Saturday, September 8, 2018

Au Canada!

Thursday we left for our Canadian road trip. The RAV4 is packed up with everything we need including road trip essentials like Twizzlers and Australian licorice.  The first day consisted of only driving, up through Michigan and crossing into Canada over the St Clair River near Sarnia.

We stopped for a late lunch at a McDonalds near Lansing. The early part of our drive was rainy although not the heavy kind of rain that makes driving difficult. By the time we got to Lansing it had stopped, and the sun came out a little while later.  We crossed into Canada around 7:30 pm and there was only a few minutes wait at the toll bridge and at the passport check. I missed a turn to get on to the 401 in Canada and we had a brief driving tour of Sarnia. We got to our first night's stop in Kitchener, Ontario after dark.

Friday after breakfast in the hotel restaurant we continued our drive to Montreal with a rest stop at McD's and a lunch stop at one of Ontario's 'ONroute' service centers.  Crossing the border between Ontario and Quebec initially felt no different than crossing from Illinois into Indiana, with a nice roadside "Bienvenue au Québec!" sign. But it doesn't take long before you notice the distinct difference between the provinces. Road and directional signs no longer contained bi-lingual information but were strictly French. Even the route markings and route numbers changed. We fortunately had good directions to follow to our hotel.

Shortly after check-in we headed out in hope of being able to attend the 9 pm Aura performance at the Notre-Dame Basilica. Unfortunately it was sold out, so we purchased our tickets for Saturday night. Instead we walked around old Montreal, admiring the buildings, outdoor cafes,  and noticing the many ways light and digital animation projections are employed to enhance visitors' experience of the city. We read that the Jacques Cartier Bridge had been fitted with decorative lighting in 2017 and walked out to the Sailor's Memorial Clock Tower where we could get a good view. We noticed the clock tower also has been illuminated with a digital animation commemorating Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and stayed to watch the display.  On our way back we passed the Grande Roue de Montreal and decided to take the ride for a panoramic view of the city. Despite our concerns over the Francophone culture in Montreal, we had no difficulty using English in all of our encounters.

We had a brief scare when shortly after leaving the hotel Janet noticed her handbag was unzipped which is something she would never do. Although nothing was missing, we suspected there may have been a pickpocket attempt, and became extra concerned when she could not find her hotel room key. However we later found the room key on the table in our undisturbed hotel room.

It was late and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. On our way out to find a restaurant the desk clerk told us the lobby had direct access to the oldest restaurant in Montreal and recommended we try it. We did, and shared a starter of Burrata with Heirloom tomatoes, a delicious main of côte de bœuf with aligot, and a couple of glasses of wine. Janet chose her favorite, Veuve Cliquot.  We saved room for chocolate & salted caramel pie and a rum baba dessert too.

Street Musicians

Notre-Dame Basilica
 Animated walkway

Montreal panorama from the clock tower
 More animations

Clock tower animation
Clocktower animation

Jacques Cartier Bridge

Jacques Cartier Bridge


La Grande Roue de Montreal

Roue Riders

View from the top



Bridge from the wheel


Monday, August 27, 2018

Conclusion

Since we left Molde we've been gradually working our way back to Oslo, travelling across, around, over and through Norwegian mountains and fjords. We've enjoyed taking in all the scenery and stopping at some nice hotels and points of interest along the way. Monday we completed the trip back to Oslo, dropping the rental car off and checking in to the Oslo airport Radisson hotel.

Most of the day we drove through rain which obscured some of the beauty although mountains shrouded in various shades of gray mist can have their own kind of beauty. At one point we crossed through a mountain pass at cloud level and drove through the foggy mist.

Low ceiling clouds

Misty mountain
A couple of hours from Oslo we stopped at the Heddal Stave Church. This was another of the stave style churches and is the largest existing in Norway. It was impressive to see. Tomorrow we board a flight to Brussels where we will overnight at another airport hotel before our morning flight back home.

Heddal Stave Church
Church bell tower
Church interior

Rear of church



Sunday, August 26, 2018

Church Day

Sunday was another day of driving through the Norwegian countryside enjoying amazing and beautiful scenery.  We had two planned stops for the day, both of which appropriately for a Sunday, were churches.  The first was the Dale Stone Church in Luster, not far from our hotel. The Dale church is built of stone and dates to 1200. The inside walls are decorated with frescoes dating from the 15th century.  We stopped at the church and found it open to visitors. We walked around inside and out. The church contained an example of a Votive Ship like we saw in the Molde Cathedral as well.

Dale stone church

Dale stone church
Carved stone gothic arch entrance
Interior


Frescoes on the wall behind the altar

More frescoes

Votive ship
Next we drove a short way farther to the town of Solvorn to get the ferry over to Ornes. We just missed the ferry and had to wait an hour for the next one.  We've done several ferry crossings on this trip and each time we drove on to one end of the ferry, and then drove forward off the other end when we arrived on the other side. I marveled about the fact that the ferries are designed to travel in both directions without having to turn around. When our ferry to Ornes arrived I was surprised to find I had to back the car on to the ferry which then turned around and traveled to the other side where we could then drive off forward.

Our destination in Ornes was another Stave Church. It was situated a good way up the slope from the fjord shore and we had to drive a winding and exceedingly narrow road to get there. Many sections would not permit even 2 small cars to pass.  On arriving we bought tickets for the guided tour and got to see the inside and out with an english speaking narrator that helped understand the significance of the church and its decorations as well as answering questions.
Stave church at Ornes
Exterior wall carved wood detail
Altar with viking ship candelabra

Interior looking toward entrance
Stave church overlooking the fjord
When we finished our tour we bought a souvenir calendar and booklet in the shop and headed back to the ferry. We wanted to get downhill quickly to avoid meeting visitors arriving on the next ferry on their way up the narrow road.  We got to the dock just as the ferry arrived, but there was a line of about 9 or 10 cars including a camper. On our first trip I estimated the ferry could hold 7-8 vehicles, but when the ferry started boarding we were surprised to find there was room for our car and one more after. It was a tight squeeze though.
Ferry returning from Solvorn

Tightly packed cars on the ferry
Our next destination was our hotel in Geilo. We anticipated a pleasant scenic drive across Norway and we weren't disappointed. Of course we had to deal with some narrow roads, serpentine hairpin turns up and down, and tunnels. I can't count how many tunnels we've traversed on this trip. One was 15 miles long! Another was so narrow it was one way only with a traffic light at each end. And the winding roads with obscured hairpin turns. Janet began calling them peek-a-boo turns because it seemed inevitable that another vehicle would pop out around the turn just as you approached it. The worst collection of turns we encountered looks like a child's scribble when viewed on Google maps.

Narrow road

Peek-a-boo turn
Twisted road design

We did see some beautiful scenery though including shimmering lakes and fjords, rushing white water streams, high overlooks, and a close up of one of the countless mountain water cascades. We also encountered a few sheep that stood still in the road stopping traffic. We arrived at our hotel in time to take part in the buffet dinner and split a bottle of sparkling wine.

Scenic overlook
Overlook selfie

Mountain cascade


More cascades

Un-sheepish sheep

We didn't know Norwegian for "move"

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Driving Adventures

Saturday we left Molde and drove to Skjolden. The drive started with a ferry from Molde to Vestnes. This was our second ferry of the trip. I was unfamiliar with the ferry loading and ticketing process on the first one, but this time I knew what I was doing. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes across the Romsdalsfjord. Our route to Lom took us through many tunnels, along rushing streams, and beside and across fjords. We stopped for lunch an a scenic restaurant overlooking Stor fjord at Kokarstein. There was some kind of stone monument there.

Ferrying away from Molde

Restaurant with scenic view

Stone monument


Continuing on we made another ferry crossing at Eidsdal, then noticed that we were gradually ascending as we drove along route 63. When we reached the maximum we were amazed when we came out at the top of the Ørnesvingen-eagle Road high above the Geirangerfjord. We stopped at the lookout and were astounded by the grandeur of the fjord below. After snapping some pictures we began to descend the road that takes you through 11 sometimes narrow, sometimes steep hairpin turns all the way to the town of Geiranger at sea level below. But that wasn't the end. Once we were through the town we began a climb up a similar winding road that passed streams and waterfalls from the glaciers above.

Geirangerfjord

Geirangerfjord

Cruise ship in the fjord

Looking back at Geiranger on the way out
We eventually made it to the town of Lom, which contained the only planned point of interest on our route today. Lom has a stave church originally dating to the 12th century, but reconstructed several times since.

Stave church at Lom

Stave church detail
We left Lom and turned on to a stretch of route 55 that is called the Sognefjellet National Tourist Route. The road took us along a scenic river valley, then began to climb until at the highest level the outside temperature dropped to 3°C, and there were patches of unmelted snow around. Another descent on winding narrow hairpin turns finally brought us to our final stop at the Skjolden Hotel. We checked in and had fish & chips for dinner followed by a drink in the bar.

Scenic drive long a river

Snow near the top of the drive

Skjolden Hotel

Fjord view from our room

Hotel bar area