Norway Road Trip Diaries 2 of 3 | Ancient Viking parliament, diving board in the middle of nowhere, bridges, and a Viking King
Road Trips in Norway are very rewarding. The combination of excellent roads, scenic landscape, and chances of amazing discoveries really is perfect. My first dairy on Norway Road Trip has already covered my discovery of glaciers, hybrid cars, tunnels, and cleaning toilets (yup, interesting combination of memories), so I shall not repeat them in this second part.
These discoveries were made on a road trip from Bergen to Svanoy in search of the birthplace of the legendary Viking king, Eirik Bloodaxe.
Bridges across Fjords | scary but fun
It is widely known that Norway is the country of tunnels, long ones, short ones, some go under the sea, some are old, and some even have roundabouts inside them (that’s true, I even drove a couple of times inside the roundabout just for fun), but what is not nearly as much known is the beautiful bridges that are also there that bridge islands or go over Fjords. It is quite a feeling to drive on a narrow bridge that’s shaped like an arch, with an infinity view until you reach the top, and then downhill, sometimes even twisting as it reaches the other side. Around the area of Bryknes, these bridges come one after the other, and it’s absolutely stunning.
The Gulating | Viking Parliament
About a thousand years ago, the Vikings were constantly at war with each other. Still, every once in a while, they came together in peace at a summer festival of sorts, which doubled as a place to settle disputes, have discussions, barter goods, and generally have fun. The Gulating in Gulen is beautifully preserved, and when one reaches there, you can almost feel how it was thousands of years ago when Viking Kings came together. Interesting story – the Norwegian parliament is still called a Gulating
Dive Board in the middle of nowhere
While driving towards Bryknes, I almost crashed the car when I saw a diving board on a small lake in the middle of nowhere because I found that so random and at the same time so stunning. I had to go and jump off that. So on the way back, I decided that it was worth a stop. Mind you, it was summer, and the water was freezing. Lakes dot the Norwegian landscape, and because there is so much water around the western side of Norway and islands, one can confuse a lake with a fjord – the difference being fresh or saltwater. But finding a place that had a diving board fitted in was an absolutely memorable discovery.
Viking King from an island with 72 people.
When one thinks of Viking Kings, one immediately imagines huge bloodthirsty warriors surrounded by people like them. Just off the coast of Floro, about a 45-minute ferry ride away, we came to a tiny island of Svanoy, which has just one AirBnB, at the dock above the only convenience store on the island. This island has only 72 residents and has a nature park which has, I think, around 3000 deers. This is where the mighty Viking King Eirik Bloodaxe came from, which was explained to us by a nice lady, who has even traced all of this down through runes in the island and has also written a book around this story. The discovery is a complete eye-opener that kings do not have to have come from lineages; they were also simple people from small places who either had extraordinary capabilities and zeal or circumstantially had to adopt huge roles. Amazing.
More on the third and last part of these Road Trip Diary
To read my Norway Road Trip Diary 1: Click Here
To read my Norway Road Trip Diary 3: Click Here