Valleys and mountains…switchbacks and curbs…road closures and detours…rain and fog….a bright glare off the snow-ladened ground…wet roads due to the waterfalls…you name it…Rebecca drove through it, and for ten hours. But we are finally here in our ancestral home of Ulvik, and very happy to be here! She was a REAL trooper!
We left Rjukan early this morning with the goal of driving to Vest Telemark Museum and Eidsborg Stave Church on the way to Ulvik. But as many of you who have driven in Norway know, it’s not a fast option, and definitely not a direct path. We found that the road we needed to use to go to Dalen was destroyed last August, and hasn’t been repaired yet. So we traveled over 50 kilometers to bypass the road only to find out that we were only five kilometers away and couldn’t get any father unless we hiked it up the mountain by foot. Guess that goal is out!
So onward we went towards Ulvik, stopping a long the way to view the beauty of Norway and its many waterfalls and rivers. We went on Europe’s largest plateau, Hardangervidda in Telemark. Many roads up there were still unplowed. It truly looked like winter.
As we progressed towards Ulvik, we came upon two places we visited with our mother twenty-two years ago. One was Låtefoss (waterfall) which is actually two different falls. The water was rushing down as the melting is occurring high overhead. To our surprise the little souvenir shop was still there! Of course, we had to take a selfie and think of our mother while taking it.
The second place was in Kinsarvik at the end of one Hardanger Fjord fingers. It was an easy spot for our mother to get out of the car, and we took a photo together. It brought back sweet memories.
A new experience for me was the Hardanger Bridge and the new tunnel system around there. I hadn’t experienced actual round-abouts within a tunnel and had the opportunty to experience it twice! From the second tunnel, one goes immediately onto the bridge.
The apples blossoms are beginning and it’s a beautiful sight. We experienced so much snow today, that ending it in Ulvik with green grass, apple blossoms, and spring flowers made our evening enjoyable.
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