The Best Tour in Norway ... With ... illustrations and route map

Preface

I ought perhaps to apologise for the seemingly presumptuous title which I have given to this book. Let me say at once, then, that I do not for a moment claim for my narrative of travel any superiority to any other work that has been written about the beautiful land in which I spent four weeks in the summer of 1890 and three weeks in that of 1891, except in one respect. Having read many other books on the same subject and examined all the guide-books ; having compared notes with many fellow-travellers and consulted the most competent resident authorities, both native and British, I have come to the conclusion that the route, which it was my good fortune to be enabled to follow in 1890, is the very best that can be adopted by those who wish to see as much as possible of the beauties of Western Norway within the space of three or four weeks, which is about the average holiday-time of most people. And in claiming for this round that it is the best

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. VIII that can be taken, I freely recognise the fact that it leaves many interesting places un visited. For instance, it does not extend to Trondhjem with its ancient and splendid cathedral, the coronation place of all the Norse kings ; nor does it even afford a glimpse of the curious Laplanders with their sledges and reindeer ; or comprise a voyage to the North Cape with its midnight sun. My ' best tour,' in fact, is simply a tour in Western Norway, covering the ground most frequented by other tourists, but differing from the ordinary beaten track in certain important particulars. It forms a complete circuit, which is very rarely made, and which, indeed, has been accessible only within the last few years. The completion of new roads, however, has at last rendered this route practicable for carriage traffic, opening up several beautiful districts not often visited, while enabling the traveller to touch all the most attractive points in this part of the country without going over the same ground a second time.

The journey I made by land and water in the space of four weeks in 1890 took me over nearly 900 miles in Norway itself, and formed a sort of ellipse. Starting from Stavanger, I made my way in a serpentine track through the country northward as far as Molde, and thence returned by the coast

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. IX southward via Bergen and Stavanger. Those who follow my route on the map will see how complete is this circuit, and how many places of interest it includes, even if no divergence be made from the main course, while for those who have more time at their disposal than the ordinary tourist with his short month's holiday, the same route will serve, as at easy distances from it, here and there, many by-excursions may be taken, and many interesting points reached. In the summer of 1891 I again visited Norway, partly to improve my knowledge of the country and correct my first impressions, and partly to explore new ground. On this occasion I went to Christiania and traversed the new land and water route through Telemarken, besides visiting many of the scenes of my former tour, and repairing unavoid able omissions.

Hence I am now enabled to supplement ' the best tour ' with one more extended which may be com bined with the other by such as are able to devote, say, six weeks to their journey, or intend to visit Norway a second time. It is the latter course rather than the former that I recommend to those who wish to ' do ' Norway very thoroughly indeed. I cannot but think it a mistake to attempt too much at once in a country X

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. where there is so much to be seen. The eye wearies at last of such a rapid succession of fine landscapes as are here presented ; the mind is, as it were, glutted with objects of beauty ; in short, excess in travel begets satiety as in everything else. The preferable plan would be, in my opinion, to take that which I call 'the best tour' for a first visit. On the second occasion I would recommend a voyage to Christiania and a tour through Telemarken and Sætersdal. A third trip might be devoted to Trondhjem and the North Cape. And even then there is something left to be done, for a second visit might be paid to Christiania, and then a journey north be made through Valders and the Files] eld to the Sogne fjord, whence the traveller might pro ceed by water direct to the Romsdal and return via the Dovrefjeld and the Gudbrandsdal to Chris tiania.

These are routes open to the ordinary tourist, to him or her who does not care to ' rough it,' who prefers driving to walking and is not inclined to cross mountains over rough bridle-paths on horse back. For those who are prepared for the more enterprising sort of travel there is still much to be done in Norway. The district known as the Jotun fjeld, most readily reached via the Sogne fjord, is a paradise for the hardy mountaineer, for here is to

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. XI be found the wildest and grandest of all Norwegian scenery, here are the biggest mountains and the most romantic lakes, and here the tourist proper is conspicuous by his absence. But it is not for such enterprising travellers that this volume is intended. They do not like to be ' personally conducted,' and prefer to go their own way. I do not blame them. There is nothing more delightful in a journey of this sort than to ' find things out for yourself,' for even if you thereby miss certain ' big ' scenes, which ' everybody ought to see,' on the other hand you come upon choice bits, which you enjoy all the more, because you have in a measure ' discovered ' them. But for one person of this way of thinking and acting there are hundreds, if not thousands, who want advice ; who, bewildered by the alternatives submitted to their choice by the various guide books, which of course are bound to tell them all about every road and by-road in the country, would ' give anything,' as the saying goes, for a safe and intelligible direction.

It is for such travellers that this little work is intended, and if they find it useful, as showing them which way they should go, it will not have been written in vain. I cannot close these prefatory remarks without

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. XII expressing my obligations to Messrs. Valentine and Sons of Dundee for the use of some of their many beautiful photographs of Norway, from which I have been enabled to supply all the illustrations for this volume, except those in the Telemarken district, for which I am indebted to Mr. Axel Lindahl. E. J. GOODMAN. London, 1892. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Voyage Out ..... 1 II. Stavanger . . , . . .10 III. My First Fjord ..... 24 IV. Sand 34 V. A Trip by Boat ..... 43 VI. The Suldal ...... 51 VII. Through the Bratlandsdal to Breifond . 61 VIII. A Drive to the Hardanger . . .73 IX. Odde and its 'Lions' . . . .81 X. Sledging across the Folgeeond . . .92 XL On the Hardanger . . . . .111 XII. From Eide to Vossevangen . . .120 XIII. Stalheim 131 XIV. Gudvangen ...... 141 XV. On the Sogne Fjord .... 149 XVI.

Vadheim to the Jolstervand . . .160 XVII. By Moldestad to the Nord Fjord . . 171 XVIII. Hellesylt and the Geiranger . . .180 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XIX. By the Hjorund Fjord to Aalesund . . 193 XX. The Romsdal . . . . .203 XXI. Molde ...... 220 XXII. By the Coast to Bergen . . . 236 XXIII. Bergen ... . . . .243 XXIV. A Second Tour — Christiania . . . 259 XXV. Skien to the Vrangfos .... 275 XXVI. Telemarken by Water .... 288 XXVII. Telemarken by Land .... 299 Summary of the Tour .... 309 Fishing in Norway ..... 322 Index ....... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Route Map at beginning of book Stavanger from the Watch-tower . . facing page 10 In the Suldal „ 52 Suldal Lake — The Portal .... „ 58 In the Bratlansdal „ 62 Tunnel in Bratlansdal .... „ 64 The Horrabrækker near Roldal . „ 74 The Laatefos „ 76 Odde and the Sorfjord .... „ 82 The Skjæggedalsfos „ 86 Buarbræ „ 90 Vossevangen ,,124 Nærodalen „ 132 Gudvangen „ 142 The Nærofjord „ 150 Lærdalsoren „ 152 Balholm „ 154 Road near Vadheim „ 162 Sande „ 164 Forde.

(Sondfjord.) „ 166 Jolstersvand „ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Faleide facing page 176 Loen Lake „ 178 >i Kjos on Horningdal Lake .... „ 182 »j The Geirangerfjord. Pulpit Rock and Seven Sisters ....... „ 188 j» Oie on the Norangfjord .... „ 196 Aalesund „ 200 The Romsdalshorn „ 212 Molde ,,220 HORNELEN ,, 240 )J Bergen, from Floifjeldet .... ,, 244 j) GoLSKIRKE AND OLD HOUSES .... ., 268 JJ Loveid — Telemarken Canal .... „ 284 n Bandak Lake „ 294 a Haukeli-Sæter by E. J. GOODMAN. LoncLoa, Sampson Law fcCo., LimiteA.

Chapter I. The Voyage Out

I had for many years resolved, if ever I should be fortunate enough to be able to take it in June or July, to spend my annual holiday in Norway. In the summer of 1890 circumstances favoured the execution of this long-cherished design, and to my great satisfaction I found myself with leave of absence for some time in the latter part of June. Accordingly I at once decided to go to Norway, as the early summer is the best season that can be chosen for a tour in the 'land of the midnight sun.' Not that I intended to visit the North Cape or any of those other points of the Norwegian coast where the god of day reigns supreme during the whole twenty-four hours. A voyage to the North Cape is a more serious, and let me admit also, a more expensive undertaking than I contemplated. The fare by the Wilson line from Hull to Chris tiania, Bergen, or Stavanger and back is about £6, A first class, or £4, 10s. second.

But it costs half as much again to get to Trondhjem, and thrice as much to perform the voyage to the North Cape. The perusal of books written by previous travellers, and of the various guide-books issued by Baedeker, Bennett, Beyer, Nielsen, and others, told me that I should have quite enough to do in exploring the beautiful region of Western Norway within the space of one short month, without attempting to combine with the tour a voyage to the Arctic Circle. That must be left for another occasion, and meanwhile I resolved to content myself with a journey among the Hardanger, the Sogne, the Nord, and the Molde fjords, with their offshoots. In these districts lies at any rate most of the more picturesque scenery of Norway. There is much that is interesting in Christiania and Tele marken, which I visited in the following summer, and in the country north of Molde, embracing Trondhjem, the Lofoden Isles, the North Cape, and Lapland ; but just as one cannot in a short space of time unite with a tour in the Bernese Oberland a trip to the Tyrol and the Engadine, so one cannot wander into other parts of Norway without rushing through the western district.

Now if there is one thing I hate to do in a beautiful country it is to 'rush.' While being a moderately active traveller, I am certainly not a feverishly energetic one. I like to linger — some may say, perhaps, to dawdle — over a particularly fine scene ; to lie for a while by the roadside in view of some romantic combination of wood and water, of hill and valley ; to retrace my steps through some lovely region that has especially charmed me ; and, above all, it is my desire to find myself in some pretty spot, where, with a ' pleasing prospect' before me, I may bask in the sunshine after breakfast, and smoke my early morning pipe and dream. To my mind these are among the chief luxuries of a holiday tour ; the tit-bits of travel, so to speak, which your ' rusher ' can never enjoy. And that I was enabled to extract the greatest possible amount of enjoyment out of my two tours will be readily understood when I say that on both occasions the weather was all but perfect.

Some people are under the impression that Norway is a particularly rainy country. It may be sometimes, but I did not find it so. Of the twenty-eight clays which I spent in the country in June-July 1890, twenty were brilliantly, faultlessly fine. The rest were what may be called ' broken ' days, with alternate rain and sunshine, or cloudy, or drizzling, but only one was absolutely and irredeemably bad, when it rained from morning till night. It was also a little chilly when the sun was not actually shining. But during my second visit of three weeks in 1891, I enjoyed that which I can only call ' weather of Paradise,' — days of brilliant sunshine and balmy nights, when one could sit out in the open air without the protection of wraps, while on this occasion also I had only one really downright wet day.

Let me further correct another mistaken notion. People are afraid of going to Norway because of the evil reputation of the North Sea. But in the summer months its terrors are reduced to a minimum. Indeed it is, I was assured, often as calm as I found it during all my four voyages out and home. On the first occasion, for at least three -fourths of the distance, there was so little motion in the waves that the rapid Eldorado forged through them as though scorning to be shaken by such paltry ripples. It was the same during the return voyage to Hull, while the weather was if possible even finer still all through the second passage of two days in the Tasso from Harwich to Christiania; and though on the return we rolled a little for a few hours after leav ing Stavanger, the rest of the transit was made on waters almost as calm as a lake.

Indeed, I was rather disappointed than otherwise at being unable to 'feel the sea under me.' But it would have been worse than ungrateful to complain of such weather as that in which we crossed from Hull to Norway. With the sun bathing the deck in genial warmth, with a stern breeze which we hardly felt, and which drove the light smoke from our funnel straight ahead of us, with such a deep green-blue sea, crested with snowy foam, as Hook delights to paint, what more perfect voyage could be desired or imagined To be all day at sea in such glorious weather as this is a luxury that can be enjoyed only by those who pass their fives hard at work amidst the dust and turmoil of London and other great cities. You feel the benefit of the ' change ' at once ; your health already in a few hours seems to be improv ing, and your spirits are sensibly rising.

You are never for a moment bored ; the sameness of the scene, the sight of that vast expanse of green water and that almost unclouded blue vault of heaven, has no monotony for you. You are never weary of watching the waves tumbling and tossing into foam, and the creamy sweep of the surge rush ing past from the bows to the stern of the vessel. The very smoke that belches from the funnel, rolling forward in light fleecy clouds, graceful and shapely in their contour, seems an object of beauty, and every detail and arrangement of the great ship is curious, novel, and interesting. The Eldorado carried a tolerably full complement of passengers, without being at all overcrowded. Thus there were about eighty saloon voyagers, with berth accommodation amidships for over a hun dred, while the small second-class cabin aft con tained only about a dozen sleepers for sixteen berths.

So there was plenty of room for everybody. It was a wise arrangement to berth the first class passengers amidships, as they were thereby well away from the noise of the engines and the screw. Having had no experience of other lines I can say nothing about them, but of Messrs. Wilson's steamships I can speak from personal knowledge. The Tasso, in which I made my second voyage, is a new and comfortable boat, but the accommodation provided on board the Eldorado is luxurious. Numerous as the berths are, there is ample space in all of them, and by an ingenious contrivance, the lower deck cabins are perfectly ventilated by a current of air which passes over them without creating the slightest draught. The provision of the electric light in this noble ship is also a great luxury, enabling you to make light or darkness, as you please, in your berth by merely touching a switch within easy reach, while the latest and most efficient sanitary appliances are provided in every part of the vessel.

To those who now and then went aft to ascertain the progress of the steamer, as recorded by the mechanical ' Cherub ' log rigged up on the taffrail, that little machine was a constant source of amuse ment. A brass cylinder contains a sort of clock, the figures of which represent intervals of ten miles and their units, with hands that move gradually round, and a bell that gives a little ' ting ' every few minutes, denoting that another mile has been made. From the cylinder there passes a chain and a stout cord, penetrating a wheel which revolves with it, and this line is trailed along the depths of the sea, where the screw-shaped log twirls rapidly and works the apparatus. The Tasso is also provided with an automatic log, which, in place of the periodical ' ting,' utters a most comical shriek or wail, like that of some living creature in acute agony.

These machines are very useful in keeping us constantly informed as to how we are ' getting on.' The Eldorado's 'Cherub' marked capital time, indicating that we were doing a steady average of some fourteen miles an hour, a pace that we kept up till we reached the Norwegian coast. Then there were pleasant sociable chats by the side, or in comfortable corners of the deck, or in the smoking-room and bar, often between persons who met for the first time. There was, on the whole, a good class of people on board — great folks going, with their long salmon-rod boxes, to fish in the rivers they leased, far up in the interior of the country ; less wealthy and ambitious anglers with their modest bundles of trout-rods ; tourists under the sheltering wing of one of Messrs. Cook's personally conduct ing agents; middle-aged maiden ladies travelling in couples ; college undergraduates and divinity students also consorting in pairs, some with ice axes and alpen-stocks for the glaciers ; young men with knapsacks and knickerbockers, who were going to ' walk ' ; two or three daring bicyclists with their machines ; an artist with his sketch book and umbrella tent ; an amateur photographer with his camera and set of lenses, not to speak of the miscellaneous crowd of ordinary tourists, who had no special purpose in view except to see the country and generally enjoy themselves.

Deck quoits of course. What steamer voyage in anything like decent weather is ever made without this indispensable aid to amusement? And what fun it is to see it played by persons of all ages and both sexes, from the clumsy novice who tries it for the first time, and never makes a ring, but declares that he is ' a little out of practice,' to the demon quoiter who, with unerring aim, drops ring after ring on the protruding peg! Then you can also throw rope rings into a bucket, or try to do so, but this sport, after all, is only another sort of quoits. However, we are in no great want of amusement during our comparatively short voyage. The fas cination of the sea and sun leads us away from every recreation and occupation. We try to carry out our resolve to study our Bennett and our Baedeker, but do it only fitfully, and in the same way we dip now and then into Mrs. Stone's Norway in June, or Lester Arnold's Summer Holiday in Scan dinavia, and cannot get on even with the lively and delightful adventures of Three in Norway : by Two of Them.

Yet the time passes pleasantly and fast in this eminently tranquil and prosperous voyage. It was not until sunset, when we saw the crimson globe sink, inch by inch, bodily into the horizon, without a cloud about it, that the proud vessel was compelled to acknowledge the influence of the waves around her. Then, being in the latitude of the Orkney Islands, the Atlantic rollers came tumbling in, and the good steamer recognised the fact by slowly oscillating from side to side. It was an un pleasant motion no doubt for some of the people on board, though others were only gently rocked to sleep by it. Such was my good fortune, and, after having enjoyed several hours of refreshing rest, I awoke to find by a glimpse through the port-hole above my head that I was in still waters and in Norway !

Chapter II. Stavanger

Yes. There could be no doubt about it. Through the port-hole I could perceive the green-blue water, calm as the surface of a lake, but still unmistakably that of the sea, and close at hand long stretches of rugged grey rock. It was a brilliant sunny morning, and the hour was exactly six o'clock. Rapidly dress ing, I was soon on deck, and there I had further evidence of the fact, otherwise difficult to realise, that I was in that land so long dreamed of and made to some extent familiar by books and pictures. The steamer was moored alongside the quay of Stavanger, and the outline of the pretty town lay stretched before us. There was nothing strikingly imposing in its appearance, but it looked neat, homely, and comfortable, with its plain, but by no means commonplace, wooden houses, and the spires of a church or two peeping over them.

There was something very novel in the aspect of Stavanger, but if it could be compared with anything I had seen elsewhere, it might be said to have rather a Dutch look about it. But before saying anything about Stavanger itself, STAVANGER FROM THE WATCH-TOWER (Page 10.) STAVANGER. I think it right to relate how I came to select it as the starting-point of my tour in Norway. It is not often thus chosen. Most tourists make their way to the north and west from Christiania over the Filefjeld or the Dovrefjeld, or go direct to Bergen. It had been my intention to adopt the last-named route, which has much to recommend it, as it conveys you at once into the very heart of the best scenery of Western Norway, and has a conveniently central situation. But, however carefully you may plan a tour of this sort, seeking what seem to be the best sources of information, it is surprising how much better you may do by making local and per sonal inquiries on the spot than by relying merely upon guide-books and travellers' tales.

Many a time have I been ' put up to a good thing ' by some good-natured and well-informed native, who has directed me to a locality or route unknown to the ordinary tourist, and much superior to the usually frequented road. And it was so in the present instance. I happened to share a cabin in the Eldorado with a person who proved to be beyond all others the sort of man most likely to be of service to me in such a tour as I was about to make. In the first place I found him a very interesting and congenial acquaintance. He was an old Nor wegian sea-captain, by name C. H. Pedersen, rough and weatherbeaten, but with all the modest frank ness and natural dignity which is so characteristic of the typical sailor. He had been nearly half a century at sea, and for about half that time had had command of his ship, and now he was going home to his wife whom he had not seen for two years, and intended to settle down for good in his native town, Stavanger.

A brave, honest, shrewd old fellow he seemed to be ; a man who had seen much of the world with his eyes wide open ; familiar, more or less, with every topic of social and public life, and speaking half a dozen Euro pean languages, including English, with fluency. He enjoyed, moreover, the special distinction of being decorated with a silver medal conferred upon him by the Japanese Government for saving a shipwrecked crew under circumstances of great gallantry. It will be seen, therefore, that Captain Pedersen was a more than ordinarily interesting fellow-traveller, and I found him also a useful one. He persuaded me to land at Stavanger instead of proceeding to Bergen, not only in order that I should see his native town, of which he was naturally proud, but because he represented it to be the commencement of the best route in Norway.

He pointed out that by taking this course I should be enabled to see the beauties of a road which had but very recently been opened. He was eloquent about the charms of the Suldal and the Bratlands dal, which until then had been unknown names to me. He declared that there were no finer scenes to be viewed in all Norway than these valleys pre- STAVANGER. 13 sensed, and altogether so provoked my curiosity that I resolved to take his advice. Nor did I regret having done so. On the contrary, I regard it as a most fortunate circumstance, as I am thereby enabled to be the first to describe to the English public a route at present unfamiliar to most travellers, but destined beyond doubt to be hereafter the favourite avenue of entrance to Western Norway. Having landed on the quay at Stavanger, I pro ceeded at once to an hotel bearing the imposing title of ' The Grand.' The name is suggestive of a caravanserai of vast and stately dimensions, a huge building of many stories, reached by lifts, and externally magnificent in its architecture.

But the Stavanger ' Grand ' is not so pretentious. A long, low-built house of some three floors, it is substantial rather than splendid, but within it affords as good cheer and as comfortable accommodation as could be desired. It has a most lady-like and attentive hostess in Mrs. Jorgensen, and a very intelligent and civil portier, who speaks English perfectly. Here I had my first experience of a Norwegian hotel, and I never had a more pleasant one. It was here, too, that I ate my first meal on Norwegian soil, and, considering the early hour at which I required it to be served, it was of a very satisfactory character. At any rate it was breakfast, and not merely the cafe au lait, with roll and butter, which in nearly all other parts of the Continent constitutes the first repast of the day.

The Norwegians, in fact, breakfast as we do, partaking of substantial viands as soon as they rise, a fashion which is very acceptable to those Englishmen who cannot readily give up their old habits. After breakfast I looked up my friend, Captain Pedersen, and found him settled down once more in his home, a snug, neat dwelling in the Helmi gade, where everything seemed ship-shape, as a sailor's home should be. How often the good man must have thought of that quiet, cosy little house in distant Norway when beating about in the stormy seas of the South and West ! Not that Captain Pedersen had experienced much of the worst perils of the deep, for he told me that he had never been shipwrecked or even overtaken by a tempest of the most violent sort all the years he had been at sea. An ingenious man, too, was the captain, for he had a wonderful invention, of which he had made a model in wood, for applying the screw propeller to sailing ships.

I cannot clearly explain the contrivance, and perhaps, with due regard to his patent rights, it is not desirable that I should do so, but it seemed novel and practical, and I hope the good man will reap all the advantages he expects to gain from it. Meanwhile he showed me, and allowed me to copy, the diploma he had received from the Japanese Government with his medal, and, as it is quite a unique document, and reflects such high credit on STAVANGER. 15 this worthy Norwegian ancient mariner, I have no hesitation in reproducing it here in the French translation : — ' Certificat d'une medaille de l'Empire de Japon. ' Le gouvernement japonais decore Monsieur C. H. Pedersen, Capitaine du Coronae, bateau Norvegien, d'une medaille d'argent avec ruban rouge, d'apres l'ordonnance imperiale du 7 Decembre de la 14e Annee de Meiji (1881), parcequ'il a sauve avec beaucoup de courage le 9 Avril de la 17e Annee de Meiji (1884) a cote du Sud d'Okinawa Ken, les Japonais Tatchizumi Tokumatsu et quatre autres habitants du Village Futamote, arrondissement de Shi6do, departement d'Elume, province de Sanouki, qui etaient tres dangereusement nau frag6s. ' Le 13 juin de la 17 annee de Meiji.