Summer trip to Norway

We woke to see the mist swirling in again. One minute we could see the view, the next, the mist was up against the windows. Quite amazing and eerie. After breakfast, we drove down to Undredal to see the stave church there. It is the smallest church in Norway and is quite different from other stave churches we have seen. It is painted white with red windows and doors. The mist was still swirling around, and there were moisture droplets on the spiderwebs on the plants nearby. Our plan was to walk up the valley to see the Naeroyfjord, up which we sailed yesterday. We found the start of the trail, left D in the car and began our ascent. It wasn’t too bad to start with, but gradually got steeper. The sun came out and soon we were all getting pretty hot. Perhaps we were all tired, but it was obvious that we weren’t going to make it all the way to the view as we didn’t seem to be making huge progress on the track. We did get to a lovely waterfall and decided to stop for our lunch here, and then walk back. We could see the track going on and on, with no sign of a view over the top. We found some wild berries and lots of flowers again – and also a chubby beetle.


On our way down we met some goats – fine, but then they started following us. This was also OK, but then they started pushing us off the track, leaping ahead and waiting for us to do it all again. This wasn’t any fun as they brushed against us leaving their strong smell behind, too. We were very pleased to get back down to the car, from where D had been watching us and the pesky animals. We decided to take a drive to Flam for refreshments. This is a busy town, with its ferry and the Flam railway, it is full of tourists. We found a not too busy café and enjoyed a cup of tea looking out over the pedestrianised quayside. There were lots of shops selling Norwegian sweaters and trolls – yes, very touristic!
So we headed back to Stalheim, through the tunnel and up the old track, which twisted steeply round the hillside. We stopped for pics of the waterfall, and even managed to spot the hotel up above us.