Fjord Norway

The west coast was settled early and faced the sea. Hafrsfjord, near Stavanger, is traditionally where Harald Fairhair won the battle that united Norway, and the royal estate at Avaldsnes on Karmøy controlled the shipping lane that gave the country its name, the "North Way". Western chieftains led many of the Viking voyages to the British Isles, and Stavanger's cathedral, begun around 1100, is among Norway's oldest.

Bergen, founded in the 11th century, was Norway's capital and largest town in the 13th century, when Haakon IV built his great hall on the harbour. From around 1350 the German merchants of the Hanseatic League ran an office on the Bryggen wharf, exchanging grain for stockfish brought down from the north, and Bergen remained Norway's biggest city into the 19th century. The fjord districts meanwhile lived from small farms, fishing and timber, and many of their people emigrated to America.

In the 19th century Ålesund and Kristiansund grew rich on klippfisk, salted and dried cod exported to Spain and Portugal, and after Ålesund burned in 1904 it was rebuilt in stone in the Art Nouveau style. During the German occupation fishing boats of the "Shetland Bus" ran agents and refugees between the west coast and Shetland, and the village of Telavåg near Bergen was destroyed in reprisal in 1942. From the 1970s Stavanger became the capital of Norway's offshore oil industry, and fish farming turned the fjords into the heart of the world's salmon trade.

The west is the stronghold of Nynorsk, the written standard built in the 19th century by Ivar Aasen, who was born in Ørsta in Møre og Romsdal, from rural dialects. Vestland and Møre og Romsdal counties have both adopted it officially, and western dialects vary sharply from fjord to fjord. Bergen, by contrast, speaks its own urban dialect and prides itself on a separate identity, looking west to the sea rather than east to Oslo.

Hardanger gave its name to the Hardanger fiddle, a decorated folk violin with sympathetic strings, and to hardangersøm, white openwork embroidery on the local bunad. The western coast also has a strong Christian tradition of lay preaching and prayer houses, especially in Rogaland and Sunnmøre. Edvard Grieg lived and composed at Troldhaugen outside Bergen, and his music is played there every summer.

Festivals follow the seasons: the Bergen International Festival in late May and June, the jazz festival at Molde in July, and seventeenth of May parades in which Bergen's buekorps, boys' brigades marching with crossbows, play a part. A friendly rivalry between Bergen and Stavanger, and between both and Oslo, runs through football, business and jokes about the weather.

Bergen, with about 290,000 people, is the region's capital in all but name, a university, shipping and media city that serves as the gateway to the fjords. Stavanger and its neighbour Sandnes form the country's third urban area, built on the oil industry, with Equinor's headquarters and many international engineers. Haugesund, Ålesund, Molde and Kristiansund are the other main towns; the fjord villages range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.

The economy rests on the sea: offshore oil and gas service, shipbuilding and ship design around Ålesund, salmon farming along the whole coast, fishing and fish processing, and hydro power from the mountains. Hardanger grows fruit, Jæren is some of Norway's best farmland, and tourism fills the fjord villages in summer, with cruise ships calling at Geiranger, Flåm, Bergen and Stavanger.

Life runs on ferries, tunnels and rain gear. Commuting often means a boat, and major projects such as the undersea road tunnels around Stavanger aim to replace ferries on the E39. Current debates concern the future of oil jobs, the environmental impact of salmon farms, and limits on cruise ships in the narrowest fjords.

The west eats fish and lamb. Bergen's fiskesuppe, a creamy fish soup with vegetables, and fish cakes from the fishmongers are local staples, and the morning catch is sold at the harbour fish market. Ålesund and Kristiansund are the home of klippfisk, and their bacalao, klippfisk stewed with tomatoes, potatoes and olive oil, is a dish brought by Basque sailors that Norwegians consider their own. Stavanger was once Norway's canning capital.

West-coast Christmas is pinnekjøtt, salted and dried lamb ribs steamed over birch sticks, and the west also keeps older dishes: raspeballer, also called komle, dumplings of grated potato served with salted meat on Thursdays in many homes, and smalahove, a salted, smoked sheep's head traditionally eaten before Christmas, now best known around Voss. Lamb grazing the mountain pastures is prized, and the region's farms produce goat's cheese and brown cheese.

Hardanger is Norway's fruit garden, with apples, pears, plums and cherries along the fjord and Hardanger cider. Jæren grows vegetables and greenhouse tomatoes. Bergen bakeries sell skillingsboller, large cinnamon buns, and waffles and coffee are served at almost every viewpoint café.

Bergen has the coloured wooden warehouses of Bryggen, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Haakon's Hall and the Rosenkrantz Tower, the fish market, the Fløibanen funicular up Mount Fløyen and Grieg's home at Troldhaugen. North of it, the Sognefjord runs inland for about 200 kilometres; its arms hold the Nærøyfjord, on the World Heritage list, the Flåm Railway descending from Myrdal to Flåm, Urnes stave church, also a World Heritage Site, Borgund stave church up the Lærdal valley, and branches of Jostedalsbreen, mainland Europe's largest glacier, at Briksdal and Nigardsbreen.

The Hardangerfjord to the south is lined with orchards, the Vøringsfossen waterfall plunges into the Måbødalen valley above Eidfjord, and from Skjeggedal near Odda the long hike to Trolltunga crosses the plateau to the ledge above Ringedalsvatnet. In Rogaland, Stavanger has its cathedral, the white wooden houses of Gamle Stavanger and the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, and the Lysefjord holds both Preikestolen, the Pulpit Rock, and the boulder of Kjeragbolten wedged in a crevice high above the water. The Swords in Rock monument at Hafrsfjord marks the battle of unification.

In Møre og Romsdal, the Geirangerfjord, also UNESCO-listed, is framed by the Seven Sisters and Suitor waterfalls and reached by the Eagle Road and the Trollstigen hairpins. Ålesund's Art Nouveau centre is seen best from the Aksla viewpoint, the town of Molde looks across to a panorama of peaks, and the Atlantic Road bridges hop between skerries on the open coast near Kristiansund.