Today is our '“rest day”, meaning no hikes for us! That being said, there are still so much we would like to do today, so not really resting.
We wanted to go to the Urnes stave church AND the Borgund stave church, but as it turned out, it takes quite a bit of time to drive to both if we also want to go to the viking village and make it on time to our boat tour in the evening. So, we had to pick one. It was a VERY tough choice - Urnes is Norway’s oldest and most decorated church (dated back to 1130), and it is included on the UNESCO’s world heritage list, while Borgund is the more “famous” or iconic church, with a very unique exterior.
Anyways, we ended up picking the Borgund stave church, and one of the reasons is that this church has a mix of Christian and Norse decor, which made it really interesting as it captured the reminiscent of the old Viking gods. We have always wondered how does a wooden church survive this long, and the secret is its black exterior! That is actually something called “tar”, which is a mixture of tree sap and ashes (from burning pine woods), and that protects the wood from rotting. We were told the original way of making tar has been lost, and the way that they are doing it now requires more frequent re-application in order to preserve the church.
Next, we headed to the Viking Valley Nærøydalen, where there are people who actually live there wi a Viking lifestyle. You do have to pay an entrance fee, so it could feel a little like a themed park, especially they have some activities made for visitors, like archery, axe-throwing, Viking boat experience, etc. However, I still find it very interesting to walk around and imagine the Viking life. On top of that, the village is situated next to a beautiful fjord and surrounded by mountains, so definitely worth a short visit!
Only about 20 mins away from the Viking village is the town called Flåm. For those who have time, I would recommend taking the Flåmbana to Bergen as it is often described as one of the most beautiful train ride with stunning views along the way. Unfortunately, we did not have time to do the train ride, but we did book a boat tour to see the Nærøyfjord! We usually didn’t like boat tour because it can be boring, but this one was surprisingly great, so would highly recommend that!
A few interesting things along the way (on top of seeing the beautiful fjords):
1. There are sheep grazing along these fjords, and their milk is used for cheese and other dairy products (yum!) - when the boat got closer, they thought we were going to pick them up, so they all came running! Tour guide said if we get any closer, they might actually jump into the water lol
2. This is a house on the top of the cliff, and it is now a hotel (it is booked out 3 years if I remember correctly). There are ziplines for transporting luggage up and down, but you will have to hike up there yourself. I can imagine that being a very interesting experience staying up there for a couple of days (heard they have great food as well)! Fun fact - this house used to be a farmhouse, and the owner was able to avoid taxes for hundreds of years because it is physically difficult for the tax collector to collect tax from them!
3. Undredal - This is a small cheese town, and this tour we are on included a cheese tasting at this cute little town. Cheese tasting included brown cheese as well, which is a sweet cheese that is unique to Norway. It was made from the residual liquid from making normal cheese trying not to waste anything!), and the sweetness comes from the natural sweetness of the milk itself. Another fun fact - the movie Frozen was inspired by this beautiful Norwegian town!
After the boat tour, we drove 3 hours to our Airbnb for the night around Sekse. We wanted to stay as close as we could to Trolltunga, which is a hike we are doing tomorrow (a long one)! Most people, at some point, have probably seen a picture of trolltunga, such iconic spot of Norway, and that is definitely not to be missed!