CHAPTER XIII 



MY journey to Norway was made this year for the 

 first time overland by Flushing, Hamburg, Copen- 

 hagen and Christiania to Storen, a little south of 

 Trondhjem, and thence by road to Sundalsoren. I 

 need not dwell upon the railway portion of it, except 

 to eulogise the extremely comfortable sleeping car- 

 riages which run between Hamburg and Christiania, 

 but the last day presented some features of novelty 

 when contrasted with my passage over the same route 

 fifteen years earlier. Now a motor car runs on three 

 days a week between Aune in Opdal and Sundal- 

 soren, and our time-tables told us that it was due to 

 start at 3.30 P.M. From Storen, where the train 

 deposited us at 5.30 A.M., to Aune is a distance of 

 over 72 kilometres or about 46 English miles, with 

 six changes of horses. We telephoned on to say we 

 were coming, and received the answer that " the 

 motor would wait for us a little, but we must hurry 

 up." Then commenced a race against time, in which 

 we should have been badly beaten had not the motor 

 waited for us more than two hours. 



The road has been vastly improved since I passed 

 over it on my former journeys. Then it was in many 

 places a mere mountain track, now it is wide, well 

 engineered, and with good gradients considering the 



211 



