Travels thru Life: 5/26 -- Drive to Flam

We got an early start today to drive 6 hours to Flam. We made a couple stops on the way, including a tour of a 850 year old wooden church and to a sheep farm after we arrived.

The roads were good quality, but mostly two lanes and pretty crooked. We spotted LOTS of water falls and beautiful mountain and lake vistas along the way. We took a bio break and I found 3 interesting chocolate bars to sample -- we really enjoy checking out the junk food options when we travel. Back on the bus, our next stop was lunch and we walked around a bit and looked at housing prices. There was one photo of a great looking chalet for about $550,000, but even today, it is barely spring. Our bus got snowed on briefly this morning and there is still snow on the ground and ice on the lakes.

We saw a lot of summer cabins like this one -- possibly has
electricity, but no running water and you must have a
different permanent address.

This has to be a glaciated valley with this u-shape.

Lots of snow still on the mountains and ice on the lakes. We
got above the tree line only going up 3500 feet because of
how far north we were.

It was not unusual to see sod covered houses -- improves
the insulation.

Our next stop was the Borgund Stave Church, built in the mid 1100s. It was in active use until the mid 1800s when the congregation was too large. The law then said that when that happened, a new church had to be built, and the congregation nearly tore this one down. Fortunately, some early preservationists told them that if the congregation saved the old church, they would pay for building a new church, so the new red church was created and the old black one still stands.

Initially, the congregation would have stood, but there were very low benches along the sides for the people too infirm to stand for the service. If you were late, you got to stand outside near a rudimentary window and listen from there. Initially women were on the north (evil) side of the building, but entered from a south-facing door, while the men entered from the west door with the altar on the east side. Over time, modifications were made, including a pulpit for the priest and later on, a balcony. The pulpit still stands, but the balcony was removed and some of the damage repaired.

The staves are the upright logs that form the central part of the church. It also has 2 sets of walls: the inner ones were pretty straight like a simple house, but the outer layer gave it the steeply sloped sides, with about a 2-3 foot gap between the inner and outer spaces. It also appears that the altar itself predates the church and was originally used for sacrifices because the stone is older than the rest.

The red church in the back is the new one from the mid
1800s. The smallish dark structure in the front of the red
church is a bell tower.

The shingles are treated with a mix of tar and ash every
8 to 10 years to keep the roof waterproof.

Altar with the original stone on the bottom.

Door trim on the women's entrance.

You see the outer (left in this photo) wall,
but the inner wall defines the actual space.

Door trim on the main entrance.

Bench for the infirm.

Runes on the men's entrance

The pulpit with original paint from long ago.

Back on the bus, we had another hour or so of driving to get to Flam, which is at the head of one of the fjords that leads to Bergen, where we will board our coastal ship.

Footbridge

This is a really rickety walking track along the river that has
seen better days. We saw many other sections, but they
were tough to capture from a moving bus.

Note the cabins toward the top of the photo.

Approaching the town of Flam

We checked in, and hopped back on the bus for a short trip to visit a sheep farmer. Farms here cannot be bought and sold, but are handed down through the family. It was not clear what would happen if the family petered out. Sheep farming is no longer profitable and the herd is down to 66 sheep and 100 lambs. They are in the process of being moved to summer pastures in the mountain. In October, they will bring a few sheep down and the rest will follow. The adults are shorn twice a year and the wool only brings $1 per sheep! The farmer makes his living by renting out properties on the farm and other enterprises.