Norway in a nutshell

Last weekend, I finally had my first visitor! Yay. :) And because he knew little about the beauty of Norway and had only a limited amount of time at his disposal, I tried to squeeze in as much of Norway as I could: glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, fjords... all in one weekend trip! :-) Admittedly, it was quite a bit of driving involved as well - even though distances may not be that long, it still takes forever to get anywhere on these small, never straight Norwegian roads and tunnels.

First - and shortest - stay was in Bergen. :)

I got to know a new café and a bar, and we took the infamous Fløbana up to Fløyen.

The next day, we headed towards Sognefjord, Norway's largest fjord.

On the way, we had a picnic at waterfall Tvindefossen.
It was the last time that the sun was shining on us. After that, the weather forecast looked grimm...

The clouds are closing in... ;)

We drove to Gudvangen and from there into the valley "Dyrdal". A colleague had told me about a nice hiking trail there. Even though it started to drizzle, we climbed up to Rimstigen with a marvellous view to the Næroyfjord.

Drizzle, high humidity, sweat... equals the pic below ;-)
(photo taken by Mr. Nyrki R.)

We had a nice barbecue in the rain on Rimstigen. :-)

The weather - or rather the moist level in the air - changed all the time:

We kept on putting on rain gear, taking off clothes...
it was constant outfit changing - also for the dogs. :-D

From Næroyfjord we went to Flåm, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It is one of those "fake villages" - build for tourists only. I don't like those places very much... But in Flåm there is an old railroad, which battles its way through the mountains, and one day, I want to take that train to Myrdal and back. I hear its a train ride to remember. :-) But we were not in the mood for trains, and instead continued our journey to the nearby viewpoint "Stegastein".

Stegastein lies at the beginning of a national tourist route from Aurland to Lærdal. Even though the view wasn't perfect, we really enjoyed this beautiful road! I will have to drive down that road again one day!

At the end of the day, we found shelter in a little cabin on a camping site. To my big surprise, dogs were allowed! Apparently, the Lofoten islands are not like the rest of Norway. ;-) This will make travel arrangements a bit easier for me in the future. :)

The next day, we went to take a look at the Stave church in Borgund.

From there, a nice, easy and short hiking trail makes you wonder on the footsteps of some king,

who had the road build (and did walk on it once). ;)

Stöpsel trying to get some information about this dude... ;)

Vindhellavegen

From Borgund we drove through a mountain passage, from where we were supposed to have a nice view, e.g. to Jotunheimen National Park. But the weather crossed our plans.... Unfortunately, we couldn't see far and we couldn't see much - but the little we did see was still very beautiful! :)

We took a short hike to a view point. And guess what? We saw nothin'! :-D

Somewhere down there is Skolden.

Next point on the list was a glacier. So we drove to Gaupne and from there to Nigardsbreen, which is one "arm" of the Jostedal glacier - the largest glacier in continental Europe. As soon as we turned from the "main road" into the valley at which's end the glacier lies, we could see it. It was a breathtaking sight! We just quickly registered at the nearby camping site (again, dogs allowed! :) ), and then headed towards the glacier as fast as we could. :-D It wasn't a very long hike to the glacier (it's more of a stroll), but it is a beautiful trail because you have the glacier in sight all the time, and you see it coming closer and closer. It was very beautiful!

Even Stöpsel couldn't hide his excitement about the glacier.

For me, the most beautiful thing is the colour of the ice - so blue.

Even though it was already late, and the sun clearly didn't shine on us. :-)

(photo below: courtesy of Mr. Nyrki R.)

barbecue with a view! :-D

The last day, we first drove to the end of the valley - to Styggevatnet. There you can see another of Jostedal's arms, and you can go kayaking on a lake as blue as the glacier. Sometimes there is glacial ice "calving" into the lake, and you can see little icebergs swimming in the water. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky - no swimming icebergs - but still a beautiful view to the glacier. :-)

The damn was impressive, too.

no baby glaciers in sight...

Still being in glacier fever, we started a hike nearby and went to the less known Fåbergstolsbreen - you know it by now, coming from Jostedalsbreen! ;-) The path was very beautiful. We were basically alone in the valley, and there were no boundaries (other then common sense) as to how close you can get to the glacier.

The light was somehow very nice...

I had the feeling I am walking in a photograph that has been taken with a filter, so that all colours are b/w except for green. Hard to describe, but I liked it. :)

It had been the third glacier in 2 days, and still it swoops you of your feet every time you see a glacier for the first time. This one was my favourite!

Eventually it was time to let go of the glaciers and to head back to Bergen. We had a lot of driving ahead of us, because we chose to take a route on the other side of Sognefjord, with yet another scenic National tourist route.

a view point - I don't know it's name, but I could show it's location to you on a map ;)

bridge over troubled water

Even though it was full-metal, Stöpsel did go over this bridge!! :-)

It's been a really nice trip! :-)

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