Underground roundabouts

During this trip we have been often quietly amused by the enthusiasm Europeans exhibit in their efforts to take some sun. We often see travelers pulled up at some little way side stop, with their deck chairs out, sitting faces up catching the summer sun. Mostly the men (regardless of age or physical condition) have their shirts off to maximize their solar dose. Well yesterday evening we saw what might be the ultimate example of solar craving. In the parking lot of the Flam train station we observed a well conditioned young man repacking his car wearing only the briefest of swim suits (or maybe undies - we did not ask).

We were interested to see that even large well maintained cruise ships occasionally have mechanical problems. This particular ship was delayed in its departure from Flam as one of the boarding ramps could not be raised. The work crew spent about 30 minutes bashing it with various kinds of tools before it finally relented.

After those little aside, lets get back to the day in question. Today we departed Flam and followed highway 13 for most of the day heading generally south and a little west and were treated to some spectacular scenery, exciting roads and impressive engineering. Almost for the entire day the road traveled alongside one lake or another, or climbed over a mountain range between lakes in many places resorting to tunnels as the only means of making way along sheer rock walls. Like earlier days for long stretches the road was narrow, only wide enough for one vehicle, so like on those previous days we played the Norwegian game of looking for wider spot to squeeze past oncoming traffic.

But we are now accustomed to narrow roads so we needed a different roadway highlight and it came in the form of underground roundabouts. At one point there are highway junctions on each side of a wide river. But on both sides of the river the roadway approaches the river through tunnels and the bridge over the river simply joins up two tunnel entrances. So what to do about the junctions. The answer is simple, make a Y-intersection inside the approach tunnels and put a round-about in the middle of the intersection.