Oslo to Notodden
Notodden 31st May
We began our journey around the bottom of Norway today starting with a drive through the large port city of Drammen, where most of the cars imported into Norway arrive. We drove through the city and stopped at the Hokksund Food Trucks for lunch. 16 different food trucks and we couldn’t decide what we wanted, mainly because the prices were quite high, NZ$25 for a burger and NZ$27 for a kebab; we settled for cheaper option of samosa and chips.
Just our luck we drove to the town of Kongsberg and there was a lovely bakery, with fresh filled rolls, at affordable prices. Never one to pass up the opportunity to sample a Norwegian pastry and contribute to the government coffers by way of sugar tax, I had an almond/macaroon tart.
We reached our final province of Notodden which is a large mountainous forest area and stopped for a photo opportunity at a lake. There was an information board nearby that had some welcoming notes in English and some handy hints including: the weather and terrain can be challenging and respect the wildlife.
Respecting the wildlife was not on my agenda at the next stop as I was bitten by an ant while geocaching. I raced back to car and left the other geocacher, who I’m sure has no feelings in his feet, to find the interesting container. Note to self, even if the weather is nice, geocaching requires shoes, socks and jeans tucked into them. When the Lonely Planet guide said to survive Norway you just need an umbrella and insect repellent, I thought that was for the mosquitoes not flesh eating giant ants.
We reached our accommodation and went off to find Norway’s biggest stave church in nearby Heddal. Stave in English is staff or upright, the timbers of a stave church stand upright, the vertical timber planks are driven straight into the ground with no supporting frame. In the photo it only shows the bottom tier with the upright boards, the rest of the church is covered in little shingles.
Right – This photo is Olea Croger. She was the priests daughter and believed to be the first major collector of folk songs and folklore in Norway. Looking at the statue I think she just liked a bit of gossip.
Our tea tonight, is fresh whole wheat sandwiches with cheese, low-fat pigs’ liver pate (the pig apparently had a good life) and avocado. The joys of buying something in a foreign currency that requires too much effort to convert back to NZ dollars, you just buy it and then realise later that you paid NZ$5.20 for an avocado.
Last photo of the day; Notodden’s memorial for the WWII fallen, a naked man upturning a lion? I don’t think the lion represents Great Britain or portrays the man defeating the beast, as Germany invaded war neutral Norway, took control of the country and the Norwegian King ran away to Britain.
