Book Town

To begin our second week in Sogndal, we decided to add a rental vehicle to our arsenal, partially as an antidote to the physical demands presented by the city’s many steep hills, but mainly because it will considerably expand the radius of exploration available to us and also unburden our relatives from needing to be at our beck and call for transportation purposes. We were rewarded for our efforts with the rental car available in Sogndal–that’s right, there is only one, and it now belongs to us for the next two weeks. (I am sure other vehicles can be made available from nearby agencies if necessary, but this was the one primed and ready in the city proper.)

We traveled first to–where else?–the grocery store, in celebration of our newly bolstered shlepping capabilities and to refill our struggling pantry supply. One of my favorite aspects of this trip to Sogndal has been the opportunity to cook nearly every evening for our family. While our limited food stock and unfamiliar environs do not lend themselves to Michelin-star meal preparation, I absolutely adore cooking, and I rarely have the time as often as I would like back home. Preparing meals is one of my favorite ways to express appreciation and love for important people in my life, and this trip has been a gut check that perhaps I need to rearrange some of my priorities when I return.

My dad was the chosen one behind the wheel for our inaugural junket to Fjærland, a short half-hour drive from our base in Sogndal. While the locals are likely undaunted by the task of navigating the roads here, for an American, it can be nothing short of terrifying. The winding, mountainside roads that often connect the smaller towns that make up Sogndalsfjøra (the name of the larger municipality of which Sogndal is a part) are rarely wide enough for two vehicles, but they operate as two-way roads, meaning that, in the event that two cars intersect one another heading in opposite directions, one driver is obliged to reverse until there is enough space to maneuver past. We have chuckled at the impossibility of such a transaction being conducted cordially in the United States.

Fjærland is a charming seaside town with two prominent quirks. The first is Hotel Mundal, constructed in 1891, which hosted Vice President Walter Mondale in 1979 during his time in office and also many times thereafter following his reentry into private life. The second is its designation as norsk bokby, “Norwegian Book Town.” The streets are lined with tiny shops, houses, and sheds that are all lined and filled with shelves upon shelves of used books on an incalculable variety of subjects. In a nod to modern times, minimalist instructions for VIPPS (the Norwegian equivalent of Venmo) are posted on some of the shelves for payment purposes; the honor system reigns, for most shelves are completely unattended. My dad located several historical texts that supplemented his existing knowledge of our family line’s history in the area.

Tomorrow, we have tentative plans to reunite with family for another car trip through the mountains, so this time we will have a knowledgeable guide in tow as well. While it appears that the weather is poised to take a significant turn for the worse, I remain enthusiastic about the places we’ve yet to see (and the many ways to reach them!).