This is a follow-up to the Webcam #1 post. I also have a look on the webcam showing the Geiranger Fjord in Norway:

Time flies… this is horrible! My daily procedure looks almost like an hourly procedure. I remember coming home from the fantastic vacation Norway like it was yesterday.
Nevertheless we are making progress. Yesterday we (4) were consulting a lawyer to be sure what kind of company we have to found. It looks like a GmbH is the right business form for us due to the fact that we are covering very different parts of the business we are trying to do. In addition in a GmbH one has not to take responsibility with its own capital. Nevertheless the foundation of a GmbH is a very expensive process. We hope to get at least a credit for the start. Some kind of funding is very welcome

Sometimes I wonder why shipping into foreign countries takes so much time. It is the second time I sent something to Norway and it needs more than 3 weeks to ship a package from Germany to Norway by land. I thought when I dispatched the package that this will take 10 days maximum. Oslo isn’t that far from Heidelberg. But nooooo.
The package should arrive before Christmas but I think it will never arrive. From our logistics expert I heard stories from packages which were sent to New Zealand but arrived somewhere in the Netherlands. I guess they are anticipating due to the climate shift that this country becomes the new sea land in the not so distant future.
Next time I am sending packages only by UPS or similar. At least with something that can provide a tracking of the shipment.

I really love to have a look at this webcam in Tromsø, Norway, showing the Storgata almost every day:

The last whole day of our vacation begun just brilliantly. The weather was splendid and so we decided to stay one night longer and to drive to the Hardangervidda. It prooved to be right that we drove through the mist the day before to Gol. This day reminded me on the first day of the vacation when we landed in Bamble.

But first we visited the local tourist center. We tried to get some kind of hiking map of the Hardangervidda. We not only got a very good hiking map, but also a hiking guide of the DNT.

Before we hitted the road, we visited the Gol stave church. This one is a replica because the original one was demolished and transported to the open air museum of king Oscar II. near Oslo. They demolished the old church because they wanted to build a new one (this one). No wonder it looked so well preserved

After meeting some nice Swabians we drove in the direction to Hardangervidda. The closer we got the cloudier it was there. On the Hardangervidda there blew a strong wind. Also there was plenty of fresh snow. Hiking under these circumstances and this “fit” that I am is not such a good idea.

The Hardangervidda is a strange place. No trees, shrubs etc. No wonder because this plateau is the largest one whole Europe with it’s own alpine climate through the year.

The next stop after this plateau was a water fall called Vøringfossen. It is the most visited waterfall in Norway, according to Wikipedia. The platform above the waterfall is impressive. One can just jump down the valley if one desires. Also a false step would do the same to you. Nothing for acrophobic people. We than wanted to hike to the small plateau on the foot of the waterfall. One has to cross a huge rock fall deposit. On this deposit there lays a truck wreck. This is truly not unexpected because the common Norwegian truck driver drives like insane.

The bridge over the Bjoreia river was closed due to some damage. That was too sad because I really wanted to stay below the waterfalls

On the way back to the hytta we stopped at another stave church. This time in Torpo. This church has a roof made of rock (mica schist as it looked).

This concludes the story of my too short vacation in Norway in September/October 2008. It was a very pleasant and refreshing vacation with every kind of weather except heat The time flew like on the run. It was a very intense vacation with so much to see that one has to take pictures to reprocess the impressions. There were plenty of opportunities left. Especially hikings and camping in the tent. This was definitely not my last vacation in Norway. Or as Schwarzenegger said: Aill bii back

This morning I had a mind to take an ice cold shower. This way I recovered in seconds

The weather looked awful. It rained cats and dogs. We decided to make for home. But before we did that we drove from Gaupne to the Urnes Stavkirke. This stave church dates back from the 12th century. Actually the church is not so pretty but on one wall the church has a very impressive wood carving. The Urnes Stavkirke is a World Heritage Site listed by the UNESCO.

From Urnes there is a ferry by which one can save much time when using it instead of driving along the Lustrafjord back. The road from Skjolden to Urnes is about 30km long and most times very small. I wonder how much traffic there is in summer. Nevertheless we wanted to cross over the Lustrafjord with the ferry but we had to wait almost 3 hours. So we had to drive back to Gaupne and from there going back home.

Occasionally I really love rainy days but when struggling almost every day with rain it gets boring. On the way home we stopped at the Borgund Stavkirke. The most famous stavkirke in Norway because of its high detail and sound condition. In fall the church looks very pretty with all the yellow leaved birches in the background. I wonder how it looks in winter

On the way we halted on a parking lot which was close to the Øye Stavkirke. That church prooved that not every stave church has to have a bell tower.

Soon we recognized that we wouldn’t make it home that day and kept our eyes open for a camping ground. Because of the unfavourable weather we didn’t choose the option of using the tent. Although it would be great to sleep outside with fresh air around ones nose. The first two camping grounds we had a look at weren’t very convincing. In Fagernes we decided to travel to the Plus Camping ground in Gol. After announcing our coming by cell phone we went to Gol. But not without poking about in a fog with a range of vision of about 10m and less. Although it’s only 50km from Fagernes to Gol we needed almost one and a half hour. Now I know why they call it heavy fog.

The Plus Camping ground in Gol is big. Big means huge. I guess from the most northerly to the most southerly point it’s more than 500m. The hytta we got was also big. There were place for at least three times as much space as we needed.

After a decent breakfast with pancakes and a pleasant night before we decided to drive to Jotunheimen. The weather looked pretty positive. That doesn’t mean the sun came out. It means it didn’t rain

The way from the Nore Fjordsenter Plus Camping in Bryggja to the Sandvik Plus Camping in Gaupne is pretty long. Especially when one gets on the way pretty late due to sleeping in late. We tried to get to Sogndal before 1600 to get some information from the local tourist center. But the tourist center prooved to be a map on a chart. Nothing more and nothing less.

On the way to Sogndal we had to pass two tunnels which were a toll road. This was the most expensive toll road we had to use on the whole vacation. Something about 40€.

One can imagine that our mood was not pretty well after the expensive toll road and the “tourist center” in Sogndal. But for luck everything with the hytta succeeded very well.

Though we had some time we drove to the Nigardsbreen, one of the famous glacier in Jotunheimen national park. Julia played a good prank on me that day. She said because she was already at this glacier in May this year I had to go to the glacier alone. In my simplicity I accepted that as true and went to the glacier. I almost ran because I didn’t wanted her to wait to long. I got lost on the way because I went on an old way flag which ended somewhere.

Later on right in front of the glacier I heard some rustling and saw Julia. Very funny The glacier is great. Very blue glacier ice. But it was melting even in fall. It was getting darker by the minute and we had to hurry to get back to the car and to the camping ground because we made an appointment with the operator to check in at 2000.

The couch in the hytta we rented was hillariuos. It squeeked everytime I laughed. Which caused to make July laugh, which caused to make me laugh, which caused to make the couch squeek…