Balestrand and Vik

July 7, 2016  Balestrand and Vik

We are in the “historic” Kvikness Hotel in Balestrand, an old hotel with wonderful balconies overlooking the Sognefjord.  Here’s the view from our room.

 This morning we took an express boat (very fast) across the Sognefjord to the small town of Vik with the purpose of visiting the Hopperstad Stave Church, one of only 28 stave churches remaining in Norway.  The staves, or major supports of the church, were huge trees stripped of their bark and allowed to harden in place before being felled after 3 years or so.  This church still stands in its original location.  It was built in 1130, not long after Christianity (in the form of Catholicism) came to Norway and is in remarkable shape.  Note the dragon heads on the roof, an integration of Norse mythology into the Christian church:

In this photo the staves are the giant vertical support beams:

  

There are remarkable medieval paintings on wood:

  

And the hardware is special:

 The churchyard is filled with old and new graves:

We went back into the town of Vik where we stopped at a dairy and were introduced to Gammelost or “old cheese”.  This is made at the local dairy and the name refers to an old process, not truly old cheese. In the photo below it is the stuff which looks like it has crumbled crusts on it.  It’s strong, and almost always served with jam and some sort of cream on a cracker.  I think it tastes too foul to be eaten by itself (and I like stinky cheese).

We took the fast ferry back to Balestrand and were met by the proprietor of a cider house, who led us on a walk through the village to the mill.  Here, the word cider always refers to an alcoholic beverage.  We had a tasting of three different ciders: apple, apple and pear, and apple with berries.

 We had lunch at the mill, and then slowly walked back into town with our cider mill hostess giving us a history as we walked.  Balestrand has a number of summer homes:

  

 And an “English Church” with a long story:

The inside of the roof of the English Church is made as an upside down Viking ship:

It's all quite wonderful!!  Tomorrow the Flam Railway.  More then.