Norwegian Roads

The highways are flanked by thousands of clumps of pink, purple and white lupines. Everywhere. Now and then a wisteria tree dangles its bright yellow grapelike flower clusters over the road adding a burst of colour.

Bridges, some old and ornate and others sleek and modern straddle narrow canyons. Many roads, even major highways, are narrow and twisty as they have to curl around the fjords. Sometimes they can't. Then the road bores a hole through the mountain and at the other end it's often spit out as another bridge fording another canyon. Amazing. Today we pased through 22 tunnels, none longer than a kilometre. But until recently, Norway was home to the longest tunnel: a startling 25 kilometres long. We went through it 5 years ago and I remember that to prevent claustrophobia several large caverns were spaced through the tunnel, filled with blue light. Apparently that helps. It didn't bother us in the least and we would hum Peer Gynt's Hall of the Mountain Kings. He should have named it the Holes of the mountain kings.

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