20050813

cycle to jondal


on the way to utne
Originally uploaded by wolftone.
2005-08-23-264 Be careful what you wish for - you might get it. I, for example, wished to ride a road high above a fjord. It so happens that the path from Eifjord to Jondal fits that description. For parts of it, anyway. Unfortunately, roads connect towns and towns are all at sea level. Today's ride was a hard climb, a brief plateau, then a breathtaking descent. Lather, rinse, repeat. As always, the views were amazing and I shall treasure them forever and ever.

2005-08-23-278 The road passes more agricultural heartland. Cherries are in season - I picked up a basket at a roadside stand and have been enjoying them all day. Apples are almost ripe and ready to be picked, making half the ride smel like October for me.

Jondal is a funny little town. It's the main base for a 365-day glacier ski center. It's shocking to ride into the hotel all hot and sweaty and meet a family in full snowsports regalia holding carving boards. In town, I was surprised to see a bus disgorge an entire cross-country ski team. No wonder these people keep winning gold medals - they get to ski year-round. Have I found paradise?

2005-08-23-285 The "hardanger cathedral" (a modest wooden chapel) sits next to my hotel. I noticed that every row of pews has its own line of heating vents, which is probably a necessity come December. A cherub holding a halo flies over where the priest stands, which must give the holy man in charge a look which is either authoritative or ridiculous. (I might tend toward the latter interpretation, solely because it looks like the angel is halfway through an ultimate frisbee layout.)

The hotel includes dinner (salmon!) so I was able to finally eat a full meal, as well as meet the other guests. Almost all are representatives of the norwegian national mogul skiing team and will be going to the next Olympics. And here I was thinking that they were just a bunch of teenagers with exceptionally bad hair.

Has it been a week already? I'm stuck in that travel dreamland interzone where days of the week don't exist and time only matters insofar as it relates to ferry schedules.

When the desk guy told me that I could enjoy any of two channels in the tv lounge, I thought he was joking. Nope.

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