You cannot be bored in Norway

Every day of my three-week round trip to Norway were highlights, even those when I spent 10-12 hours travelling. From the many wonders of the country, let me just present to you the world heritage sites.

Norway has seven world heritages. One of them is the Struve Geodetic Arc, spanning through 10 countries. I had already visited one of its points during my trip to Estonia, therefore this time I skipped this UNESCO site. Its points in Norway are hard to approach and not that spectacular, so I concentrated on the six other world heritages.

Bergen, the city of umbrellas

After visiting the capital and climbing two exciting rocks (Preikestolen and Kjerag), I headed to Bergen, one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. I was lucky as it was bathed in bright sunlight despite that Bergen is referred to as the city of umbrellas. It generally has 213 rainy days per year. The most extreme period was between October 29, 2006 and January 21, 2007, when it rained for 84 consecutive days.

Well, I did not go there because of the rain, but to see the world heritage city center. Bergen is considered one of the most influential passenger ports of Europe not only nowadays, but since the 14-15th centuries when it was one of the most important port cities of the Hanseatic League. The German traders lived in a separate district near the seashore, which was fenced off from the other parts of the city. This old district of Bryggen, with the Hanseatic houses, are declared as UNESCO world heritage sites.

We can learn about the living conditions of officials and merchants at the Hanseatic Museum, where it was really interesting to see the once luxurious houses and the miserable living quarters of workers right next to each other. The 60 buildings currently house restaurants, gift shops, art studios and galleries.

Piano concert at the holiday house of Grieg

Tourists absolutely love these old houses, as well as the crowded fish market and the amazing panorama from the mountain above the town. After standing in the queue for a long time, one can ascend to the top via cable cars.

The holiday house of Edvard Grieg, the famous composer, is a slightly less well-known attraction and is a few kilometers away from the city. At lunchtime they give a 30-minute concert here, for which buses take tourists from the tourist agency of the city. If you would like to get away from the crowded tourist attractions of Bergen, you can rest here in a calm environment, in a beautifully constructed concert hall.

Norway in a nutshell

By far, the country’s most popular one-day tour is known as ‘Norway in a nutshell’. It starts out either from Bergen or Oslo, and gives insight into the country’s most beautiful natural attractions. From either town, people first take the train to Voss, change to bus to Gudvagen, then embark on a boat to Flåm through the world heritage Nærøy-fjords. One of the world’s most amazing train rides, the Flamsbana, starts out from here to another small town Myrdal, before finally travelling back to Bergen or Oslo by train.

The tour is profoundly popular; hundreds of tourists opt for it every single day. Despite the high number of participants and the complexity of the tour, it operates smoothly as it is perfectly organized. If someone is not fond of crowds but would like to see world heritage fjords, I would suggest visiting the Geiranger-fjord instead. From the almost 1200 fjords of Norway UNESCO appointed the Nærøy-fjord and the Geiranger-fjord as world heritage as these are the deepest, narrowest and most beautiful – i.e. true specimens of fjords. Their unique beauty is due to the narrow and steep cliffs, which are 1400 meters above the sea level.

Vikings built churches in the shape of a ship

After Bergen and the fjords I left the crowd behind, and shared the next four world heritage sites with just a handful of tourists. As I progressed from the south to the north I first visited the Urnes Stave Church, for which I first had to go to Solvorn.

One of the most special accommodations of my travels was here, at an organic farm which only welcomes guests as a secondary activity. Its owners primarily produce jams and juices. From the hammock in the garden there was a spectacular view to the harbor, from where the town of Urnes, the home of the world heritage church, could be visited by a ferry.

Between the 12th and 14th centuries almost a thousand donga churches were built in Norway. At that time Vikings converted to Christianity and, as ships played a central role in their lives, churches were built in the form of a ship. Only 28 of these special churches have survived, with the one in Urnes the oldest.

It became a world heritage site because it brings together traces of Celtic art, Viking traditions and Romanesque spatial structures. A man with an Italian accent is the local guide, who undoubtedly loved speaking about the church; he could have gone on for hours. Our trip to Urnes was limited, however, by the departure of the last ferry.

Norway’s coldest town

Before discovering ore deposits, Røros was only a sleepy little village; its residents worked in agriculture in quite rough weather conditions. Namely, it is Norway’s coldest town – the record was minus 50.4 degrees in 1914. Although I was extremely lucky with the weather during my Norwegian trip thus far, here I had to put on my scarf, gloves and hat. I felt a chill slice through my body and I was welcomed with slimy, pouring rain.

The first copper mine in the city opened in 1644, and two years after that the first forge was built as well. Miners arrived from Saxony, as the local Norwegians had no experience in this activity. During the Scandinavian war, in 1678-1679, the Swedish destroyed everything to the ground, and sources of copper were occupied for their own war industry. After the war the town was rebuilt, and people continued to mine copper up until 1977.

The specialty of Røros is that the structure of the city still kept its 17th century shape. The roughly 2000 buildings mainly consist of rebuilt wooden houses from the 18-19th centuries; we could hardly find any new buildings in the town. As a result, the streets are really charming and have an antique atmosphere.

To escape the cold I entered the museum, where an interesting film presented the 333-year history of copper mining. It was followed by a speedy walk in the town and finally, after crawling next to the hot heater of the train station, I thawed from my icy state waiting for the train.

Life has not changed for centuries at the Vega Islands

My otherwise detailed guide book only mentioned the Vega Islands in a paragraph, so I was not surprised that this area was not at all crowded with tourists. I researched from the internet that I had to get to Bronnoysund, from where a ferry would take me to one of the largest islands of the archipelago. The exact route to the world heritage site, though, remained a mystery.

So, I wrote an e-mail to the local tourist office. They happily replied that they were celebrating the 10th anniversary of becoming a world heritage on the exact day of my visit, and a festive boat trip was about to leave to the protected area. What a jackpot!

The Vega archipelago’s area covers 1037 km², and has 6500 smaller and larger islands and cliffs near the Arctic Circle. The mercilessly rough natural conditions and the fishing, cultivating inhabitants form the face of the islands that we can see today. The archipelago did not become a world heritage because of a special building or animal, but because for centuries life went on without almost any changes. Achievements of the modern age or more significant mercantile enterprises did not emerge here until recent years.

In the last 1500 years, inhabitants made their living from the same: fishing, hunting, cultivating, and collecting the eggs and feathers of Eider-ducks. At the beginning of every summer, Eider-ducks return to the same place to build a nest. Locals prepare semi-finished nests from dried seaweed for them, which are happily occupied by the birds. Nests are finished by Eider-ducks with their own feathers, which are later collected by locals. The feathers are then cleaned, and locals make eiderdowns and clothes from them.

Red paint is washed down from rock paintings

The northernmost world heritage site is the Rock Art of Alta, whereto I travelled by bus from Trondheim on a breathtakingly amazing route. Though I had carefully prepared for the long journey with a book and music, I actually did nothing but stare out of the bus window. I was very sorry that I didn’t take this route by car, as I was longing to stop at every turn to take some photos.

The Rock Art of Alta is estimated to be 6000 years old; they were made around 4200-4500 BC. Archeologists discovered several thousand paintings in five different places, but only the largest site is open to the public. At the outskirts of Alta a museum has been established to present them, with walking routes in the area.

Paintings were carved into the granite with quartz chisels. The red paint seen today was actually painted by archeologists. It turned out to be a bad idea, so they gradually get rid of the red paint.

That completed my roundtrip to visit all the UNESCO sights of Norway. While my intention was to “tick off” Norway by visiting all essential sights, this trip only whet my appetite to return, and explore even more…