Windy roads, forming narrow flat places on the steep mountain sides, snake up the walls of the fjords and cut through the mountains in long tunnels. The tunnels are engineering masterpieces with traffic circles sending traffic to different destinations. The traffic circles were well lit with blue lights and high ceilings.
The longest tunnels we drove through were 11 and 8 kilometers. As we exited the longest tunnel, there was a rest stop for those who wanted to enjoy the daylight again. If you didn’t take the rest stop you plunged immediately back into another tunnel. At another place we exited a tunnel just at the beginning of a beautiful span bridge, and as soon as we left the bridge the road dove into another tunnel.
The walls of the tunnels, except at the entrances, are not strengthened with concrete. The walls are solid rock. In Seattle’s tunneling project concrete will provide structural strength. Norway’s mountains seem to be solid rock.
We stopped at a beautiful waterfall, Tvindefossen in the Hordaland region. The water spills over flat shelves of rock from one tier to the next. We walked to the base where dry land lies between water spilling down on both sides.
Along the route, when we weren’t in a tunnel, we enjoyed seeing sheep, goats, a few cows, a couple horses, farms, houses, rivers, and waterfalls. We had seen similar rural scenery from Bodø to Kristiansand, and it was always beautiful.
Finally we arrived in Aurland, just 8 kilometers before we reach our apartment. We stocked up on groceries and then let the Garmin lead us to our next home. We drove through a pretty residential neighborhood for a couple blocks before the road climbed above the town on an extremely steep single lane road with few passing places. As we climbed the fjord, the land dropped off steeply giving the passenger fabulous views of the fjord below. As the driver, I chose to not enjoy the view until we were safely parked at the top.
After eight or ten switchbacks we had climbed to 800 meters where we came to a scenic overlook with a long broad walk jutting straight out over the valley. The sides were solid but the end wall was glass offering an excellent view of the town and the blue-green water below.
Our apartment was on a farm just a couple kilometers and a small rise beyond the viewpoint. After the viewpoint the road wrapped around to the back side of the mountain where we looked down on a valley between three rounded snowy peaks.
Our farm, Bjorgo Gard, had a small flock — perhaps a dozen — of goats with kids and sheep with lambs. One of the sheep had a cow bell dangling from her neck. Beyond the pasture and barn was a shed holding several more goats. Outside the farmhouse a dormant kitchen garden was partially covered in black plastic waiting for the spring planting. Clusters of bulbs, perhaps tulips, looked just a few weeks away from blooming.
Our apartment was in a second house further up the steep gravel driveway behind the farmhouse. This house had four apartments. Our one bedroom apartment looked up the valley and across the deep ravine to a snow covered mountain. Beyond our house the driveway continued to a few more farms.