the best day of the entire trip. I would put this day on repeat if I could.
Ålesund is a quite coastal town in the north. After a large fire most of the town was built in the art nouveau style. The town itself is not nearly as impressive as the view above the city.
Tonight was our first night in one of the cabins (the most inexpensive way to travel in Norway). For dinner we decided to have an outdoor barbecue and purchased a disposable aluminum tray with FSC certified charcoal. To go along with our brauts we enjoyed a pilsner and some potato salad. Our meal was topped off with Diam, a bar of chocolate and caramel.
With a rental car we were free to explore.
Outside of Oslo and a couple of other cities Norway is sparsely populated with small towns. Today we enjoyed both architecture and landscapes.
We hoped onto the metro and started our day with a morning walk around Sognsvann lake. Summer was winding down, but the trail was well used. People were jogging, walking, or packing in a Sunday picnic.
After walking around the city, we took the metro and tram to the ski jump and catch a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately the tram stopped short of our destination due to construction on the ski jump. We connected with a bus, but the bus stops were completely different than the tram stops. The city was well behind us and our next stop looked as if it would only take us further away. Anxiety started to clutter our thinking. I jumped up and asked the bus driver when we would arrive at our stop. The driver assured me it was the next stop. We got off, but we were not quick enough to get back on when we noticed our stop was actually the following stop. Now we were stuck in the middle of the Norwegian woods and the evening was settling in. We decided our best course was to trace the bus route back to the tram and forgo our final destination. Not all was lost. On our way back we still caught a glimpse of the city, but the sky was the highlight.
This morning we purchased the Oslo card, so today we packed in as many museums as we could. We started with the skansen and got our first glimpse at one of the famous stave churches. Then we visited a series of museums highlighting the Norwegian adventurous spirit. First was a museum dedicated to the Viking ships that were the first to land at Vinland (America).Second was the Fram museum that housed the ship which has traveled to the most northern and southern parts of the world. Right next to the Fram museum was Kon-Tiki housing another vessel made entirely of balsa wood.
After an over dose of history we made our way to the new opera house by Snonetta. From a distance people appeared like ants as they climbed up and around the building. Even if it looks like a one-eyed monster, it is an amazing project with a handful of crafted details.