We continued our journey south and then west along the Norwegian coast to Flekkefjord, a small resort town on the road to Stavanger. And what was as impressive for us as the scenery...the rock mountains coming straight down to the sea...were the engineering marvels, the tunnels and bridges and roads and train tracks, that link these small settlements to one another. They stand as evidence of a public investment strategy that tries to link these small previously isolated populations to the nation as a whole and make it possible for people to continue to live and work in them, not flocking to the few large cities in search of employment and education.
Flekkefjord has, like many of the fjords, deep waters, allowing large ships to come up to the port. But the town retains a traditional feel with narrow streets, white washed wooden houses, flowers in bloom in window boxes. And coffee shops and restaurants at strategic places...the sidewalks get crowded with tourists (mostly Norwegian)during the day, but at night it calms down and in the early morning, the streets are quiet.
There is a charming primness to these Norwegian houses...the neatness perhaps necessary to counteract the harshness of the weather and landscape during most of the year. Some years, as my cousin says, "the summer never comes." So the reflections of houses bouncing off the sunlight is stunning at times for its simplicity and sense of order and of quiet prosperity for the country as a whole.
