Superstition is part of Scandinavian life, Icelanders changed the route of a major road so as not to upset eleves and the Norwegians have trolls.
Gift shops are full of them, they are at the top of Mount Floibanen. They are mean and cunning and dangerous to humans. They live in caves and mountains and chase humans but they change to stone in daylight so many of the huge solitary rocks you see were once trolls.
troll
Then there are attractive trolls. The Huldra catches human mates by singing to them . She can be seen (really) at the Kjosfossen waterfall at the Myrdal stop on the Flam railway line. The train stops for five minutes for a photo stop and you can glimpse the Huldra singing and dancing to entrance men and lead them into the forest.
The Flam railway is justafiably known as one of the worlds most beautiful rail journeys. From Flam station it rises up for twenty kilometres with an average gradient of one in eighteen. It passes rivers, waterfalls, mountainpeaks and farmhouses.
Village Churches
Stave churches were once common in the villages along the fjords but now only twenty eight remain. The Hopperstad stave church is a medieval christian church built in 1130. When the villagers giot a new church in 1570 the stave church was sold to the National trust of Norway and so preserved for the nation.
Hopperstad stave church
Glaciers
Jostedalsbreen national park is a must visit in Norway. The galcier museum is very hands on. You can experiment with thousand year old ice from the nearby Supphellebreen and there are lots of informative displays. There is also an excellent climate change exhibition and great coffee.
After drilling holes in the Supphellebreen ice we went to visit the real glacier. This is easy to get close to by road and theres a path that takes you even closer.
Mist and low clouds swirled round us but the sight of this huge glacier which is only a side branch of the huge Jostedalsbreen was amazing.
