More Switchbacks

 As promised, pictures of the view and our lodging this morning. 

The view - it is pretty spectacular!

Our cabin

Sun coming up over the mountain. There will be more switchbacks this morning as we go up over these mountains. Yay! They weren't so bad in the daylight with no rain and going up instead of down. 

Geiranger is a small tourist village in the western part of Norway. It is at the head of the Geirangerfjorden, which is a branch of the large Storfjorden. Geiranger is home to spectacular scenery, and has been named the best travel destination in Scandinavia by Lonely Planet. The Seven Sisters waterfall (which I wanted to see but we probably passed as we came down the mountain in the dark last night) is located just west of Geiranger, directly across another waterfall called "The Suitor." Geiranger Church is the main church for the village and surrounding area.

The third biggest cruise ship port in Norway, Geiranger receives 140 to 180 ships during the four-month tourist season. In 2012 some 300,000 cruise passengers visited Geiranger during the summer season. The Geiranger Port has a cruise terminal, a Seawalk, and 3–4 anchor positions depending on the size of the ships. Constructed in 2013, the Seawalk is a three-segment articulated floating pier. It is 236 metres (774 ft) long and 4.5 metres (15 ft) wide on 10 pontoons, which moves (like a floatable jetwalk) to accommodate up to 4,000 passengers per hour disembarking from a single ship. Several hundred thousand people pass through the village every summer. So glad we are here in off-season.

Geiranger is under constant threat from landslides from the mountain Åkerneset into the fjord. A collapse would cause a tsunami that could destroy downtown Geiranger. For this reason, sirens have been installed to warn residents if a landslide should occur. Hmmm. I think I'm glad I didn't know that last night. I was stressed enough.

Map of the lower switchbacks from last night. There were six above these. Notice the time estimate to drive 17 miles. What you would drive in an hour in Texas takes 2-3 hours here.

You can see the switchbacks (actually called hairpins) in the photo if you zoom in. Vicki, I thought about you when we were coming down last night and how much you would have hated it. 

seaweed from the Atlantic Ocean even though we are far from it

mountain goats

Glacier in the distance

Glacier getting closer

looking back down at the village and fjord

really close to the glacier now

water was so clear and cold

interesting striations in the rock face

There are so many variations in the scenery today and from one minute to the next it changes.

The water here looks very green.

Black house with grass roof. I've been so intrigued by these roofs, I had to do a little digging. A sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log houses in Norway. The load of approximately 250 kg per square meter of a sod roof is an advantage because it helps to compress the logs and make the walls more draft-proof. In winter the total load may well increase to 400-500 kg per square meter because of snow. Sod is also a reasonably efficient insulator in cold climate. The birch bark underneath ensures that the roof will be waterproof. This is astonishing to me. I've been wondering since I first saw one what keeps it from leaking or caving in.

In modern turf roof construction, bitumen roofing felt combined with dimpled plastic drainage membranes are usually used in place of birch bark. Turf roofs are still widely used on newly built structures.

another glacier

pine tree - Kim picked up some pine cones for me to take home

another waterfall - never too many waterfalls

walking on the grate above the river and falls

I walked down to get a closer look

reindeer antlers

I just love this picture - I think I may have to paint it.

so much color today

You can almost see the church. I didn't have my camera ready when we were driving by.

I don't know where you had lunch but we had a picnic here.

Kim bought these crisps at the market. I was translating what it says on the bag. "A taste that suits the Norwegian rush; mild new potatoes seasoned with aromatic ginger and a small dash of chili."

This is definitely one of the more picturesque lunch spots we've had. The smell of salami was overwhelming in the car so Kim rolled down the windows to air it out. I mentioned there was now a strong smell of manure and we realized we were following a tractor pulling a tanker of it. That got rid of the salami smell in a hurry. 😆

After lunch I decided to listen to part of Edvard Grieg's, Peer Gynt, that you mentioned Bill. Apparently the story explores and satirizes Norwegian culture through the exploits of its charming, arrogant title character, a Norwegian peasant who impulsively abducts a bride from her wedding and then abandons her in order to travel the world on other adventures.

The piece was written to convert Ibsen's play into a musical phenomenon, which it rightfully did. In 1874, Ibsen wrote to his friend and compatriot Edvard Grieg to ask if he would compose the music for a production of the play. Flattered to have received the invitation, Grieg agreed at once, but doubt soon set in. Much as he admired the drama as a literary work, Grieg found composing for it a difficult task.

"Peer Gynt progresses slowly," he wrote to a friend in August 1874, "and there is no possibility of having it finished by autumn. It is a terribly unmanageable subject."

As work continued, Grieg began to be drawn into the drama and, as his wife noted, "the more he saturated his mind with the powerful poem, the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work of such witchery and so permeated with the Norwegian spirit".

The Peer Gynt music became seriously known to the international audience through the two orchestral suites Grieg later created based on the stage music: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, opus 46 (published in 1888) and Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, opus 55 ( published in 1893). Each of the suites contains four of the pieces from the stage music, including well-known pieces such as "Morgenstemning", "Åse's death" (which I found quite soulful), "Anitra's dance" and "I Dovregubbens hall" (which make up Peer Gynt suite no. 1) and "Solveig's song" (which is the 4th movement of the Peer Gynt suite no. 2).

Those two Suites are what I listened to as we were driving through this incredibly beautiful country of Norway. I can see why listening to the record made you want to visit Norway. Now I very much want to see the musical, not so much for the story line, but to experience the music live, in the setting for which it was composed. Listening to it gave me a great appreciation for the artistic ability of a composer of Grieg's caliber. Thank you for sharing that with me.

I talked about the traditional Norwegian house colors yesterday. Today I noticed that so many of the houses were black. We even saw this black church. The tradition of black houses is rooted deeply in Danish soil, where fishermen's lodges have typically been black throughout history. The trendiness of Danish interior design has eventually led to a situation where you see more and more of the black of fishermen's lodges on the exterior of Scandinavian houses. Some houses were lathered with tar (mostly in the inland wooded areas) and were actually black-brown. The idea behind this was just to insulate the wood against humidity. I don't know whether or not this trend has anything to do with the black houses we are seeing more of in North Texas.

There was a good bit of road work going on today where one lane would be closed so we stopped several times to wait on oncoming traffic.

Cirque Glacier

I like these picnic tables with backs on the benches.

We made it to Trondheim, our home for the night. It is a very large city but has a beautiful old downtown area, which is where we are staying. This is our view from the hotel window. It is very loud here, completely different from the silence of last night.

manhole cover

Olav Tryggvason monument

This 18 meter high memorial consists of a statue of Olav Tryggvason, the town's founder and the King of Norway (995-1000 AD), placed on top of a pillar on a plinth. He is portrayed with a sword and a globus cruciger (a cross bearing globe, best known in Europe as the apple of the kingdom) in his hands. At his feet lies the head of Thor (god of the aboriginal population, which symbolizes the king's victory over the aboriginal people and their faith.

This building has all three of the traditional Norwegian colors (red, yellow ochre and green).

loving the fall leaves and cobblestone streets

Reindeer - there were many reindeer-crossing signs on the highways

Beautiful planters of flowers everywhere

Nidaros Cathedral is the world’s northernmost medieval cathedral and Norway’s national sanctuary.

The cathedral is built over the tomb of St. Olav, the Viking king who converted Norway to Christianity and became “Norway's Eternal King”. Throughout the Middle Ages this was a towering symbol of religious faith and the powerful position of the Church.

The work on Nidaros Cathedral began in 1070 and was completed in all its glory around 1300. In the early 1800s, after several fires and lack of maintenance, the cathedral was in very poor shape. In 1868 it was determined that the cathedral should be rebuilt as a national symbol and work began the following year. The restoration of Nidaros Cathedral has been going on for 150 years and the work continues on various projects at this national shrine.

The cathedral wasn't open when we were here but the photos I've seen of the inside are incredible.

There must be hundreds of stained glass windows.

a close-up of some the carved figures in the photo above

A beautiful cemetery lies next to the cathedral.

It is beautiful from every side with stained glass windows even high up on the pinnacle.

The Old Town Bridge with Lykkens portal. The city bridge crosses the Nidelva from the southern end of Kjøpmannsgata to Bakklandet. Gamle Bybro was built in 1681 in connection with Cicignon's town planning and the construction of Kristiansten fortress. The location was chosen for military strategic reasons and the bridge was paid for by the king. It was completed in 1685.

Bakklandet

The road goes via Lykkens Portal. The most common and popular way to enter idyllic Bakklandet is via the iconic Gamle Bybro, or Lykkens Portal as it is also called (The Old Town Bridge above). Bakklandet was first built in the early 17th century. The center of Trondheim had grown large, and the need to build outside the river course of the Nidelva began to manifest itself. Bakklandet then became Trondheim's first suburb. Several city fires and two Swedish sieges put Bakklandet's existence to the test.

After the last siege in 1718, where Bakklandet was burned down as part of the defense of Trondheim, the district was quickly rebuilt, and today people are concerned with preserving this beautiful and compact district with its small wooden houses, row of piers and cobbled streets.

sun setting over the river

Our hotel doesn't offer breakfast, but they gave us 15% off coupons at the bakery on the corner, Godt Brød.😀

I've finished the blog in record time tonight 😂. We finally arrived at our destination at a decent hour, but we've been doing laundry for hours (only two loads but it takes forever here). 

It's been a beautiful day with magnificent views all along the way. I know the photos don't show the vibrant colors or the depth of the scenery but I hope you are enjoying them anyway.

"What does it mean to be an ambassador of the King? It means reflecting his message, his methods, and his character wherever he’s placed us." PDT