Norwegian Rural Mountain Woods Scenery

September 16, 2007
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Inspired of the great response from sharing my outdoor experiences from Norway and also the overwhelming feedback from my wifes mountains adventures in the last two post, we took another trip out to the mountain woods yesterday. Half an hour drive south of Oslo, you get to Drammen and from the city you can drive through a cork screw shaped tunnel ‘Spiralen‘; A 3.65 meter high and 9 meter broad tunnel which winds in 11 loops (each spiral has a 70m – 230 feet – diameter) to the top of Bragernesåsen, 200 (meter (656 feet) above sea level. On top you’ll find an Open-air museum, viewpoint, café and the very best; a wide network of walking paths. Before we take you for a walk, let me give you an idea of the view:

Norwegian Mountain View #1 Norwegian Mountain View #1

If you turn around from this view, you’ll see marked walking trails and suddenly find yourself in the middle of an open-air museum. Barns, a forge, storehouses, farmhouses, a sawmill, a water mill and town houses are arranged along the trail in small groupings, like a scene from Norwegian history. Let me give you an example showing the best picture (out of 50) we took yesterday:
Norwegian Rural Houses #1

Its a collection of 25 reconstructed houses from the the 1600s century up until 1950 around from the whole of Buskerud County. A couple of examples again:
Norwegian Rural Houses #2 Norwegian Rural Houses #3
A cultural landscape has been formed to present earlier farming methods and building traditions in the county. Many of the buildings are open to the public during the summer months, and, if you are lucky, you can buy old-fashioned sweets in the old village store. A visit here offers a great opportunity to experience history and impressive countryside at the same time.

Norwegian Waffles #1Walking around in these woods, we were lucky to find seasonal wild blueberries. We just had to pick some of course and most of them were eaten there and then, but Diane saved some for our lunch. So as we sat down at a mountain Dairy (my regular readers knows that my wife always have surprises in the back bag) and sat the table (a solid wooden one!), Diane came out with coffee, waffles and sweet goat cheese, strawberry jam as well as sour cream to put on top. Then I understand why she was so eager to pick blueberries and I gladly share this delightful fresh air gourmet lunch picnic in rural surroundings with you:
Lunch at the country side

If this isn’t kind of a life time experience and what you can call quality time, I don’t know what is :D

I also made a movee to give you an idea of the atmosphere in the mountain woods. We where actually looking for signs of fall in the nature this week (my blog is about the significant fours seasons in Norway you know:-) and if you look carefully on these pics, you might find the beginning of golden colours. Please turn up your sound as well and listen to the lovely Edvard Grieg’s; Piano Concerto in A minor:

Nature, Summer, Travel Norway