Sognefjellet

This morning, Arnor and Kari picked us up for a grand excursion that provided us with the empirical answer to one of life’s burning questions: why go under a mountain when you can go over it?

Sognefjellet is a snaking mountain pass that starts near the town of Skjolden at the end of the Sognefjord and eventually descends into the town of Lom. The road runs directly between two national parks–one is the Jostedal Glacier, mentioned yesterday; the other is Jotunheimen–so the views are, well, I’m afraid I’ve run out of words. This trip has already stretched my command of prose to its limits, and this tour today took us to a place where my composition simply cannot follow.

What will be lost in translation in the pictures I present below is that these were not isolated stops along the road where the view was good enough for a photograph. Take any one of these pictures, and imagine them stretched out across an eight-hour drive, like a never-ending slideshow. The entire drive was worthy of a stop-and-take-pictures-here moment.

Our first stop of the day in the town of Lom brought us coffee, a welcome sight that inspired us to attempt to translate the phrase “breath of life” into Norwegian so that Arnor and Kari could understand the depth of my appreciation for the beverage. But another form of nourishment quickly stole the limelight, as my dad and I can now say we’ve had the distinct pleasure of enjoying a Fossburger. When you are American, there are few culinary honors greater than having a burger named after you, and this one did not disappoint. (For those wondering, the Fossburger was described as “a burger of cattle” and was served simply with lettuce, red onion, tomato, pickle, barbecue sauce, and thousand island dressing, all on a sesame bun, accompanied by cooked fingerling potatoes. It was a perfectly executed nod to the fact that sometimes simplicity, done well, is best.)

In the center of town, visitors are encouraged to use an old-school water pump to taste “the best water in the world” that comes up through the mountains. Though our taste test concurred that the water was prime quality, Arnor jestingly insisted every town in Norway claims to have the best water, and he remained a fierce skeptic.

From Lom, our endeavors turned westward, this time remaining mostly flat, though the world around us was anything but that. The scenery shifted ceaselessly from lush mountainsides to soaring waterfalls to shimmering lakes, and Arnor and Kari pointed out the explosion of camping tourism in the area, though by this time of year it has started to slow down considerably.

We took our last stop for sustenance in Stryn, another quiet town along our triangular route that would take us back to Sogndal. While I settled for the familiar over the adventurous and ordered fish and chips, my dad decided to embrace his inner Viking, as Arnor characterized it, and requested the elgkaker–moose cakes. One of two things is true: either a ground moose patty is delicious, or lingonberry cream over the top makes it bearable, as evidenced by my dad’s cleaned plate. (Having sampled it myself, I’m pretty confident it is the former.)

One final pause for photos in Loen brought our sightseeing to a close before our final leg back to Sogndal. A main attraction there is the Loen Skylift, a cable car that runs from the ground to the top of Mount Hoven at a gradient reaching 60 degrees at its peak. At the summit, guests are greeted with the option of dining at the Hoven restaurant, offering an unparalleled view of the fjord below. The village of Loen apparently saw an 80% increase in local revenues after the construction of the Skylift in 2017. Had my companions on this trip shared my sense of adventure, I would have happily boarded the Skylift, but it wasn’t in the cards today. Instead, we continued back to Sogndal.

We all settled on one word at the end of the day: special. I’m not entirely certain we will ever be able to express adequately to Arnor and Kari how thankful we are for their willingness–indeed, their eagerness–to show us this unforgettable part of the world and to share their stories and knowledge of it, having appreciated it for so many years themselves. While we certainly are here as tourists, at least to an extent, not many tourists have the privilege of being guided through Norway by generous and kind members of their family, however distant the relation might be, in the way we were able to experience today. I can’t possibly repay their generosity, but I’ve done my best to represent it here, and hope this enshrining of our day in pictures and text is able to communicate even a fraction of the gratitude I feel after being gifted one of the greatest days I can remember. If you are reading, Arnor and Kari, tusen takk for idag.