It had rained throughout our trip to the Borgund stave church and it continued to rain as our coach took the road that tracked alongside the river that emptied into the Sognefjord at the village of Lærdalsøyri. Our coach stopped briefly to allow those of who wanted to a chance to take a photo of the river as it carved its way through the landscape. The vast majority of people elected to stay on the bus. I’m rarely among the vast majority so hopped off and snapped a few pictures of the water cascading through the rocks.
From there it was back to continue our trip down to the village of Lærdalsøyri and a chance to see some traditional Norwegian buildings. The area is listed as a national heritage centre and popular with tourists. During our visit we were practically the only people there but the continuing rain probably had something to do with that. Despite the weather it was a lovely little place to walk around and take photographs. We later discovered that four months after our visit a fire swept through and at least thirty houses of the one hundred and sixty there had been damaged.
Some of the buildings in the village contained shops, although nothing was open when we visited. This was a shame as my eye was taken by some of the great and awful antiques in an antique shop, the last building we sheltered near as we waited to head back to our coach at the end of our trip to Lærdalsøyri. I don’t think my wife was quite as appreciative of the ceramic containers/statues of the characters with round glasses and red caps as I was, so it’s probably for the best.
