Part 7 - Norway

Part 7 – Norway

Our plan included 7 nights in Norway.  Starting in Oslo, we would head north to Lillehammer, then work our way up through the fjords and over to the coast.  We would go as far north as Trondheim before heading east and cutting back across Sweden to go to Finland.   Norway was to be mostly about beautiful scenery and views through the mountains, along the fjords, and along the coastline.  The first two days would be primarily in cities, but the remainder would be exploring the rugged beauty of Norway.

Day 30 – Tuesday, July 16. Oslo.  We never saw in signs signifying our entry into Norway, but saw the border on the GPS and noticed that the road signs changed.  We experienced a new (to us) method for collecting tolls.  For non-residents without a pass, there are signs telling you what the toll is, and cameras taking a photo of the vehicle license.  Later, there are signs directing you to gas stations where you can pay the toll.  If you don’t pay within 24 hours, then they bill you. Presumably with a billing fee.  In our case, they would bill the car company who would bill us, potentially with another fee, so we did our best to find the gas station and pay the toll.  We arrived in Oslo about 5 PM, checked into our hotel. had dinner, and then mapped out what we planned to do the next day

Day 31 – Wednesday, July 17. Oslo.  We started our day in Oslo down at the waterfront.  From our hotel we caught a tram after we figured out where to buy tickets – at a 7-Eleven.  The Oslo transit system is fairly easy to use, although the locals are not much help.  The clerk at 7-Eleven said he could sell us transit passes, but that there were no trams that went through the area of town where we were.  We knew otherwise as two trams went by the street in front of the 7-Eleven while Karen was waiting to buy tickets!  I think something got lost in the translation although the clerk seemed to speak good English.  Once downtown we walked along the harbor, enjoyed the architecture of the buildings, and explored the murals in city hall.  The murals in the Rådhus depict Norwegian history and mythology.  The Rådhus is famous as the location where the Nobel Peace prize is awarded every year on December 10.

Oslo harbor

Around noon we caught the tram again and went to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard.  Our hotel was next to the Royal Palace, but based on timing of events we had to spend more time traversing the town on mass transit than we would have liked.   The changing of the guard was a disappointment.  It normally takes place on the large square in front of the palace.  However, the square was closed for restoration, and as a result a much smaller and abbreviated ceremony took place on a small gravel area next to the north wing of the palace.  There was no band, very little to the ceremony, and based on locations of fences most of what we could see was the back sides of the guards as they stood at attention.  After the ceremony we caught a tram back down to the waterfront.  Karen and Elizabeth went to Aker Brudge, a trendy newer area, while Matthew and I went to the Akershus Fortress.  Karen and Elizabeth joined us there later.  We ended the day in Vigeland Park.  This very large park is home to more than 200 bronze and granite works by Gustav Vigeland, Norway’s best-loved sculptor.   Vigeland is famous for his nude works, with pieces representing all stages of life and emotions.  We got take-out pizza at a hole-in-the-wall place between our hotel and the tram stop and ate dinner in our hotel room.

Karen with royal guard

Elizabeth with new boyfriend, Vigeland Park

Boy throwing tantrum, Vigeland Park

My foot is gradually improving, but it is a very slow healing process.  Today in Oslo I probably “walked” about 2 miles total.  More than half of that was one legged using the crutches to support my full weight and putting no weight on my left leg.  I can actually keep up with the family doing that for at least short periods of time.  However, my hands and arms can only take a limited amount of that.  The rest of the distance was covered walking very slowly, putting maybe 1/2 of my weight on my bad foot (primarily on the heel) and the rest on my crutches.  I can go for much longer periods like this, but my pace is maybe half of normal walking pace.  I think I have actually figured out how to navigate stairs and they are no longer a major problem like they were.  The only exception is stairs with narrow treads   My foot is still swollen, and begins to hurt more as the day progresses if I don’t elevate it.  As a result, I took a couple hour break while in Oslo.  While Karen and Elizabeth went shopping in Aker Brudge and to the Hard Rock Café I went to the Akershus Fortress and laid on the grass with my foot elevated on a rock wall.  Matthew hung out with me and explored the fortress.  Once Karen and Elizabeth arrived we all walked around the fortress together.

Day 32 – Thursday, July 18. Lillehammer.  After leaving Oslo, we drove to Lillehammer, site of the 1994 winter Olympics. We were expecting about a 2.5 hour drive, but it was closer to 3.5 hours as there was a lot of road construction and an accident where a bus rear ended a small car.  A tiny mark on the front of the bus but the back end of the car was totally smashed in.  Fortunately everyone looked to be fine.  Once in Lillehammer we went directly to the Olympic museum.  It is located in the basement of the arena where the ice hockey games took place.  The museum chronicles the history of the Olympics, from the games of ancient Greece through the whole period of the modern day Olympics.  There were memorabilia from each of the games, with videos and text covering highlights of each winter and summer Olympiad.  The museum definitely had a Norwegian slant with information on prominent Norwegian athletes and how Norway did at each games, but it is worthwhile for visitors of all nationalities.  Most displays were in Norwegian, English, German, and French.   We bought a package that included entrance into the ski jumping tower and the chairlift ride to get to the top of the ski jump hill.  Karen and the kids got one additional item – more on that later.

We initially started walking up the hill to get where we could take the ski lift, as they had told us in the museum it was just a short walk.  However, after about 10 minutes up steep paths we got to the point where we could see where we needed to go and it was at least another km or so all uphill.  Not good on crutches.  Karen and Matthew went back to get the car and Elizabeth and I walked to where they could pick us up on the road.  At the base of the ski jump is where the flame was for the Lillehammer games. The views from the base of the ski jump were great looking back to Lillehammer and the surrounding valley, and even better from the top of the chairlift.  After standing at the top of the ski jump tower I now have a greater understanding of how insane ski jumpers are.  Ski jumping looks intimidating on TV, and we attended the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and watched ski jumping live from the bottom of the hill.  However, the hill looks much steeper and higher from the top.  I don’t mind heights at all, but ski jumping is close to throwing yourself off a cliff.  Insane.   There was one ski jumper practicing while we were there.  They have synthetic material that is like long grass all combed in one direction on the landing slope, and the outrun slope is just natural grass.  Prior to every run the sprinklers come on for a couple of minutes to wet the slope down.  The person practicing was on the normal hill, but the large hill that we went to the top was also wet so it looked like someone had been practicing there earlier.  It started to lightly rain as we were descending the chair lift, but stopped in about 20 minutes.  We stopped for dinner before checking into our hostel which was located in the Lillehammer train station.

View from top of ski jump, Lillehammer

Day 33 – Friday, July 19. Eidsdal. Today we had about a 4.5 hour drive to Eidsdal, a tiny community near the head of Geiranger Fjord.  However, before we left the Lillehammer area we had to do the remaining thing from the Olympic museum package that we had purchased the day before, going down the Olympic bobsled run on “wheel bobs”, sleds converted to have wheels rather than runners.  I did not go due to my broken foot, but Karen and the kids did.  They went down in a 4 person “wheel bob”, with a professional driver.  They said it was very fast, faster and wilder than any roller coaster they had ever been on.  They said it was impossible to keep your head straight, and their helmets kept hitting the side of the car.  Elizabeth said she forgot to breathe, despite one of the instructions being “don’t forget to breathe”.   J  The total run was over in 71 seconds, after reaching a top speed of 100 km/H.    A must for any adrenaline junkie.

Karen and the kids in the wheel bob, Lillehammer

After living the Olympic sites behind, we headed north into the more rugged countryside of Norway.  We had a wonderful drive – very scenic.  When people ask us what the most beautiful place we have been in the world, we always respond “British Columbia”.  There are many beautiful sites in the world we have been to (and many more on the “to do” list), but overall British Columbia has the best scenery mile after mile.  However, we decided that now when we are asked that question we will need to respond “British Columbia AND Norway”.  Today’s drive was non-stop beautiful.  It started with valleys with fast flowing rivers, gorgeous meadows, and forested mountain slopes with rocky tops.  As we moved higher up in elevation, the tree cover reduced and we could see lots of waterfalls.  At the highest elevations, there was tundra, lakes, streams, more waterfalls, and lots of rocky mountains.  There were still some snow patches at road level as we approached the mountain passes, and we could see glaciers further up the mountains.  The day had started out as totally sunny, but got progressively cloudier.  It would have been more impressive with sunny skies, but it was still a very scenic drive.

Roadside waterfall 

Alpine lake on drive to Geiranger

Along the way to Geiranger we stopped at a stave church.  Stave churches get their name from the buildings' structure of post and lintel construction.  They were constructed in medieval times.  The stave church we stopped at dates from 1150.  It is amazing that a wooden structure from that time period still survives today.

Stave church

As we neared the end, we descended a series of sharp switchbacks to get to the town of Geiranger, at the head of the Geiranger fjord.  We stopped there to buy some food to make for dinner, and then headed back up the other side of the valley to our accommodation for the night.  The climb up from Geiranger is very steep, with a series of ~10 switchbacks on a narrow road.  There is a great viewpoint from the top of the switchbacks looking back to town and the fjord.  There was a large cruise ship anchored near the end of the Fjord.  Another 15 minutes took us to where we were staying, a small ~250 sq. ft. log cabin located on a farm on the side of the mountain.  The cabin had a lot of character.  It was simple, but clean, and it had a sod roof, a small waterfall next to it, and a million dollar view of another fjord ~1500’ below.  Definitely the most unique place we have stayed so far.  By the time we got to our cabin it was 8 PM and was totally cloudy.

Geiranger – with large cruise ship in fjord

Our log cabin in Eidsdal

Day 34 – Saturday, July 20. Alesund.  During the night we had some light rain, and we woke to dense fog.  As we had breakfast and got ready to go there were periods of time where we could see part way across the valley, but other times we could only see ~ 100 feet.  At no time could we see down to the fjord.  This was the day we planned to take a 2.5 hour “tourist” ferry on the fjord, from Geiranger to Validal, and we were wondering if it would make any sense to do it with the dense fog.  The other option we had was to take the ferry that the locals take (a 10 min ferry) from Eidsdal to Linge, and then continue our drive to the coast.  The fog was very dense when we left our cabin, but as we got closer to Geiranger the fog started to lift and we could see an occasional patch of blue sky.  By the time our ferry left at noon the sky was almost clear, a perfect day.  The scenery on the fjords was amazing.  We started on Geirangerfjorden, then continued on Sunnylvsfjorden, and finally Norddalsfjord.  Norddalsfjord was the fjord that we could see from our cabin the night before.  The entire 2.5 hour cruise was beautiful, but the first ~45 minutes on Geirangerfjorden were the most spectacular.  There were sheer cliffs on both sides of the fjord, many >2000 feet high, and so many waterfalls that we lost track.  The area was mostly pristine, but there were a few small farms hugging some of the tiny level spots along the cliffs of the fjords.  For many of these places the only access was by boat, and the hike up to the farm was 1000+ feet at a >45 degree slope.  No wonder that most of these farms are abandoned.

Elizabeth and Matthew with troll in Geiranger

Switchbacks from Geiranger to Eidsdal

Waterfall, Geirangerfjorden

Waterfall, Geirangerfjorden – note kayaks in water for sense of perspective

After driving off the ferry, we drove to Alesund.  This town is located on several islands by the mouth of the fjords that we had been on earlier in the day.   The drive from Validal was only 1.5 hours.  It was still scenic, but not as nice as the ferry cruise or the drive the previous day from Lillehammer to Eidsdal.  There were 6-8 tunnels, with the longest ones being a couple of miles in length.  The area along this drive was more populated, with several small towns and a lot of farms.  We arrived at our accommodations at ~4:30.  We were staying at a place advertised as a “bed and breakfast”.  It did have beds and breakfast was included, but it was not what you think of as a B&B.  It was really a dorm room in a “folk high school”.  These schools are becoming increasingly popular in Norway, with ~80 of them nationwide.  They are often attended by students as a transitional year for those seeking a break between upper secondary (high school in US) and higher education (college in the US), or for young adults contemplating what their future plans are.  The schools do not provide degrees, and there are no formal examinations.  Each school has a theme or area they focus on. The one we stayed at, Borgundveien folk high school, is a “tourism” school.  They do a lot of travel, with some optional trips, and some whole school trips like the entire school going to Israel.  When they are not traveling they go skiing, hiking, kayaking, etc. in the local area.  It sounds wonderful, but I am curious how many students can afford to do this.  The web site says you can get educational loans, but at >$30K per year (+ more for optional trips) it seems hard to justify spending that much money on a “break to consider your future” and taking out loans to fund that.  Perhaps I am too practical, but for that cost you could attend college, spend a year taking a mix of introductory courses to decide what you like, and at least end up with some of the classes counting towards a degree that you ultimately picked.  We took advantage of our early arrival at our “B&B” and the fact that they had washing machines to do our laundry.

Day 35 – Sunday, July 21. Kristiansund.  We woke to drizzle and fog.  We had planned the day to be mostly a driving day, taking a winding path around the coastline of the fjords rather than the taking the most direct route to Kristiansund.  However, given the weather we decided to find an indoor activity in Alesund in hopes that the weather would improve.  After reviewing several options (polar museum, history museum, art museums …) we decided to go to the aquarium in Alesund.  The aquarium focused on sea life from the North Sea and the Norwegian fjords.  All the displays were in English as well as Norwegian which was nice.   We enjoyed our visit – the displays were well done and very informative.  After leaving the aquarium it had stopped drizzling, so we decided to go to Fjellstoua viewpoint, a high point in the city famous for the views of Alesund and the surrounding islands.  Unfortunately by the time we got to the top the clouds had dropped down lower and the drizzle resumed.  We were able to see the immediate area of town below, but not much else.  I have seen photos on clear days and it is beautiful.  Guess we will have to experience that on a future trip.

Matthew and Elizabeth “playing” outside Alesund aquarium

Mike playing with lobster, Alesund aquarium

After lunch we resumed our trek northward.  We followed the edges of the fjord, and had a 30 minute ferry ride from Vestnes to Molde.  Midway between Molde and Kristiansund is a stretch of road named the "Atlantic road.".  It has been ranked in severla puplications as one of the most scenic sections of road in the world.  The road connects a series of islands along the ocean.  It's signature bridge is the Storseisundet Bridge, which curves from left to right as it also curves up and down.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we drove through late afternoon, and not as beautiful as photos we had seen online.  The Altantic Road is connected to Kiristiansund by the Atlanterhavstunnelen.  This is a 5.7 km (3.6 mile) long tunnel under the water.  It goes down to 250 m (820 feet) below sea level.  By contrast, the "Chunnel" between France and England only is 75 m (250 feet) below sea level.

Day 36 – Monday, July 22. Trondheim.   We woke to sunshine and a clear blue sky.  We decided to backtrack and drive the Atlantic Road again and then rejoin our planned route east of Kristiansund.  This added ~ 1 hour of additional driving time.  The decision was worth it, as we were rewarded with beautiful vistas that looked like we had seen online.  The morning sunlight was perfect for taking photos to the west, across the numerous rocks and small islands that were off shore.  Most of the islands are not populated, but some have houses on them, and there are a couple of small (5-10 buildings) fishing villages.  We continued our ~4.5 hour drive around the fjords and on to Trondheim.  There were only a few small communities along the way.  The majority of the land was either forest or small farms.  Most of the farm houses had million dollar views of the fjords, even if they did not have waterfront property. 

Farm outside of Kristiansund

Atlantic Road

Storseisundet Bridge

We arrived in Trondheim in late afternoon.  Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway, behind Oslo and Bergen which is located further south along the west coast.  We didn't have time to go to any of the museums in town, but did go down by the waterfront for dinner at an open air restaurant, went to the cathedral, walked over the Town Bridge, looked at the colorful buildings built on pilings along the River Nid, and finished our day walking around Kristiansten Festning, the fortress on a hill above the old part of town.  Our hotel was only a couple hundred meters from the fortress.   Our hotel, Singsaker Sommerhotell, is a dorm for NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.  It is operated as a hotel during the summer months and is reputed to be the largest inhabited wooden building in northern Europe.

Cathedral in Trondheim

Buildings alongside river in Trondheim

The end of today was the middle of our trip.  36 days complete, 36 to go.   On one hand it doesn't seem like that long, but on the other it seems like a long time since we were walking around Paris.  For that matter it seems like a long time ago since I was able to easily walk around anywhere.  L

Day 37 – Tuesday, July 23. Onward to Finland.  Today was our longest planned driving day, to go from Trondheim, Norway, to Holmsund, Sweden.  Holmsund is just outside of Umea and is where we would catch the ferry to Finland.  Our drive would take us from the western part of Norway to the eastern part of Sweden,  ~400 miles (640 km) on winding two lane roads, or ~9 hours of driving time.   From Trondheim we took the E6 highway along the fjord to Stjørdal, before turning inland on E14.  One exit before we wanted to get off of E6 we saw an exit sign for Hell.  According to the sign there are accommodations and food.  We didn’t go, but if it is anything like the rest of Norway, Hell must be quite beautiful. Not sure why it always gets such bad press.  J

We had ~150 Norwegian kroner left, so we made one last stop before we arrived at the border with Sweden.  Karen and Matthew went into a grocery store with the goal of spending our remaining Norwegian money to buy food for lunch.  They succeeded and walked out of the story with the food and 1 krone (~$0.17) left over!  We arrived at the border with Sweden shortly before noon.  Total distance driven in Norway, 820 miles (1320 km). Total distance driven to date, 4070 miles (1320 km).  Our favorite things in Norway were:  Matthew – ferry rides and the wheel bob, Karen – trolls and the fjords. Elizabeth – the scenery, the stave church we visited, and Peppe’s Pizza, Mike – the fjords.

Other observations:  In the United States most children are taught from a young age that it is impolite to stare at other people.  In general it is rare to see someone blatantly staring at another person, especially for a long period of time.  We have noticed that is not the case in Europe.  This apparent cultural difference was most apparent in Norway.  People would just sit and stare at you.  It didn't appear to be anything unique with us (I don’t think we look like aliens) as we observed other people being the object of attention for the people staring.  One time a couple of people were staring at Karen, and she decided to see how they would react if she stared back.  She turned slightly so her body was directly facing them, leaned forward, and intently stared back.  Zero reaction from them.  They just continued to stare.  I think most Americans would find this behavior strange, if not rude, but then I am sure we have behaviors that Europeans find strange or rude.