Rjukan, Norway

After a pleasant night's stay, we said goodbye to Rjukan Cabin and Caravan Park and made our way to the actual town of Rjukan.

Rjukan is a slender town that runs along the Måna River at the bottom of a beautiful gorge with heavily forested steep mountains on both sides. 

Rjukan is famous for its hydroelectric plant named Vemork. The first photo is a view of Vemork from right in town. When it opened in 1911 it was the largest power plant in the world. 

Later, Vemork began to produce 'heavy water,' a component used in making nuclear weapons. Once Germany occupied Norway in WWII, the Allies grew very concerned that nuclear weapons might be produced by Nazi Germany. How this plan was sabotaged by the Norwegian resistance movement and Allied bombing is an incredible story.

We parked our motorhome and walked across this bridge to explore the town of Rjukan and get some groceries. 

A heavy water barrel re-purposed as a flower planter with a turbine from the Vermork hydroelectric power plant in the background.

Brian and I find grocery shopping in foreign countries an adventure in itself. Here was something we'd never seen in the US--a self-serve bread slicer. 

Brian wasn't intimidated at all and put our loaf of bread in with confidence. 

And out came beautifully sliced bread for our eating pleasure. As you can see below, we also stocked up on some liquid refreshment. Time to return to our motorhome and get back on the road.

Vemork stopped producing heavy water in 1971. The power plant now houses the Norwegian Industrial Worker Museum. We got one last glimpse before we continued north deeper into the interior of southern Norway.