Norge III: Route 55

Lom is a pretty town, set in the picturesque Ottadalen valley, with a raging river running through the centre. We stopped there for some coffee and cinnamon buns. We walked around a bit to take in the stave church, one of the few original ones surviving in Norway. The one we'd seen the day earlier was a restored church.

Lom is the gateway to the Jotunheimen, a mountainous area which forms part of the larger Scandinavian Mountain range. The name literally means the abode of giants, extremely apt, considering that 26 of the highest mountain peaks in Norway are found here. Route 55 starts at Lom and then goes through another adjacent valley which climbs gently till it meets the high peaks of the Jotunheimen. Thereafter, the road cuts across the mountains and then descends dramatically towards the Sognefjord. Superlatives abound for describing this route - Norway's first national scenic route, the highest mountain pass in Northern Europe, the most beautiful bike ride in the world etc. Well, let me tell you, none of them is even a wee bit off the mark and even though I was not on a bike - the beauty was still intact.

We drove along a river in a valley for sometime before coming to a halt near a huge column. The Sagasøyla or the Saga Column, standing 108 feet above the ground level is a memorial celebrating the Norwegian Constitution. It was initially intended to be placed by the Parliament in Oslo. Interrupted by the Second World War and later political disagreements the memorial languished in storage, incomplete and without a place to show off its magnificence. The matter was only resolved a couple of decades later when a gentleman named Elvesæter managed to set it up in its preset location with the same name. This name had a connection with my travel partner too as she informed me that their surname was derived from this name and they trace their roots to this area.

We resumed driving and a little ahead at a place called Galdesanden, turned off the road to take the narrow asphalt road that would take us to within 5 kilometers of Galdhøpiggen, the highest peak in Northern Europe (2469m). We drove for about 14 km into the mountain range till we reached the Juvasshytta Lodge, a summer ski resort as well as the base for scaling the Galdhøpiggen. At 1850m, this was the highest point that we were going to reach on this trip.

We returned to route 55 and continued our drive, through some of the most breath taking landscapes. We stopped for coffee, taking pictures and snowfights along the way and crossed Fantesteinen, at 1434m, the highest pass. The snow was packed high on both sides of the road even in peak summer!

After driving along the most undulating road ever, we started the descent to Sogn og Fjordane – the fjord country!! Route 55 ends at Gaupne, in Luster municipality. What was incredible was that in just a matter of hours I would be moving from an active ski resort and wading in a fjord in the glorious Scandinavian summer!