Idyllic Ulvik
I wrote a couple of days ago that we were "holed up" in a hotel in Oslo, and the choice of words was pretty apt. The room was tiny, and simple in the extreme, though admittedly clean and secure. The hotel was a half block off of Karl Johansgate, the main pedestrian thoroughfare near the Oslo central train station, so you couldn't really fault it on location, but it was a real step down from the Grand Marina in Helsinki.
Last night, however, was different. After a two-bus trip from Flåm, we ended up at the Rica Brakanes Hotel in Ulvik, at the northern end of a finger of the deservedly well-known Hardanger Fjord.
Check out the photos. The fjord view from our hotel was just transportingly beautiful, carrying us away from all of the hustle and bustle it had taken us to get there. Oh my, what a pretty place, and we only get to spend one night there! What a crime!
Ulvik itself is small and comfortable, fun to wander around in, and completely surrounded by this transcendently beauty. In the winter, we're told, there's a lot of rain, sometimes turning to snow, and everything is very dark and depressing. But in the summer, it's a perfectly lovely place to while away some hours, or days, and leave the nasty real world behind.