After visiting another stave church and being escorted around by an erudite Englishman, we boarded a series of buses, until we arrived at Sogndal, where we transferred to yet another bus for Bricksdal, the home of the famous Bricksdalsbreen (breen means glacier). Getting there took us through scenery so intense and so varied that we finally stopped exclaiming and just sat there awestruck. Roaring rivers, waterfalls cascading into fjords and sometimes down the sides of cliffs onto the bus, tunnels, narrow winding roads inching higher and higher, and blue-green lakes formed by glacial runoff.
In Bricksdal we took a cabin close to a turbulent river. Dinner was incredible, as was the clientele, many of whom were climbers who would tackle the glacier the next day. I felt like a wimp, but climbing ice is not something I crave or even like. However, the serpentine walk to the glacier, past dense forests and glacial falls I could appreciate.
We explored the cave-like areas under the broad, graceful lip of the ice and listened to the cracking sounds and falling rocks that are part of a living, moving glacier. I didn’t realize that over this entire area is the biggest glacier in Europe, and the Bricksdalsbreen is only one tongue of the massive Jostedalsbreen. We sighted one other—the Melkevollbreen.
The day was spent exploring and the evening in good conversation as we sat by the fire with the river thundering a few feet away. I would have been happy to stay here a week, and regretted it when we left early in the morning to catch the bus for Oslo in the small town of Stryn.(click here for pictures)
I regret not having time before leaving for Myanmar to post the last two days of my trip in Sweden, spent in Uppsala with my old friend, Alf Gabrielsson, a retired professor of music psychology at the University of Uppsala. The experience was so rich and the exploration of this old town and its surroundings so intense that it cannot be done quickly. Watch for the tour and the photos upon my return.
