Kaupanger stave church

This nave is supported by 22 staves and the church dates back to the middle of the 12th century. Apparently most of the medieval parts are still intact apart from the roof truss above the nave. Signs of two earlier churches have been found, one of them destroyed by fire.

The name Kaupanger comes from kaupang which means trading place and the mean King Sverre has ordered to burn the place down because of a farmer's revolt. According to dendrochronology, the church is older than this documented fire.

Urnes II

The first post of Urnes stave church showed pictures with an open door since they were doing some restoration work inside so here is the add on with a picture of the closed door which also shows nice ornaments. It's a pity that not more churches of that style have been preserved - the carvings are really beautiful.

Petroglyphs at Bogge

A few more rock carvings which are ~6000 years old. Some animal carvings and boats. There were also some fishes but they had lost the red colour with which they are repainted and are thus extremely hard to see on the picture. The place is not so easy to find since there were not really any signs from the road from Eidsvåg and there are for sure more impressive rock carvings to be seen but a nice stop if you are in the area anyway.  

Nesset Prestegard

This is the childhood home of the Norwegian poet Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson (1832-1910; Nobel Prize in literature, 1903). Seven of the buildings are apparently still from his time but the place was deserted so just a few pictures of the buildings. I really like the vegetation on the roof :)

And to conclude some wise words from the man:

"I valg mellom falske venner og åpne fiender har jeg alltid foretrukket det siste."

 When chosing between false friends or open enemies I have always preferred the latter (my rather poor translation).

Molde Panorama

In Molde, you can hike, bike or drive up to Varden and get a glimpse of the famous Molde panorama of 222 partly snow-covered peaks. It was a bit hazy but you can't really pick the weather when travelling. Looks a bit like dawn or dusk but I think it was around mid-day.

Action in the pond

Every spring, the small pond in the garden is full of alpine newts. It's quite entertaining to watch them but not so easy to take pictures without a water proof camera. The other day they didn't seem to care if the big shadows from above were dangerous or not so I got a few nice shots.

Male and female next to each other:

Another male coming along:

Take me!

Seconds later the female had enough and was gone leaving the two guys a little perplexed. Tough.

Marble

Marble is not really that spectacular but this is the first orange coloured marble I have seen. And quite a bit of cat's gold plus a few mines the geologist just has to explore ;)

Kvernes Stave Church

Kvernes is apparently the youngest stave church in Norway (built ~1300). It doesn't really look much like a stave church anymore due to several rebuilds and repairs. Relatively close to the church grave fields, a historical Thing circle and some kind of phallus stone interpreted to represent some kind of fertility worship have been found. The Thing circle doesn't look that spectacular ... Stonehenge is definitely better but the view from the church hill is quite nice.

Atlanterhavsveien

Some time ago I have already posted a few pictures of the Atlanterhavsveien. Here are a few more impressions.

The bridge of no return:

Trying to spot some seals or whales but only catching some water:

Almost getting wet feet:

Spotting some animals after all. Well ok, caddisfly larvae are not really that spectacular and taking a picture without reflection from the water but not scaring them was not that easy either ;)

Strokkur

A digital SLR camera spoils you. Most of the time I am quite pleased with the pictures I get with my camera and since I am not trying to be professional I usually don't use any software to make them look "better" than reality.
Unfortunately, there was a time before digital photography and thus I have a collection of slides from Iceland. Not a big deal nowadays though (at least I thought so) just get a slide scanner and you'll have all your pictures digitized. Ha! The scanner is capable of 3600 dpi which should be sufficient for slides yet I am not really happy with the result even after having worked on the pictures for quite a bit. Anyway, lots of time invested so I'll show the pictures anyway. Sorry for the poor quality. The weather wasn't too great at the time either so that didn't help (and the camera was not really that good).
Nevertheless, you can probably spot that I have tried to shoot a few eruption stages of the geysir Strokkur.
Looks like I have to visit Iceland again, with a good camera :D

Romsdal

A few impressions of the valley through which the Raumabanen, a railway between Dombås and Åndalsnes has been contructed. Probably the most impressive out of the 103 bridges is the Kylling Bridge.

Mølen II

Some places have a special athmosphere. One of these for me is Mølen. Lots of pebbles meet the ocean and the Viking graves in the form of ships. And the wind ...
You can just sit there and listen to the waves and the wind and forget the rest of the world around you. I love places like that.