So, as if to make up for yesterday’s debacle in Drammen, the riding today was fantastic and the weather beautiful. It was one of prettiest days of riding we have ever had. Delightful hills, wildflowers everywhere, some serious climbing after lunch and a little sightseeing. The 79 km breezed by.
The morning broke clear and the roadside views were beautiful.
Unlike our forests back in the west, the Norwegian forests appear to be very healthy. We did, however, run across several places where clear cutting was evident.
We left Lampeland about 11 am and meandered along on a small country road with no traffic. Our midpoint stop was the town of Veggli, where we ate the sandwich we had prepared that morning at the Lampeland Inn. An interesting point of reference: every once in a while, at a hotel buffet, there might be a sign asking you to pay if you are going to take a sandwich with you. In Austria, the requested payment was 3.50 euros or about 4 US dollars ; in Norway its 950 krona, which is about 9 US dollars. That sums up the expense differential pretty well between the countries.
After our 9 dollar picnic sandwich in Veggli we began a stiff climb which we actually enjoyed. We stopped at a stave church in Nore and talked to a bike packer from Germany. We haven't run across many cycle tourists so far on this route. The roads were in a superior condition and very quiet, except for a 11 km portion that put us on the state highway. It wasn’t great (no shoulder) but not awful because there wasn’t much traffic and the drivers were courteous. The speed limit was 60 kph.
Our destination that evening was the Rodberg Motel in Rodberg, Norway, population 500. If you ever want to check out what a country and western-oriented Norwegian roadhouse looks like, this would be the place to do it. The inn was more like a hostel, concrete walls in places, industrial indoor/outdoor carpet (with lots of stains) in the rooms, a linoleum-lined shower stall. They had an order-from-the-desk kind of restaurant and we were assured this was the only food service in town besides the take-out from the Shell Station across the street! No blow dryer in the room but Dave did manage to sweet talk the front desk into letting us have two extra pillows. Ironically, the cost of the room (about 145 USD) was exactly the same as the cost of the Lampeland Inn we stayed in the night before, which was a lovely little place. I think the biggest drawback was the constant country music played in the restaurant and on the deck; Dave is no fan of country music. From the parking lot we think there were three rooms occupied: one older couple, one motorcycle pair and us. In any event, it didn’t really matter if the place was awful or great; it was absolutely the only place to stay on our route within 20 or 30km. Plus, we were happy with the day’s ride so we were able to laugh about it.
Events overtook us. That evening as we were eating a shared dinner of trout with boiled potatoes to the crooning of Shania Twain and Tricia Yearwood, Dave got a phone call that his brother had passed away. This was not unexpected as he had been doing poorly for awhile but of course it was terribly upsetting. Dave spent the rest of the evening on family calls aided by a large flagon of unnamed red wine. It was by far and away the cheapest glass of wine we have had in six weeks and the most appreciated.
Life happens when you are on the road.
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Life on the road also includes many wonderful vistas.
This is the site of the oldest, still functioning parsonage in Norway. The current Lutheran minister lives here. The original building was built in1633.
We've run across many of these old, well maintained buildings. Why they are built on stilts rather than a foundation remains a subject of future research for us.
