After over 8 hours on the road (and getting lost for the last 30 minutes of that time after my GPS became confused), I was thrilled to finally see the sign for "Tautra Mariakloster," the tiny monastery where I was spending the week. Cistercian monasteries usually receive guests--I had stayed at a monastery on a Washington island before and had a wonderful experience. This part of Norway is beautiful, but the monastery was even more remote and lonely than I had expected. There are very few people featured in my photos because there were very few people to be found! After making sure I had time to visit Trondheim, I cut my visit short by a day, eager to get back to the bustle of "big city" Oslo.
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| The monastery |
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| My adorable, very Scandinavian room |
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| The incredible fjord view from my window |
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| Wandering the island |
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| Tautra is a famous bird sanctuary (I was dive-bombed right after taking this photo by seagulls protective of their eggs) |
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| A picture-perfect picnic area at the house up the road |
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| The chilly, windy fjord beach |
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| Looking south toward Trondheim |
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| Sun streaming into the beautiful new monastery chapel |
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| The chapel, with its perfect view of the water |
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| New monastery this way, old monastery ruins that way |
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| Gift shop cookbook |
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| Gift shop cheese, perfectly named |
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| The old monastery ruins (from the 13th century) |
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| Bed & Breakfast sign by the ruins |
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| Cafe patio |
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| Site-seeing on Frosta, the neighboring peninsula |
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| The site of one of Norway's oldest courts (from around 900 to 1030 AD) |
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| Logtun church sign |
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| The church (thought to be from the 1500s) |
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| A peek inside |
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| Angel weathervane (from the modern church down the road) |
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| The causeway between Frosta and Tautra |
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| Beautiful view |
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| The causeway gate (put in place to prevent predators from reaching the bird sanctuary) |
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| My first midnight sun!!! (taken at 12:30 am) |
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| Homemade ice cream from the nuns (they prepared lunch for the visitors each day; breakfast and dinner we ate on our own) |
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| A foggy morning |
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| Hard to focus on driving with this view |
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| Red barn |
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| Tourist center |
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| Farms stretching down toward the fjord |
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| "Frosta Path" |
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| One final panoramic |
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| Pink and purple flowers |
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| Tiny rainbow |
