Odda

Our next stop was a town called Odda. We liked Odda -- we went on two beautiful hikes there, but we didn't LOVE Odda. Weirdly, we heard a distant, thumping bass every night (nightclub? house-party? rave?), our accommodations, which were cute and quaint at first, seemed to grow tinier over 4 days, the bed seemed to have a fjord-sized trough down the middle, and we spent $55 one night on two cheese and veg quesadillas, one beer, and a Diet Coke. But the two hikes were undeniably beautiful and that made even the bed-trough worth the stop. 

new Norwegian slippers

Hike to Ringedalsvatnet Lake

Buerbreen Glacier hike

Hafslo Gjestehus

Once we left our birdhouse and the tranquil, gorgeous stay at Juvet, we started our slow journey via a different route south back to Oslo. First stop was a random point along the way, and a one-night stay at a lovely, nearly deserted hotel overlooking our favorite geographic feature, a fjord. 

Aksla Viewpoint, Ålesund, Norway

My original plan for Norway included a one night stay in Ålesund on the way to Juvet; I think I was going to fly their from Oslo. Since the trip changed to include a drive tp Juvet from Oslo, a stop in Ålesund wasn't necessary but still wanted, if only to go to the Aksla Viewpoint to get a view of the pretty coastal town jutting out into the sea, which we did as a day-trip from Juvet. A huge benefit of traveling in Norway in the fall is that most of the tourists have gone home. The Aksla Viewpoint is a big tourist destination, but since we were there in early October, we were able to drive right up to the viewing area, park a few feet away, have the viewing platform more or less to ourselves, and have a lovely piece of cake and coffee in the uncrowded cafe next to it -- a place which surely would have been loaded with the tour-bus-crowds in the height of summer. 

Our Little Birdhouse in the Woods

 No robots tried to kill us during our stay. 

Around the property:

Places we hung out: 

Dining room

Lovely shot of pumpkin soup served at dinner one night.
At least one of us thought so... 

Olafsvegen hike

A short hike up the road

The Road to Valdall

The impetus for this trip, originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, and we all know how that turned out, was to stay at the Juvet Landscape Hotel. My original solo plan involved an additional flight, a boat, a train, a bus, a donkey-cart (maybe), a jet-ski... hell, I don't know anymore how I planned on getting there, but it didn't involve renting a car and simply driving to the destination. As the trip morphed to include a partner who learned to drive on the main streets of Boston, the twisting, narrow, cliff-side roads between Oslo and the tiny village of Valdall near where the hotel is located became a passable obstacle. Reaching this destination was going to be a long day of driving, we knew that when we set off, but we didn't anticipate a mountain pass, a ferry (which ran every 20 minutes so when we showed up 1 minute after the boat left, it was no big deal), and a GPS that seemed to want to kill us -- or at least strand us in the middle of some Norwegian woods. We did find a gorgeous lookout to a fjord along the way, though, and after getting close to our destination before being led astray (damn GPS...), we made it to where we were going, and it was totally worth all the hassle. 

random view point of a random village along the way

Geringer fjord

Somewhere near Hundorp

After stopping by the Kistefos Museum, we continued on our way north. Gorgeous countryside, clear, sunny days, lakes and valleys, and long winding roads took us to a little farmstead near a miniscule village called Hundorp, where a cottage on a small farm waited for us. One night was not enough.

our cozy cottage