What a busy day!
Started off reasonably slow, with a relaxed morning and the usual Norwegian ‘half-baked’ bread, cold meats and cheese for breakfast (plus regular spreads because – kiwis).
Once we were all
organised we set off on an adventure 2 minutes down the road to see the Fossli
Hotel and huge waterfall in Vøringsfossen.
The Fossli Hotel is a historic hotel, built in 1891 and sits at the end of the
Hardanger Fjord in the mountains, overlooking one of the highest waterfalls in
Europe.
Fun Fact: Edvard Grieg wrote his Opus 66 at the Fossli Hotel.
After taking multitudes of photos to try and capture the beauty of the waterfall, we continued our adventure down to Eidfjord, where we witnessed just how deep the end of the fjord is, with a cruise ship docked against the wharf.
We carried on to the nearby Kjeåsen farm, a 400 year old farm known as the worlds most inaccessible farm.
Traffic can go up to the farm on the hour, and come back down on the half hour.
The track up is reasonably narrow and goes through a very long, rustic tunnel most of the way.
The little VW Polo tackled the ascent like a champ, albeit smelling like she’d worked hard by the time we reached the top.
At 530m above sea level, the farm presented us with spectacular views and suddenly the cruise ship looked tiny.
We returned to the little town at the bottom of the mountain and found ourselves some lunch, had soft serves for dessert, and then did a spot of grocery shopping for dinner.
The next activity on our itinerary was crossing the Hardanger Bridge (the longest suspension bridge in Norway) and go through a 7.8km tunnel, which had two roundabouts – the tunnels here feel like rabbit warrens!
Both of these were highlights for DJ and he convinced Linn we needed to go around the roundabout 4 times (not a tough sell), just for a laugh.
This was the most expensive activity of the day, costing around $20 each way in tolls for the bridge!
After lots of driving and sightseeing we journeyed home to get the charcoal going for dinner.
Dinner was cooked and eaten in a beautiful wooden hut, with a charcoal bbq in the middle.
We had traditional Norwegian hotdogs and burgers, which were delicious.
The hut would be such a cosy place to eat in the winter, surrounded by snow.
It was such an enjoyable day and we so enjoyed our last full day being hosted by Norwegian and Kiwi friends.
Always recommend getting local insights while travelling, its so helpful and adds a different perspective to everything you see.
JJ xx