Mental Detours: 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

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.