Only in winter, when the branches are bare and snow builds again on the glaciers above the fjord, does the land seem silent. Spending time on western Norway's fjords is a magical experience. Tiny hillside villages are reflected in the calm waters, and small boats look as though they are anchored on a mirror. On a hot summer day, a quick jump off a dock is guaranteed to revive the most languid soul. To row a boat out into the deep fjord and listen to the sound of waterfalls echo across the water is to know peace.
Country roads have little traffic, and walking paths meander among the orchards.
Many villagers work in their orchards but also have a job in one of the nearby towns, said a retired merchant seaman now settled happily in a home on the rocky Soerfjord shore at Lofthus. Boats are the preferred way to get around in fjordland. From the village of Lofthus, where composer Edvard Grieg spent summers in a cottage, it is only a short trip up the fjord to Utne for lunch at the old inn. Built in 1722, the Utne Hotel is the oldest hotel in Norway still in operation. It was started by a group of Army officers during a time when there were too many military men in the area who, as a result, had time on their hands.