Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
57 63 33 13;
www.alr.no
;
9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5.30pm Sat & Sun Jun-Aug, shorter hours
rest of year)
The tourist office is beside the village church.
Getting There & Away
Buses run up to eight times daily between Aurland and Flåm (Nkr36, 15 minutes) and up
to six times daily between Aurland and Lærdal (Nkr83, 30 minutes). Express buses to/
from Bergen (Nkr300, three hours) call in up to six times daily.
Watch out for the speed cameras in Lærdalstunnelen - all 24.5km of them.
Undredal
Pop 112
Undredal, tucked midway between Flåm and Gudvangen, is a truly lovely little village, its
pleasures enhanced - and its traditional quality sustained - because you need to make that
bit of extra effort to get there. However, it has recently been added as a brief stop to some
boat tours and its former tranquillity is at risk.
Undredal's local claim to fame is its cheeses. Well, not exactly fame, as you'll only find
them in a few specialised cheese shops and delicatessens within Norway. Around 500
goats freely roam the surrounding grassy slopes and between them they provide the milk
for around 10 tonnes of cheese per year (work it out: that's a hugely impressive yield per
nipple). Farmers from the valley supply the village's two remaining dairies - once there
were 10 - which still produce the firm yellow Undredal cheese and its brown, slightly
sweet variant, made from the boiled and concentrated whey. You can pick up a hunk of
each at the village shop; it's the light-blue building beside the shore.
Undredal is 6.5km north of the E16 down a narrow, steeply threading road (until its con-
struction in 1988, the only access was by sea). If travelling by bus, get off at the eastern
end of the 11km tunnel that leads to Gudvangen. Best of all, take the bus out, walk down
the spectacular valley along the lightly trafficked road and return by boat (press the switch
beside the yellow blinking lamp on the cafe wall beside the jetty to alert the next passing
ferry).
