30th Wedding Anniversary & Claire hugs a troll!

After breakfast the weather looked promising so we decided to make for the town of Eidfjord which is on the shore of Eidfjorden, a branch of the Hardanger fjord. Unfortunately as we went west the weather worsened – very windy, cold and wet! On the way we stopped at a spectacular waterfall (Voringfoss) with a 400 foot drop. Well, that was Willie’s estimate after throwing a Kr1 coin, timing its descent into the pool below and applying the formula s=ut+ ½at2 remembered from school days in 1968! Claire found the following troll and reckoned he needed a hug!

We also called in at the Hardangervidda Nature Centre where there were lots of interesting exhibits relating to the fauna and flora of the area. There was also a panoramic film which was very beautiful indeed – much of the footage having been captured from a helicopter. There were giant aquaria containing various fish including trout. Willie stroked the head of one of them before it swam off. The visitor centre across the street there was a modern building so we were quite surprised to see a thick growth of grass on the whole roof! (Grass and even bushes growing on roofs in Norway is not uncommon but usually the buildings are old.) When we got to Eidfjord there was quite a gale and a fair bit of rain but despite that the view up the fjord was magnificent.

On the way back we stopped to look at a number of quaint looking small buildings that were the shape of igloos but were covered with grass. They were locked so we couldn’t get in but we wondered who made use of them and when – they were really in the middle of nowhere!

In the evening we had a really nice meal in the Dr Holms restaurant then watched the film “Valkyrie” starring Tom Cruise. This was about the attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944. A very good film indeed but very sad because so many people were brutally executed after the plot failed.

Weather:

We reckon that the weather in Geilo was probably windy and sunny as that is the way it was when we were leaving and also on our return. Where we went was rather different – a biting cold wind and heavy showers.