FURTHER EXPLORATIONS

Our day began with an insight into life as a troll.
The Laerdal tunnel is 26km long & consequently the longest in Europe. Up above our heads was over a km of rock.  I tried not to think about that too much!  We were off on an adventure with Thomas, our guide for the day & the 30 minutes it took to get through the underworld allowed us time to get to know him & begin asking him questions about life in Norway.  As we were chatting away, we suddenly came upon this blue light. Apparently every 5 km there is an area of blue light to simulate sky, as an aid to keep drivers alert!

 We were off to see our first Stavkyrkje at Borgand & I was very excited!
Once upon a time there were lots of these characteristic buildings around Norway, now only 28 remain & this is allegedly the best preserved... namely because of the 5 yearly maintenance regime. Tar is painted on the exterior, which preserves the wood & keeps the Church waterproof.  The most recent tarring has just been completed & we could certainly smell it.

 The Borgund Stave Church was begun in 1180.  It's door is richly decorated with intertwining creatures & swirls, very similar to Celtic decoration.

 Inside, we were told why it is a Stave church... because it's structure is built around long poles or staves.  This is very similar to Viking longhouses, so it was interesting to see how 'old' building patterns were being utilized in the Christian era.

 It was also interesting to see that even though this was a catholic church, it had some rather pagan references.  There were a few decorations that could have been interpreted as from the Norse mythology & this cat, representing Freya, was one of them. She was carved from wood & was situated just above the pulpit.

 We didn't have as much time there as I would have liked, but to be fair, our time in the Church had been free of too many other people & as we were leaving a bus load of tourists started pouring into the site, so we had timed it very well.
Our next destination was back the way we had come, but this time, instead of the 30minutes spent in tunnel darkness, we were going to take the long way around & experience travel pre-tunnel.  This would mean a 2 hour journey to cover 40km!!
We couldn't complain as the scenery was spectacular! 
One minute we were cruising alongside the fjord.....

 ....and the next minute we were up in the heights of the mountain range, sailing past the remaining snow.

 Thomas had brought a flask of coffee & some Norwegian chocolate to try & we stopped  briefly to enjoy those whilst looking out over spectacular scenery.
Then he took us to the Stegastein Viewpoint, where a purpose built platform extends out over the cliff face to allow visitors an incredible viewing experience.  We were so fortunate to have such a clear day.  It was a little vertigo inducing, but it was worth it!

Zigzagging our way down the mountainside, carefully clinging to edge of the road as camper vans & buses went past, we eventually found ourselves in a rural paradise, where we were about to meet the goats of Undredal.  Well, that's no quite true.

We were hear to taste the famous brown goats cheese of Undredal.  Within moments of our cheese tasting however, we learnt that that statement is not true either!  Brown cheese is actually made from a byproduct of the cheese making process.  It is caramelised whey that is formed into a soft cheese & matured to be recognised as 'brown cheese'.  Regardless....it was very tasty & we really enjoyed the different goats cheeses & goat salami that we tried.

We still had another stave church to see & that was the smallest in Norway. Undredal's Stave church is still in use today.  It has had many adaptions since the 1100's when it was built, but in recent years they have managed to restore the original interior completely with paintings.
Before going inside tough, we took a moment to enjoy the setting.

Inside the painting style reminded us of the old Church of Flam.  It was charming. And had a very beautiful baptismal plate that hooked into the side of a pew.

The paintings on the ceiling were quite hard to identify, but I did like these naive angels!

Returning to our last evening in Flam, our plans had been to rent a kayak & go for a paddle, but they were closing up when we arrived, so I decided to wade in the water instead.  It was very cold & my feet went numb very quickly.  There was only a small area to wade in, as the fjord fell away into very deep water very quickly, which made me suspect that the 'beach ' had been man made.
Once on dry land again, we sat back & watched that days big (ginormous) cruiser make it's way off.
We were so glad that we had spent a few days here & were very happy with what we had chosen to do.  If we had had one more day, we would have liked to have taken the flam railway back up to Myrdal & walk the 20km back down on the old access route. This is an area that if we lived closer than the southern hemisphere, we'd love to visit again.