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Through the Tunnel, Along the Streams, Over the Mountains, Past the Lakes, Into the City
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Through the Tunnel, Along the Streams, Over the Mountains, Past the Lakes, Into the City
October 19, 2001
Flam to Oslo
Dear Family and Friends,
As nice as the Flam Valley is, two days is enough to cover anything we might want. It was time to move on to the big city, to Oslo. We were told this should be a nice 6 hour drive so we were sure we could follow our rule of getting into town early enough to get the assistance of the local Tourist Information officer and NOT panic over where we would stay. We almost made it.
We said goodbye to Flam and almost immediately were back in the long tunnel. We made our first stop inside the tunnel to get some pictures of one of three roadside stops within the 16-mile tunnel. It's a pretty spooky cavern and all during our stop no vehicle passed in either direction. This added to an eerie sense of isolation.
Just after the tunnel, we were given a choice of two roads. One said "Gol" and one said "Oslo" so naturally, we took the Oslo road. Later we determined that most people took the "Gol" road on the way to Oslo because it's both shorter and larger. Once again, we find ourselves "off the beaten path." For the next few hours we drove roads too narrow for middle lines and some where rock overhangs meant trucks drove down the middle. And the road was still just a bit icy from the morning frost. That was the downside of our unbeaten path. The upside was that very few cars and even fewer trucks shared this road and the scenery was unbeatable.
As we left the fjords and climbed into the mountains, we ran across a classic Norwegian 12th Century wooden church. As we were leaving a van of tourists arrived and the guide asked, in English, if the church was open but we had to report that it was not. Marianne asked where the group was from and the guide said "Hungary". That's the last I understood because they shifted to incomprehensible Hungarian. It turned out the guide had been taking groups to Norway for a long time, more than 20 trips! He told Marianne that this was not quite the oldest church in Norway but it is the oldest "original" wooden church - not a reproduction. Imagine, in the middle of an isolated Norway country road we are getting our tourist information in Hungarian.
As we drove farther up the mountain, the scenery grew more desolate. Up here, we were almost the only car around. The sides of the road were marked with ten-foot high snow-marker sticks and we passed two empty two ski resorts. It made us glad the winter had not really started yet because our little car, with its California drivers, would not do well in a few more weeks.
Down the other side, we saw more familiar sights and we couldn't pass up more fall scenes with lake reflections. But I guess we were jaded by now because the highlight of this particular stop was .... the outhouse. Marianne sampled the facility first and when she came out she "required" that I also take a look inside. Of course it was spotless, as we have come to expect in this part of the world. But it was also warm, odor-free and equipped with hot running water and hot air hand dryers. For travelers, it doesn't get much better.
Still we had two or three hours left to Oslo. Our deadline was approaching. After a quick lunch, Marianne took the controls and we headed into the big city. We were reminded yet again that arriving in the late afternoon to a new, large city is a bad idea. Oslo has freeways. We hadn't driven on a freeway since California. Oslo has tollbooths. We discovered that our low and racy car is too low to allow easy toll payment. But, most of all, downtown Olso has small, one-way streets that fill up in the evening rush hour.
The good news is that Marianne and I are still married after this city initiation. Eventually we did find street parking, the Tourist Information bureau, then a reasonable hotel, and off-street parking. Touring with a car is harder in cities than without. But, we kept telling ourselves that this difficulty makes us better people. Maybe, but for touring Olso, we'll leave the car parked.
Next Diary - Olso and it's historic boats.
Take care. Travel tip: appreciate good toilets and public transportation.
John and Marianne
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Created October 22,
2001
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.