Tiff & Jared's adventures

Day 5

The first day was spent driving from Bergen to Odda, about a three hour drive soaking in the scenery. Our plan was to hike Trolltunga the next day, so today was meant to be fairly low key. Our first stop about an hour into the drive was Steinsdalsfossen waterfall, which had a unique restroom. Norway has many scenic routes, and years ago they decided that to boost tourism, it was sensible to add these beautiful/unique/aesthetically pleasing bathrooms. A lot of the rest stops in the country have actually been designed by architects. This specific stop not only had a pretty waterfall, but had the most scenic WCs I’ve ever seen, looking out over the stream while you make your own!

Next step was making it to the Hardangerfjord area with all of the apple farms.

The Hardanger apple – a protected fruit

Many of the apple farmers in Hardanger have experience inherited through generations. Because it is not just about putting some seeds in the soil. Cultivating apples requires expert knowledge of everything from tying and grafting to apple varieties and weeds. This tradition is well protected. So much that today it is only apples with very specific qualities – cultivated in Hardanger – that can be called Hardanger apples.

Humans have been eating apples for thousands of years, and historians believe the apple tree may be the very first tree we learned to cultivate. Here in Norway it was English monks who brought with them the knowledge of the sweet, round fruit in the 1300s. And they brought it to Hardanger. 

https://en.visitbergen.com/food-and-drink/apples-from-hardanger-best-in-norway

We were too late in the season to pop in for some tastings, but we did stop at three different cideries to get both juice and cider (Lofthus Sideri, Epli Sideri, and Opedalstunet). This time of year is when the farmers harvest their apples and sell them to grocery stores across the country; for any imperfect produce, the farmers can buy them back at a discount and use those to make their cider products. It was fun driving through all the apple farms on the hills, even if they weren’t open, because the view of the fjord below was spectacular.

Getting our fill of farm viewing and picking up some bottles, we continued our drive to Odda, where we’d be staying the next two nights. The town itself was fairly sleepy, as the season was winding down from peak time. We ate at Cafe Verket, a small cafe that had a really tasty smashburger and open-face steak sandwich. Afterwards, we headed back to the Airbnb to get a good night of sleep for our Trolltunga hike the next day!

Day 6

Wake-up call was 5:30AM for Trolltunga! This hike is famous internationally for its breathtaking scenery of the fjord and the infamous “Trolls Tongue” ledge on which you can stand overlooking the water below. To start the hike, you can park at one of three lots – P1, P2, and P3 (the topmost parking lot). The mileage from P1 and P2 is longer and requires coordination of a shuttle to the trailhead. We decided to splurge for P3, 150m from the trailhead. This was by far the most we’d ever paid for a hike – Norway charges 600 Krone (about $60 USD) to park at P3, then on top of that there’s a 200 Krone road tax everyone must pay as well. I’m assuming part of this plays into over tourism of the hike and trying to keep visitation to this area under control.

Starting the hike around 7AM, we spent about 4 hours meandering through rock fields, scrambling over rocks and trampling over ridge-lines to ascend to the peak. We were extremely fortunate that the day we hiked this trail, the weather was perfect – completely sunny and almost too hot in pants! We got to the top around 11AM and it wasn’t completely busy yet – we didn’t have to “wait” in line too long to walk out on the ledge of the tongue and take our pictures. Then, we found a lovely spot above and perched for a bit, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and marveling in the beauty of the fjord. The walk back down was pretty painful (my legs were pretty sore from all the elevation in Lofoten), and we made it down around 3PM. There was a serene satisfaction in parking at P3, and not having to walk down any further to the lower lots!

Our sauna reservation at Heit Sauna wasn’t until 7PM, so we were able to relax in town for a bit. We went to Thai Take Away to treat ourselves to a post hike meal; Jared got shrimp pad Thai, and I got a 36-piece sushi plate – perfect for post sauna leftovers!

Relaxing a bit before the sauna, and cracking open one of the cider bottles we bought, we eventually made our way to the sauna, about 30 minutes north of Odda, near all of the cider farms. It was inconspicuously tucked behind some buildings off of the main road, and the reservation was completely private to us. We were met by the sauna master, who explained some of the rules to us, and then left us to our 1.5 hour reservation. Walking into the sauna, we were met with a toasty 90 degrees (Celsius!!) interior to thoroughly sweat out our toxins. The rule we’ve been doing is a 15 minute sauna interval followed by a cold plunge interval. However, this sauna was so hot I couldn’t go more than six minutes before plunging into the oppositely cold fjord salt water. What a sensational experience to go from sweat tricking down your entire body in one moment, to jumping into salt water that was around 50 degrees! The view was absolutely spectacular, overlooking the Hardangerfjord as the early evening turned into night. After a number of intervals of hot to cold, we headed back to Odda and turned in for the night, ready for another busy day in the morning.

Day 7

Today would be a long day meandering through the countryside with the ultimate destination staying near Lom overnight. Saying goodbye to our Airbnb (where we were able to do some laundry), we headed to our first stop – Tvinnefossen waterfall. This was a tourist hot spot! Lots of tour busses were stopped here as the walk to the waterfall was super short – it was nothing too special (we’ve chased our fair share of waterfalls), so we promptly continued on.

Using Google Maps, Jared found our next scenic stop – Stalheim hotel – which offered a beautiful view of the Nærøy Valley below from their terrace.

Next stop, we wanted to go to Bakka kyrkjestave stave church. On our way there, we were promptly stopped about two minutes out due to a road blockage of sheep! We waited around for a few minutes seeing if they’d move, but figured they were staying there for a while, so backtracked to Flam.

I was expecting Flam to be a small waterside town which it was, there just happened to be a cruise ship docked at the harbor. What an interesting and somewhat off-putting view to see against the beautiful inlet of water. Arriving right at lunch time, we were worried the town would be full of tourists and we wouldn’t be able to find a spot to eat. Our initial plan was to eat at Ægir Brewery, so we went there and were surprised to find ourselves promptly seated. After days without craft beer on this trip, we found some! I got a Raspberry Brut (tart but delicious and refreshing) and Jared got the Honey Bee smoked honey gose (definitely sour but could taste the honey coming through, very tasty). For food, I got the Muspeheim – (Pita bread served with beetroot hummus, Merguez (lamb) sausage from Haugen Farm, salad, pumpkin seeds and tomato salsa) and Jared got the Urd (arbequed pulled young goat from Haugen Farm served in a brioche bun with salad, pickled cucumber, homemade caramelized red onion compote with beer from Ægir Brewery and BBQ mayonnaise.)

Content with the delicious beer and food, as well as prompt service, we were on our merry way to the next stop – Stegastein Viewpoint. Yet another recommendation on the list of Norways most scenic rest stops, this offered an unobstructed view of Aurlandsfjord.

Checking off all of our viewpoints, we continued to make our way to Lom. The route we ended up taking led through Jotunheimen, It was amazing because the route was relatively empty of people, yet was such breathtaking scenery.

Keeping pace to make it to the Airbnb before dark, we arrived around 7:30. This was another one of our “activities” today because we were staying on a working farm, and the host offered to give us a tour of the farm which dated back to 1021, and still has the outlines of where the old stave church sat. The houses on the farm are hundreds of years old, and the farm has been in the family for 13 generations. Our Airbnb was the old family home, and it felt like we were staying in a museum with all the heirloom artifacts surrounding us! Very unique experience indeed. After our tour, we ate our grocery store dinner before turning in for the night and heading to Geiranger the following day.