July 31, 2023 - Olden, Norway

 July 31, 2023 - Monday - Olden, Norway

Today we arrived at the charming port of Olden, Norway. 

We docked a short distance from the city center. That was just a few blocks past some souvenir shops and an outlet store. From the ship, we spotted a couple of very nice-looking sailboats around the tip of the fjord on the other edge of the town. Alice and I enjoyed a leisurely paced walk that took us past a campground at the shore. We kept going and finally got to a house on the waterfront with a hut next to it. This is where the sailboats were docked. 

We carefully crossed the road and walked down a paved drive to the water's edge. We did our best not to be intrusive as checked out the sailboats. We had just started this when a young lady came out of the house. She approached us and we asked if it was OK for us to be there. Not only was it OK, but she also introduced herself as Henriette, the daughter of the owner of the house. Her English was perfect and she was very pleasant. She was born here and lives with her parents. During tourist season they rent out this house and stay in another property they own near the city center. She had just come to check on this house before she would return to work in a restaurant near the cruise dock. She invited us to look around and she left to drive to work.

The house is very nice with lovely views. There was a nice sheltered sitting area on the deck as well as open seating to enjoy the sun. a tripod grill and ample firewood were available for cooking. As we walked around it we realized that the house was much larger than it appeared from the road. There was also a large supply of firewood for heating. One of the sailboats was Sun Odyssey 39. It was docked in front of the house. The other one was a Nauticat 385. It was docked away from the house and may be owned by someone else. Both were nicely appointed and about the same size as Sean’s CAL 39. We imagined they would be fine sailing on this fjord. I imagined being here with Sean’s boat.

Before she left us, Henriette told us about the old stave church and the new church. She pointed them out to us. We were very grateful for this since they were on our list of objectives for today. One church was white and farther up the road was another red church. She explained that the white church was the old church. The red church was much newer. 

When we got to the white church we found that the white exterior protects the old stave church. While this church was not as old as many others it did reflect the style.

We spent a while admiring the interior and came across a rendering of church elders from another era. Someone in the church irreverently suggested that they looked like trolls. We went outside and visited the cemetery. There were new graves and graves going back many years. As we walked through we were impressed by the sense of peace the sound of the rapids below the cemetery at the foot of the hill conveyed.

As we started toward the red church we passed a playground and a school. The school had a track and long jumpsuit next to the walkway. Shortly beyond that we ran out of the paved walkway and would have to walk on the road. Here we met fellow passenger Steve. He was coming downhill from the church and let us know that Sean and Shelly were at the church. We made our way up the hill to the church and were the only ones there. As we completed our visit inside we met Sean and Shelly. They had walked farther up the hill to view a waterfall. We did our usual cemetery viewing and they walked back to town. Not long after we returned to Pursuit.

This was another day of grand experiences topped by marvelous weather.