One of the first things we saw was a "stavkirke", which translates to "stave church". These are made of wood, around 1100-1200 A.D., and to preserve them, have tar applied on a regular basis. Of 900-some known churches, 28 remain standing, and they feature structures built entirely of wood, and some very intricate carvings from the Viking era.
The first one we encountered was still in use as a community church.
The second one, near Dalen, was not open but was set in a very picturesque valley.
Did you figure it out? These are "Stabbur", structures created for storing food away from rodents. You can read more about them here: http://www.scandinavianheritage.org/stabbur.htm
And yes ... she wants to build one behind out house. I have no clue where she gets that from.
Driving on .. the road is generally very narrow, with room for tow large vehicles (buses) with only inches to spare. When buses or trucks meet any opposing traffic, things go down to a crawl as they squeek past each other. The pavement is generally smooth, it is very curvy ... a motorcycle would be awesome here! |
| Dad's handy Peugeot Partner |
At the bottom of the gorge lies a historic hotel, one of the first in Norway. Via the fjords and canals tourists can take boats to it and spend the night. We were going to, but at $500/night, we decided to motor on. Heck, even dinner was too rich for our taste, at $120/entree. But it certainly was a neat old place, except the servants' bathroom ... which we accidentally entered (and used) while looking for the REAL restroom. Eh.
So on we drove. Dinner was a mexican pizza at a rest stop ... the rest of the clientele just had french fries, so we were eating pretty good! Heck, that one $20 frozen pizza wasn't bad at all, and thanks to the handy dandy electrimical cooler we borrowed from my folks, we made four meals out of it!
In a few miles the trees thinned as we gained elevation. Norway is unlike the mountains in the US. Imagine a big flat-ish rock, which is then carved from the sides. That's Norway. It is really more like a plateau in the middle with rivers and fjords carving canyons. That is what we crossed, and the treeline is at a mere 3000 feet. Compare that with the US, where the treeline is about 9000+ feet. The tallest, Gladhøpiggen, is a mere 8100 feet. Thus, the grandeur of Norway doesn't come from tall craggy peaks, but rather where the water meets steep cliffs along the fjords and the intricate topography which follows.
It is on top of this central plateau where we were going to spend the night, at Haukeliseteren. This translates into a named mountain lodge. To keep prices down, we considered renting a bed in a common room (ironically, in a stabbur) for $100/each, but figured a $250/room was thus a better value as we didn't have to worry about locking our stuff up, we'd have some privacy, our own showers, and wouldn't be woken by everyone going in and out.
We checked in, ate the rest of our of pizza (I think ... my memory is going), bought some chocolate and I enjoyed one of the best Imperial Stout's in the world, made by Norwegian microbrewery Nøgne Ø. At $28 for a 22oz bottle I could only justify one ... especially considering that they are $10 back home. How is that for irony ... Norwegian beer is MUCH cheaper in the US than in Norway!!
At some point, maybe 1am, we retired to our room. The view of the lodge above, with the grass roof, next to the lake, with the mountains in the background, was taken at about 1am. Welcome to the land of the mignight sun ... we never experienced that it was dark during our stay.
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