A Stave Church and Troll Cars

After an "at sea" day, we have now stopped in two ports in Norway. The first was Rosendal where my excursion involved going to the community of Roldal to visit the Stave Church there. On the way, we went through the small town of Odda and also stopped to see a magnificent waterfall. All during the drive, I took photos out of the bus window as the scenery was lovely although at times quite similar to that on the road to Tofino or the Sea to Sky highway.

In Rondal, we stopped for a "comfort break" and some food and drink before walking the short distance to the stave church. A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church built in northwestern Europe, almost exclusively preserved in Norway. Dating primarily from the 11th to 13th centuries, these remarkable structures get their name from their load-bearing corner posts, called stafr in Old Norse. The Røldal stave church was built between 1200 and 1250, and is famous for its healing crucifix still in the church. According to legend it sweats once a year on “Olsok” (July 6th after the Julian calendar), and the sweat has healing power. Røldal was one of the most important sites of pilgrimage in Norway during the middle ages and pilgrims continued to come until 1835, longer than any other place in Norway. The church is beautifully decorated, and is still the parish church for Røldal. There are several pilgrim trails in connection with Røldal stave church.

After our visit to the church, we returned along the same road stopping briefly at another impressive waterfall.

Returning to Rosendal, we could see our ship anchored in the bay. It had been an okay excursion with my main criticism being that our guide spoke little English and was difficult to understand and, because of the language limitation, didn't provide much but the simplest of commentary. I don't expect everyone in a non-English speaking country to speak my language but I do expect people hired by travel companies to be guides to be able to!

Our next port of call was Olden. We were actually anchored off the nearby village of Loen and tendered to shore. The reason was there was a "behemoth" ship, the P&O Iona was already docked in Olden and, believe me, there was no room in port beside it! Our ship has a maximum capacity of just over 700 passengers. The Iona is almost 10 times that size as its capacity is 6,685! I cannot imagine sailing on something that large with that many people! Gosh, that is more than the population of my friends' village in France!

There are two main attractions in or near Olden. One is the skylift from Loen which gives panoramic views from the summit and it also appeared to be a popular spot for hang-gliders. I had considered going up to the top but there were hundreds of people waiting by the time I go off the ship. The other attraction here is the Birksdal Glacier which is what I'd decided to do. While there was a ship shore excursion offered, I'd booked one with an independent company which was $200 cheaper for basically exactly the same thing. So, I took a shuttle from Loen to Olden then boarded a bus for the approximately 1 hour drive to the base of the glacier. Along the way, we passed many beautiful lakes often with campgrounds. From the base, you have two options: walking uphill for about 45 minutes or taking a "troll car". Obviously, I opted for the latter. The troll cars snake there way up the mountain passing by waterfalls and rivers. It was a really fun ride as I managed to sit in the front next to the driver (one of the advantages of being solo).

From the troll car stop, you walk about 200 meters up a steep incline to get a better view of the glacier. You can also walk further to a small lake that is formed at the base of the glacier. I didn't do that part. The Briksdal Glacier forms part of the Jostedal Glacier National Park, and plunges 1200 metres to the lush, narrow Briksdal valley below – a sight that attracts 300,000 visitors from all over the world each year.