Vikings Day 10: Straand to Dalen

Please watch the Relive video here: https://www.relive.cc/view/vE6JY74pPxO

”Experience is something you don’t get until after you need it”

On the Road: 30 miles/ 48.3 km I Elevation 1,682 ft/ 513 metres

A shorter but beautiful ride today (still got some decent climbing in) gave us time to explore some history and also enjoy one of Norway’s finest hotels and saunas. Weather report said 80% rain all day but it was delayed until the afternoon, so we got the majority of our ride in.

We started the day coasting along the mostly flat Vravaten Fjord with lovely views of typical Norwegian farms and mountains.

Our coffee stop today (a little out and back) was in Amdalsverk and straight after a short 2km 4% climb,

we descended sharply 5km @ 9% average with 12% near the end, down into the pretty village of Dalen. The Bandek fjord was the first true classic Norwegian fjord we’ve seen, with its relatively narrow deep crevice to the water, as opposed to earlier ones that are wider and less steep.

The views are stupendous – Bandakfjord fjord reached out ahead and the village was visible as we headed down the switchbacks. Views from Sam Wood’s drone …

Our destination was Hotel Dalen which dominates this small town and is a beautiful and historic, built in 1894 and a true 5 star hotel.

Unfortunately it was a shortened ride today due to heavy rain with some thunderstorms, and road construction. The missed 10km out and back included a 5 km, 10% average grade to Norway’s oldest wooden Stave church. Maybe it was a good thing to not have to ride this section! and we are told we will get to see other Stave architecture as we ride on.

But we did get to enjoy the Norwegian tradition of very hot sauna and then numerous plunges into the 6C waters of the Bandak fjord. The sauna at the Hotel Dalen is the Soria Moria.

Soria Moria is a work of art of a sauna – glittering like a piece of jewelry in Lake Bandak! The inspiration for the sauna is derived from surrounding landscape and history. The characteristic silhouette of the building is an interpretation of the steep mountainsides surrounding the Bandak lake. The wooden shingle cladding is inspired by local building techniques. Integrated in the cladding are gleaming golden shingles. The gold is a reference to local folklore; to the mythical and outlandish. It also references the obvious contrast which arose betwwen the soft-spoken people of Telemark and lavish upper-class foreign travellers during the establishment of Dalen Hotel at the end of the nineteenth century.