Balestrand

 September 10 -  On the rainy ferry ride from Flam to Balestrand, a weather check had suggested a sunshine for today so underway, I booked the short ferry ride Balestrand to Vic, across the fjord, so that we could visit the Hopperstad Stave Church, one of the oldest stave churches still standing. 

Upon our Balestrand arrival, we trudged along a very quite street in a light rain to Hotel Balestrand.  After checking in, we checked out St. Olaf's Church on our way to look for somewhere to eat. 

St Olaf's is an Anglican church with services in English built in 1897 to resemble a stave church. Compare the photos of St Olaf's with the Hopperstad Church below.

We ended up a the end of the street just a short distance away at the Kviknes Hotel  on the recommendation of the clerk at our hotel. Attempting to keep the cost down, I had a hamburger and Joanne had a shrimp salad at the bar.  The Kviknes has a famous buffet for which we made reservations for the next evening.

Balestrand is recommended by Rick Steves as a lovely fjord village and rightfully so.  We decided to stay 2 nights so that we could really get into fjord living.  It was wonderful! - Joanne

Balestrand Hotel where we stayed 2 nights

Kviknes Hotel - famous for its sumptuous buffet!

St. Olaf's Church where we attended an evening service

 and enjoyed singing the hymns.

September 11 - As promised by the weather gods,  our morning dawned with a clear blue sky.  One has to either live here or just get lucky to experience the pastoral fjord land on a sunny day. We were up early, each fortified by a cup of coffee and a croissant provided by the hotel, to meet the only ferry to Vic at 07:50 AM.    

The ferry takes takes just 20 minutes to reach Vic. The church is about 1 mile  from the ferry dock So we had almost an hour and a half to wait for the church to open at 10 AM.  

   A fairy tale mushroom on the way to the church

While waiting, we luxuriated in the peaceful scenery and snapped photos of the church from every angle. Hopperstad stavkyrkje dating from around 1130 survives because it was built on stone rather than dirt so it has not rotted from the ground up.  A few photos of the interior of the church follow. At the end of this post, see the interesting handout we received at the church.   

    Hopperstad Stave Church

 Pastoral and Peaceful  Scenery

                                             Door and Interior

Ferry Back to Balestrand

Upon returning at 11:30 AM on the only return ferry for the day , we strolled up the road along the east side of the village and returned hoping to find a place for lunch. As we were at the end of tourist season not much was open so we ended up at the Kviknes Hotel again.  

After lunch we toured the Norwegian Museum of Travel and Tourism. Most interesting was a presentation about Gidsken Jakobsen, a Norwegian female aviation pioneer.  She was quite a pilot. After the engine of her plane fell off, she survived intact her "landing" of the plane in the fjord off Balestrand!  

Viking Burial Mounds

Joanne decided to take a break while I walked down the road from our hotel to check out the Viking burial mounds.  Then we topped off our day with the buffet at the Kviknes.   

Richard

The next day we scored big, because the rain let up, the sunshine came out and we secured a ferry ride to the cute town of  Vik, home of an  ancient stave church built in the 11 century – and only a few of them remain.  The high roof rafters looked like a Viking ship!  The guide informed us that ship builders often constructed these churches because they understood building techniques of the time.

We traveled over to another little town called Balestrade.  We had fun exploring there, but the highlight was dinner at the historic Kviknes hotel.  It featured a wonderful Scandinavian buffet and we really enjoyed all the seafood and scrumptious desserts.

Joanne