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.

Mountains and Fjords

July 6, 2016  Mountains and Fjords

Norway has incredible amounts of fresh water, with summer-long snow fields, glaciers, and huge numbers of streams and rivers, all of which have enormous flow.  So Norway gets almost all of its electricity from hydropower.  Everyone in Norway heats with the cheap electricity, and the government promotes the use of electricity over other energy sources.  Electricity is so abundant that it is exported to Germany.

Electric cars are not taxed at all, may use any lanes on the highways, and may charge for free in public parking areas.  Gasoline and diesel cars are taxed heavily.  Guess what?  There are loads of Teslas here!  Gasoline itself is heavily taxed and sells for about $7.50 a gallon.  All this despite Norway’s abundant oil reserves and extensive refining capacity.

Today was devoted to seeing the remarkable mountains and fjords of Norway.  After breakfast at our Geiranger hotel (a limited herring selection) we boarded a ferry for a ride down the World Heritage Geirangerfjord, ten miles of sheer rock walls, multiple waterfalls and tiny farms and villages.  Photos cannot do it justice.  Here it is early July and the temperature was 45 degrees with a mist and a wind.  We were prepared.  We rode on the top deck of the ferry and had stunning views.  Note the ferry on the water for perspective:

Most of the tiny farms along the fjords were abandoned many years ago.  This one has been unoccupied since the 1960s:

There are some very small villages along the fjords, most of which do have road access at least most of the year:

We then boarded our bus and spent the rest of the day driving some of the mountain roads up and over and then down to the next fjord, stopping and getting out at special views.  

Norway’s back roads are what we would call one lane wide, with steep ups and downs and multiple switchbacks.  Doing this in a bus seems crazy!  This is a two way road, and when another vehicle approaches, both drivers stop, figure out how best to pass and do so.

Norway has loads of structures with sod roofs, not only old and ancient buildings, but modern ones too.  The roof begins with a number of layers of birch bark, arranged to drain the water.  On top of that is an upside-down layer of sod, and on top of that is a right-side up layer of sod.  The roof needs to be mowed with a scythe once or twice a year, and any trees which get started must be removed promptly.  With that minimal attention, they last in this climate about 50-60 years and provide excellent insulation.  Fascinating!  Here is the library in a small town:

Norwegians are brave!  Here’s a wire pedestrian bridge from one side of a fjord to another:

Villages are set in beautiful glacial valleys:

The road over the mountains and down into the valleys makes for a white-knuckle ride:

We stopped at a small farm, the main house of which is a mostly intact structure dating to 1570 with incredibly wide hand-hewn planks, no electricity, and a lovely farmer’s daughter:

  

We’ve arrived at the town of Balestrand and our hotel room has a balcony with a gorgeous view over the majestic Sognesfjord.  More tomorrow.

Rauma Railway, Herdalssetra

Herring report from our Trondheim hotel:  At breakfast this morning, herring was offered five different ways:  mustard, sour cream, tomato, sour vinegar, and curry. 

  

I tried the curried herring.  It tasted as you would expect.  Curry and herring.  An unusual combination.  Yecch!

We took the train from Trondheim to Dombas where we stayed for an hour, during which some of us visited the tiny town.  This is troll country (guess which is the troll):

We then boarded the Rauma Railway up and up through incredible countryside.  The scenery was truly stunning with alpine peaks, large numbers of waterfalls, and giant vertical rock faces:

 We moved from taiga to tundra and saw much of the yellow-tan lichens which make up the bulk of the reindeer diet.  We got off the train at Andalsnes and picked up our bus which then made an astonishing trip on the “notorious” Trollstigen the Troll’s Footpath, a road which winds down the mountains with 11 hairpin turns. 

  

You can see summer “homes” used as shelter for goat and sheep herders:

 We crossed one fjord on a ferry:

We then visited a “summer farm”, Herdalssetra, where the sheep and goats from a farm lower down come up to graze and produce milk during the summer.  The farmhand quarters are quite basic, with no electricity or running water:

  

The “famous” brown cheese is made here by hand, stirring the almost-boiled milk for 6-7 hours over a wood fire to boil down the milk.  Today the temperature here felt like the high 50’s with a cold drizzle.  Cheese making does not look like a desirable job:

 We then went to the town of Geiranger where we will spend the night.  Geiranger is a tiny town at the tip of a fjord which is so picturesque and lovely that cruise ships stop here!  There were three in harbor as we approached.

 It’s hard to get used to the long days.  At ten PM it feels like 4 PM and the light plays with the idea that bedtime is approaching.  Going to bed while it’s light out is strange.  

Up some of the famous fjords tomorrow.

Roros and Trondheim

July 3-4  Roros and Trondheim

Up at 6:00 for early bags out and a train to Hamar, Roros and then Trondheim.  Early Sunday morning the streets are totally quiet in Oslo.  No one out at all.

We rode a lovely train to the small town of Hamar where we needed to change for Roros, and ate our box lunch in the little square opposite the rail station:

From Hamar we boarded the Roros Railway and traveled north along the Glomma River Valley which was quite beautiful.  We passed farmhouses with traditional grass roofs:

  

In the mid-afternoon we arrived at the World Heritage town of Roros, one of the oldest wooden towns in Europe, with many buildings dating to the 17^th century.  The town was built to support the nearby copper mines, and the main street became narrower in the distance to give a greater sense of length when viewed from the home of the mine manager who occasionally needed to impress people.  I thought artificial perspective was limited to visual arts, but not used in urban architecture:

The logo of the mine is crossed hammers with a female symbol which, apparently, also represents copper for some reason.  It is everywhere in town, including on the church spire:

  

We had a guided walking tour of the town and we were able to see the interior courtyards which contained doors leading to the animal quarters below with a hayloft above, right in the town and adjacent to the homes:

In the barn our guide found a kicksled, a vehicle still used today in this hilly town, which she demonstrated; one stands on the runners and kicks it down hills.  The seat in front of the driver is for anyone suicidal enough to be willing to sit on it.  The town is really quite hilly and she told us there are a number of accidents each winter as people can’t stop and run into houses or other stationary objects.

 On the edge of the town, the slag heap from the adjacent refinery impinges on the last home on this street:

The beautiful 1780 church dominates the town and has three levels of seating, assigned according to your status in the community:

 We had dinner in Roros and then got back on the train for the trip to Trondheim, arriving at 10 PM, and to our hotel at about 10:30.  We were tired.  But much to do, so after an early breakfast we had a great lecture from David Silverberg on the geologic history and modern-day geography of Norway including the formation of the fjords.  He is an outstanding teacher and is clearly energized by teaching and answering questions.  He is a pleasure to have as our expert!

After his talk we began touring Trondheim, the third largest city in Norway (180,000) and a university town which was at one time the capitol of the country.  Trondheim is also the city from which Leif Erikson set sail when he explored the northwestern Atlantic, including the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador in about 1000, or about 500 years before Columbus.  Currently there are 30,000 students here, many of whom are international, studying at all levels mostly in English!  The university is free for Norwegians and for foreigners!

The city is compact and very walkable.  We began at the cathedral.  Yes, the medieval cathedral.  It turns out that Trondheim was founded as a religious center which, of course, must have a cathedral.  Begun in the year 1070 when the city population was 3000, it took 250 years to complete.  It is built on the grave of Olaf which resulted in his being sainted.  Or the other way around?  It is quite beautiful:

  

 The façade has wonderful carvings, statues of saints, kings, virtues, prophets, and other important people, including King Olaf with his ax and scepter standing on a monster turtle with a King Olaf head (I don’t get it):

And here’s Sigurd with his three decapitated nephews’ heads (a story I need to research):

Inside there are examples of syncretism with old Norse gods and symbols being cleverly worked into the Catholic motifs.  Unfortunately, there are no photos allowed inside.  Anyway, in 1537 the Cathedral was transformed at the Reformation and is now Lutheran.

  

Following the visit to the Cathedral we went to the Ringve Music Museum, a somewhat disappointing small and very limited depiction of a narrow era (1740-1815) in Norwegian music and music instrumentation.  We did, however, after seeing the displays, have a 30” recital of some of Grieg’s piano music by a music student at the University here.  She was very good.  Lunch was at a local, small, and very lovely local restaurant where we ate reindeer stew and toasted the USA’s birthday, and the rest of the afternoon we wandered the city.  A river snakes through the city, and the view from one of the bridges is very pretty:

  

Our final stop was at the synagogue and Jewish museum:

 A lovely young woman spent about 45 minutes taking us through the synagogue and the small museum and relating the story of the Trondheim Jewish community and Norway’s Jewish community before and after WW II.  As might be expected, the largest population of Jews in Norway is in Oslo, but the total number in the country is small (under 2000) and in Trondheim only 165 people keep the community going.  It is an unhappy story, but the population may be growing slightly and the Sunday school is active.

Up early again tomorrow as we will travel the Rauma Railway and the Troll’s Footpath.