Deciding to stay at home for Easter was a good idea. We use to travel with our camping car, (read about it on this blog: http://bobilbloggen.no) but now we have sold the car, and wait for a new one to come. So we are going to stay at home, except for this short two day trip north from where we live. My husband has a sister in Odda, and we go visit a few times each year. Usually we start early in the morning, take her out for a hot lunch, have coffee at her flat, and then return home. This is a 12-13 hour day, most of it spent in the car.

This time, we packed all the camera gear, booked a hotel and made a detour. <a href="http://

“>Here is the route, total is 528 kilometers.

 

At Ølen, we saw these three platforms at the yard, in for maintenance. Times are not too good in Norway, there are less work in the North Sea, and many people, specially in our district are let go due to crisis in the industry. So that is the time when modifications and maintenance takes place. Hopefully, it will get better in a few years.

At least somebody has work on these!

As we got to Odda, and had a nice lunch, we made it to Tyssedal, where my husband stayed for a few years as a child. Here too, industry is what it is all about. But not the new kind. Here people came to make heavy duty factories because of the natural power resources. Norway has steep mountains and lots of waterfalls, making it possible.

This is from one of the factories.

This is the national water energy monument. Actually quite large, but when you see it besides the mountains… well, it sort of disappear. 

Being a successful business, there were room for taking care of the workers who came to Odda and Tyssedal. Normally houses in Norway are build in wood. These are not, they have a certain continental style, mainly inspired by British factory housing. 

Many families would share a house like this, but this is from the pre-watercloset-periode in Norway, so these buildings with water and free heating from the waterfall electricity was very high standard. 

Still activity here.

But not here; the local shop.

We reached Rosendal, which is a lovely place of some historic importance. Buildings from 1665 and a great garden, read about that here: http://www.baroniet.no. We saw the sunset, and hoped for another great day. 

But this was weather yesterday. We joked about it; “this is Norway, pity we can’t see it”. And; “Norway is the only country with a permanent ND-filter.” … Not really funny. 

These provided a bit of white at least. 

In Valen, there is a gigantic hospital. Earlier it was a psychiatric hospital, for patients who came and stayed, for the rest of their life. It was far away from everything, and it usually meant that the patients never again saw their families. The time it took to travel was too much.  Not that long ago there was a reform, to close down these gigantic institutions and send the patients back to where they used to live. This changed many lives, both to better and worse maybe.

One of the hospital buildings, there are many more like this. 

Monument over a tragic accident at Skånevik, Kvinnherad. And the ferry. You can’t travel the west coast without going on the ferries. 

A typical Norwegian wooden church, here at Utåker. 

The weather didn’t get any better. But I love these photos where I get close to clouds, sea and snow. Light is so much more interesting, right? 😉

Car ferry entering Skånevik. 

Window display at a house in Skånevik. Just to make tourist stop;)

Please have a look at the roof tiles, these you can only find in Hardanger/Sunnhordaland. In other parts of the country we do it differently! Nice house though… 

So, what do Norwegians do when the weather is wet, temperature almost down to zero, and spring seems to be far away? Go fishing…

Driving in Norway is fun. We are used to narrow roads and bends and ups and downs… Sometimes it can be a bit too much when there aren’t enough room to meet other cars. Not all roads are like this though. Getting from one fjord to another on this trip took us through a tunell 11 kilometres long, Folgefonntunnelen.

Finally on this rather long post from me, a clip from one of the narrow stretches from the dash cam. Hope you enjoy 🙂

Sunnhordland – smale veier