Sletvold Hotel & Apartments Oppdal

... quarter. It is a small town here, but holds a nice tourist free feel to it.<br> We are now making the most of having the freedom to roam as in 3 hours, we will embark on a 28 hour journey up to Tromsø in the Arctic Circle.<br><br>P.s. Many thanks to all that are reading our blog, and remember that you can leave comments.<br>

Steamed out of Bergen on the MS Nordkapp two days ago. Leaving Norway's second largest city (250,000 souls) by sea is only fittting since it harkens the imagination back 1,000 years when the Viking hordes set off to create chaos from disorder. <br><br>At 11,300 tons, this craft of Hurtigruten is a spendid piece of work. Constructed in 1996, the Nordkapp is a floating art gallery with impressive pieces of work on the main decks (7 in number). The common ...

Our first stop this day was Trondheim, Norway's first capital city and a trading post for thousands of years. Apparently the first ever export of American goods to Europe took place here around 1000 AD. After the capital moved to Bergen (1217), Trondheim became Norway's religious center (actually, pilgrims started coming to the shrine of St. Olav 200 ...

... a great deal on the cruise, so Melanie and Chris joined as well for the 7 day voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes.<br><br>The Hurtigruten is not a big fancy cruise ship. It is a multi-purpose coastal ferry that serves the western coast of Norway. Local people use the ferry to get from town to town. It is a car ferry, a postal carrier, a freight carrier, a passenger ferry, and it has several rooms that people like us can rent for multi-day ...

Wir verlassen die Küste und fahren ins Landesinnere via Trolligsten zum Geirangerfjlord.<br>Der Trolligste ist eine Passstrasse, wie wir es in der Schweiz oft sehen, somit für uns nicht so spektakulär. Es lohnt sich aber dennoch diesen Übergang zu fahren, da man von oben her zum Geirangerfjord kommt. <br>Und das ist dann wirklich spektakulär. Zuerst sieht man nur einen ...

... vier und mit dem Bus kamen die anderen vier. Sie mussten ziemlich weit laufen. Die Hütte war absolut genial, total gemütlich, alles war vorbereitet (Holz, Kerzen, Zeitung) und ordentlich. Wir haben gleich ein Feuerchen gemacht und frisch gesammelte Pilze in einer doch recht pfeffrigen Kartoffelpilzsuppe verarbeitet. Nach dem zweiten Happs, hab ich nichts mehr geschmeckt. Später in der Hütte haben wir dann unseren "Mörder-von-Palermo"-Marathon ...

... es eindeutig zu kalt. Aber die Sitzbänke waren sowieso als Schlafstätten gedacht und zwei mussten eben auf Matrazen auf dem Boden schlafen. Die Jungs haben sich dann sofort daran gemacht den ersten Teil ihres 5kg-Sacks Kartoffeln und die gesammelten Pilze zu verarbeiten - sehr lecker. Den Abend haben wir bei Kerzenschein und "Mörder-Spielen" verbracht. Sehr lustig. Bis halb 4. Am nächsten Morgen, Anne und ich waren schon etwas eher auf als die anderen, haben wir die Zeit genutzt ...

August 15 Today we afford of getting up at 7.50 a.m. We take the bus and the first thing we do is to stop at Stryn's valley. Really nice. Then we take the "Eagles' Road" to Geiranger fjord, the most spectacular of the norwegian fjord. Its walls come to measure 100 meters tall and it's so narrow that some parts are always in the shade because the sunlight doesn't reach. It attaches a great impression because it seems like the walls ...

We spent two weeks helping Anne-Marit with her house. Was great! More later. OK, It's later (a month later). The situation is that Kim was looking for a bed and breakfast in Norway and it turns out that Anne-Marit wrote the Norway bed and breakfast book. On her website she advertises that she will give you food and shelter in exchange for helping her rennovate her house. We were expecting to spend two weeks in a cozy little B&B while doing a little work on ...

... spot of King Olav after he became Saint Olav. King Olav was known for converting all of Scandanavia from the worship of Norse Gods to Christianity. He wasn't particularily loved for this as his method of conversion was 'Convert or Die' Following his death at Stiklestad 1030 the king's body was brought to Trondheim and buried. The coffin kept rising to the surface and after a year of re-burying him they finally opened the coffin and found him to be rosy ...