Day 9 - Gudbrandsdalen Area

Today was a day of well deserved rest.  We haven't had a quiet day really, so thought we could use one. 

Mackerel/tomato spread

Breakfast here was pretty typical except there was this packet with a mackerel on it and tomato in the ingredients.  I tried it, but can't say I'd recommend it unless of course you like those two flavors mingled together with lots of salt. 

Single lane brige - Tretten

After breakfast and LOTS of coffee, we drove into Tretten and crossed the river for the shady side of the valley on a one lane wooden planked bridge over a raging river. From there we drove over to Favang.  Most of the roads were paved, but some were not.  Some of the gravel roads showed signs of erosion and wash out from last week's rains.  In one spot there was a gravel truck dumping new gravel for the road with a grader parked off to the side waiting to finish the work.  While you're trying to picture all of this, keep in mind that these are all really narrow mountain roads.  The paved roads don't have a center line, but there is generally room for 2 cars.  The gravel roads have no markings and rarely any guardrails.  Fortunately, we met few cars and trucks.

Our harrowing drive led us to Ringebu which has a cute downtown with cafes, bakeries, clothing stores, book stores, you name it, but nothing with the words "Ringebu" on them.  Bummer.  We did have coffee and split a sweet roll.  The bakery had about 30 different types of loaf bread, so I did the touristy thing and took a photo. 

Then it was off to see Ringebu's famous stave church!  It's a beautiful church located a few miles south of town up a windy little road.  The stave church was built in the 13th century, but it followed a post-construction church that was built in the 12th century.  Of course that one rotted, so the stave church replaced it.  The front door is from the first church, so is about 1000 years old.  Next to the front door there were symbols carved into the wall (early graffiti work?) showing the symbol for each farm in the area.  They looked like the brands that ranchers use to identify cattle.  In a post-Viking sort of way.  They didn't allow photos inside.  At the tops of the wood columns (that are sort of painted to look like marble (?) maybe) there are heads painted.  This seems like a cross between a classic era capital and a greek caryatids.  The heads here supposedly represent norse gods.  Apparently during the early parts of Christianity in Norway it was acceptable to include a little paganism. 

We visited a little art museum near the stave church and then headed off on highway 27 to see the Rodane National Park.  It is seriously one of the wierdest places I've seen.  It's a cross between Wyoming, Arizona, the Bad Lands, and maybe Alaska.  I posted a very brief video on you tube, so check it out! http://youtu.be/bhXCILPSLTY

Afternoon snack at Rodane

What makes it so wierd is that you cannot see that this area even exists from the valley that we're in.  The video was taken about 45 minutes away from Ringebu and it's like we were on another planet.

We're back at the hotel now, fed and getting ready for bed.  Tomorrow we drive to Aurland to see the fjords.  We don't think there will be any problems with the roads as the flood has visibly receded since we arrived.