Stay:Heddal - parking at open air museum (due to 24-6 restrictions at church carpark) 59.5787 9.1812
Our first excitement for the day was that we spotted our 3rd moose/elk so far in Norway.
We passed another huge ski resort.
We then kept busy visiting some interesting sites for the rest of the day. We started at Vemork (Norwegian Industrial Worker Musem) in Rjukan. At 90nok each we thought it was good value. When it was built in 1911 it was the world's largest power station.
Until 1929 it supplied power to the saltpetre (fertiliser) plant, and after to the hydrogen factory.
This drew the interest of the German's during WWII as the 'heavy water' was considered essential in the production of atomic bombs. This prompted the allies to organise sabotage missions. The most famous was later made into a movie the 'Heroes of Telemark' in which Norwegian soldiers successfully blew up the manufacturing plant.
However, 6 months later production continued. The US dropped bombs that were unable to destroy the heavy water supply. Even so the Germans decided to ship the supply, but luckily the ferry was blown up and sunk on Lake Tinnsjo. After our 2.5hr visit we drove down through the town which suffers from lack of sunlight in winter. In 1928 The Norsk Hydro company built a cable car to the top of Hardangervidda rising 886m out of the valley so inhabitants could get some winter sun. Just in recent years 3 large mirrors were installed up on the mountainside to capture the suns rays to beam them down into the village square.
An old furnace in town.
As we left the town and approached Lake Tinnsjo at Mael we stopped to have a look at the unique railway ferry. As the named suggests, the train from Rjukan boards a ferry to cross the lake. Unfortunately this runs only on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday.
So we continued to Heddal which is best known to have the largest stave church in Norway. It was built in 1242 and was very impressive with its 64 different roof surfaces.
Seperate bell tower. Internally it was not very ornate but had a lovely altarpiece, a richly carved bishop's chair and 17thC wall paintings.
The 80nok ticket included a visit to the Open Air Museum which consisted of various farm buildings brought here from around the district. The main building was built in 1740. The larger room upstairs was very prettily decorated by famous painter Olav Hannson.
There were also some amazing traditional dresses that had intricate embroidered designs with silver jewellery.
Ancient weaving loom.
We also liked the 'Loft' and 'Bur' designs from the Viking age around 800-1000 AD, when corner timbering was introduced.
As it was nearing the end of the day for us, when Mark asked, the guide said it would be OK to stay overnight in the carpark.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We would love to hear from you...leave us a message below.