Rundemanen

The day starts off with whirling snow and all you really want to do is find a warm coffee shop. Then the sun comes out and the footpath to Floyen and the funicular cafe beckons with its birds-eye view over Bergen's harbour. 
Catching your breath, the glittering pathways through woods traversed by pink-cheeked hikers, runners and skiers lead further in and further up. It really would be a waste of effort now not to make it to the top. 

With the last long traverse following the old road the tops open out in undulating folds of white and grey, dominated by a sky pierced with the iron tracery of the Rundemanen Radio transmitter. Built in 1912 it is now a rather unlikely Heritage monument and overshadows ageing concrete gun emplacements from the War. It is quiet and cold and other-worldly up here.
The view  from here looks out miles over a remote landscape of lakes and fiords cut by strips of land as far as you can see. 
Strange that a day that started out with a stroll towards a hot drink and human conviviality should have turned into a climb of nearly 2000 feet into a space so devoid of both.