OK… Norway has still more Mountains & Fjords!

Saturday 31-Aug-2019 (Oppdal to Molde)

Let’s first discuss the main source material for the information in this Blog… To date Karilyn has filled three volumes with her diary – 750 pages thus far… (Ross, she had filled your beautifully labelled gift you gave us by the time we got to Assisi – on 24^th of May!).

A look at the first three volumes o Karilyn's Diary of our travels... she is now working on volume 4.

You will (perhaps…) remember our summary of social protocol in Sweden (refresher: only acknowledge someone you know, or someone you have business with) – well we encountered another encounter at Oppdal that contradicts these general principles… a couple parked in a 8.6m Cabe camper beside us (with a Swedish Registration plate) – both acknowledged us – and we had a great time (their daughter had visited NZ on her honeymoon). They even invited us to visit them at their home in Halstead … so that we could do things like washing etc.  It was nice to “talk” – one of the joys of camper sites…. And we will stay at their recommended campsite in Molde tonight.

These mushrooms(?) are quite large... that lens cap is 80mm in diameter... 

Our Oppdal campsite - on departure (as it turns out...) we were parked to the right of the flagpole (as viewed from the point of view of the photo).

A significant feature of Norwegian houses... sod (or turf) roofs - (we don't recall seeing these in Sweden)… some sprout small bushes... some have goats (live) to keep them "mown" … Traditionally, there is only several layers of birch bark between the "sod", and the wooden roof boards...  And while this is a "traditional" roofing material... it is definitely being used on "new builds" (presumably with something other than birch bark to provide water proofing)… and so the houses blend into the hillsides. 

We continued our travels along the E6 – which rose to 1026m and was the route that Pilgrims took to Trondheim (also recognised as the “King’s Highway)  – to visit St Olaf’s grave … Apparently the Pilgrim Trail to Trondheim is becoming more popular these days – but probably more as an exercise of self will and testing, than anything to do with devotion or faith – but based on the full parking lots in some quite desolate looking places – popular.

One of the many waterfalls (rapids) on the River Driva on the King's Road (Varstigen). ... recall, it is in Trondheim that the Kings were crowned... and this was the way to get there... it is said that King Fredrik IV passed here in 1704 - in a two wheel "carriage"... and King Kristian passed in 1733 in a four-wheeled "carriage".... 

A "mile" marker at Nordenfjelske for Pilgrims on the  way (from Oslo) to Trondheim... it is a 640km long "walk"...

Where the musk ox roam... in the Dovrefjell-Sunndalesfjella National Park - and like the Kaimanawa Horses - we didn't see any either...!

We couldn't work out if this is just a farm, or associated with the Pilgrims way (a hostel?) that ran by/to it... but a spectacular set of buildings in what looks like a very lonely place - high on the plateau of the National Park.

At Dombas we turned onto E136, one of the routes highlighted by my colleagues at NIWA as particularly scenic… it was nice… but the Kings Higway had been more spectacular..

We descended from the barren environment above... to what looked like verdant agricultural land at Dombas… which also featured the trolls you see below... 

For the first 100 or so km’s we wondered how they had come to that conclusion… and then we “met” the mountains… but not before passing by a number of speed camera… and Karilyn reports that one of them seemed to show a red light as we passed (and nothing to do with a sunset)… apparently 82kph in an 80 kph zone was enough… We continue to wonder how many “tickets” we may have – when we get back to Isny… as we have commented before – it is quite hard to know the speed limit in some places (Italy)… or when you do know it, and no one is obeying it… you tend not to want to hold up the traffic… so go with the “flow”.  We will see.

But perhaps time to comment on the road speed limits in Norway – where the roads are quite similar to those in NZ.  There are large sections of the highways that have speed limits of 60 or 70 kph, most are limited to 80 kph… and a few sections are rated at 90 kph – but thus far those have been quite rare.  And everyone seems to obey these limits.  Another observation that has intrigued us is the number of Tesla cars on the roads here – even to the point where we have seen two in a row, another towing a caravan and yet another a trailer that looked like it belonged on a farm. Mr Musk’s cars seem to have sold well, here.

As I commented above… as we approached Romsdalsfjorden we did eventually meet the mountains – and they are quite spectacular (and would be much more so, if some snow were present).

This looks more like it... we have returned to real mountains - the Reinheimen National Park!

The sign said … don't cross the railway line... we did... but the picture from this side was still the best. 

Trollveggen… near the start of the Trolls Path.. This image (into the sun doesn't really do it justice). I tis famous for the difficulty of the climb... and there was a memorial to all those who have lost their lives here (12 climbers (two this year alone)  and 9 base-jumpers ). 

Along the road...

Past the houses...

We assume this will be even more spectacular in a couple of weeks time, as the tree leaves change colour... they were just starting to do so. 

So my colleagues were indeed right… we now have good support to follow their other advice too (which we were going to do anyway!).

The Norwegians do seem to have a “thing about trolls”… based on the following – seen in Dombas.

Looks like something from the Lord of the Rings... these Trolls are "busy"

Public art?

Lovely... just what you want on your book shelf to remind you of the beautiful people of Norway?

And “Trolls” are to be found almost everywhere…outside shops,… inside shops, … and for sale etc. etc. 

And so, onto Molde, in advance of traversing the Atlantic Road tomorrow. However while we have passed through mountains, under water, and over water… neither a bridge nor a tunnel hoved into view as we arrived at Afarnes on the route to Molde… just a ferry – at the small cost of NOK354 (NZ$65). The views, even if “into the sun” were still quite spectacular…

The view back towards Trollveggen from the Ferry from Afarnes.

Another view - from the road to Molde… of much the same mountains!

We settled into the recommended campsite at Molde… which was right on the Fjord… with a view that is said to show of the order of 200 mountain (tops).

To make any sense of this one... do click on it to enlarge... This is the view from a small sector of the horizon at our campsite in Molde… as we say in the Post heading... we are indeed back in the mountains after the rather "flat" (but mountainous by Swedish standards!) sector of central Norway.

We will try again… in the morning.. from a vantage point above Molde.

Sunday 01-Sep-2019 (Molde - Andalsnes)

The weather did improve, as forecast (actually, I have been mostly impressed by the accuracy of weather forecasts in Europe – especially the timing of rain… including in Norway, but also in Slovenia)… we have tended to watch the Norwegian MetService site… which has the benefit of the Arome-Arctic model over Scandinavia…). The Atlantic Road (which we planned to travel today) is marketed as “possibly the most beautiful journey in the world”  (See this at this link … which will make clear why we had high expectations!).

But first the view over Romsdalsfjorden from above Molde, the place from which it is said you can see from 87 to 220 mountain peaks (depending on which source you use). It is certainly true that a large sector of your horizon is range upon range of mountains. 

An early morning view (again of a small sector) of the mountains (to the east... we thought the sunglint and the silhouette of the mountains was "interesting")  from the view point above Molde… we drove Fiat up the hill... rather than walk...

Same location... but not to the south west.

The Atlantic Road connects the island of Averøy with the mainland via a series of small islands and islets spanned by a total of eight bridges and is only about 8.2km long… but the route the usual route from Bud to Karvag is 36km. But I am delaying getting to the punch line…. Sorry folks – but we really were very underwhelmed by the route, even if we were overwhelmed by the successful marketing of this route!  Judge for yourself…

On leaving Bud, the Atlantic Road "scenery" appeared to the West...

Islets... houses, inlets, reefs,...

For a change, the tide was "in" (well it was going out but it was still "high"). This is typical of the views from the ~8.7km section of the road that joins up the small islands that underpin it.  That said - we are not really sure of the purpose of the Road... other than to attract tourists??  The clouds were nice.

Look carefully, and you will see the "bridge" that is always used to advertise this route - there is only one of them on the route... and this is from the side opposite to that from which it is normally photographed.

One of the walks that we took along the road... in the water is part of an art installation - pieces of what look like a Doric column... not sure what that has to do with Norway?  Clearly we are not sufficiently educated to appreciate such art? 

Waiting for the ultimate selfie?  OR to be washed off the reef?

In reality the most exciting part of the journey was the undersea tunnel from the islands of Averoya to Frei (to Kristiansund)… 5.8 km long, with a 10% downgrade for the fisrt 2.5 km… yes to 250m below sea-level… then a short flat section before a long climb back out.. with a slow traffic passing lane!

The view fro mteh ferry (to Afarnes) looking west along  Romsdalsfjorden... more interesting weather coming?

[Take a breath… a long sentence is coming (think of the first page of “Golden Hill”, by Francis Spufford… a very good book!)] As we will travel over the Trollstigen Road tomorrow, it was a case of backtracking to Andalsnes via Gjemnes (another undersea tunnel … but just 5.1 km long, where we only went down at ~10% for ~1.5 km to 130 m below sea-level, then over the Gjemnessundet Strait (1.3km suspension bridge, 43m above sealevel), under mountain, back to Molde  thence, via another undersea tunnel (only 2.7km, 100m deep), a long Atlantic Highway “like” bridge, the ka-ching, ka-ching ferry from Solsnes to Afarnes…then back to Andalsnes… and to our camp at the beginning of the Trollstigen Road.

The suspension bridge over the Gjemnessundet Strait.  It was quite windy crossing the bridge - Fiat was quite lively!

Approaching Molde (for the second time)… Norwegian weather on the way!

Approaching Andalsnes … note the yellow gold in the middle of the image... it is a wheat field (one of a number that we have seen here in the mountains)… it looks quite out of place!

A special camp site tonight.  They have “Tripod” fires (fire pits that are suspended from a tripod) – and free firewood… we smell wood-smoke in anticipation of the joy of an open fire… and later we did indeed smell of wood smoke.  It took a little while for the fire to “take” – which implies some “smoke” was present during the fire-starting process.  Our downwind campers quickly moved indoors!  But it was so very nice… once it got going.

What luxury (sorry about the smoke for the campers downwind of us!)… this is (we learned later, is a Balpanne, made by Espergard... and as a PS, we can add... since I am only adding the captions when we got to Oslo... we bought one at Geilo (yesterday 09/09/19)... and Fiat's garage is now really quite full!

Should be nice at Taupo.... though we can hope for less of the white stuff, even if the temperature on occasions feels like the above!)

Monday 02-Sep-2019 (Andalsnes - Geirangar)

This is another of Norway’s National Tourist Routes (just like the Atlantic   Road)… but we are hoping for a more intersting drive – based on the marketing we have seen and read. And hopefully it will be fine.. based on the met.no forecast. Its called the Trollsigen from Andalsnes to Storfjorden and the Orneveen from the other side of Storfjorden (yes, another ferry) to Geiranger.

A three heade dTroll(?) to go with the Troll on the Harley (behind the photographer)... about to determine whether Fiat's 180 horses are enough to get us up the Trollstigen)

So it started with Trolls… and you will notice the evidence of sun on the hills at the top of the image above… so a tick for met.no today. We recognised that while the distance covered today was going to be modest… the time taken would not… as our first photo stop occurred within 10 minutes of leaving the campsite. And so we began the ascent… past rushing waterfalls and rivers, and a series of switchbacks – but no where was the gradient greater than about 10% - so it felt less like climbing than on the Russian Road in Slovenia… but the scenery, and the sheer dropoffs from the roadway were impressive…

From the bottom... looking up the cliff that the road climbs... too 700m above sea level.  This is a "large waterfall"... look at the bridge over it ~halfway up.... and the viewing platform at the top - just to give  you some perspective of the scale.

A closer view of "that" bridge.

And this is what it looks like from above.... from the viewing platform that is just visible in the image (two above).

Its too wide to take in one photo - even with a 16 mm lens.

The top was at 700m … which includes a viewing platform (you can see it outlined, at the top, in the Stigfossen waterfall image above – which falls 320m down the mountain side).  The pass is at 850m.

And once you reach the top... the road opens out onto a beautiful mountain meadow, and gentle stream (which becomes the waterfall above, once it falls off the edge of the mountain)... 

A little further south along the Tollstigen Road... as we approach the top of the Pass.

Next stop … a cinnamon bun… at the Café beside the road at the Gudbrandsjuvet gorge… where there is a dry stone bridge across the gorge constructed in the 1920s as part of the Valldal-Åndalsnes road is still in use… and the river runs through a 5m wide by 25m deep gorge.  The cinnamon bun was really nice… as were the falls (which had an elaborate set of viewing platforms over the river.

The Gudbrandsjuvet Gorge... Cinnamon buns available, to the left...in the café..

The bridge for the main highway at the Gudbrandsjuvet Gorge... Initially we passed by without stopping... but the view from the bridge convinced us that we need to turn around and go back.  It was worth it.

And to the next ferry – across Storfjorden – and the road up to the overlook of the Geirangar Fjord – perhaps the best “known” fjord… for its view of the village of Geirangar and along the Fjord.

Geirangar Fjord... one of the classic images of this Fjord... from Eagle Bend (we stopped for lunch here... the benefits of Fiat,... just pull over, boil the water... and have a cup of tea... / coffee... and enjoy the view!

And, same spot, opposite direction... and yes we have the picture with the cruise ship "docked" at Geirangar too... emitting a haze of exhaust gases... and hence not in the blog.

The lunch stop!

Karilyn asking me to hurry up and get the photo of her standing under a waterfall.... where the water was falling from far, far above. She claims she was getting wet!

The "serpentine" bends while descending from Eagle Point (by the way, we saw no eagles while stopped there...)

And this is what those "serpentine" bends look like at "ground/driver's" level

Karilyn thought that one of these electric super-mobility "scooters" would be just great for Christmas... a good shopping basket... and yes it has seats for two... and we have seen one, with two people onboard!

How is that for a camping spot (at Geirangar)?

Our campsite was right on the fjord, within 2 m of the tide line (and apparently, it would have been awash with sea water if we had been there the day before!)… That evening we spent some $$$ at one of the “souvenir” shops, and Karilyn checked out the electric mobility cars… she would like one for Christmas! 

And here is the view from the lounge... as we have said elsewhere... our preference in Norway, is for campsites, in the mountains,... on a fjord (or lake,... or a river... if a fjord cannot be found!)

Today we have been fortunate with the weather – some cloud, some sun – but no rain! The met.no forecast for tomorrow is for a sunny morning…

Tuesday 03-Sep-2019 (Geirangar – Birksdal (Glacier))

Weather-wise – the morning started out well (as forecast by met.no) – so we went for a walk to the top of the falls (fossen) at Geirangar – just a few hundred steps.

Morning light, Geirangar... and a good location to play Greig's Peer Gynt. 

Morning stroll up the 327 steps beside the Storfossen in Geirangar 

And the view from the top

On departing Geiranger for what we hoped would be an even better view from the Dalsnibba lookout at 1500m...

The next stop was to be the Look Out at Dalsnibba – 1500m above the Fjord… and with a sunny forecast this was going to provide a stunning view of the Geiranger Fjord…  So how well did that forecast verify?

OK... Fiat (aka Izzy... in case you had forgotten) at Dalsnibba Lookout, which according to GPS is 1521m

Lovely view of the cloud... rain,... and snow.

Karilyn enjoyed the view from the "skywalk"... which was literally, in the sky... I should add that I was still wearing shorts... but did have socks on my sandals...

The white stuff is snow...

Occasionally... there was a brief break in the cloud (not quite the view that Jonas shows on his Facebook Page from when they were her in June!)

Looking down... and yes that is the road... far below

Looking straight down,... 200m, no socks, cold feet.

Looking straight down,... 200m, warm feet, cold legs.

As we descended ... the road came into view.

So we will have to give the met.no (Arome-Artic model)  a “fail” grade on the verification of that forecast! And yes this is the first snow we have had since Switzerland… we are getting a feeling that summer is over,… and winter is on its way… helped in part by the temperatures we are experiencing outside at the moment… around 6C overnight … and perhaps 13 to 19C during the day (on the day we drove along the Atlantic Road we were in the low 20’s).  But despite the weather – we still enjoyed visiting the Dalsnibba view point – the highest fjord  viewpoint (as seen from a vehicle!) in Norway… and the highest (41% of the height of Mt Cook) that Izzy (aka Fiat) will ever achieve.

While some of the road passes in NZ are quite high (e.g. Arthurs Pass: 740m; the Desert Road: 1,074m, and the Crown Range: 1,121m – the highest main road in NZ), with the exception of the western approach to Arthurs Pass, the climb to those altitudes is long – from 10s to 100s of kilometres.  Here in Norway we have been to around 1000m multiple times per day (or to 1500m as noted above) – the climbs tend to be much shorter – and hence much steeper over long distances (e.g. of the order of 10%  for 7 or 8 km) – and hence the “serpentine” roads.

For me – another fascinating element of driving on Norwegian roads is that they seem to have DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) radio everywhere(!) – even in the tunnels.  In every other country we have been in the coverage has appeared to be patchy (and often only available around large cities)… here it is everywhere, it would seem.

Back to the rest of the day’s travels – after inspecting the cloud and snow at Dalsnibba – we continued south across the high country on route 63 until it met route 15 at which point the road seemed to be more underground than above ground!

A "brochure" showing a map of part of the Jostedalsbreen National Park, and Lake Strynevatnet. Your challenge is to trace the route of  County Road 15... especially the underground sections!

In this map – only the roads visible at the surface are drawn in … so you need to connect the “worms” by drawing between the end of one “worm” and the beginning of the next “worm”…

The Hjelledalen (Valley) above Folven, which is above Hjelle... the only place we have experienced Norwegian drivers who want to "press on"... in this case two Porsche 911's encouraging each other to quickly descend the Serpentine bends on this section of the road... we caught up with them at the National Park headquarters (circled in the figure above)... 

Seen almost everywhere, where there is an interesting rest stop (which both Norway and Sweden do VERY well)... the urge of people to build pyramids of stones...

As you can see… when it came to the distribution of mountains way-back-then…. Norway got a fair helping! It is on this road that we approached the Jostedalsbreen National Park… that hat encompasses the largest glacier on the European mainland – covering 61% of the 1,310km² total area of the park. From “road” level… you can only see the tips of glaciers in mountain valleys on the edge of the ice sheet.  Which is why we are heading for Birksdal, to see the Birksdal Glacier – one of the most accessible – just a 45 minute walk from the road end, which in our case is the same as our campsite!

Looking back up Lake Strynevatnet... a typically "pleasant" scene... 

One of a number of villages (farms?) along the lake... these too, like in Lofoton are becoming depopulated... and turning into Museums instead..

The weather continued to be somewhat variable… (i.e. more cloud and rain… than sun). Regardless of the weather though, for us, key features of the landscape are: rushing torrents of translucent water cascading down rapids for kilometres, vast (not just ribbon) waterfalls visible within almost any mountainous vista, and bodies of water – be they fresh or salty (and of course the mountains) – and intermingled with all of these forces of nature – pastoral, vibrant green, farm lands.

Oldevatnet (lake) on the approach to Birksdal Glacier. The colour is "ture"... lots of glacial flower in this water.

On the way to Birksdal... yes, we are driving through a tunnel which is a culvert!

An evening  view of Birksdal Glacier from our campsite... we were hoping that the trees were obscuring more of the glacier...

And the sun setting...

A word about the photgraphs in the blog… both Karilyn and I are very much enjoying recording what we see with our cameras.  In my case it is a Fujifilm XT3 (with a relatively big sensor and glass lenses, followed by post-processing in Capture 1), and in Karilyn’s case either an iPhone 6S or 8 (with a small lens a small sensor – and a lot of clever “in camera” processing (e.g. through HDR etc.), and little post processing (in Capture 1 too). The technologies are different, and one is ultimately much more capable of capturing a scene… but that can’t make up for the skill of the photographer to compose a scene, and/or edit it to what they want the photo to “say”.  In the blog – there is a significant mix of iphone (Karilyn) and XT3 (my) images… as Karilyn and I see “different” things in a scene – and then represent them in the resulting image.  The only burden.. each night, processing the 200 to 500 (or so) images that we record on many days, and trying to figure out what to include in this “essay”.

In this case (though it is not typical... as often Karilyn finds more interesting view points) - what I saw as we crossed a bridge over a stream,,,

And what Karilyn saw on this occasion!

Wednesday 04-Sep-2019 (Birksdal (Glacier) - Vangsnes)

At 6AM the sky was clear… at 9AM when we set out for the glacier… things were not quite so clear… and by the time we got there it was raining, and there was a very “fresh” wind off the mountain.. another fail (verification) mark for AROME-Arctic it would seem!  There were two ways to get to the glacier – via troll-car, or walking.  We walked. Which was spectacular… including the free-shower while passing one of the waterfalls.

One of the spectacular waterfalls on the walk to the Glacier (in hind sight, probably the best thing to see on this walk!)

We were less dry after traversing the bridge...

And now we know... there was nothing hiding below the trees.... it no longer matches the tourism photos (a similar comment can probably be made about the Fox and Franz Glaciers. I suspect!) 

When we did get to the glacier (lake) – there was a reasonable gale blowing down the mountain… along with the rain.  It was quite chilly (we have yet to change out of shorts… - as it is a “summer” holiday).  Clearly – the glacier has retreated a long way from the time many o the publicity shots were taken.

The waterfall (Volefosen) abovethe campsite - seen in its full glory

And this is where it lands, with respect to the campsite.

As you might imagine… the river flowing from the glacier is full of glacial flower – making the downstream lakes appear translucent with their milky blue colour, which in turn overlies the salt water in the Nordfjord  (at Olden, in this case) – turning it blue also – a surreal landscape!

Another lookback at Oldevatnet

And just "down the road" at Olden... a Cruise ship floating in a layer of fresh water...

We then took a road, less travelled – from Moskog to Dragsvik over the Gaular  mountain via County Road 13  (called Gaularfjellet) – primarily because it is one for Norway’s “Scenic Routes”… and in our map book it is coloured “yellow” – which means it will be an “interesting” drive. To explain, in the map book the big roads (motorways / autostradas / autobahns) are coloured “blue”, the next level of roads are “red”, then after that “orange”, then “yellow”, and finally “white”… driving them in the Fiat gets more exciting with each change of colour! 

This is a "white" road... usually sealed, a bit narrow in places...

This is an "orange" road... much wider than a white road!

A "red" road.... almost always has a centre line..

But not all red roads are equal.... this is a section of the (red) road alongside the Hardanger Fjord...  (but lots of passing spots are provided).

Those roads that the makers of the atlas consider “scenic” are highlighted with “green”.  County Road 13 was both a yellow road, and highlighted with “green”. Though we didn’t know it at the time – it turns out that the river (Gaularvassdraget) that the road follows is one of the few rivers (or water courses as the Norwegians label them)that is protected, offering everything from wild rapids and waterfalls to calm stretches. 

A view of Nordfjorden from above Utvik.

Looking upstream from  the "tourist attraction bridge (not shown!) over  Likholefossen 

Same place... looking downstream!

A most memorable lookout - Utsikten... and Fiat... and another serpentine road... descent (for us)

How's that for a nice road...?

The "ferries" across Sognefjorden... we arrived at Hella, I nthe ferry on the right (it had made another trip between our arrival and this photo), and the ongoing ferry (on the left) to Vangsnes... on which we departed. 

And Fiat got to have another seaborne voyage… two in this case, one from Dragsvik to Hella, and then a second from Hella to Vangsnes… something we didn’t realise when we drove onto what turned out to be the first ferry at Dragsvik… Karilyn got out to look around – while I stayed in Fiat, which is where I learned this was a two-stage voyage.  By the time we reached Hella, Karilyn was no where to be seen (I did look!)… and I envisaged her sailing back to Dragsvik as I drove off… sounding Fiat’s horn with some alarm(!)… probably to the deep annoyance of the ferry crew.  But as Karilyn says… have faith, I won’t get left behind, and true to her word… she walked off the ferry just as it was about to leave on its return journey (at which point I suspect that my blood pressure decreased…). 

We are almost the height of the bus... 

Watching passing traffic from our campsite (on a fjord, in the mountains) at Vangsnes...

Thursday 05-Sep-2019 (Vangsnes - Bergen)

Vik, just down the road from Vangsnes, has a Stave church (Hopperstad) that was probably built in 1140 – and is believed to be close to its original form, because although it was modified (and extended) in the 17^th Century, it was restored back to what was believed to be its medieval form in 1890-91). The "non-authentic" parts were removed at the restoration).  Today, only 28 such buildings remain of approximately 1000 built between 1130 and 1348 – when building stopped due to the arrival of the Black Death (1348-1350). This plague resulted in the death of over 60% of Norway's population.  These churches were built by travelling craftsman (by out of work marauding Viking ship builders (since that age had come to an end by this time)?) and appear to have used many of the same methods that were used to build ships.  

The Stave Church at Vik... we are very pleased to have spent time here - as since Vik we have seen a number of other ("atlas" recommended) stave churches... and they were all a bit disappointing relative to this one (they tended to have a gothic feel to them).

These foundations have been here for 850 years!... all interlocking.

The intricate carvings on the portal to the church.

Looking into the vault - is this not an amazing (and beautiful(?) structure - with its St Andrew crosses.

Sorry... another view (3 "stories" high)...

And the roof structure... built like a boat(?)

The Catechism Board behind the alter - from 1621

The unsderside of the  baldachin with painting of the childhood of Jesus - from 1300. They are assumed to be so well preserved because the church is very dark inside. 

Runic "graphitti" on the priest's side of the Rood screen... believed to be dated from the 1300'stoo... which as the guide noted... Christianity was forced onto Norwegians, and the "old" ways (religion of the Norse God's) remained with them for many hundred years thereafter... and perhaps this is evidence of such behaviour. 

Vik also had a Romanesque church – dating from about the same period.

The Romanesque Church in Vik... from about the same date as the Stave Church.

We continued South West on County Road 13… still a “yellow” road… over a couple more passes at Vikafjell (1281m) and Skjelingsvatn (986m) on our way to Bergen.  The weather was being very Norwegian… rain, with the occasional ray of sunshine.  The route from Vik to Vinje provided us with a great sense of both the expanse of the Norwegian mountains, and the features of the land scape that we commented on above… (but around nearly every corner, even in what seem like the loneliest of places… there is a house… often with grass (or scrub) covered rooves.)

And yes - there is a house just out of view, on the right... and yes it has a sod roof.

These look like heavy duty snow poles... note the height of the reflectors on these poles... 

The Sendefossen (falls) on the Sendeeelvi River.

Same falls, different view... and the serpentine road too...

As we approached Bergen – places to stop for photography became fewer and fewer and the weather became more typical of Bergen (raining… hard), and the road spent more of its time underground as we wound our way along Osterfjorden toward the city.  But we did make one other stop, in Dale.  As we approached this town from the north – our comment was, this looks like a factory (or mining) town, a little run down, paint peeling, and all the houses looked quite old and weary… and it was in what looked like a cold valley with little sun. So it was a surprise to then discover that it is “Dale”.  All over Norway you will find these elaborately patterned knitted wool garments – and all quite pricey… with the brand “Dale of Norway”… well this was the “Dale” in that branding campaign.  We looked in the “Factory Discount” shop… but left empty handed… even at 50% discount they were too expensive (I was looking for a cardigan – since this is what all “Government Servants” in NZ are meant to wear, right, John(?)… and I wore out the arms in my last one as I was finishing at NIWA!).

Campsites in Bergen were expensive and there seemed to be few to choose from. Our first choice (based on reviews etc.) was called “On the Farm”… but when we arrived “on the farm”… it was not nearly so pleasant as the reviews suggested.  We left… and headed for our second option, “on the lake”.  That worked out well – and the bus into the city stopped just across the road from the campsite.

OK... this time it is a campsite on a lake... among low hills... outside Bergen - and a good location to join in our Book Clubs discussion of the Time Machine (H.G. Wells version, that is).

Friday 06-Sep-2019 (Bergen)

There are advantages to being a pensioner in Scandinavia… you often receive a concession on admission prices, and public transport.  In this case to Bergen from the campsite via bus and light rail (fast tram) cost 50% of the fare of my young wife… 24h of travel for only 50NOK (NZ$9.00 … which suggests the NZD has significantly fallen in value over the last couple of weeks!).

So a stroll around the Hanseatic part of Bergen (to complete the other side of our Lubeck experience), then a visit to the maritime museum (Viking era ships) was the plan. 

Hansiatic section of town...

Three little Vikings plan their next expedition...

Bergen fish market... 

True "verticals", true "horizontals", and right-angles are not to be found here. 

Agreed?

The Utsira (1991 version) in port... it looks like it must be very claustrophobic inside... it looks small compared to Neptune (the submarine we visited in Karlskrona) which seemed "huge"... But this is not true. Neptune was   49.5m long by 5.7m beam and a submerged displacement of 1150tons, whereas Utsira is 59m long, by 5.4m beam, but the same submerged displacement tonnage.

The Byparken (central park) in Bergen.

Reflections: The fish market seemed to be selling anything edible that could be caught or dredged up from the sea… including crabs that were perhaps used to model the crabs in HG Wells book The Time Machine,… through to, yes, whale meat.  We also got to see one of Norway’s diesel electric submarines in the flesh (the Utsira, S301)… which does look “small” when you see the crew standing on the deck (there is room for 23 on board!). 

Recall the story of Dale above… In one of the old “Hansiatic” style buildings there was yet another tourist shop selling knitwear… in this case, not from “Dale of Norway”.  We left with a lighter wallet – as I finally managed to replace my old “cardigan”… (though as someone has commented... I no longer need it as part of my "public servant" wardrobe... since I am now merely a pensioer of the state!)

And so – off to the museums, as it began to rain (again)…. to discover that “in winter” – which seems to start on 1 September, they are only open until 3PM.  OK… time to sit down and have a cup of coffee & ice-chocolate, before heading for the tram… and the trip back to Fiat.  With time passing, (we go home next month)… it is now a case of being quite ruthless with regard to what we plan to see (or not see, … in this case, a visit to that famous “ledge”, Preikstolen…. It is too far south of our planned exit from Norway).

Saturday 07-Sep-2019 (Bergen - Eidfjord)

A trip along the Hardangerfjorden today – on a “red,” green highlighted, road. We continue to enjoy the landscape of Norway, and I don’t think we have become too blasé to the views and sights. Lofoton and the north was stunning with it’s mountain, Fjord and sea scapes, “mid – Norway” was characterised by a much gentler landscape, farms and agriculture… but here in western Norway we are again confronted by the beauty of the mountain / fjord scenary, and the enginering works that have gone into the roads and tunnels that we have travelled on thes last few days.

On the Hardanger Tourist Road... a stop at the Steinsdalsfossen... and a walk in the rain? (46m high, with a single drop of 20m) 

A view from behind the curtain... we didn't get wet...

Poor lighting conditions... and we need a selfie stick for such events... but we were happy to be there!

And this is what a 6 second exposure looks like...

In the couple of hundred kilometres we did today we travelled through 25 tunnels (up to 7.5 km long), enjoyed two tunnels with round abouts in them(!). But the most spectacular engineering we encountered occurred after rejoinin County Road 13 (again)… we passed through a 7.5km tunnel, exited that and immediately found ourselves on the Hardanger Bridge over Eidfjorden – which it turns out is the longest suspension bridge in Norway (1.38km), and provides 55m clearance above the fjord (a cruise ship had just passed under it when we arrived)… then on leaving the bridge we were immediately into another tunnel… or perhaps two, depending on your definition, because this tunnel had a round about in the middle of it… with  two exits!  And the cost to travel over the bridge if greater than 3.5 tonnes… NZD80! (and we, and the Norwegian authorities know that we are greater than 3.5 tonnes… because we got weighed as we approached Trondheim: which showed that we we re 1.9 tonnes on the frong axle, and 2.25 tonn es on the rear axle).

Travelling from Bergen to Eidfjord, along the shores of Hardanger Fjord... a picture postcard?

And just around the corner from above - another suspension bridge... We met some Americans here too, from Wisconsin.. they seemed to wish for forgiveness, given their state helped elect the incumbent president of that great nation.

Those cumulus (Cb's?) make for an attractive image!

Emerging from 7.5km underground... straight onto the longest suspension bridge in Norway (and on the other side) straight into the next tunnel.

This is what it looks like from the other side of the fjord...

This tunnel has a round about (our second for the day!)

And this is what that looks like on GPS... the sections of road coloured purple, are tunnels.

Approaching  Eidfjord... and our campsite for the evening.

And there we are again, on a fjord, in the mountains...

The sunset view from our campsite...

Some interesting (to us, at least) statistics, Norway has 1099 tunnels, 35 of which are undersea, and the total length of all these tunnels is 1338 km, with the longest single tunnel being 24km.  Look what North Sea Oil can do for you – if you spend it wisely.

Sunday 08-Sep-2019 (Eidfjord)

We liked this camp site so much that we decided to stay another day… and catch up on the diary and blog… and just enjoy being here – as it seems to be quite a while since we stopped.  We notice that we have now covered 14,600 km, of which 5,000 of those have been added since we entered Sweden 5 weeks ago…

And what we awoke too the following morning... not only a blue sky (mot welcome)... but hoards of tourists too... many of which came to stand by Fiat while the took photos of the ship (which was on a 7 day tour of fjords (from Hamburg))... and Eidfjord was their first stop.

And so it departed... at 6 pm...

We woke to the “thrumm” of a large engine… and on opening the blinds, there was a 253 m long cruise ship within a stones throw of Fiat… and the possibility of 2000 plus tourists visiting this town of 900. And over dinner – we watched it unmoor and depart…   

Lastly – in passing – the pelton wheel on display in Eidjford, is one of the three turbines of the Sysen Dam, which generates 1,115 GWs, so this pelton wheel can generate one third of this amount… and the reason it is on display, is that one of the blades broke off, when it was running at full power.  The damage to all the other blades is clear to see… and needless to say, that turbine was out of action for a long time – over two months!  It is another impressive piece of engineering.

The pelton wheel that failed at the Sysen dam.... Which we are wondering about... we have seen a lot of dams in Norway... (and Sweden) and most of those that appear to be built from rock are straight structures, some even have right angles in them... so quite a different design from our earth dams which are always "bowed" to improve their strength...  Perhaps a Civil Engineer can comment?

Actually, this is the final “lastly”… and on a completely different topic.  There is the Hardinger fiddle museum here in Eidfjord – and as we were out for a stroll I nthe middle of the day… among all the crusie line visitors – we took the opportunity to visit this museum… expecting to see “violins” (since fiddle is another name for a violin, right?).  Well not quite… as these ones have 8 or 9 strings, though you only play on 4 of them) – the other 4, or 5 are “understrings” and are made to resonate with the playing strings. So there aer a lot of “pegs” in the peg box!   With 4 bowed strings and 4 or 5 understrings…they have taken this opportunity to increase the number of ‘tunings” from the “one” you have on a violin, to 31,…. yes 31!   Most hardanger tunes are played in a common tuning (A-D-A-E),  with the understrings tuned B-D-E-F♯-A! Yes it is confusing!  We bought a CD, not so much because we liked the sound…but because it is certainly “different”…

A beautiful day… and one to remember for a long time.