Road to Flam

Hemsedal

This was our big road day from Oslo in the East to Flåm in the West. The city soon turned to forest and farmland, then we rode through forest with mountains, and after more miles we climbed the mountains and were in tundra as we crossed the water divide. As we traveled we learned how Norwegians have an outdoor orientation, people can camp most anywhere, in the winter most people ski on lighted trails and in the summer they visit their summer cottages. We had lunch in Hemsedal, a ski town. 

Borgund Stave Church

Our primary stop for the day was the Borgund Stave Church built in 1180 with 80% still the original wood. Morgan, our guide, provided a lot of history (and also said there was nothing to do in this town.) A stave church has wooden columns  (the staves) built on stone foundations. The intent was to eventually replace the wood staves with stone, but after the plague came through, those plans were abandoned. This church has dragons from the Norse religion as well as crosses from Christianity. The columns appear to have Norse gods at the top. These people were taking no chances between the old and new religions. The bell tower is a separate building. Inside the church was quite dark, it’s hard to imagine people listening to mass in Latin in the dark. 

Morgan explaining inside

On the way to Flan we went through a 21km tunnel cutting the travel time by 1\2 hours from going around the fjord. The town of Flåm is only 300 people at the end of a fjord with a tourist train that scales the valley walls. We stayed at the Frethelm Hotel Flåm. 

Flåm