Woke up to the view of the high plateau with the sky bright and patched with grey overcast, probably like it is most days here from what people say. The news of the morning was that the train from Oslo to Bergen, which is the main train route across Norway, had to re-route passengers via bus becasue the tracks at washed out a short distance away. We had breakfat in the huge main room upstairs and saw the Dutch couple again and spoke briefly with the older Norwegian couple who were staying the week and sounded like they had a schedule of enjoying the solitude here above tree-line with some short car trips to local interesting places. Paid the tab, loaded the car and headed down the hill into "town", then off to finish climbing the next couple of peaks on high mountain road before descending into Geilo. This is a ski town and is on par with Lillehammer, except is not famous like Lillehammer. We tried the 2 mini-bank machines but still no luck on cash. Fortunately, bottles and cans have a 1 kroner deposti so we can pick through the dumpsters to get enough money to eat. OK, not really. None of these small banks accept plain old MasterCard ATM cards, but it appears we need a MasterCard Euro card. The debit card does work in the bigger brand name gas stations so I filled the tank (still mid 50mpg even with the mountain passes and me babying the throttle) and headed west (as much as you can up here). We followed Route 7 to Route 50 which are both spectacular high mountain roads with very little traffic. This was a surprising day because I have never thought of, or heard of Norway as having this high tundra kind of places, but it does. We did get passed by a couple of bigger trucks. The only kind of truck I have seen here says Scania (under the bugs on the front), so they must supply all the small towns up here. There are lots of sheep with bells that sort of wander all over the place and you have to keep an eye out for them up here. There are also lots of tunnels up here. One tunnel was very narrow to the point where you had to slow down and jiggle past the oncoming car when one came through the other way. The small rural tunnels have no lights inside so when you enter you need to let your eyes adjust. And of course, where do you suppose a Norwegian sheep might rest on a warm summer day but in the middle of the lane in the end of the dark tunnel. They love to lay in the end of the tunnel and combined with the darkness, it makes for some excitement if you do not slow down before you enter.
We got to our destination, Flam, by early afternoon. The fjords here are breathtaking, like the first time you see the Grand Canyon. Waterfalls coming off the sides of the fjord, the small villages at the end, and boats hauling tourists back and forth. The towns are surprisingly small and the "crop" here, probably for decades, is tourists. What is cool is that the town gets small again at the end of the day when the cruise ships leaves. They control growth really well so they have not lost the innocence and the image of the fjord. Flam has one dock and it seems like one ship pulls in every morning for milking. The mountain train goes up every hour or 2 and you can hike down or ride bikes back down. There are a few other boats you can tour the fjord on. There is the fast zodiac boat tour that looks exciting, and the big classic slow cruiser you can stop at towns along the way in. There is a bike/walking path that goes all along the fjord so you can walk or bike to the town (Aurlund) at the other end. Nicely controlled so it stays very pristeen, but they can still get a lot of people in and out. There are only a couple small hotels here so not much car traffic. The boat is the meal ticket here.
So we could not get bikes to ride back down the hill from the other end of the train, so we hopped back in the car and drove the old "snow road" between Aurland and Laerdal (can't spell it because I don't have those characters). Wow, wow and wow. This road is unbelievable.
If my brother Dave is reading this, you gotta see this road (think motorcycles!!). It climbs via one to 1.5 lane switchbacks (if someone comes the other way, you have to pull off or back up) and there is no sign in town telling you how to get on it. It is 1 to 1.5 lanes over the top and gets a bit wider way up. The road is 48km and is above treeline for the most part. There are lots of motorcycles, a few hikers, a few bicycles and believe it or not we met a couple of tour buses, and I have no idea how they make it down the switchbacks. This is what I would imagine Alaska to look like out in the tundra. Yes and there are sheep wandering around nibbling anywhere they like, and napping in the road.
Once off the snow road and back down in the valley, we drove to a huge stave church at Borgund. A college student showed us around with her flashlight (really dark inside) and told us she grew up in town and her elementary class had 2 kids in it (I assume she and one other). She is studying documentary film-making and hopes to live in Oslo when she gets out of college. She wanted to move back maybe to raise a family someday, but it might be tough sledding doing the movie thing here in Borgund.
So back to the hotel by 19:00 for dinner via the longest tunnel in the world. 25km long and it has 3 pockets that are lit up in surreal blue and yellow light just to keep people awake. They have places you can stop inside to take a break. We had dinner with an American couple from Seattle who were here for a week and heading back to Oslo the next day.
So a walk around town where we noticed the boat was gone (they apparently leave each day by 7pm) after dinner and off to bed.
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