Sheep, Snow, Sogn Fjord, and Scenery!
June 15 - From Lærdal to Bergen
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| Sogn Fjord |
Laurel shared with us at the end of this wonderful day that our great bus driver, Jonas, had been reluctant to make the drive today, and, after experiencing it, I could certainly understand why! But we were all so grateful that he did because the drive - and the fjord cruise at the end of it - was the most scenic day of the entire trip!
We left our mountain hotel first thing in the morning, and our bus wound up and up for miles on a one-lane road - with two-lane traffic! There were hair-raising hairpin turns on the edge of steep cliffs. There were sheep in the road completely blocking our way from time to time, (but they were so cute, we couldn't hold it against them). There was traffic coming in the other direction, which often meant either them or us backing up to one of the few turn-outs in the road.
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| One lane roads with a few little turn-outs for the two-way traffic |
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| Lots of hairpin turns |
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| On-coming traffic |
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| Buses and vans weren't the only road obstacles! |
It was thrilling (and nerve-wracking)...but even more thrilling was the scenery. We started up green forested hills, but with the altitude and high latitude of Norway, the trees soon disappeared. The barren mountains above the treeline were still covered with snow. With the spring melt, waterfalls and raging rivers flowed all around us. We stopped several times to take photos in particulary spenic spots, with one memorable instance when another bus required us to continue up the hill, leaving two of our group having to run almost a mile uphill before catching up with us! Jonas was a masterful driver and we never guessed that it was his first time to drive this route!
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| Raging rivers from the glacial melt of summer |
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| A scenic stop along the way |
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| Snow begins to appear near the road |
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| And suddenly we are above the tree line in a barren landscape |
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| Glacial ice and lakes have a characteristic blue color |
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| Laurel with Jacob, our hero of the day! |
We finally crested the peaks and headed down toward beautiful Sogn Fjord, the largest fjord of Norway. There was a long platform extending out over a cliffside that provided us with some gorgeous birds' eye views of the fjord far below.
During our hotel breakfast that morning, we had each packed a "mat pakket," a food package with a sandwich, and Laurel had brought along fruit, chips, cookies, and drinks for a picnic lunch on the shores of the fjord in the town of Aurland. Thunderstorms had been forecast for today, but there wasn't a cloud in sight, and the weather continued to be warm and sunny, just as it had been for every day of this trip.
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| A fjord-side beach where we enjoyed our picnic lunch |
After lunch, we drove the short distance to Flam, where we would board our ferry for a fjord cruise. Rob and I had come to Flam in 2001 for our honeymoon in Scandinavia, and Wow!, has this town changed! It was a sleepy hamlet 22 years ago, but today there was a monster cruise ship in the harbor, and tourist shops were filled with the thousands of passengers buying gifts and souvenirs. (Personally, I preferred the old town, but I'm sure the locals appreciate the financial benefits.)
Jonas met us at the end of the cruise and we finished our drive to my old "stomping grounds" of Bergen, my favorite city in my favorite Scandinavian country. It had been a long journey, so most of us just had a quick dinner and headed to bed with happy memories of a very special day.
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| Back on the road to Bergen |
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| Bergen homes above the Fish Market |
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