Where the Waterfalls Mean Home
Insights from my World Travels
Jostedalsbreen--the Jostedal Glacier--is the largest glacier on the European continent and cuts across a large swath of mountain just an hour north of Sogndal. The evolution--and, more recently, the quickening liquification--of the glacier plays a critical role in the natural ecosystem of the surrounding Jostedal valley. One particular example of this is memorialized along the …
Oh, how I've longed to pen that title. Four years ago, as many of you reading have now heard, I wove a tale of tragedy through the mountains of Sogndal. I had accepted an invitation from Geir to take a walking journey up the steep slopes, fully unaware of the physical gauntlet it would entail. …
Generally speaking, when traveling, I prefer to seek new experiences rather than repeating the same ones I've had before. But, of course, there are always exceptions to this rule, and we had the opportunity to retrace our steps today to a place my parents and I remember with particular fondness (and a few inside jokes) …
With another day of steady rain limiting our list of potential outings, we decided to add another stavkyrkje to our conquests, this time in Borgund, southeast of Sogndal. The Borgund church was built sometime between the 12th and 13th centuries and features seven tiers with dragon-themed accents at its gables. Contrasted against the Ornes construction, …
At long last, as we knew it eventually would, our unseasonable streak of sunny skies came to an end today. But the gloom can only do so much to dull Sogndal's charm. The city, as well as the countryside that surrounds it, takes on a different--but no less striking--mood when blanketed in mist. I can't …
Having decided that I hadn't punished my legs enough already with yesterday's climb to Ornes, I set out this morning on a solo trek up the roads that wind across the Sogndal hillside. As several of my pictures have likely demonstrated, Sogndal sits along the edge of a massive fjord. But the city also nestles …
In 1184, a highly consequential naval battle took place at Fimreite, located just across the fjord to the southwest of Sogndal. Two kings--Magnus Erlingsson and Sverre Sigurdsson--clashed in a bloody affair resulting in the deaths of at least 2,000 men, including Magnus himself, cementing Sverre's claim as the sole ruler of Norway. The result of …
Our approach to today's schedule was an old Sogndal trip standby: to make no plans at all and hope that something would materialize. It is a strategy that has rarely failed us, and today was no exception. As we sat for breakfast, we received an invitation from Lars to join him and his cousin, Kari …
There's something about waking up in Sogndal that really eases the mind. Perhaps it's the imagination-defying view of the sunrise over the fjords. Perhaps it's the lack of responsibility that I enjoy while here (although, amusingly, I've been waking up earlier than I do in the United States, even though my job requires early rises). …
It has become a recurring theme on these trips to Norway to have days that feel like they began four days ago--a sentiment only increased, I suspect, by having started the day in a different city. When my dad and I boarded flight Widerøe en-fire-ni in Oslo headed to Sogndal this morning, I think we …
Where the Waterfalls Mean Home 