Thursday 24 January 2008

Odds and sods

This is Olavs Cross, perched on a tiny mound in Skulegata. I tried, I really tried to get a clear view of it, but it is surrounded by modern buildings.


Olav erected it in 1023 AD when the population of Voss converted to Christianity. It really looks a thousand years old, too. Such a pity about the surroundings.




This is a view of the pedestrianised town centre. The church stands just to the right, and behind the church lies the lake - Vangsvatnet.






Below is the Vangskyrkja - Voss Church (http://www.voss.kyrkjer.net/) built between 1271 and 1277 and still in use every Sunday.


Since the steeple is built of wood I should think it has been renewed a time or two, but the stone looks authentic. We didn't go in. I gather in the summer there is a charge of 15 kroner to look around - about £1.60. Reasonable enough, but I do feel that churches and cathedrals should be free and open to all.


I was warned that Norway was expensive. Coffee was around £2 per cup, petrol and diesel were within 20p of our own prices in the UK. Alcohol, however, was a real killer. We asked for the wine list the first night there, and soon handed it back without ordering anything. If the cheapest bottle of wine in the UK might be around £8-12 depending on the level of restaurant, then the cheapest bottle of wine in the hotel was 300 kroner, or £32.

And the prices went up from there!

We walked a short distance along the lake shore, but it was cold and damp and we had to move at a brisk pace to keep warm. If you click to enlarge the pic, you can maybe see the chunks of ice along the edge of the shore. More and more of the lake froze over as our week went on, and more and more of the cloud came drifting down the mountains. Two days out of six we did not ski - one day the weather was just to wet to contemplate doing it, and the other there was too much wind and the cable car did not run.
We don't think we will return to Voss. We probably had an unlucky week, but ... poor weather always colours the entire holiday and the constant cloud and rain was depressing.

No comments:

To my shame...

The Best Books of 2023: Historical Fiction (according to Waterstones.) The Fraud by Zadie Smith Taking inspiration from a real-life ninetee...