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Due to pressures at work, I needed some me / quiet time. Initially, I had planned to go to Sweden to visit my sister and take a week to myself before visiting friends in Iceland. However, due to work and my sister's schedule, Sweden was off the table, but I decided to still take my Norway trip. I really started to look forward to my own solo vacation, the first time in 18 months and it was well worth it. I initially planned to do a lot of hiking, but since it was still considered the winter / off season, most of the trails looked either inaccessible, potentially too muddy, or just too plain cold. I definitely wanted a road trip and started to plan around visiting Flam, and as I was searching, I got into the idea of visiting as many stave churches as possible - I'll probably have a stand alone blog for those.
So, I flew in to Oslo via a reduced cost upgrade to business class (yay!). It was pretty easy to get through customs, get my bad, and take the fast train into the city. My hotel was right near the central station, but its
signage was angled in the other direction with a huge sign facing the other side of the street It was not just me - I walked with three other woman around the entire block before we found the entrance. I was already irritated, and when we went inside, there was loud obnoxious music and I wondered about my choice, plus the elevators were super weird. Thankfully, the staff were super friendly and the room was perfect. It was around 2:30 pm when I arrived and I saw that rain was expected around 5pm, so I decided to keep up my energy to explore the city before it came. The hotel was centrally located and easily accessible. Unfortunately, a lot of the tourist sites I wanted to see were either not open (Viking museum) or closed at 4pm. So, not too much to do. I walked to the waterfront and saw the floating saunas, and across the way the opera and Munch museum. I walked up and around the opera house; this was pretty cool - you could walk up the side, over the roof, with stepped angled structures, and proper drainage control. I soon returned home for a quick dinner
before going to my room to read and sleep for the next day's adventure.
In the morning, I got to the breakfast buffet almost as soon as it opened, packed and ready to leave. The buffet was perfect and typical of Scandinavian breakfast buffets - so much to choose from - so I filled up to last me as long as I could for my road trip. Then I took the train back to the airport and rented my car - I got an inexpensive upgrade to a Volvo hybrid SUV and it was awesome. Then I headed west to start my road trip.
As mentioned, one of my focuses of the roadtrip was to visit as many stave churches as possible. There used to be over 1,000 stave churches in Norway during the middle ages, but now only 28 exist. The Black death in the mid 14th century ceased a lot of the construction of these churches as well as the increased degradation during the plague.
This is the only day the weather was not ideal and it rained most of the morning, so I did not stop until I reached my first destination:
Heddal Stave Church. This is the largest stave church in Norway and is part of a complex with a visitor center and barn, but none of these were open until mid to late May. It was raining pretty hard at this point and I only saw two other people visiting while there. Heddal stave church was buildin the 1200's and still functions as a parish church. It is beautiful wood timber construction set in a large graveyard at the base of hills. I got very wet and dropped my credit card somewhere and had to hunt for it before I could leave!
Then I continued west, stopping at an impressive waterfall, Amnesfossen, in a small village. I took a detour from the main road, climbing into the mountains and heavy snow fall, though the narrow road was pretty clear. It was just a beautiful drive. Finally, I got to
Eidsborg Stave church, a small church built in around 1250 and still in use. It was also closed, of course, but it was lovely to see in the snow covered landscape. There is an outdoor museum here, Vest-Telemark Museum, which was also closed of course, but I drove around and enjoyed seeing
the older buildings in the snow. I was planning to drive through and meet up with the main road further to the west and north, but this road was closed due to the snow, most likely closed all winter. So, I drove back and continued on, pausing briefly to get a photo of the pretty pink Vinje church, which was built in the 18th century to replace the original stave church.
I continued on up into the mountains, the scenery gorgeous despite the weather. There is a ski center after you drive past the town of Haukeli - I could not tell if it was open or not as there soon became a full blown white-out. Thankfully, the roads were in very good condition, even though there were walls of snow on either side. Really, it was hard to tell the difference between snow, snow falling, mist, and the grey sky. It was pretty cool but nowhere to pull over to enjoy it; or be safe. Soon, I got to a tunnel which seemingly came from nowhere and took me out of the sea of white. I had initially planned to take the tourist road through the mountains, but
the weather was way too bad - that alone was interesting. Soon, I came down to the lake which was mostly frozen over and I saw people cross country skiing. The scenic roads were closed and due to the weather, I was just ready to get to my hotel, though the circular tunnel was very cool!
After that tunnel, I finally came to the town of Roldal where I planned to visit the last stave church of the day. However, the view to the town below, sitting at the edge of the lake, was incredible, so I turned around for some photos before continuing to the church. The
Roldal Stave Church was built in the 1200's and was extended many times during its history. There was a crucifix was set above the choir and was said to have sweat every midsummer night, with the tear drops said to have healing powers. So it became a pilgrimmage site, up until the mid 19th century with its last Catholic mass. It is still the parish church.
Then it was time to go to my hotel, Hordatun, which turns out to be family run and very quiet at this time. Strange
because there is a ski area right behind it, but it seemed to be closed down this weekend. The rooms are more like little studios with a basic kitchenette and dining table as well as a nice balcony, with all rooms facing the lake. I was just here for one night, so I got a decent pizza with a draft beer at the restaurant, delivered to me by a young boy. I was only one of two people in the restaurant. The view from my room was fantastic! Despite it still being overcast, you could clearly see the lake below and the hillsides across the way. It was still somewhat light out even at 2 in the morning, with a fine mist over the water. So far, my trip was great.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Stave Churches of Western Norway
Gotta say these stave churches pics are fascinating, Alexis. I encourage a blog on them as you suggest. In the meantime I have posted some of your fabulous pics in "Cathedrals, grand churches, mosques & places of worship" thread in the Photography Forum. Check 'em out.