Ten Hours and Fifteen Tunnels Later...

...we arrived in Aurland near where we will ride out into the fjord and then walk on the glacier. We are nestled on the edge of the Aurlandfjord between two huge mountains. What a site!

We left Kristiansand around 9 a.m. heading north on roads that were like driving Route 3 to Beckley over and over for ten hours. Part of the drive was like driving on Summers County secondary roads, but these are the main roads here. No interstate systems in Norway. Sometimes I was reminded of Route 52 through McDowell County, from right to left: a huge straight up mountain, a road, a house, and water and another mountain right behind. But what scenery. I'll add photos as soon as I can download them.

After 6 hours we turned to Northwest and travelled across a Fjord on a ferry that led us to Voss. Curving around to the east we ended up in Aurland. Along the way, we stopped for picture taking (to be posted later.) Small houses nestled close to the water, sheep pasturing on the mountain sides. Pine trees extending high with mountain peaks rising beyond the tree line two times as high. Although the mountains in Norway are really no higher than many of the ones in WV, but you are seeing them from sea level up rather than being 3 or 4 hundred feet up and then seeing the rest of the mountain. You are seeing the entire 1000 feet all at once. Hence the amazing sight.

As we drove, we counted at least 15 tunnels and there are probaly ten more we passed through before we began to count. Some of the tunnels were over ten kilometers long. Some of them were like driving down White Oak mountain only in a tunnel. Whew! I was glad to see daylight then.

But, I haven't talked about the zoo yet, so let me digress. The zoo was a nice small zoo with an amusement park attached. We saw your typical zoo animals: tigers, apes, llamas, moose, snakes, etc. We had lunch there. I estimated that I paid 15 dollars for two slices of pizza, two sweet rolls, and a small carton of chocolate milk.

Food is expensive. A hot dog and chocolate milk on the trip today cost 8 dollars. I've been here two days and not eaten a Norwegian meal yet. I have eaten Arabic, Southern US, Italian, plain old American but no Norwegian, except for bread. I can say that I have not had any "bad" bread. It has all been delicious. The pastries at the zoo were very good. One was made out of puff pastry stuffed with a vanilla custard and one was a cinnamon roll. The sandwich bread is rich with nuts and a variety of flours. It makes delicious grilled cheese and toast.

One of the sites that amazed me most on the way up was the apple orchards. We passed through an area that has orchard after orchard. But the interesting thing about them is that the rows are planted vertically up the hillside and not horizontally as we are accustomed to seeing. The trees are bred to stay small so they can be reached on the hillsides. The hillsides are as steep as Sandstone Mountain interstate. The trees are planted about 6 feet apart up the hill. They grow not over 6 or 7 feet tall. They were staked and loaded with ripe apples. I was told that they are kept small because apple picking machines can't operate on the steep hillsides, so they have to be able to be picked by hand.

Imagine this: Fill bags with fruit, place them on a stand by the road, leave a moneybox and return in the evening for your money for the fruit that passersby bought! That's right. We saw stand after stand with a few bags of apples or peaches for sale. No attendant, just a money box. And yes, Becky's friend told us folks are typically honest about taking and paying for their purchase! Can you imagine that happening at home?

We we begain our drive the temperature was 15 degrees C. I watched the temperature drop a few degrees every hour or so. By the time we made a photo stop at the top of a mountain we were digging in the trunk for ear muffs and gloves. It was down to 9 degrees C. with a 15 or 20 mph wind. After the upper teens in Kristiansand, we thought it was pretty chilly. As we came down the other side and ended here by the Fjord the temperature had risen back to 15. Can't imagine what the windchill was. Okay, Mrs. Buckland's class. If the temperature was an average of 15 degrees C. what was it in Farenheit?

We are staying with one of the exchange students that Becky and Howard hosted several years ago. She is a very gracious hostess offering us information and being our guide while we are here.
It's time for some sleep since tomorrow will be busy.