there are a lot of water falls in Sunndals!

 There are so many water falls in Sunndals (the general term for the valley where Sunndalsoro is) that people think it's weird that we find them interesting.  Pointing out water falls is a little bit like pointing out squirrels in central park - only tourists do that.....
For example, this - the 6th tallest water fall in the world- is right across the street from where Iren's parent live.  What they have to say about it is:  "it makes a lot of noise!".
But we like water falls, so we went to visit a couple of them large enough even for the natives to notice.

 First though, we stopped by a historical house that was built in Sundalls by a rich English woman in 1823 - the door is described as "the most beautiful wooden carved door in Norway built after the restoration" -  a lot of signs here describe whatever we are looking at as "the best" or "biggest" or "most beautiful" - but since the Norwegians are very honest people, they put a lot of qualifiers before or after it.....

 It was attached to the most beautiful rhododendron garden (dating from the same time as the house, so they had time to grow, even in this Northern climate).  Some have very unusual colors that I have not seen in the US.

 Then, on to the falls.  Of course, visiting them required some seriously steep hiking (most hiking here is steep) - but not by the local standarts - love this sign that does warn the tourists that it is "partly steep" - while in fact it did require some ropes to pull ourselves up the trail at one point......

But we made it to the falls,

 (I only made it 1/2 way down that bridge.... it was scary....)

( This particular area is famous because 5 different falls and rivers meet - we only walked down 2 of them).

There are beautiful and oddly perched farms around the falls and on top of the gorge:

 They have to put the farms at the top, first because the bottom is a gorge with just the river in it, but also because the gorge is too deep for the sun to reach it.  Still, it's hard to imagine farming up there (indeed, a sign indicated that the government subcidizes the farmers in order to preserve this way of life).

Even their mailboxes are charming.











We then went on to Oppdal - a ski resort where Iren has a "cottage" - by which I mean a gorgeous large house! (pictures tomorrow),

 We then went on to the famous Snohetta viewpoint (it's only famous if you know about architecture, which I don't - but I can read brochures with the best of them and now know that the Snohetta firm - named after the Snohetta mountain, is the one that designed the 9/11 pavillion at ground zero. )
Joe has been taking a lot of pictures of Iren and me walking in front of him, because he is the one in charge of all the pictures, so always ends up behind......

 The building itself is a small structure meant to provide shelter while admiring the rugged and bare lanscape (it is above tree line).  I don't think the pictures do justice to the simple beauty of it and of the surroundings.

 View from the inside. (the mountain in the foreground is Snohetta).

From the inside again - with Iren admiring the view.....

 

Iren and I sitting on the beautifully carved wooden benches, and view from the front, with Joe and iren chatting inside.








We were hoping to see some of the muskox that roam free around there, but they were hiding (musk ox has been extint in Europe for about 30,000 years- these were reintroduced in the 40's, from Greenland).
Quick dinner in town, and then back to the cottage.  We are going to try to get to sleep early - this light is very dissorienting and we are both tired and not sleepy at the same time.......