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THE Norwegian driver brought the wheels of the minibus to a screeching halt on a deserted road in the middle of the vibrant green fields.
I scrambled to peer out the window, expecting a crash or something blocking the road, but instead found a tiny family of ducks being given the right of way to waddle across the road in front of us.
It could have been a scene from a Disney film, as I watched mother duck lead her young in a line through the lush, sunny valley.
But this summed up the laidback, charming atmosphere in the Norwegian region of Telemark - an enchanting, peaceful place brought head to head with Adolf Hitler's violence, which ended up playing an important part in the history of the Second World War.Telemark probably rings a bell for its famous World War Two history, brought to every home through that famous image of Kirk Douglas in his fisherman ribbed jumper saving the world from the Nazis.
The real life tale of how the water production plant sabotage stopped Hitler creating an atom bomb is even more riveting when explained at the famous factory, still standing today in all its grey menacing glory at Rjukan.
There are so many hands-on exhibits and a documentary on the history, that visitors interested in the war will be engrossed, and even able to buy a few droplets of the 'heavy water' that attracted Hitler to...