DAY 152 - Norway's Beautiful Fjords

August 18 - Car Drive Through the Tunnels & Fjord Country

Our next host in Bergen was a single gal who was so excited to have us "Seniors" as surfers and show us all around Bergen.  She had nice flat in another part of Bergen, so we got another view of the lovely city. 

Her flat was a two story one - her room mate was gone for a few days.

 In total, there are about 1,190 fjords in Norway.  We left Sweden for a couple of weeks just to see the beauty of the fjords.  We were not sorry.  Here is a photo we got off the internet.

We enjoyed the grass roofs of many of the houses on our tour of the fjords.

Marthe, our new host, took us on a beautiful drive through the fjords.We got to stop whenever we wanted to, but also took a lot of pictures out the windows.

Geologically, a fjord  is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion. The word comes to English from Icelandic.

We went through several tunnels as we drive through the fjords.

The Church of Norway is the state church and the largest church in Norway.  Established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536–1537.

I went into this church to see the inside like I always do.

There were many people all dressed up in folk attire.  There had been a special baptism, I guess.  This little girl was so cute!

The whole family posed for a picture.

Most churches have their graveyard on the church grounds.

Most of the day was rainy, but there were occasional times where the scenery was spectacular and we got some good pictures.

As late as 2000, some coral reefs were discovered along the bottoms of the Norwegian fjords These reefs were found in fjords from the north of Norway to the south. The marine life on the reefs is believed to be one of the most important reasons why the Norwegian coastline is such a generous fishing ground.  Our host, Marthe takes us fishing tomorrow - so exciting!

c

Our drive was wonderful and Marthe was so nice to take us around and through the beautiful fjords of Norway.

We captured some cool pictures of a pretty rainbow on the mountains.

What a great time we had - shortly before this we bought some mountain cherries - so good!

Last peek of the rainbow.

Another Church - seems as if there is one in every town.

Always a troll to greet us.

More tourists drown rafting in rivers than any other deaths in Norway.  "The waterfalls and rivers are VERY angry," says Marthe.

Mineral Water is very popular as the glaciers release all the minerals into the soil making for very good soil and yummy water.

The waterfalls were thundering down the hills and always so beautiful.

A picturesque panorama of one of the fjords.

The Norwegians are very patriotic.

Marthe's Grandmother has many stories of her experiences in WWII.  Many Jews were smuggled into Norway and her great grandfather hid away a teen boy during the war that left quite an impact on the family.  They felt fear for a long time.

Sweden was supposed to be neutral during the war, but they ended up helping the Germans so that Norway and Sweden had a lot of anger with each other after that.

Some more examples of grass-roofed huts.

Wood Houses are easier to heat up than brick or stone homes.

Marthe served us some dinner when we got home.  Broccoli under some special meat.

We're going fishing tomorrow so that will be an adventure.