Scandinavia in the Fall: Oslo to Laerdal

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It wasn't long before we had left the city behind us and we were in the countryside. The leaves on the trees were changing more dramatically than we had seen yet, and the landscape became increasingly hilly. Every time the sun came out my husband told me to take pictures; we had no idea how mundane this area would seem once we were deeper into the fjords.

Early in the drive we passed a sign that said something about E16, our road, but we could not make sense of it. I was a little anxious that the sign said that the road was closed some distance ahead. I hoped that we would not get stuck.

But the drive was far too enchanting to allow me to worry. After some time of driving we began to take breaks to enjoy the scenery or to investigate an interesting site. Signs point the way to historic sites, and the ones that said "Stavkirke" were the most likely to get our attention. We couldn't believe how many there were, scattered all about the countryside. We couldn't see them all; we really didn't want to be driving past nightfall!

We stopped in Fagernes to find some dinner. We saw some potential restaurants, and we also saw a playground along the water. We parked and allowed the children some time to burn off energy in what is a lovely waterside public area. It occurred to me that anything that people would want to do in the summer was here in this park. There were grills, firepits, a swimming area, a fountain, and a stellar playground. My husband and I had as much fun as the kids, and then we went to find dinner. Unfortunately, we struck out; one of the restaraunts we had identified was, in fact, closed, and another was more of a cake place. In retrospect, we should have had the cake!

We pressed on, hoping to find another place to eat and somewhat anxious on behalf of the kids. I broke into the package of Swedish tortillas to tide them over for a while. It occurred to me, too, that we probably needed to stop at the next grocery store we came to since we were getting into Laerdal late, and we needed eggs for breakfast the next morning. We were not so anxious, though, that we couldn't stop for another stave church-and this one came with a waterfall.

Then we hit the signs about our highway again. It appeared that we were about to be detoured off the main road. We became still more anxious, because this would get us into Laerdal very late. Just before the detour there was a restaurant. We stopped, but it was closed.

So we had nothing else to do but head off on the detour. At least it was on my map; we were on 53, and it looked promising that we would connect again with the main route close to Laerdal. 53 took us through some very dramatic landscapes, desolate and barely inhabited.

We finally rolled into Øvre Ardal, which was equipped with a grocery store and a convenience store advertising hot dogs. I got the groceries while my husband ordered hot dogs for the kids and a $25 hamburger for us (it was a big burger, but, yes, $25).

We were much more relaxed for the last bit of our drive, which included a surprising number of hairpin turns in dripping tunnels on wet roads that didn't have center lines. We were delighted to find that there was still light in the sky.

Finally we crossed the bridge into Laerdal, a town that we had studied so carefully on maps and in pictures that we felt we already knew it. Our son asked us if we would get lost again, and we told him with confidence that we would not.

But we did get lost. Fortunately, we recognized the street that we would be staying on and figured that if we parked near it we would do okay. We got out of the car and discovered, in front of us, the Sanden Pensjonat office. You really can't get too lost in a town like Laerdal.

Our host got our keys and walked us to our guesthouse. We settled in, and there were cupcakes from the store in Øvre Ardal. It felt so, so good to be "home."

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