In search of a waterfall

Our hosts provided us with lots of information about local hikes. We were lucky that our cabin was practically backed up to some of the most scenic hikes in Norway. On our first day, we decided to brave the rain and hike up to a waterfall.

This is what we saw when we stepped out of our cabin.


And this is the waterfall we were trying to reach:


The river eventually turned into a peaceful lake:




And then back into a roaring river, which we had to cross on a wooden bridge:



To get to the waterfall, we had to "scramble" up the side of the mountain. It was tricky because the rocks were slippery and also covered in moss, which hid holes. We also had to follow the trail markers, which were piles of smaller rocks and easy to miss.


After two hours, we made it to the waterfall! If we had kept going another hour, we would have eventually reached another lake, but we were worried about getting back down the slippery rocks, so we opted to save the lake for another visit.



A view of the Fjord from the rock next to the waterfall:


I fell down five times on the way down. In this picture, I had just slid down about four large rocks after loosing my footing.

Through the Mountains to Ortnevik

After an eventful car rental and visit to the Norwegian grocery store where we had a slight disagreement, but managed to smooth things over, we headed out to Ortnevik. There is only one road to Ortnevik, so the trip was pretty easy. We did have the choice, though, of going over the mountain to get there or going around the mountain along the fjord. We chose over the mountain.

It started raining as soon as we landed in Bergen and it pretty much didn't stop the whole time we were there. Thanks to our experiences in England, we were prepared with waterproof everything.


It was kind of cold up on the mountains. The higher we got,the fewer trees there were and the more cutting the wind was.



Fortunately, most people had the good sense not to drive over the mountain in the rain, so we didn't see many people on the road. The road, as you can see from this picture, was incredibly narrow (and scenic)



In the mountains, behind Jim, we could hear a tinkling sound. Finally we noticed the little specks of sheep grazing, their bells tinkling like windchimes. It was such a peaceful sound, and something that we heard throughout our trip because all the cows, goats and sheep were wearing bells.


There are trolls and there are also tunnels in NOrway. THis particular tunnel was a little scary because it had no lighting at all (most did). It was very cool to think that we were driving right through the middle of the mountains.


After a few hours, we made it to our cabin! It was made of stone, with a grass roof. The farm we stayed on was sustainable and we could recycle everything that we used, practically. The electricity was generated by the river that flowed nearby and the water came from a well.

Jim agreed to pose for some pictures in the cabin.

Here is Jim coming in the front door:


In the bedroom.

In the kitchen:


Relaxing with a book on the couch:


Taking in the countryside (hah ahh ahha hah hah hah...I can't believe that hotels actually take pictures like this for promotional purposes!):


And, enjoying a delicious home cooked meal (there weren't any restaurants in Ortnevik, so we cooked in our little cabin and packed picnic lunches for our hikes.


There was also no internet and a TV, but no reception, so we spent most of our downtime playing board games, reading, and watching me kick Jim's butt at Spit multiple times:


They say I do really cool victory dance:


Down the hill a little was a large cabin and next door was another small cabin, where the parents of the farmer seemed to live (or at least they were there a lot).

Kristi, the mom, also runs the coop store in the village part time. The village only has fifty families living in it and did not have a road until 1982. At that point they also got telephones and a ferry line. Prior to that, they took all of their cows across the Fjords on boats. We were really in a remote place and everyone was incredibly nice to us.

And now we want to move to Norway: Part 1

We arrived in Bergen late on Friday night, checked into our hotel, and some of us went to sleep with much fanfare while others couldn't sleep because we fell asleep on the plane. Regardless, we were up early to explore the city of Bergen before heading off to Ortnevik.

Bergen was established in the 1100 or 1200...and that's all Jim can contribute for history of Bergen. There were, in the town center, some old and historic buildings.


Jim was so moved by the town that he smooched the first moose he met:


In the center of town, there was a pretty impressive fish market, complete with live crabs, whale meat, and, unfortunately, wolf and seal pelts.


And...SWEATERS!!! When I told Mom that we were going to Norway she responded, "Oh, you can buy some SWEATERS!" Frankly I didn't know what she was talking about, but now I do. There are sweaters everywhere in Norway...in fact, I think sweaters must be a big source of tourist income. Later in our trip, we saw many American lady donning a Norwegian sweater.



But Bergen was more than fish and sweaters. We took a tram up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city.

This is where we discovered the first of many trolls we would encounter during our trip to Norway.



The trees were very tall and if we had more time, we could have walked up to a lake, but we had to hit the road and head to Ortnevik, so, after a quick development of our bridge skills which would come in very handy later in the trip, we headed off to Ornevik (without sweaters).

Adventures with cliffs

Jim and I took Friday off and were going to just putter around the house, but Jim got motivated and we headed off to Seaford, England, which isn't far from Brighton, England...both of which are on the coast and only about an hour and a half train ride away.

Seaford has a lot of wind and some beautiful cliffs. THe beach is made of pebbles (or, what we would commonly refer to as "rocks.")The water is clear and blue and we could see the ferry coming from France and then leaving to go back to France, as well as WW2 planes flying over and upside down and in loops.

Jim in front of the sea and the cliffs:


There were multi-colored beach huts along the beach. Some people used them for storage and others used them for hanging out:






At the top of the cliff, we thought there were lots of brown stones...then they moved and we realized that there were hundreds of bunnies. We were worried if we walked too quickly towards them they would throw themselves off the cliff...but they just went into their holes. Which, we noted, probably weren't helping the erosion problem that the cliffs are having.


These cliffs are called the Seven Sisters. We don't know why, but we had several hypotheses (Jim hypothesized that they look like boobs...but I pointed out that if they were boobs, they would only be 3.5 sisters. We'll never know. Or maybe someone will enlighten us. Or I could look on Wikipedia.)


THis is our dream cottage, on the sea:


On the beach, we threw rocks for this cute dog. And Jim nearly got swept away by the waves while he did his LL Bean pose:




Here Jim sits at the mouth of a River. In the far background is the sea (the English Channel). The second picture is of the river winding away from the sea. We were surprised that the river was flowing towards the ocean instead of away from it. We don't know much about rivers and how they flow, apparently.



After all the nature, we went to a pub. I had homemade lime fizz. It was refreshing. Then I sign languaged to Jim that there were some Americans sitting behind us and he said, "What? Are they saying the Star Spangled Banner??" in a very loud voice, which made the two Americans look up from their tea and was very embarassing.


We found, actually, that people in Seaford had a really hard time understanding our accents. I think it's more of a locals type of place.

We spent the night in Seaford and, instead of exploring nature some more, we went to Brighton. We had to check out the Brighton Pier, which had an amusement park at the end of it and an arcade on the inside:


I lost Jim for a little while, but found him safe and sound...


Dance, Dance Revolution requires WAY too much coordination for us. And, as usual, a gaggle of teens stood sniggering behind the old farts trying to play the high tech video game without any success (seriously...what is up with the arrows on that game? My brain and my feet can't process it fast enough!)


Brighton was full of artsy places and cool clothing stores and fleamarkets. We didn't get to explore as much as we would have liked, but here are a few of the things we did:

Visited the outside of a castle:


Observed awesome graffiti in the form of a tribute to rappers and to James Brown:




Once again, wondered about the Rainbow Bright trend, which is also popular in London...most noteably in Camden and particularly in the Rave Shop in Camden Market, where you can buy all kinds of puffy, colorful outfits,which can be worn to the fleamarket or at the rave.


When we got home, Jim cooked a gourmet meal and Spike came over for a visit. Fun times..and it's only Saturday still! We love long weekends.