The amazing 900 year old wooden stave church of Urnes, Norway

A stave church is a type of medieval wooden church that used to be widespread throughout Europe. Most of them were built between the years 800 to 1400. But due to a variety of reasons including poor original building techniques very few remain in existence today.

And the vast majority of the remaining stave churches are located in Norway. In fact, they think there used to be as many as 1,000 of them spread across the country, but now only 28 remain.

The pretty little town of Laerdal, Norway

We used to think that Iceland was the most photogenic country we had ever been to. But Norway has now taken over first place in that category! The gorgeous scenery just never stops. It's just simply beautiful here. In fact, someone mentioned the other day that I'm running out of descriptive terms to express what we're experiencing.

So we found ourselves in the town of Laerdal, and decided to take a relax day and just hang out. But of course for us that means we only did a short 6 km (3.7 mile) hike on a trail above the town!

Cruise ships in the fjord

We were parked at the trailhead and the weather turned out better than expected. We weren't originally planning to do the Prest Mountain trail, but I did some reading on the internet and even though it's a fairly short hike, it sounded like it was a good one just for the views of the fjord.

So we set off at 10:00am, headed uphill.

Tips for Selling Your Home and Prepare for RV Living

You’ve lived in a comfortable home your entire life. Whether that be a cozy apartment or a full-sized house, you’re well-acquainted with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room set up. Up until recently, this has felt just fine, but perhaps the need for some sort of adventure has captured your mind. You wouldn't be the first person to feel like this, and you most certainly won’t be the last. In an era where everyone is ditching their conventional living spaces for time exploring, trading your house for a life in an RV isn’t that far out of an idea. If this has been buzzing in your mind, we have some tips for selling your house and preparing to live in an RV!

Finally had to put some fuel in Max

We had arrived in Norway with a full tank, knowing that Norway is probably the most expensive place in the world to buy fuel. But we knew that full tank wouldn't last us for our entire time here, and yesterday was the day to pay up.

Like most other places in the world, the price at the pump tends to fluctuate with the world price of oil. I've noticed here in Norway there is a bit of a delay in implementing that fluctuation, and the oil price is now off its peak. But the price at the pump here hasn't dropped.

We had a beautiful blue sky day!

Based on the past three weeks, a blue sky day doesn't happen very often in Norway! We woke up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And it lasted like that pretty much all day. Wonderful.

We went and did some more grocery shopping before doing the short drive to the tiny fjord port of Gudvangen. 

Discover America’s Secrets on Your Next Holiday

Why a holiday to America is a must

America is a wonderful country that never ceases to amaze. It has something for any kind of travelling or holiday experience. Whether you want a lazy beach holiday or hike across mountains, it has it all.

The country is often in the news for the wrong reasons, making it is easy to believe the American people are at each other’s throats all the time. However, this is largely media driven with most Americans being level headed, friendly people who are very happy to see you, especially after the two year lockdown. You’ll find this out for yourself when you discover the United States.

Max's one year anniversary, and a beautiful bike ride

First off, we celebrated our one year anniversary with Max. Yes, it was one year ago yesterday that we introduced you to our new European motorhome. Hard to believe it's been a year already isn't it? And even harder to believe is the fact that Max has already been to 17 different countries!

Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkiye, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Denmark, and Norway.

We made our way to the popular tourist town of Voss, Norway.

We arrived here in Norway June 1st, and we depart July 26th. So we have a total of 56 days here. You'd think that's a lot of time, but for us it's not. We travel slowly. The half way point for this visit is June 28th.

Our plan was (and still is) to travel as far north as we can until the half way date, and then turn around and start heading south on the coastal route.

Too many motorhomes!

Now that we are in the fjord areas of Norway, we notice just how many motorhomes and campervans there are up here. Too many, and almost not enough places to park them all! I would expect that it is normally busy with motorhomes in June, July, and August in Norway, however I figure that this year is worse due to pent up demand caused by the Covid shutdowns the last two summers.

So we've had to adapt how we do things a little bit.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We were due for a day of rest, so we got up and drove down to the town of Kinsarvik and found a good free internet connection. We had some future travel planning to take care of!

We've had our flights back to Canada booked for quite a while. We leave from Amsterdam on August 5th. 

The four huge waterfalls of the Husadalen Valley near Kinsarvik, Norway

We said goodbye to Marti and Ryan yesterday morning. They are heading to Bergen for a few days, and then flying back to Texas. It was fun seeing them again and doing some more mountain adventures. Pretty sure we'll meet up again somewhere else in the world!

Ruth and I headed a little further north to the town of Kinsarvik. 

The spectacular Trolltunga via ferrata!

Trolltunga is a famous granite rock cliff hovering over a fjord in Norway. It's one of the most popular hikes in Norway, despite the fact that it's also one of the most gruelling and difficult, even for experienced hikers. But there are several ways to get up there.

The most common way is to simply hike up from the lower parking lot. It's a 28 km (17.4 mile) hike round trip!

Water everywhere!

Norway is all about the water. It is everywhere... lakes, streams, fjords, waterfalls, rivers. 

And rain. Lots of rain. On average, Norway "enjoys" 239 days of precipitation per year. But all of that water makes for some beautiful scenery, especially at this time of year when snow is melting.

Do you know what a via ferrata is?

Saturday was pretty much a day to relax. We were parked in a quiet, beautiful spot and we didn't have anywhere we needed to be, so we decided to just stay there and enjoy the day. Besides, it was a Saturday and to move just for the sake of moving and then have to find another spot didn't make any sense.

Of course we didn't just do nothing all day... we did get out for a 6 km (3.7 mile) walk.