Einträge

Erich, 15 Juli 2005
Norway , Molde

Norway - The South

Norway – The South
My second half of my trip around Norway is finished and I am back in Molde. The town is busily preparing for the Jazzfestival and the I believe for the first time that this could really become a great event. There is more people, more sun (sic!) and more feverishly atmosphere around.
This again will be a rather long text, so I set some subtitles to make orientation easier.

Geirangerfjord & Sognefjord

I left Molde with lots of sun and warm weather. My destination was Geirangerfjord. I was there before in March and it was ugly, so I had low expectations. What can I say it is really a beautiful Fjord, very narrow, lots of Waterfalls and, sadly, lots of tourists. After the loneliness of the north, I nearly freaked out of the mass tourism. I heard yesterday on TV that the whole Fjord is now a world heritage with all the buildings and the nature. Norwegians are very proud: so are the tourist offices…! Then I drove over Dalsnibba (still lots of snow) to Lom, my very first real Stavechurch. A beautiful church and I had a pretty guide to – she could tell me many interesting facts, also about Bergen, my future destination. I stayed overnight in a small village in Solvorn on Sognefjord with a female couple. Very friendly people and friends of a friend of mine from Zurich. Solvorn was so nice, it felt sad I had to leave the next morning. I drove to Borgund, another exciting stavechurch, this time with a handsome guide who knew more or less everything about the church. Mmmm, I like the way the Fortidsminneforeningen picks their guides. From Borgund, I took the worlds longest tunnel (24 km) to drive to Bergen.

Bergen

I could stay with a friend for 4 days in Europes rainiest town. Funnily enough, I had 3 days sunshine and hardly no rain. Bergen was nice, lots of tourists too, but the city absorbed them quite well. I went to see museums, tyske brygge (the old hanseatic quarter, built entirely of wood) and went out a lot. I had a good time and can only recommend it for a citytrip. From Bergen I made traveladjustments and instead of following the coast, I drove through the country to see Måbødalen, a remote valley and the Hardangervidda, a very remote and loney plateau in the middle of Norway. It must be terrific to go hiking there for days, but I had just some hours to spend.

Numedal

From Hardangervidda I went to see the meteorite crate. According to geologist, the meteorite fell on Norway some x thousands years ago and formed the landscape. The traces are difficult to spot for a non-scientist, however it is a very nice hiking area now and quite easy to stroll around for some hours. M way then went via Numedal to Kongsberg. The Numedal is another remote valley in Norway. That means, there is not much traffic and four stavechurches have survived, nearly untouched. Of course, I went to see all of them.

Kongsberg

The end of Numedal is Kongsberg, a bigger town in the south of Norway, around one hour drive from Oslo. I could stay there for one night with another friend and was very lucky: my arrival fell on the opening of the Kongsberg Jazzfestival (smaller than Molde) and my friend had tickets to the opening concert: DeeDee Bridgewater. The festival gave some impression what Molde could be like with the jazz. I left Kongsberg again with much sun and drove to Heddal, the biggest stavechurch worldwide. Even though it’s a massive church, rather a wooden cathedral, I was not much impressed. Borgund, Uvdal and especially Urnes are much more beautiful. After some hours drive, I reach the Skagerrak, the southcoast of Norway.

The Southcoast

The sun stood high, no clouds, the weather was just hot, hot, hot. Along the coast, Norway is very different from what I saw since then. White houses, warm temperatures, sandy, inviting beaches, holidayfeeling everywhere. Towns like Kragerø look more like French Riviera than Norway. The sea was refreshing but not cold. In Kristiansand I even had 34 degrees. Too much for me and I left for the most southern point of Norway: a must after the most northern point. Another Kapp, this time Kapp Lindesnes and the lighthouse were the destination. Nothing special, I must admit, but I just had to be there.
From there, it was again along the coast on a very alpine road and I saw many cyclists who where struggling with the steepness. It felt better with the car…!
Via Jæren, the agricultural centre of Norway, I reached Stavanger, little Dallas. The city now consists more or less just of oil business.

Stavanger & Haugesund

Stavanger is nevertheless quite charming and has quite corners. I stayed in the youth hostel and shared my room with a cyclist. He was quite grumpy maybe he had been driving along the coast Apart from that, I strolled around, visited the Oilmuseum (of course) and the Can-Museum (quite unique). Next morning I went to Haugesund, spent an astonishing 250 NOK on the way there (Brigde and Ferry, they take it from the living…!) Haugesund has nothing to boast off, except a very ugly, nationalistic memorial ground for King Olav Hårfagre who died some 1000 years ago. Nothing to stay, so I was already back on my way to Molde.

Flåm & Stryn

Before reaching Stryn, I just had to make a stop in Flåm to use the famous Flåmsbana. A very Swiss train (forgive me Norwegians) that goes from sea-level up to 866 meters above ground. Crossing a narrow valley, using several curves to gain hight and all in all an astonishing engineer feat, the train was worth a visit. From there, I took the train back the same way (its done in 1 hour) and drove to Stryn where I stayed with Karsten, a guy I studied with in Molde. From there, it was just once more via Geiranger to Trollstigen. But more about this at some later stage: I am tired of writing.

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