- Life is easier here in Norway. That’s what Hendrika and Bertus van Harten from the Netherlands say, in spite of running a hotel where they get deliveries only once a week!

The two wanted a place where the population wasn’t so dense as where they lived in the Netherlands. She has a background in accounting and he is trained as a cook, but they have worked a lot as travel guides all around Europe. After three years of hunting, they found Polifoss, an historic hotel alongside a waterfall in the municipality of Skjåk. Bertus had often been to Norway as a tour leader and the couple wished to be here because of the nature. In the fall of 2007 they opened their hotel where they get many visitors, especially tourists from their homeland in the summer season.

Now they live at Pollfoss the year around with the exception of October when they visit relatives in the Netherlands. Earlier the hotel had been closed in winter but the Dutch couple has gambled on keeping it open the entire year. They plan to improve and expand the place.

That means much work, particularly as they aim to run it without help in the winter season. - We work a lot, but it isn’t stressful. The quality of life here is better than in the Netherlands. When I wake up and look out the window, I have energy for the whole day, says Bertus.

The couple has plans to stay in Skjåk; they sum it up this way:
- We came without the idea of getting rich, but we’re rich with the nature around us. We have health, we have each other and we have it very good.