The day we arrived in Norway we didn't see much of this beautiful country. We landed at the airport pretty late (arnd. 11pm) and had booked a  room for the night at an airport hotel. So all we had to do was get on the shuttle bus and check-in our room. We were dead tired from the flight and there really was nothing else than more airport hotels out there to see. We went to bed right away. 

Day 1:

Next day in the morning we travelled to Jessheim by bus. We were to pick up our campervan there. It took us about 45min to find and walk to the place. Dragging along all our luggage (even though it wasn't much) it was quite a dreading walk because it was also drizzling (not raining, DRIZZLING) and windy. 

But we found it at last :)

I love old buildings. In Ireland I couldn't get enough of the ruins and castles. Stavechurches are made entirely of wood. 

When you walk in you can smell it. 

You can hear it working under your feet. 

You feel like a tree is embracing you with it's branches. 

It's damp and dim but never entirely dark. 

They are very simple buildings yet so smartly constructed. 

The painting are breathtakingly beautiful and you can believe they have survived the centuries with the colors, though faded, still intact.

 I love how back then everything still had its time. Craftsmen took their time to create these beautiful carvings and it took them to finish it as long as it took them. Just looking at the door frame you can feel how much time and effort the person must have put into it.

Kind of dreamy and "wood"-flashed we left Heddal behind us and drove back to Kongsberg where we headed north towards Hardangervidda National Park. Our goal was to reach the Park (Eidfjord) by nightfall because the next day we had planned to go for a 5hrs hike in Måbø. Little did we know that we wouldn't see nightfall for the next 14 days..!

On our way we passed by two other stave churches: Rollag and Nore and Uvdal church which looked like a stave church.
It was already pretty late (arnd 5pm) when we arrived there. Usually the places in Norway would close around this time. So we couldn't get inside the churches to see the interior anymore.. Such a shame if you google and see how beautiful they would have been inside.

Uvdal stave church would have been breathtaking...

I regret that we didn't know just how beautiful they would be. Otherwise we would have tried harder to catch the opening times.
But they were nice to look at from the outside as well. Since it didn't get dark, we lost track of time completely and took our time wandering around them. The look alike very much, but they are still different in their own way. It's so easy to get philosophical around these stave churches. haha! :D

Rollag Stavechurch

Nore Stavechurch

On our way to Hardangervidda we got a first glimpse of Norways nature. It reminded us alot of Switzerland with the vast green fields and the conifer forests, so it felt a bit "homey". But everything was in a bigger more extreme scale. The green was really really fresh GREEN in every hue of green, and it was a vastland of grass and forests.. The mountains emerged from the fjords like gigantic rocks and the fjords were so deep azure blue.. I have never seen such strong colors! It was like opening a window that has been closed for a way too long time and let the fresh air in :-) I was away from work. Away from the daily troubles and pet peeves. Away from gruesome monotony and away from a regulated workdaylife.

I was --- finally back on the ROAD!! 

Typical norwegian road with the warning signs for elks :) Unfortunately we never had an encounter. But we met many others which you will read about later.

At some point we realized that we kept driving along and crossing train tracks, but we never saw a train. So somewhere in the middle of a forest we stopped and crossed over the bushes to have a look. It was too narrow for a modern train to use this tracks and it looked really deserted. So we took some nice pictures. (at least we tried :))

Finally we reached the Hardangervidda National Park. Geilo was a great sign to end our day. haha. :) We were dead tired. We weren't sure if it was because of the long day or the many impressions we already got from this one day trip...

 The day we arrived in Norway we didn't see much of this beautiful country. We landed at the airport pretty late (arnd. 11pm) and had booked a  room for the night at an airport hotel. So all we had to do was get on the shuttle bus and check-in our room. We were dead tired from the flight and there really was nothing else than more airport hotels out there to see. We went to bed right away. 

Day 1:

Next day in the morning we travelled to Jessheim by bus. We were to pick up our campervan there. It took us about 45min to find and walk to the place. Dragging along all our luggage (even though it wasn't much) it was quite a dreading walk because it was also drizzling (not raining, DRIZZLING) and windy. 

But we found it at last :)

I love old buildings. In Ireland I couldn't get enough of the ruins and castles. Stavechurches are made entirely of wood. 

When you walk in you can smell it. 

You can hear it working under your feet. 

You feel like a tree is embracing you with it's branches. 

It's damp and dim but never entirely dark. 

They are very simple buildings yet so smartly constructed. 

The painting are breathtakingly beautiful and you can believe they have survived the centuries with the colors, though faded, still intact.

 I love how back then everything still had its time. Craftsmen took their time to create these beautiful carvings and it took them to finish it as long as it took them. Just looking at the door frame you can feel how much time and effort the person must have put into it.

Kind of dreamy and "wood"-flashed we left Heddal behind us and drove back to Kongsberg where we headed north towards Hardangervidda National Park. Our goal was to reach the Park (Eidfjord) by nightfall because the next day we had planned to go for a 5hrs hike in Måbø. Little did we know that we wouldn't see nightfall for the next 14 days..!

On our way we passed by two other stave churches: Rollag and Nore and Uvdal church which looked like a stave church.
It was already pretty late (arnd 5pm) when we arrived there. Usually the places in Norway would close around this time. So we couldn't get inside the churches to see the interior anymore.. Such a shame if you google and see how beautiful they would have been inside.

Uvdal stave church would have been breathtaking...

I regret that we didn't know just how beautiful they would be. Otherwise we would have tried harder to catch the opening times.
But they were nice to look at from the outside as well. Since it didn't get dark, we lost track of time completely and took our time wandering around them. The look alike very much, but they are still different in their own way. It's so easy to get philosophical around these stave churches. haha! :D

Rollag Stavechurch

Nore Stavechurch

On our way to Hardangervidda we got a first glimpse of Norways nature. It reminded us alot of Switzerland with the vast green fields and the conifer forests, so it felt a bit "homey". But everything was in a bigger more extreme scale. The green was really really fresh GREEN in every hue of green, and it was a vastland of grass and forests.. The mountains emerged from the fjords like gigantic rocks and the fjords were so deep azure blue.. I have never seen such strong colors! It was like opening a window that has been closed for a way too long time and let the fresh air in :-) I was away from work. Away from the daily troubles and pet peeves. Away from gruesome monotony and away from a regulated workdaylife.

I was --- finally back on the ROAD!! 

Typical norwegian road with the warning signs for elks :) Unfortunately we never had an encounter. But we met many others which you will read about later.

At some point we realized that we kept driving along and crossing train tracks, but we never saw a train. So somewhere in the middle of a forest we stopped and crossed over the bushes to have a look. It was too narrow for a modern train to use this tracks and it looked really deserted. So we took some nice pictures. (at least we tried :))

Finally we reached the Hardangervidda National Park. Geilo was a great sign to end our day. haha. :) We were dead tired. We weren't sure if it was because of the long day or the many impressions we already got from this one day trip...