Last Updated on January 4, 2024 by PowersToTravel
Disclaimer: This is part of a journal I wrote many years ago describing my first trip to Norway, with my parents, in 2001. So many tourist services have changed over the years, but I’m happy to report that the beauty has not. Don’t let the 2023 post date trick you into thinking the logistics are contemporary. Check out “Part 1” for full explanation and disclaimer.
Grottli and Stryn – Monday, June 18
I slept well, but awoke to a foggy, ugly day. We packed up, and drove again through Geiranger, and up the switchbacks to the mountain range behind the town. We stopped at the side of the road, in the cold fog, to look for photographic opportunities. It seemed Dad took forever, trying to make something of a dense fog in an Arctic landscape. To me it was plain cold and ugly.
We finally got on the road again, and passed the turning up to Dalsnibba, the peak overlooking Geirangerfjord. We elected not to go, as the visibility was very, very bad. We drove on a bit, and then suddenly, oh so suddenly, we were out of the fog. One moment we were socked in, and the next we were in a bright sunny-blue-sky landscape. The picture-taking was awesome. It was still very, very cold, and Dad walked quite a distance down to the lake’s edge (just a lake tucked up in the mountains), with the wind whipping towards him. I don’t know how he didn’t just freeze in place. I hid in the car.
We drove on further and arrived at a junction, and the Grottli Hotel. It was way out in the back of no-where and had a cafeteria and hot food. It was very welcome. We had lunch there, and then took the turning up a snow-road to a place where they ski all year ‘round. As we drove the winding road through the mountain valley, the poles on either side of the car were at least 4 times as high as the car. I have seen post-cards of the canyons they plow to make this area accessible in the winter.
We made several stops. At one, I made a ‘nest’ for myself on a curved rock, and bundled up in my ski-pants and parka and lay in the sun. It was very relaxing. But somehow, I was getting agitated, I guess from the very frequent stops. It seemed we would go barely a half a mile, and to my way of thinking, no change in the scenery, and we would stop for another half-hour of photography.
Finally we emerged from the mountain area, and arrived at a ski-resort called Videsenter. Mom and I bought ice-creams, and we sat at round tables, on a patio overlooking a huge descending mountain valley. It reminded me very much of the opening scenes in Charade, when Cary Grant meets whats-her-name in the ski resort.
We drove on, and down, and arrived in Stryn. It was billed as a hum-drum kind of place, but we didn’t find it so. It had a wide avenue in the downtown, and appeared to have some restaurant opportunities!
We had made reservations at a hotel in Stryn. This was a splurge because we couldn’t find decent hytter, and I was rebelling, and wanted my own room. We arrived at the Visnes Hotel, on the side of the Fjord. It was an old family-run hotel, and we got two very nice 2nd floor rooms, with balconies that overlooked the fjord; also a manufacturing plant by the fjord, but I overlooked that.
We decided to walk to town did so by a back road, which was very quaint, and over a beautiful bridge over the river. We ate dinner at the Bacchus Restaurant. This was an Italian restaurant, and it didn’t have an English menu, so we had to get the waitress to describe all of the items to us. Dad ordered a salmon-steak, and didn’t realize that salmon-steaks are different than fillets, and he had all sorts of bones, and he’s very sensitive to fish-bones, considering he almost choked once on them.
We strolled around the down-town, which was closed by then, and wandered back to our hotel. Mom and Dad elected to take a drive west of town, but I declined. If I was so intent on having my own room and space, I was certainly going to benefit from it!
Brikdalsbreen and Sogndal – Tuesday, June 19
We awoke to a bright sunny day. It just does something warm inside when you see that sun. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, the first since our first night in Norway. We hadn’t had much opportunity to experience Norwegian food, since we were for the most part eating Mobil-mart food, or other ethnic food, since that is cheaper. I can’t say I’m much disappointed, because the breakfast was everything I didn’t want. Pickles, and goat-cheese, and I don’t remember, what. I must have blanked it out of my mind. I think I ended up with two soft-boiled eggs and toast. And that at an expensive hotel.
We got on our way, heading east a little, on route 60, around the end of the Nordfjord, then directly south, on a minor road, to Brikdalsbreen.
The weather was heavenly, with no wind to ruffle the surface of Oldevatnet, the small fjord on the way to the glacier. We stopped numerous times again, but my patience was greater today. Finally we arrived at the parking lot at glacier. The visitor’s center had a small café and gift shop. There were many ‘horse and trap’ waiting to take tourists up to the glacier. I remember that the price was high enough we decided to hike. It was a long hike, almost entirely up-hill, but on a wide track, with the horse walking by. They seemed to be carrying mostly Chinese visitors for some reason.
We passed the beautiful waterfall which appears in so many pictures, with the horse and tourists next to it. When we finally got to the top, we found that we had still to walk up a long valley. Finally we arrived at the glacier. It was a beautiful glacier, with a blue edge. You could see glacier-trekking parties up on the ice, but I had no feeling of envy. I just sat on a rock and looked at the glacier, and Mom and Dad photographed, and photographed. We walked back, this time Down Hill. We had lunch in the kafeteria. We returned to route 60, and continued south through many tunnels to Skei and then route 5 south to Sogndal. We seemed to see arms of glaciers around every bend.
We arrived in Sogndal, drove a little south out of town, and found the Vesterlands Feriesenter. No, you don’t find fairies here, it means Holiday Center. We arranged for a large cabin. It was something of a let down, after the quaint hytte we had been in previously. This was like staying at a huge campground, only they were all hytter, one after another. I think there were 100 of them. They were set in large ovals in the middle of a wooded hill. They had sod roofs, with tall grass growing on the roof.
Here I had my own bedroom, and there was a large living room, and kitchen. We made chicken in some sauce, and soup for dinner. We sat around and read, and then off to bed.
Kaupanger and Fjaerland – Wednesday, June 20
Well, that was the end of the sun-shine, for a long time. It has been said that Sogndal and the Sognefjord is beautiful, but we never saw it that way.
We started by going east to Kaupanger (cow-pang-er) and the Stave Church. We arrived a little before opening time, but wandered around a little, and finally were able to enter. You must buy a ticket and have a guided tour in the churches; they don’t let you in by yourself, or take pictures. The Stave Churches were wonderful things to visit. So very old, and made of wood, lasting for centuries and centuries.
We drove west along the north side of the fjord to Helles, where a ferry can take you to the other side. But we just popped out for some pictures of a waterfall, and drove back. We arrived in Sogndal, and discovered a mall. The mall contained a supermarket, and the supermarket, a cafeteria. So we had lunch. Mom and I chose the chicken sandwich. It did say kvelling, which is chicken, but it tasted unlike any chicken I ever tasted. Oh well.
We drove back along our route north to Fjaerland. This is the book-town (Bokbyen), along the edge of the Fjaerlandsfjorden. We arrived in the small town, and bundled up, because it was drizzling, and wandered down the street. There were bookstores in barns, in sheds, even in little boxes on the street. Dad searched for something of value to him, but most was either in Norwegian, or English books he was well familiar with. Mom and I walked down to the ferry quai, and then back to a small shop which made waffles, and had waffles and strawberries.
We finally gave up, and headed back, and just out of town we passed the Glacier Museum. I really don’t enjoy museums, when there is the great outdoors to experience, but since it was drizzly, it seemed just the thing. We paid our fee, and found ourselves, in a very interesting museum, kind of like a Museum of Science where there are exhibits you can interact with. They had a 180-degree (maybe 360?) panoramic movie about walking across a glacier. It was stupendous. It was another one of those highlight moments of the trip. The movie took you, with several glacier walkers, up in a helicopter, and dropped us on the glacier, then we walked for days across the glacier, and finally the copter picked us up and returned us to the Glacier Museum. It was amazing to see that all the ‘glaciers’ we had been seeing were really all one big glacier.
On our way back to our hytte, we stopped in town, and had Chinese food at a really nice Chinese restaurant. It was on a block south of the main-drag I believe, and had tablecloths. It was very good.
Urnes Stave Church and Lustrafjord – Thursday, June 21
The day dawned rainy again. It was amazing with these sod/grass roofs that you can’t tell if it’s raining, unless you look outside. So when you first wake in the morning you wait with bated breath, and take that first peek out the window… to see the raindrops.
This day we drove north, to a small town of Solvorn, and a small car-ferry across the Lustrafjord to Urnes. Solvern had a beautiful old hotel set overlooking the fjord and the ferry quai. We took a brochure, dreaming of another time…
Urnes has the oldest Stave Church in Norway. It is set on a hillside, overlooking the fjord. I have seen pictures of it, and it is really beautiful, but that day it was simply rainy. We noticed so many people named Urnes in the cemetery, and asked the guide, ‘Why?” The guide said that long, long ago, all the people in the town were named Urnes, except for the two rich ruling Danish families that moved in. Eventually people began to take other names.
We visited the church, and took some pictures. Dad bought a number of the for-sale slides of the interior, so that he could insert them in his own slide-show when they returned. We got on our way, heading north from the church on a very minor road, along the edge of the Lustrafjord. It should have been beautiful but it was merely a long drive. We rounded the top of the fjord and headed south to Luster and Gaupne. We stopped near Gaupne, to set the car at the edge of the fjord. Mom wanted to wait and see if the weather would clear, but I had no book, and we, all, eventually decided the weather would not be clearing. We headed back to Sogndal, and our feriesenter.
We made French Toast for dinner, and sat around and read the evening away. I seem to remember doing a lot of laundry. That was kind of the usual thing I would be doing!
Laerdal and Aurland – Friday, June 22
Finally the sun broke through, and a sunny day arrived. We left our home at the feriesenter, and headed southeast to Kaupanger, and the ferry to Fodnes. Luckily we had been to the stave church earlier, and had learned that the pier had ‘broken’ at Kaupanger, and the pier at Mannheller would be used for ferry travel. That turned out to be a shorter trip than expected. A short ferry ride later, and then a long tunnel ride south to Laerdal. It was still early morning at this point. We parked the car in town, and then wandered over to ‘old Laerdal’ which is sort of like a lived-in Sturbridge village. Small shops, and old-fashioned houses.
Mom saw several B&G figurines in an antique shop there, but they were too expensive. Dad tried to get some good pictures of an old barn, and was just about attacked by a swarm(?) of crows.
It was a very pleasant interlude, and we got back on the road, heading east on the E16 towards Borgund. Borgund is the home of a large, and famous Stave Church. I did really enjoy the church but we stayed there a very long time; Dad was waiting for the perfect light on who knows what. Finally we got moving again, and headed back on the E16 to Laerdal.
We took the ‘Snow Road’ south of Laerdal, to Aurland. There is a huge 21-km or so tunnel under the mountains, but the Snow Road was a tremendous ride. There was a lot of Snow to be seen, and mountain peaks. You could even see the Glacier, far away.
Eventually the road snaked down the mountain next to the Aurlandsfjord. The weather was good, and the fjord was beautiful. We drove through town, and out the other side to Lunde Camping. We rented half of a duplex-hytte right on the river. We settled in, and then returned to town for dinner. We decided to go to a restaurant, and were waiting for the dining room to open. Mom went to walk down a small stairs to a parlor-room, when she mis-stepped and went flying. It was a moment of panic. We picked up Mom, dusted her off. She was all-right but shaken. We decided not to stay and eat, and went down the road to a pub. We sat outside and had dinner on a patio. Much better than the expensive restaurant.
That was a strange night, because the noise of the babbling river made me continually think it was raining.
Flam and Gudvangen – Saturday, June 23
After a fitful sleep, I did awake to a beautiful sun-shiny day. We decided to take the Flamsbanna, the train ride up from Flam to Myrdal. It was a wonderful ride. There was only two other people in our train carriage, and we bopped from side to side, looking at the views. The train stops at the huge waterfall, and lets everyone out for 5 minutes to take pictures. They pipe music, and then back on you go.
We finally arrived in Myrdal, and to our dismay, a huge crowd of people, and no town to speak of. We had intended to spend several hours in Myrdal, and return by a later train, but could see that was not a good idea. Also, unfortunately Mom took off to find the toalettes, and when she finally emerged, we had to fight our way back on the returning train. Apparently a train from Oslo had come into the station, and weekenders were off to see sights.
We returned, and this time, at the waterfall, I saw why they piped the music; there was a folk dancer out on a rock in water who danced to the music. It was really quite lovely.
We arrived back in Flam, and decided to take the afternoon’s cruise to Gudvangen. The cruise goes up Aurlandsfjord, and then takes a bend to the narrow Naeroyfjord. The only way to go to the Naeroyfjord is to go by boat, which is why Dad surrendered. He doesn’t like not being able to stop the car and pop out for pictures.
So, we sat on the deck of a very crowded boat, and cruised up the fjords. There was descriptive information through the speakers… in Norwegian, and English, and German, and French, and Japanese, and who knows what else. It seemed to go forever. The scenery was very nice, but the boat was packed. We arrived in Gudvangen, and had time for a stroll through gift shop, and then returned to the boat. The return trip was less crowded. People must stay the night in Gudvangen, I suppose.
We returned to Flam, and had dinner in the Tog Restaurant. It was a neat restaurant, entirely on train cars next to the station. We returned, dragging ourselves, to our Lunde Camping.
When we returned to our hytte, we found that other people had moved into the other half of our duplex, and were occupying the picnic table. But more than just occupying, the woman sat there in her bra. Dad came around the corner and just looked straight ahead and went into our hytte. Shortly later the woman was gone!
Stalheim and Bergen – Sunday, June 24
Well, this was the last full day of my trip. We awoke, had our Corn Flakes, cleaned the bathroom, packed the car and on our way.
We tunneled our way west, passing Gudvangen on the way. As we headed south on the E16, we saw a huge mountain, and on the mountain, what appeared to be a truck. From our map we could see that it was not our road, but feeling kind of like wanting one more adventure before the end of my trip, we decided to take the turning to see where it led.
It led up, that’s what it did. At a 17 percent grade. Up and up and up and Dad starting to say, ‘I’m not going to be pleased to go down this road; I hope our brakes will hold…’
We came to a small plateau, and then around the bend and found ourselves at a beautiful, huge manor hotel. The Hotel Stalheim. This was the favorite mountain retreat of Kaiser Wilhelm. They were very welcoming, even though it was a Sunday morning, and we clearly were not staying. They invited us out to the patio, to see the view of the mountain below. We were so very high up.
And how to get down? We asked the receptionist. Oh, take a left, and in a half mile you will rejoin the E16. No mountain, no busted brakes, no car in the ravine….
We quickly found the E16, and headed south towards Bergen. We drove along a beautiful lake, reflecting the sun and the mountains. We arrived in Voss. Voss sounds so exotic, so rich and ski-ing like. On a Sunday morning it was quiet, and rather hum-drum. We stopped at a gas-station, and bought sandwiches for the road, and continued on.
As we drove west towards Bergen, the weather deteriorated. First it appeared as a layer of pollution along the horizon, then it spread over the sky. Then we were fully into the fog. They say it always rains in Bergen. I really don’t know why, but it must, because it had been a beautiful day inland, and quickly turned dreary.
We got closer and closer to Bergen, and went through tunnel after tunnel. The traffic got heavier, and it became much more like a hum-drum urban sprawl, with a free-way and exit ramps. I had a map to our Pensjionat, but obviously didn’t do a good enough job, because we shortly found ourselves out on the other side of the city, in a suburban sprawl. We took an exit, found a gas station and found we had gone much too far. We also found that the way back involved so many turnings we feared we would ever find our way.
Well, we finally found our way back onto the scrap of map which contained our Skansen Pensjionat. Our pensjionat appeared on the map to be only 3 blocks off the Bryggen, but as we wandered through the one-way, tiny streets we again despaired. But finally Dad spotted the street, and we found that it was a zig-zag up the side of the hill overlooking the wharf. We ended up zigging and zagging our way down the hill, trying to make the tight corners without hitting any of the parked cars.
At last, we arrived. We brought our luggage in, and I found that I was in a Room With A View. A beautiful view of the Bryggen. Mom and Dad had a view of the Zig-Zag street.
We settled in for a bit, and let Dad catch his breath and his sanity. We headed off to the Bryggen, clutching our umbrellas. The rain had stopped, but there was a chilling breath to the air. We strolled along the wharf. It was really unusual, and under more relaxed circumstances, and better weather would have been wonderful. As it was, all I wanted to do was relax. Of course my sugar got low, so we ensconced ourselves in a bakery and ate desserts.
We found a restaurant on a side street, called Wagbanner Berger. (What the heck?) We strolled back up the zig-zag street, and crashed in our beds.
Well, before we could crashed, I had to pack for my plane trip home, and Dad all of a sudden realized that I, the trusty travel agent, would not longer be with them. They didn’t even know what direction to go next, and where to stay. I dropped off a bunch of travel brochures and books, and let them figure it out.
Departure – Monday, June 25
We awoke early, and had our breakfast downstairs. It really was a pension, or B&B-like place, so we had a nice breakfast.
Dad and Mom drove me over to the major hotel nearby, from which the Airport Bus (Flybus) left. Dad really wanted to take me to the airport himself, but after our bad time the previous day, getting lost, I felt that the most stress-free and sure way of getting there on time, was to take the Airport Bus. The bus left on time, and I had a nice drive throughout the city. It stopped at quite a number of hotels for people, and then headed off to the airport. I think was about an hour’s drive. I saw a lot of the city we hadn’t seen the day before and was glad I had done this.
Well, it was then a flight from Bergen to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Boston. And home at last.
