Scandinavia Trip: Tall waterfalls, narrow roads, scenic railway

[cjsmith]

*** Thu Sept 26:

While Rob showered, I asked the friendly LA lady at the desk to help
me make a reservation in Fl&m. We hoped to make it that far north
today. She told us most people stayed in Voss, taking the train to
Fl&m and back, but staying in Voss wouldn't mean much northward
progress. She telephoned for us. That's a big help, each place.

Breakfast was cornflakes, another cereal that looked for all the world
like puffed BARLEY, orange juice, soft bread with jam, hard cracker
bread (sort of oat-tasting) with butter, and tea. When we checked out
we asked our friendly desk person about the towns inside the park.
She said no, there are no towns; no one lives there. There are cabins
used by people who hike in. Her grandparents have a cabin like that,
and these days they tend to go visit it by helicopter.

On our way out of town we tried to buy postcards and snacks at the
little corner store, but it wasn't open yet. We headed east on 7
toward Fossli. The road wound around through several tunnels, one of
which appeared to contain nearly a full U-turn. I don't know why
tunnels would ever turn. Eventually we reached a parking area for
V0ringsfossen. A sign warned of a sharp precipice: "take care of the
children and proceed on your own risk," it told us. We headed toward
the edge and saw a slender ribbon of water making a spectacularly tall
vertical drop on the opposite side of the gorge. As I got closer and
closer to the precipice, I was able to see farther and farther down
the falls. I began to wonder where the bottom was! The falls just
got more and more impressive with every step I took. Eventually I saw
the bottom portion, with beautiful braided cascades. I took off along
the edge, to my right. That's when I saw the BIG waterfall, pouring
into view from my own side of the valley. It was much more voluminous
than the other. Eventually I learned that it was also much shorter.
The two together are V0ringsfossen. We drove up to the Fossli hotel,
with a lovely observation deck at the head of the valley, and hiked
around until we were at the lip of the tallest falls. We stuck our
hands in the water, sat on the damp rocks, and generally soaked in the
view.

We had heard of a road museum near here, but we had no idea how to
find it. We didn't even have the name of a town. We decided to give
up on that. We turned back along 7 to Brimnes.

At Brimnes, road 7 from the east meets road 13 coming up from Odda to
the south and west. Both of these roads appear to end in Brimnes. In
fact, they continue in Bruravik, on the other side of Eidfjorden. We
stayed on road 7 by taking a ferry. It was a short ride, maybe
fifteen minutes total. While we were parked on the ferry I went
downstairs for a hot dog. Never pass up a chance to eat, that's my
new motto.

On the other side, we followed 7/13 and eventually just 13 up through
Voss. I think we may have gotten gas again, in Voss. Second time
this trip. This car has a conveniently enormous gas tank. About ten
km before Voss, we drove over a small bridge next to an unmarked but
gorgeous waterfall. The map tells me it was Tvinnefoss. We pulled
over to take a photograph. The road was wide enough that cars and
even semis could pass us, but two cars could definitely not pass each
other next to us when we were parked at the side. Fortunately, that
situation did not occur.

Past Voss we joined E16: wow, E-roads again! A road wide enough (at
least most of the time) for a painted center line: what luxury! We
followed E16 out of Hordaland and into the ... state?... of Sogn Og
Fjordane: parish and fjords?

Our hotel in Fl&m, the Fretheim, looks like a rather old white-painted
wooden building and a very modern glass conference center are having
sex. Adjacent to the lobby there are souvenirs, some of the first we
have seen: intricately patterned knit sweaters, scarves, and
childrens' sheepskin booties. Our room looks out on the fjord, as is
coming to be usual, although this time we are across a parking lot and
a train/ferry station from the water. The room has a beautiful pale
wooden floor instead of carpet. Again we have a door that does not
lock unless the room card-key is inserted, and lights that don't work
unless the card-key resides in a master switch outlet by the door.
The bathroom has a heated tile floor, and the toilet has two sizes of
flush. On the desk, there is a keyboard with an IR connection to the
TV. For a small fee, you can surf the web on your television.

After checkin, we spent some time wandering through a sort of mall
associated with the train/ferry station. A souvenir shop offered
sweaters, scarves, whole reindeer hides (!), decorative glass objects,
T-shirts, socks, boxers, pewter tableware, jewelry... I bought two
pins for Chris: the elk/moose warning sign and the reindeer warning
sign we have seen so often on these roads. I bought a pewter Norway
flag Christmas tree ornament for myself, a carnelian Thor-hammer
necklace for Kriselda, and lots of postcards. (Wish I knew people's
addresses!)

Rob got some fries at the little snack shop and I wrote two postcards.
He finished just as someone's smoke started drifting over, so it was
the perfect time to set off up the road to Myrdal. We figured there
was no need to take the train if we drove it. On reflection the train
would probably have been faster! The road was narrower than anything
we've yet seen, and steep, and windy; the pavement gave out about a
third of the way up the valley, and it was very clear that there was
no way two cars could pass except by using the tiny little grass-
overgrown pullouts. The uphill side of the road was often a sheer
rock cliff, and the downhill side a steep dropoff; when this was the
case, biggish chunks of granite had been set like teeth into the edge
of the road, almost as if they were doing their best to be a guardrail.

We saw several lovely waterfalls and some farms clinging tenaciously
to the slopes. One area, large enough for pasture for two families,
had been settled since the twelfth century, and was abandoned only in
the 1970s. Pastureland that big is a treasure here.

We went most of the way to Myrdal, but then the road gave out
completely, ending in a very steep winding gravelled bicycle path. A
vigorous waterfall sits there at the head of the valley. A sign
nearby said "goat cheese 1km", with an arrow pointing across the road
and downhill. I wanted goat cheese but had no idea how to find the
place.

Back at the bottom we took a short detour to Aurland to check the
ferry timetable. We saw no evidence whatsoever of a ferry, not even a
dock. We surmised that it was a summer route. Bummer. It's supposed
to be a beautiful ride. At the rotary to enter E16 back to Fl&m, we
went around an extra full turn to peek at the entrance to the world's
longest road tunnel. We will probably drive that tomorrow.

We brought our luggage up to the room around seven, and plan to spend
the rest of the evening resting. We've had very little downtime for
the past few days.

Rob is now surfing the web on the TV. It's neat... well, if it works.
Ah, okay, it works; DNS is just very very slow. Hah! Made a LJ entry
asking for people's snail mail addresses. I can't take cookies here,
apparently, so viewing friends-only entries and such will be
impossible. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to see people's replies.

Went to the hotel restaurant for what turned out to be a very lengthy
dinner. It was a set menu for a set price. I opted out of the
appetizer, as it was salmon; I ate every crumb of the bread, because I
was hungry and things were taking forever; I had the main course of
lamb and some potatoes au gratin (yummy, after I carved squiggly bits
off the lamb); I opted out of dessert. I think they gave me a
discount because I skipped some stuff.

We will need laundry soon... well, some time before we get back to
Stockholm, anyhow.