Day 9 - Bergen to Rosendal

The ferry ride to Rosendal was pretty short. It was still raining, so we just sat inside and read. It would have been beautiful if we could have been outside, the area around Bergen changes very quickly. But it was nice to sit and relax for a bit. It was also raining in Rosendal. Only a few people from the ferry were also stopping there, so it was pretty quiet in town. Before heading to our B&B we stopped in at the tourist office for some maps. The walk out to the B&B was maybe a mile. By the time we got there, we were quite cold and somewhat wet, despite all of our rain gear.

Rosendal is the site of the only barony in Norway's history. A member of the same family that built the Rosenkrantz Tower in Bergen moved to the area and set himself up. As part of his will, he stated that at the time that no blood of his remained on the earth, all his land would pass to the University, rather than to the church as was custom. So now the land, the house, and the old farm house are all managed by a private organization that is affiliated with the University.


The old farmhouse is now a B&B, and that's where we were staying. It's a beautiful old building, nestled in a narrow valley next to a river. The mountains come steeply down behind the building, glistening with waterfalls.


When we arrived, the woman in charge of reservations was out so the cook let us sit in the breakfast room while we waited. She stoked up the fire and brought us a pot of dark Norwegian coffee. The view out the window was phenomenal - beautiful mountains, light rain, field of sheep. We sat and dried out and drank coffee until the manager got back. We were the only people staying there that night, so she let Todd check out a few rooms and pick the one he wanted. (He had gone out to see if she was back, so I was still enjoying my coffee.) He picked out a little corner second floor room that looked out over the sheep and the river.

Once we got settled in, we put all our rain gear back on and walked up to the old barony. We took a tour of the building, which is very impressive. It was built in the 1400s - an the main spiral staircase is still the original. It's never even been refinished. The library has a huge collection of old books, including a Danish Bible from some time in the 1600s. A variety of the rooms were updated over the years, usually for someone coming to visit or some other special occasion. In one of the hallway there are portraits of all the household staff, which is exceptionally unusual. Each Christmas, up until about 50 years ago, all of the poor children in the area would be invited to dinner and carols. We didn't take any pictures of the grounds because it was raining too hard, but we did spend some time strolling around.

Despite the rain, we decided to go for a hike after we got back from the barony. According to our map, there was a big waterfall not too far from the farm house. So we headed out into the rain. Other than being wet, the day was quite nice. The trail wound through a sheep field.


Some of the sheep seemed curious, but most of them just ignored us. It was very pleasant, walking through the field with the rain falling softly and the sound of sheep bells ringing.


About 15 minutes into the hike, I realized there was no point in trying to keep my shoes dry which made the going much faster. After a week or more of constant rain, the ground was very soft, and it was hard to avoid sinking in over my ankles. It was actually kind of fun to just tromp through the puddles. The waterfall was well worth the wet hike. With all the recent rain, it was a rushing torrent, well beyond its normal bounds.




We were able to get up pretty close to it. There is something very humbling standing next to so much power. Todd was poking around on the various little trails, but I just stood there and watched for a while. The trail continued on past the waterfall so we kept on. After a half mile or so the trail came out of the trees and into a more open, rocky field.



The map indicated that there was a bridge across the river which would have let us take a different route back. But it either washed away or was taken down, because there were no bridges in sight. So we took a bit of a different route down the mountain. Which was cool, with the rain it was a bit foggy in among the trees. Exactly the setting you'd expect to find a fairy or some other fantastical creature.



When we got back to our room, it was still too early for dinner so we walked around the grounds for a while. The rain had mostly stopped, which was a nice change.



We were hoping to have dinner at the farm house, but it turned out that the chef had the flu, so we had to walk into town. We had a nice simple dinner and walked back to the farm house. We both had nice hot showers and read for a while before crashing.