Valdres --> Sognefjord/Gudvangen --> Bergen (ca. 260 km)
Not that far away from our hotel lies
Hemsedal, Norway's second largest skiing area, where we have short stop...
... before continuing our way...
... to another stave church in
Borgund, not far from the municipality of
Lærdal at the southeastern end of the famous
Sognefjord:
Between
Lærdal and
Aurland we take Europe's longest tunnel (24.5 km), the
Lærdalstunnelen:
At the inner end of the
Aurlandsfjord, an arm of the
Sognefjord, ...
... lies
Flåm (below picture), a popular tourist destination. The almost 450,000 visitors a year come to enjoy the spectacular 20 km
Flåmsbana railway between
Flåm and
Myrdal, one of the steepest railway tracks in the world.
However, we only stop at
Gudvangen, another popular tourist destination at the bottom of the
Nærøyfjord, the western branch of the
Aurlandsfjord (as you can see on the above map)...
... where we have lunch in a Viking style restaurant called
Gudvangen Fjordtel.
Leaving
Gudvangen we continue our tour through the valley of
Stalheim, stop for some photographs at the waterfall "
Tvindefossen"...
... pass
Voss (a notable center of skiing, water sports, skydiving, paragliding and other adventure sports) to finally arrive in
Bergen - just in time for having 2 hours of free time to spend under the rain of Norway's wettest city (therefore also its nickname
The City of Rain):
Strolling through
Bryggen, the
Hanseatic quarter of Bergen, a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen and since 1979 also on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites:
Drenched with rain we drive for the overnight stay to a hotel close to the airport.
