My page Norway-2024 was getting full after 25 days in Bergen, so I am starting a new page for my two weeks in Balestrand. The object is the same – mainly an aide-memoire to myself, but also for family, friends, and anyone who may be interested.
Wednesday 26 June 2024
With an early start, I hadn’t slept much, and was content to stay in my seat in the middle of a row for most of the journey. Also, with 23⁰ forecast, I had squashed my jacket and fleece into my rucksack, so when I did go on deck I felt underdressed.
Made up for the shortage of sleep in the afternoon, once I had unpacked. I didn’t even go to the church today.
Thursday 27 June
Went to the church to say Morning Prayer, then read the last visiting chaplain’s report and the first half of a history of St Olaf’s by John Roden, published in 2017. This was two years after my previous visit, as I discovered from the Services Register.
As per the briefing, I asked when Mulla Kvikne would be available, and was told she’d be coming in at 12. Over a cup of coffee, she and her daughter Marta filled me in on recent developments. Chaplains are no longer responsible for handling money, as Marta now has the key to the donations box. (I knew this already, from David Waller’s report.) I should buy flowers for the church as needed, and give her the receipt for reimbursement. (Last time, I remember trying to pick suitable wild flowers.) And we are no longer going to use matches; battery-operated candles are on order (and turned up the following day.)
My postal vote form arrived, and I was delighted to be able to vote for Lucy’s friend Stacy, standing as the Green Party candidate. I hope that it arrives in time and that my signature is close enough to the one I scanned in on my application.
There were 10 of us for evening prayer at 21:00 – mostly members of a Newmarket tour group, but also Lyn, who knew where the proper hymn books were and how to operate the CD player.
Friday 28 June
I picked up a map of hiking trails from the Tourist Office and walked up to the head of Ese Fjord to check the location of some of the trails. Couldn’t resist sitting on this bench for my lunchtime snack. Just beyond this was the start of the path up Keipen, the first part of which is shown as Moderate. I didn’t have my hiking pole, so I walked only a little way up this. Returning I found that the entrance to the moderate trail up Esedale is only about 2km from Balestrand, and a bus stops outside.
Dinner was particularly good, with reindeer stew and roast vegetables.
Saturday 29 June
Today I had to buy flowers for the church from the Joker supermarket. There wasn’t too much choice, but I thought two bunches of something I didn’t recognise, in different colours, would do the trick. There were eight in each, so I split them 5-3. Next time I shall stick to light colours, as the dark ones didn’t show up well on the altar.
Only two visitors for evening prayer tonight. Although I had brought a full length sermon for the weekend, I gave them a shorter version. It was St Peter’s Day, and I used part of John 21.
Sunday 30 June
An even smaller congregation this morning, and he was in more than a hurry than I was. One of the sets of service sheets provided a simple communion service, with no hymns, which took just over 20 minutes, so I was ready when Marta came to drive me to a special service the other side of the Ese Fjord: Kjetil Netland’s last service as their pastor. Joanna and Ingeborg had asked me to represent the chaplaincy, and pass on their appreciation, which I duly did during church coffee back at Kvikne Hotel. Realising that most of the other speakers had come bearing gifts, I went up to my room for one of the greetings cards from Bergen, based on a painting of Mariakirken by a young Taiwanese member.
Monday 1 July
Today I achieved my first proper walk here, and one of the few mountain walks that does not involve retracing my steps. There’s a network of paths on Raudmelen, and I started on Route 7, up to Orrabenken 370 m, then turned left on 7B rising gently to 430 m, and descending steeply but smoothly, still on 7B, before turning left again back to the starting point, all graded Moderate. To go higher would have been Challenging.
This gives me something to share with such visitors to St Olaf’s who are here because they love the mountains.
Other visitors today included a little girl who loves the film Frozen, scenes from which were shot in the church, and repeatedly rushed down the altar steps and aisle with her little brother, pretending that she was Princess Elva.
Tuesday 2 July
Decided to buy myself a 7 day bus pass, and christened it with a journey to Dragsvik, at the tip of the other side of Ese Fjord. I walked part of a waymarked nature trail, regretting that I hadn’t brought my stick, and then set off round the Fjord to Balestrand rather than waiting for the next bus. On the way I discovered another, much easier nature trail through Lunde Arboretum, with some exotic varieties and outstanding examples of more familiar trees. Then back to the road, passing Tjugum church and the bench at the head of the Fjord.
8 for Evening Prayer, including one couple from the Basel chaplaincy and another from Southwark diocese. It being the eve of St Thomas’s Day, I chose the passage above Thomas from John 20.
Wednesday 3 July
This seemed like a good day to go further afield, and the adverts had recommended the Industry Museum in Høvanger, a 50-minute bus journey.
First snag: while waiting for the bus, I noticed a timetable on the wall of a supermarket showing only two possible buses back, giving me 1 hour or 6 hours in Høyanger. My app showed another two in the early afternoon, but I didn’t want to risk it. No timetable on display at Høvanger.
Second snag: all the notices in the museum were in Ny Norsk, nothing in English.
Thirdly I thought it would be about how hydro power in the 21st century had transformed the town into a pleasant, thriving, low-emission town. Instead, it was about the growth of the aluminium industry in the early 20th century, in spite of government opposition (“We’ve got too many factories in Norway as it is”), two world wars, and the Trade Union movement. The story finished in about 1980, when everything was being upgraded to work with a smaller workforce and many homes were being demolished.
Finally, the famous “power walk” up to the dam started with a walk up 1268 steps, some of them in a tunnel which the walks leaflet, in English, describes as “an amusing experience”.
The upshot was, I caught the earlier bus back, and spent the afternoon partly working on this page, partly in church reading John Roden’s history and the chaplains’ reports from 2022 onward between visitors.
Reindeer stew again for dinner, with fennel, red onions and parsnips. Yum yum!
Thursday 4 July
I walked down to the quay, meaning to visit the Museum of Travel and Tourism, but was greeted by Tjetil and his wife. He told me they had booked St. Olaf’s for a private family concert at 12.30 on Saturday and invited me to attend.
I took advantage of the meeting to ask him how to find Jøstein’s office – he had invited me to drop in but just said it’s “down the road.” Actually it’s near the Cider House “and he’s there now”. So I went straight away.
Jøstein has the poster about St. Olaf’s services on his computer, and very kindly printed and laminated 6 copies for me, which I gave to the Tourist Office and supermarkets and pinned to some other notice boards. He also sold me two booklets, Via Dolorosa and Via Lucis, produced by Kjetil, with bible passages and illustrations by the artist whose painting of four local churches was used as the cover illustration for Sunday’s service.
At 5 pm I went to the opening of an exhibition of ceramics and porcelain by local artists.
Today was the first time someone had struck up a conversation with me in the dining room.
Another responsive congregation of 10 people for evening prayer. As they arrived, I asked if they had a favourite hymn, and one of them started on the tune Slane, so we sang Lord of all hopefulness.
Friday 5 July
Election night, so I didn’t get much sleep, listening to the radio on low volume as the results came in. Later that day, I discovered that Stacy, standing as the Green Party candidate in Greenwich, had come second – a remarkable achievement. There are now 4 Green MPs. Otherwise, the new Government has its work cut out, and still needs our prayers!
Travel and Tourism Museum
Finally managed to visit the Travel and Tourism Museum, which is mostly about T&T in Sogndal, and Balestrand in particular. There is a gallery devoted to the life and paintings of a keen walker, Catherine Hermine Kølle, who was advised to take up walking for the sake of her health, and never stopped. She must have carried her paints with her, as her notebooks were beautifully illustrated.
Saturday 6 July
When I went down to St Olaf’s to say Morning Prayer, I found Kjetil’s wife Solveig delivering flowers and orders of service for their concert at lunchtime. They’re starting with Be thou my vision in Norwegian, but thought it would be good to give people the choice of singing it in English, so I put out two dozen hymnbooks and slid the numbers 70 into the hymnboard. Then I devised a notice telling visitors that the church would be closed from 12.00 till 1.30. It took me 4 goes to get it right, with key words in English, French, German and Norwegian.
I was still there at 11.30 when the musicians started to arrive with their instruments, so I stayed, to make sure that visitors knew what was happening. When all the family had arrived, Kjetil asked me to take a group photo (on a real camera, not on my phone). Here’s one I took earlier.
It was a great occasion, with folk dress, songs, flute and violin, and a roll on the drums, all by members of the family.
They were off for a celebration meal at the hotel, while I decided to try the borscht at the Ukrainian restaurant. A thin beetroot-coloured soup with mixed vegetables and chunks of ham. Some cream on top, but less luxurious than my memories of the Russian version.
A congregation of one for Evening Prayer, but at least she appreciated it.
Sunday 7 July
Both services today had a respectable congregation, partly thanks to there being no service at the Norwegian church. After preaching Saturday night and Sunday morning, I decided to make the Sunday evening service Compline, with no hymns and no sermon,
Between the two services, I took the bus to Sogndal and spent a couple of hours there, walking along the edge of the Fjord and eating ice cream.
Took my phone in to dinner so that I could take a photograph of my first course from the buffet: three different kinds of pickled herring, three of salmon, and some prawns.
Monday 8 July
I went to Vik on the other side of Sogne Fjord to make good use of my 7-day bus pass before it expires. Unfortunately, I missed the connection – either I was not quick enough getting off the car ferry or it didn’t show up – and had to walk 10 km to Vik. The Tourist Office advised me that the Stave Church was just 1.5 km away, the Stone Church a bit farther. There’s a cultural trail which includes both, so that added up to another 5 km.
Tuesday 9 July
My last full day here Time for tidying up and writing my report. Coffee with the Kviknes, and a short walk part way up Grisagrø, about 2 km out of town up the Ese fjord. I turned round when I realised that I had lost sight of the waymarks, and that the path did not cross the river I saw below me.
At dinner, Mulla Kvikne came to say goodbye to me. I had told her that I found the table allocated to me claustrophobic, alongside a large pillar separating me from the main dining area, and she had come to have a look, and saw what I meant.
There were 12 + me for the evening service at 9 pm, the best-equal attendance of the fortnight. As I was clearing up afterwards, a couple came in who had not known about the service, or they would have come. They had been members of the Chaplaincy community in Moscow and Stavanger.
Then it was time to start packing. I wanted to put my alb in first. Just the pyjamas and sponge bag to put in tomorrow.
Wednesday 10 July
A breakfast slightly quicker than usual, to catch the boat at 7:50. This one didn’t have seating upstairs, and all the window seats were taken, but I had a good chat with a fellow solo passenger, who enjoyed hearing about my trip round the world.
It was raining as we approached Bergen so I decided to go straight to the airport.
Will I be going to Balestrand again? Several people have asked me that, in the last couple of days, making it more likely that I might.
emeritablog: life after work 