Kew Gardens, England

This will be my last post for this trip. We were able to fit in a visit to Kew Gardens before heading off home. Awesome place. The first photo is of the Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world. It covers 5,850 sq yds and is 63 ft high.

The photo below is of the Pagoda which was completed in 1763. The 10 storey building is 163 ft high.

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Norsk Folkemuseum, Norway

The Norsk Folkemuseum presents life in Norway from 1500 until today. The open-air museum has more than 150 historic buildings which have been relocated from various parts of Norway. The indoor exhibits feature Norwegian traditional culture.

Here are a few examples of rural farmsteads.

One of the most spectacular buildings is the Stave church from Gol which dates back to the 1200s.

The indoor exhibit has several (hundred!) more examples of embroidery, woodworking, and other crafts.

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Oslo Cathedral, Norway

I didn't take many photos today but here are two of Oslo Cathedral. The ceiling was done with tiles.

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Dala-Floda, Sweden

Floda Church was founded during the medieval period. Its current form dates from the eighteenth century.

Lots of beautiful embroidery today. All of these examples are from the Dala-Floda area.

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Satergalantan and the Ottilia Abelborg Museum, Sweden

Satergalantan is a local college that offers courses on all types of Swedish crafts. They also have a needlework collection.

At the Abelborg Museum we saw more examples of traditional Swedish needlework.

Mora, Sweden

We traveled to Mora today and visited the church there. The tower is more than 230 ft high and was built in the second half of the seventeenth century, when the church was largely rebuilt following a serious fire. Parts of the original medieval church remain, however. The building can trace its origins back to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries.

We also visited the Zorn Gammelgard and Textile Museum. This is a small sample of the various kinds of needlework on display.

Flåm Railway, Norway

Today we traveled from Ulvik to Fagernes. Along the way we went through the Gudvanga tunnel, 7.1 miles long and Norway's second longest tunnel, and stopped for a ride on the Flåm railway, a 12.6 mi long railway line between Myrdal and Flåm in Aurland, Norway. The line's elevation difference is 2,831 ft; it has ten stations, twenty tunnels and one bridge. The maximum gradient is 5.5 percent (1:18), making it the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe. Again there are loads of waterfalls along the way - this is Kjosfossen, the largest.

The train also runs through the valley of Flåmsdalen.

Ulvik and the Hardanger Museum, Norway

Our hotel in Ulvik is right at the edge of the fjord. It is the long white building in the photo below.

It took us 1.5 hrs by boat to get to Utne and the Hardanger Folk Museum. Here there were examples of costumes from several different regions of Norway as well as many examples of hardanger embroidery.

Bergen, Norway

We traveled to Bergen today.

We drove there on one road and returned via a different route. Both roads had spectacular scenery with tons of waterfalls. This is just one of them.

Oslo to Ulvik, Norway

Today we drove on the R7 via the Hallingskarvet National Park from Oslo to Ulvik, Norway. It was a spectacular trip. We stopped at the Nore Stave Church which was remodeled to its current form between 1650 and 1750 (some parts date to 1200). The inside is covered with paintings of leaves, flowers, fruit, old testament scripts, and several figures (unfortunately photography was not allowed inside the church).

Then we stopped for an excellent lunch at Sevletunet, a historic farm from the 15th century. This is just one of the buildings we saw there.

We continued on over the mountains which still have plenty of snow and lakes covered with ice.

Vigeland Sculpture Park, Norway

This afternoon we visited the Vigeland Sculpture Park, one of our favorite places in Oslo. It covers 80 acres and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures all designed by Gustav Vigeland. The main attraction is the granite monolith which was initially modeled in clay by Vigeland. Work on the block of granite weighing several hundred tons was begun in 1929 and took 3 stone carvers 14 years to finish. The Monolith is over 46 ft high and is composed of 121 human figures.

This is a photo of another area of the park. There are sculptures around the fountain and along the sides of the bridge.