Fruit and Fish Farms
Today's coach ride took us by an avalanche site where they were fixing the road and a construction site where they are building a tunnel along one lane roads. I think we only had three really scary times when we or the other drivers had to back up to outlets so both vehicles could get through. We had two more ferry rides on the fjord to get to our first stop, a working apple farm. This farm has been in the same family since the 1600's, passed down from oldest son, etc. In addition to apples, they grow other fruit that is harvested daily beginning in June and ending in October. They have over 4000 apple trees and all fruit is picked by hand. They only sell locally, and also sell over 6000 Apple cakes each year. We were served the apple cake and it was delicious. I got the recipe!
Next we visited a salmon farm. Donning life jackets, we set off on the long and many segmented floating dock to the operation on the fjord. At this location the fish grow from six inches to their mature weight in 1 1/2 years. The fast growth is due to the very nutritional pellet food they are fed. The whole operation was very interesting. Some of these salmon end up at Costco.
Returning to the hotel going through the same roundabout tunnel ( there are actually two roundabouts in this tunnel) and suspension bridge, we returned to our hotel.. Hotel excitement tonight- six of us went swimming in the 52F degree fjord water. Was it cold? You ask. Yes, very, but when in Norway, swim in a fjord. After Sofia and I warmed up in the sauna, we decided to go in the fjord again, and guess what? It was colder the second time! I don't know what we were thinking, but alcohol was NOT involved!