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Published: July 21st 2009
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No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang
July 1, 2009, Wednesday, Laerdal CG to Borgund Stave Church to Hemsdal, Norway.
From Laerdal we drove to the Borgund Stave Church…WOW! It is like a pagoda style fancy wooden carved church. The timber for the church was felled during the winter of 1180, and the building erected soon after. The complicated structure was built by traveling craftsmen with skill and experience. It has stood in this location for 800 years! At the time the Ruler of Norway embraced Christianity and thus the people of Norway did, however, some old beliefs lingered. On the outside of the church there are obvious crosses, but also dragons (just in case). The wooden carving and history were fascinating.
In order to get out of “fjord country” we need to go over the mountains. So after several hours of driving, we decided to stop and take a hike. Stopping at an outdoor shop, we struck up a conversation with the sales clerk, Gunther. He is a Norwegian going to school in Montana on a ski scholarship. Gunther gave us clear directions to a great trail, so we were off.
Our campground is right behind the sporting good
store, so Bob trotted back up to see Gunther. With a gracious invitation from Gunther, we were off to see a Norwegian Mountain Farm. We met Cjel Christiansen, Gunther’s dad; he is quite a carpenter. He built a large addition to the farmhouse last year using trees from his land…he did this in his spare time. The Christiansens were so hospitable, we sampled brown cheese; it looks strange but tastes yummy. It was an experience to watch the cows being milked, there is a definite organization to this process. “Dena” is the prize winning cow, and the Christiansens are rightly proud. The tourist house on the land was built in 1850 and it was neat to visit and see the building style and antiques. It was a delightful Norwegian Experience! “Thank you!” to the Christiansen Men.
July 2, 2009, Thursday, Hemsdal to Oslo, Norway.
Today is a driving day, and we returned to Ekberg Campground, in Oslo; the temperature is over 90! So with our little table and chairs, we are spending a lot of time outdoors in the shade. The weather in this area of Norway is effected by the Gulf Steam, so it can be quite
warm.
Since we leave for Iceland on July4th, we made arrangements to park the RV at a special area at the Airport in Oslo.
July 3, 2009, Friday, Ekberg Campground, Oslo Norway.
The bus took us to downtown Oslo and we walked to the travel agency to get the documents for Iceland. We fly Icelandair from Oslo to Reykjavik tomorrow. We plan to spend two days in the country, at a Farm Guesthouse, and two days, at an apartment in the city of Reykjavik. All of the employees at “Islandia Travel” are from Iceland, so they were able to give us good information and suggestions.
Back to the campground, it is time to pack and prepare for our trip. There is lots of thunder and lightning up on our hill, hope we get a good rain storm to cool things off!
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