Well, time certainly does fly when you're being amazingly productive! I've been getting a good amount of work done on my data, so the blog has been neglected, I fear. Berlin is a great place to go exploring, and we've been doing a fair amount of that as well. But I want to get everything caught up, because we're about to head off to do some more gallivanting next week. My friends Dave & Brenda are coming over from Colorado for a visit - we're going to Prague, Budapest, & the wine region around Mikulov in the southern part of the Czech Republic. Woohoo!
So, I'd like to be able to post things as they happen, instead of feeling like I'm always trying to catch up. With that in mind, back in time we go to Norway...
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I fell in actual love with a place. Now, I love my husband, you know I do, but I am smitten with Norway, Balestrand in particular.
To get to this magical place, we took a ferry through the
Geiranger Fjord, and
around to Balestrand. This is the sight that greeted us just a few kilometres beyond Knutten....
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| Gerainger Fjord |
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| The muppet and the fjord |
The ferry ride was magic. There were beautiful waterfalls, and farms perched impossibly on the steep slopes. Apparently, there's so little land suitable for farming in Norway that any plot of arable land, no matter how isolated or improbable, gets used. They would haul their produce, often hay for feed, up to the top or down to the water, whichever was closest, I guess. Most of these farms were abandoned in the 60s, for some reason that I don't know because I can't read the Norwegian signs, which is a great sadness to me. I love reading signs!
Once again, the weather was amazing. In this pic, I'm wearing my gloves and sweater around my neck in a desperate attempt to keep the sun off me! When we went through Milford Sound in New Zealand, the weather was cool and foggy, and so windy... while I think Milford Sound is more beautiful than Geiranger, the day was nicer, which made the experience more pleasant on the whole.
Once we left the ferry, we drove through mountains and fjords, stopping for a picnic on the way! (Sorry, Brenda!)
I don't think pictures can ever do justice to the amazing places we saw. Having lived in Colorado and travelled through the south island of New Zealand, I thought I was well acquainted with the beauty of mountain landscapes. Maybe it's because I've been away from the mountains for so many years now that I was completely gobsmacked all over again.
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| Village on the Sognefjord |
The glacial valleys are especially fascinating to me. In my mind's eye, I see the ice scouring its way through these mountains, leaving the distinctive u-shaped valleys behind. The power of those glaciers is astounding.
To get to Balestrand, we had to cross the Sognefjord, the mother of all Norwegian fjords.:) I've read somewhere that the other fjords are just foreplay (fjordplay??), compared to Sognefjord. Again, my pics don't do it justice. I kind of wish that we'd taken a ferry the length of the fjord, but by this point, we were getting a bit over-fjorded, if that's even possible. (How many times can I type fjord in one paragraph? Better get it all out, as I won't have much opportunity after I finish this post...)
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| The smallest arm of the biggest fjord |
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| Killing time, waiting for the ferry |
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| Same ferry wharf, different day, thus the clouds and rain... |
Which brings us to Balestrand!
Our campsite was right on the fjord.
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| Sjotun Camping - stop in for a visit if you're ever in the neighborhood! |
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| Rassin' frassin' RVs blocking my view... |
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| Old Bluey |
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| Howdy, ma'am! |
We'd been hanging out for a gin & tonic for many, many moons, but our previously described issues with attaining any form of ice had made fulfilling this goal impossible. However, we discovered that if you look sad enough, bar staff at a large hotel can be persuaded to part with some of this frozen gold. For free, even!
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| Tyrifjorden, I think? |
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| The last Norwegian campsite |
And as the sun sets over the fjord, we say farewell to Norway, my geographical soul mate.:) Next up, Sweden, Denmark & Amsterdam!
Such picture-postcard beauty, and the scenery's pretty nice too...the food, however, looks very 'brown' - do they grow anything green in that part of the world, or is it just not served with beer, which is why we haven't witnessed it, yet?!
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