Thursday.

 And we finally come to the Stave Churches. These are wooden churches. The name Stave is the same as our staff, i.e. a wooden beam, pillar, or long cylinder. These staves were the supporting frame of the church and are  in the corners of the churches, and usually mid way along the walls, which also are of wood. The sill beams usually rest on foundations of well placed local rocks/stones. In Britain there are lots of records of early Christians building churches of wood, which (with one exception) were fairly soon afterwards replaced with stone churches. Imagine building a church of wood (and pinewood at that), which has been in constant use from the 1100s to the present day.
 It is thought that there were originally about 900 of these churches in Norway, of which 28 survive, together with one in Sweden, and, in my opinion, one in England. The ones that survived in Scandinavia are usually in remote, poor, and inaccessible areas, which gives any visit to  them something of the air of a pilgrimage. To get to the Church photographed above (Ringebu Stave Church) we had to follow Ruth's car (containing Ruth, Lasse, and the two girls) in our car winding steadily  over snowfields, ever higher hills,  and snow topped  mountains (the date we did this was 24th June). About twenty kilometres south of Ringebu we stopped for a break and Ruth told us we were now one thousand, four hundred and sixty six metres above sea level. We then continued to drive over minor roads through countryside that reminded me irresistibly of the original pen and ink illustrations to the Tolkien books.

The photo above was taken as we wound down the roads towards Ringebu and gives some idea of the lower countryside.. Mostly these churches are quite small inside, but as you look upwards in them, via completely timber framing to the roof, they seem much higher inside than they are, and have an airily spacious feel to them.
 Being summoned to a bite of supper now. Will try and write a bit more later.