This will be the rest of our drive on this day that started in Oslo and ended in Flam. It was quite interesting driving for me. For example, we learned that Norway has over 900 road tunnels. Our guide said that something like 20% of those road tunnels are in the Bergen area, which is where we are headed. Tunnel length adds up to hundreds of miles worth. But with all the mountains and all the fjords, I guess it just makes sense.

The first photo might seem silly but this is the entrance to the Laerdal Tunnel. This is the world’s longest road tunnel. It is 15.23 miles long. The tunnel connects Laerdal and Aurland. The tunnel is two lanes but seemed to have plenty of room. Construction started in 1995 and the tunnel opened in 2000 at a cost of about $113 million US. That almost seems cheap to me. I noticed as we drove the tunnel that they had some light changes. If you look at the second photo, most of the time the lighting was just a central overhead strip of white lights, like you can see in the middle of the photo. But sometimes, we saw other colors such as you also see in the second photo. We learned that since the tunnel is over 15 miles long, they had safety concerns. The lighting changes in the tunnel are to break up the monotony of the long tunnel drive. They certainly got my attention and yes, they broke up the monotony.

Aurland was at the other end of the Laerdal Tunnel. The next three photos are in Aurland, another small village of about 1,800 people. Aurland gave us our first look at a Norwegian fjord which you can see in the third photo. A fjord is a long, narrow water inlet with steep sides or cliffs that was created by a glacier. I walked out on a dock and took the fourth photo looking off to one side of Aurland. It’s a pretty typical Norwegian coastal village. Most of Aurland looked to be very nice houses and businesses, well-kept and modern. I couldn’t help but include the last photo which was near to the docks. I loved the tulips, the dandelions in the grass, the milk can by the door, the fishing net on the house and all the rest. But I especially loved the fish drying on the wall to the right of the door. Those are not decorations but real fish being dried. I almost asked if this place was for sale.