Norway’s majestic Sognefjord

Kvilne’s Hotel has been appealing for generations to those who appreciate quality, tradition and atmosphere. The fairytale castle by the fjord started in 1752 with Holmen grocer’s shop. Brothers Ole and Knut bought the general store and guest house with accommodation for 4 in 1877 and four generations of the family have transformed it into the largest fjord hotel in Norway.

The majestic wooden building is idyllically situated beside the Sognefjord and it radiates a very special atmosphere. The extensive public rooms are filled with original art works and antique furniture. The impressive Hoyvik Room has a unique collection of furniture in the ‘dragon-style’ by a local furniture maker. This room also has the chair in which Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany was sitting when he received the news that the First World War had broken out.

We arrived at a very busy time while a wedding was being held in the hotel. Despite this, reception was welcoming and the procedure was simple. The hotel built a new concrete high-rise building in 1973 completely out of character with the hotel and we initially disappointed to find our room was here rather than the old building. This disappointment was put aside, however, when we reached our 5th-floor room and saw the view. While it wasn’t the classic fjord view there was a lovely panorama over the town and along the shoreline.

The room itself was nothing special – just like a thousand other 4-star hotel rooms around the world. Facilities were adequate and everything worked but there was no special atmosphere. This changed completely when we explored the gardens, went out on the small jetty in front of the hotel then went into the dining room for dinner.

The Kviknes Hotel has a renowned buffet each night and we took to it with relish. Buffets are not my favourite style of meal but this was outstanding. The selection was extensive and the quality excellent. There was simply too much to try everything so we were extremely grateful to a Norwegian guest who indicated that there were several things not to miss. Taking his advice we gorged on salmon, pate, roast beef, a selection of vegetables, local cheese and a mix of desserts. We washed it down with a beer and a cocktail. I couldn’t cope with the more than 300 different wines on offer. We ate far too much then retired to one of the lounge rooms for coffee and nibbles. All in all it was a very memorable meal.

The hotel has long been a favourite for royal families from Norway and abroad and in more recent times, Eric Clapton, Yoko Ono, Kofi Annan and celebrity chef Keith Floyd have all visited. Our experience was that you didn’t need to be in the celebrity category to be treated like an honoured guest. We received that treatment from almost all we had contact with here. That is a rare experience and one I would love to repeat.

This has been a tourist destination since the middle of the 19th-century and it continues to serve that purpose admirably well today. It is also a prosperous farming community and the two activities combine to make it a particularly attractive spot for visitors.

There are not many real attractions here – it is more a place to soak up the atmosphere of the fjord, surrounding mountains and cute little community. You can see most things in the village by walking the streets and nodding to passing locals. There are several small hotels and restaurants above the quay, a supermarket and some other shops, and a small tourist office where you can rent a bicycle.

You will need a bicycle (or vehicle) if you want to travel around the fjord and see some of the very attractive waterfront houses and the Viking burial mounds. The mounds are only about 600 metres from town and are supposedly the burial grounds for King Bele and his wife. On the larger of the two mounds, the German Kaiser in 1913 plonked a statue of the King in heroic pose here as part of his fascination with Nordic mythology. We paddled around for awhile without seeing another soul, but it is quite a pretty spot and worthy of a visit. A two-kilometre long cultural trail follows the coast past here.

The other point of interest is the English Church of St Olav. This was under renovation when we visited but the spiky brown wooden building could still be appreciated. It is in a style somewhat similar to the ancient stave churches. The story of the church is interesting. The building comes from 1897 when it was built by an English expatriate who had married a local mountaineer and hotel owner Knut Kvikne. Today in a strange twist from Britain’s imperial past it belongs to the Diocese of Gibraltar (that’s at the other end of Europe) and English-language service are held here in the summer.

Several hiking trails into the peaks behind the town start immediately west of the village. I was told that none are easy but the scenery is spectacular. The tourist office sells a detailed hiking map for those keen to do this but you need to watch the weather because storms come quickly.

Accommodation is provided by a campground with cabins, hostel, several pensjonats and the Balestrand and Kringsja hotels. All are clean and most have rooms with a fjord view. Most of the accommodation places serve dinner and there is a cafe opposite the ferry dock that serves snacks , lunches and drinks. Top accommodation in town is at the Kvikne’s Hotel (see my review in this journal).

If you have a vehicle and are in town between May and September, I strongly suggest the fast car ferry which goes from Balestrand along the stunningly beautiful Fjaerlandsfjord to Mundal. The journey takes about an hour and is not cheap (around Nkr 300) but it avoids a ferry crossing and a large toll on the road north and gives a different perspective on the fjord and surrounding mountains. There is also a passenger express boat to either Bergen to the south or Sogndal to the east.

There is little doubt that visitors to Norway are always impressed by the country’s road tunnels. Some spiral upwards through mountains, others pass deep under the sea to reach offshore islands and one bores through a mountain under a huge glacier.

While all of these are spectacular they pale in significance when compared with the tunnel on E16 north of Flam. This tunnel which took six years to build and opened in 2000 is the world’s longest road tunnel at 24.5 kilometres long. This makes it 7.6 kilometres longer than the St Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland. If you came across this tunnel in most other countries you would be blown away. In Norway, because you have already driven through numerous tunnels before reaching here, it initially seems like any other; but it’s not.

The two-lane tunnel was drilled through very hard pre-Cambrian gneiss and at one point it is over 1400 metres below ground. Amazingly no tolls are charged to drive through the tunnel and this is another reason it feels so ‘normal’ when you enter. After 20 minutes and you still haven’t reached the end, you have an entirely different feeling.

The engineers who built this realised that 20 minutes was a long time to be driving in the dark so they have created two galleries at roughly the third points. Here the tunnel dramatically enlarges in size, the lighting changes to a strange blue effect and there are parking bays so you can get out and stretch your legs. It seems quite a few drivers do.

Other features of the tunnel are the emergency telephones stationed every 500 metres, 34 gigantic ventilation fans, a treatment plant for dust and nitrogen dioxide and a radio station in case of emergency. The cost for all this was a staggering Nkr1,100 million (US$180 million), all paid by the central government.

Norway has other long tunnels including at least two others over 11 kilometres long and many in the 6-9 kilometres category but all now pay homage to this Aurland to Laerdal monster. The tunnel replaces the 45 kilometre long sinuous Snovegen road which is only open from June to mid October. This road climbs and twists to the high plateau at over 1300 metres with incredible views all the way.

Aurland is a small town at the end of the popular Aurlandsdalen hiking route. In summer this can be a 4-day trek from Finse but there are some sections you can walk in a day. Laerdal at the northern end of the tunnel has a collection of 18th and 19th-century timber homes and the Wild Salmon Centre where you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the Atlantic salmon.
A few kilometres north of Laerdal we drove onto a ferry for the first of many fjord crossings. This one takes about 15 minutes and when we reached the other side we headed for Balestrand.

This magical village has a special place in my heart. Nearly 40 years ago I arrived here by the spectacular Flambanen railway which descends 865 metres to water level from Myrdal on its bleak , treeless plateau. At that time I knew nothing about Flam and what I found was mind-blowing. The small village appeared to be surrounded by water and mountains. There was no traffic on the marvellous lakeside road so I walked for hours absorbing the atmosphere.

I should have known but few places remain the same so I was somewhat shocked to discover that the Oslo-Bergen highway now travels past here. Fortunately, the highway bypasses the village which is really nothing more than a railway station, wharf, hotel, several restaurants and a clutch of houses. I quickly discovered that there was still some magic left.

Today Flam is probably the village in Norway that is most visited by international tourists. They come on cruise boats or by the railway. In summer there are up to 10 trains a day travelling the 1:18 gradient to/from Myrdal. This is rated by many people to be in the world’s top 10 rail journeys and I whole heartedly agree. The one-hour trip passes thundering waterfalls and magnificent mountain scenery before arriving in Flam. It is memorable.

We were not staying in Flam but it seemed to be a good place for a meal. There was one ship in the fjord but the next train was not due for half an hour so there was some semblance of tranquillity. We chose the rustic-looking Furukroa restaurant at the ferry dock and found it served full meals but also snacks and drinks. We ended up with a smoked salmon sandwich and lasagne washed down with a bottle of Coke. Not particularly healthy but we thought the price was reasonable – for Norway. Mains in the restaurant were around Nkr 120 (US$20) while pizza was Nkr180 (US$30).

Later we discovered the Togrestauranten restaurant near the railway station which had some traditional Norwegian dishes and vegetarian choices as well as international cuisine. Prices here were a little higher but this novel restaurant is housed in several wooden rail cars. Just behind the restaurant we discovered a supermarket so this means you could buy your own picnic lunch and sit by the fjord at half the cost of the restaurants.

There is also some accommodation here. The Fretheim Hotel has been recently renovated and it now looks a picture. There are en suite rooms from around NKr1000 a double and the hotel has a nice restaurant. An alternative is the Heimly Pensjonat where there are simple rooms with great fjord views and breakfast for around Nkr 750 a double.

Flam is still a place to appreciate your surroundings although this becomes more difficult when a train disgorges several hundred tourists on your doorstep. The fjordside complex is crass and commercial but I was willing to forgive that because it effectively deals with the large number of tourists who pass through here. The way to get some tranquillity is to walk around the fjord and get some distance from the village or stay the night and enjoy the village without tourists. When we did this, all my memories of a previous visit came back. Really little had changed.

Charming Bergen is an apt place to start an exploration of the western fjords. It is clean, green and flowery and at times packed with tourists. You can join a very popular tour here called ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ which on a long day takes you by train, ferry and coach through some of Norway’s best scenery. We had more time so we explored by rental car.

Rental cars in Norway are expensive. There is no getting around that. Most are manual models so you need to be familiar with this transmission. The roads are generally good, although some are narrow, so driving is not too difficult and the benefits are huge.

We left Bergen by way of the E16, the main highway to Oslo. This is a busy road close to Bergen with many tunnels and some spectacular views. Our initial destination was Voss a town of about 8,000, well known as a winter sports venue. From medieval times, the town served as an agricultural centre and there is still evidence of this today. The town centre was devastated by German bombers in 1940 and the reconstruction after the end of World War 2 while uninspiring, created a good commercial, industrial and educational centre.

Apart from the excellent winter skiing, Voss has opportunities for white-water rafting, canyoning and river boarding as well as fishing. There is a Folk Museum on the edge of town with an interesting collection of historic farm buildings. Probably the most interest is a stone cross near the stone church, which was erected in 1023 to commemorate the conversion of the town to Christianity. Parts of the existing church date from the 1270s but alterations and restorations over the years have significantly changed it.

There are various routes from Voss to the fjords but to each the Sognefjord you continue on the E16. This gets more spectacular as you head north-east. At Vinje you need to make a decision about going north to Vik and Vangsnes or east to Undredal and Flam. Vik is famous for its splendid stave church which was constructed in 1130 while Vangsnes is the site of the 12-metre high hilltop statue of Fridtjof the Intrepid which was erected in 1913 by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. There are good views on the Sognefjord from here and car ferries to Hella and Dragsvik.

Back at Vinje we pushed on through deep gorges and amazing tunnels towards Flam. The road was becoming more interesting at each turn and fortunately the traffic was becoming less. It is very easy to miss the turn off to Undredal but I strongly recommend that you don’t. This little goat-cheese producing village by the side of the fjord is a delight. We were clearly the only visitors in town so we sat on the tiny wharf and marvelled at our surroundings. At our feet lay the flat grey expanse of the fjord. Ahead there were snow-covered peaks plunging down to the water with their spectacular waterfalls. To our right were sheer rock walls and behind us was the pretty village. We really were transfixed.

The tiny village church, the smallest house of worship in Norway, is worth a visit. In the tourist season you can have a goat-cheese tasting in the village. There is a camp ground and cabins are available at Undredal Brygge, which has a cafeteria for meals and snacks.