Rick Steves' Snapshot Norway by Rick Steves

Author:Rick Steves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Travel
Published: 2013-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Cost and Hours: Free, open daily, services in English every Sun from late May through August.

Golden House (Det Gylne Hus)—This golden-colored house facing the ferry landing was built as a general store in 1928. Today it houses an art gallery and a quirky museum created by local watercolorist and historian Bjørg Bjøberg, and her Scottish husband, Arthur Adamson.

On the ground floor, you’ll find Bjørg’s gallery, with her watercolors celebrating the beauty of Norway, and Arthur’s paintings, celebrating the beauty of women. Upstairs is a free exhibit of historical knickknacks, contributed by locals wanting to preserve treasures from their own families’ past. You’ll see a medicine cabinet stocked with old-fashioned pills, an antiquated tourist map, lots of skis, and WWII-era mementos. A wheel in the wall once powered a crane that could winch up goods from the fjord below (before today’s embankment was built, when this store was right on the waterfront). While there are no written English explanations, Bjørg is happy to explain things.

Unable to contain her creative spirit, Bjørg has paired an eccentric wonderland experience with her private tour of the Golden House’s hidden rooms. The tour includes a 30-minute movie, either about her art and local nature, or about Balestrand in winter. Bjørg and Arthur also run the recommended on-site café, Me Snakkast.

Cost and Hours: Free entry; optional private one-hour tour-50/kr person, 100-kr minimum, 200-kr maximum; May-Aug daily 10:00-22:00, shorter hours late April and Sept, mobile 91 56 28 42, www.detgylnehus.no.

Strolling King Bele’s Way up the Fjord—For a delightful walk (or bike ride), head west out of town up the “old road”—once the main road from the harbor—for about a mile. It follows the fjord’s edge, passing numerous “villas” from the late 1800s. At the time, this Swiss style was popular with some locals, who hoped to introduce a dose of Romanticism into Norwegian architecture. Look for the dragons’ heads (copied from Viking-age stave churches) decorating the gables. Along the walk, you’ll pass a swimming area, a campground, and two burial mounds from the Viking age, marked by a ponderous statue of the Viking King Bele. Check out the wooden shelters for the mailboxes; some give the elevation (m.o.h. stands for “meters over havet”—the sea)—not too high, are they? The walk is described in the Outdoor Activities in Balestrand brochure (free at the TI or your hotel).

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