Norwegian Wood

In a country as expensive as Norway, you don’t take anything free for granted—especially when that thing is food.  Our hotel had a complimentary breakfast and I was determined to get my fill, even if it meant sacrificing sleep by waking up at a decent time after a late night of hand washing laundry.  I headed downstairs and tried a little of everything: delicious breads with jam, cold cut and cheese sandwiches (which always remind me of my family’s Christmas Eve dinner), muesli with yogurt, etc.  I guess not everything, since I left the fishy foods untouched.

Our bellies full, we stepped out into rainy Bergen and made our way to the Fløm Funicular for a view over the city.  All this rain was helping me understand why the locals invest in such fashionable rain gear:  you wear it all the time!  The view was truly nice, but in the rain you didn’t want to linger at the overlook so we hid in the gift shop to wait it out.  And then a miracle occurred; the rain stopped and we even saw a patch of blue sky!

Beautiful Bergen

Out came the cameras to capture the rare moment, and we decided to stick around a little longer.  There were paths around the mountaintop, and we took a lovely morning stroll through the Norwegian woods in our Sunday best.  We saw lots of locals doing the same, but dressed a bit sportier than us.

Isn't it good Norwegian wood?

Back down in Bergen, we took a tram to church and arrived just in time for sacrament meeting and meeting a few of the friendly locals.  I was so grateful for headsets to listen in English, but when it came time for the hymns we sang along in our best Norwegian.  Never actually learning how to pronounce words in Norwegian, it came out with a strong German (Kellee) and Finnish (Maggie) accent but at least the notes were right.  The talks were about what they’d learned in Seminary that year studying the Old Testament, and I was impressed by the number of their youth.

The chapel was within walking distance of a Stave church that was situated in the midst of more Norwegian woods.  Beautiful craftsmanship and it’d be interesting to attend the Lutheran worship services there, surrounded by the strong scent of pine but awfully dark in the absence of windows. 

We returned to downtown Bergen to sample the local pastries and explore the old downtown a bit more.  Unfortunately, we arrived at the old fort near our hotel just in time to see all the information offices close, so the view was nice but I had no idea of its importance.  It did leave enough time for a bit more of the old wooden storefronts before catching the bus to the airport.  Leaving Bergen, we glimpsed a huge ceremony on the next block over honoring Aung San Suu Kyi.  Again, so close to seeing her in person! 

I knew that travel between Schengen countries was a bit like travelling domestically, but we weren’t prepared for their airport security.  Not only did we get to keep our shoes on, but they never actually checked our photo IDs.  No complaints, but it felt surprisingly bizarre.  We spent the last of our Norwegian Kroner on candy before the short flight to country #2:  Denmark. 

As we landed in Copenhagen, I had one concern:  the Euro-Cup match between Denmark and Germany.  As we passed a sports pub in the terminal I could see the crowds gathered and checked the score: 1-1.  I stayed as long as I dared, but it turned out I could’ve stayed longer before our luggage arrived.  Our Danish Kroner in hand, we took the metro to the city center.  As we got closer to our destination I started seeing Danish football (soccer) fans on the trains.  I couldn’t tell if they were just tired and leaving the match early or if they were sad, and was hesitant to ask.  Finally, as we got off at our stop I approached some of the metro staff and asked them, figuring they’d be harmless.  Good thing, too, because Germany won 2-1!

It was actually dark as we walked to our hostess’ apartment, proof that we were a little further south (and that it was pretty late).  I started to get a feel for the architecture, but what I really noticed were all the bike lines.  My kind of people!  Our hostess Erin was a friend of a friend of a friend, but we quickly hit it off with her and were so grateful for her hospitality!  We could’ve stayed up until the wee hours chatting with a fellow geologist, but she had work the next morning and we had exhaustion.

Fjords!

When we’d started planning this trip several months ago, I had one request:  I needed to see the fjords.  It’s not just that the name is fun to say.  Rather, I tend to feel a connection with many types of landscapes.  In the case of volcanoes and fjords, the connection borders on the spiritual in a way I can really neither describe nor explain.  Maybe it’s that I’m humbled by the grandeur of it and the time it took to create, but it feels like there is something more behind it.  Regardless, I was a little obsessed and this was the day of the trip where my expectations were highest.

My biggest concern was the weather.  We’d been somewhat lucky up until now, but there were always periods of rain, mostly overcast skies, etc.  Fine for exploring cities, but low clouds would block my view of the mountain tops and raindrops would cling to my camera’s lens.  Consequently, I took the preventative measure of asking Mama Koenig and Aunt Janet a few days beforehand to pray that we’d have good weather.  If you knew their track record and the weather forecast for Flåm you’d ask too.

We awoke to overcast skies and a light drizzle, which wasn’t ideal but I’d take it.  Maggie had kindly warned me that it gets cold on the water so I busted out the gloves I packed just for this and we headed to the docks to get on the early boat.  Arriving just in time to purchase our tickets and walk on board, we raced to the top deck to secure our spots.  I quickly realized that while there was no bad side (you’re surrounded by them) I was going to be running around even more than I did on the train to snap pictures.  In addition to Scott and Bjorn, our fellow passengers included a large group of smiling Asian tourists who quickly unstacked all the deck chairs to claim their spots, only to join me in wandering the deck.  The abandoned chairs made it a little hard to dash back and forth, so it wasn’t long before Maggie and I became the unofficial deckchair boys, stacking them all back up.

As we pulled away from the dock, I could feel giddy excitement bubbling up and a silly grin I couldn’t wipe off my face.  They were beautiful!  I tried to take it all in and kept looking around, the most gorgeous scenery in every direction.  I couldn’t seem to take enough pictures, as if sheer quantity would do it justice.  Soon enough, the drizzle stopped so we could just enjoy the view and strategically try to avoid the almost frigid wind.

The ferry stopped at another village of decent size along the way, but for the most part there were hardly any houses along the fjords, in part because of the steep cliffs (and possibly because it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site).  At one spot there were a couple of houses built on top of the cliffs, and the announcer explained that they had to get the building materials up there by ladder.  Gorgeous view, but I’m not sure I’d go to the same effort.  Even with the ones close to the water, some of the homes were only accessible by the ferry boat we were on.

Quite a few waterfalls though, and since some of the mountaintops still had snow pack I could only imagine how cold that water felt—the breeze on my face was chilly enough for me.

All too soon, we pulled into dock and most of the passengers disembarked to catch a bus and continue their trip.  Thankfully, Maggie was willing to indulge my fixation with a round-trip ferry ride for maximum time on the water.  It was the same route, but I kept snapping away at photos as if seeing them from the “back side” was any different…and yet, somehow it was a different perspective for me.

I’m a tad embarrassed to admit that after shooting dozens of pictures of the Norwegian flag with their postal logo on it, I still didn’t realize until the return trip that we were on the mail boat, and were stopping along their postal route.  From the way the handful of locals came down to meet the boat and wave, I think we were their excitement for the weekend.  As much as I like to be on the go, I can’t imagine getting to live in a spectacular place where nothing happens.  Not sure I could handle it, even with the fjords.

A very happy fjord-er.

In the final stretch, just when you thought it couldn’t get any prettier…the sun came out, and my picture taking efforts redoubled.  Honestly, if you took the pictures I shot and strung them together, it would almost be like a flipbook except I kept facing different directions.  As we returned to Flåm I didn’t want to get off the boat, but was so overjoyed with the experience I couldn’t feel sad.  It had lived up to my expectations!

We had just enough time in Flåm before catching the train to buy some food and check out the Flåm Railway museum.  It was crazy to realize that those long tunnels through solid rock were cleared by hand, some requiring a month to go a meter, and taking 20 years in all to construct.  Would we have the patience for a similar undertaking today?  I’m not so sure.  I was excited to ride the Flåmsbana again, though this time we had to share it with a lot more fellow tourists…and the average age in our car was high enough that they weren’t keen on running around.  So the weather was better, but the views were a bit more limited, making me grateful we were riding it both days.  We had a surprise at the waterfall stop, though.  Whereas before we just had a massive, beautiful waterfall, this time we had a woman dressed in red appear among some adjacent ruins and dance to music they were broadcasting from somewhere nearby.  As best as I can figure out, it’s their equivalent of the Lorelei.

Back in Myrdal, we caught the main train to Bergen.  The scenery, though not as stunning as what we’d just left, continued to be lovely and it appeared we were following larger fjords for part of it.  As we arrived in Bergen, it started to rain.  I’d only asked for good weather for the fjord cruise and wasn’t about to complain, though by the time we walked to our hotel I did wish it were only a drizzle or that I’d packed my galoshes.  It had been difficult to book a hotel room in Bergen and when we checked in I found out why:  Lenny Kravitz was performing in the old fort next door to our hotel.  Most tourist sites had closed for the day by the time we arrived, but we had fun poking into shops along the waterfront next to the hotel.  That area was entirely composed of the old wooden stores from when the Hanseatic merchants lived there several hundred years ago and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I was impressed they’d lasted so long, especially as wooden structures, but we did notice while walking down the narrow alleyways that they were starting to lean a little.

 As this was our last night in Norway we decided it was time for a proper Norwegian meal, and ended up at Café Opera where I dined on reindeer steak with potatoes and brussel sprouts.  It was all very good, and roughly knowing with the exchange rate how expensive it was I took all the more opportunity to sample it slowly.

Reindeer steak

 As it was a Saturday night, and as we were in Europe during the Euro Cup, we stopped at a Sports Bar along the walk home to dry off and watch the matches.  Czech Republic beat Poland 1-0, and the match was alright to watch, but the match I was really looking forward to was Germany-Denmark the following day.  Back at the hotel we dried off and did some long-overdue laundry before stumbling to bed.  Another marathon day, but such a delight!

Folke and Flåm

This morning my inner CEL (Crazy Ethnic Lady) got her fix at the Norsk Folkemuseum. The Norwegian equivalent of the Polynesian Cultural Center, it presents everyday life in Norway throughout its history and geography by showcasing different buildings that were moved there. As we wandered the grounds, we came upon an ancient stave church that was beautifully preserved.

There were many log houses that were hundreds of years old, staffed by interpreters in period dress.

I especially loved the roof.

 A running theme through many of them: huge tables and tiny beds. The table was where you spent most of your indoors time and was how you flaunted your wealth to guests. Beds, on the other hand, weren’t shown off and apparently when it gets that cold in the winter everyone curls into a ball and snuggles together for warmth. I was tempted to ask them to demonstrate what this would’ve looked like, but thought the better of it. In addition to farming areas, they moved an entire apartment building there and used each unit to show a different decade. We finished off our visit with a clothing exhibit, showing the subtle distinctions between regions.

It was a bit of a mad dash to ferry and tram back to the hostel and then the train station, but we made it with time to spare and were able to buy groceries for the train ride and next day’s adventure. Thank goodness I like cheese and cold cuts!

Whether travelling by train or car, I love reading the landscape for the stories it tells. We passed verdant green forests, patches of lupine growing along the tracks as wildflowers, and scattered farm houses in the apparently standard Scandinavian colors: rust red and harvest gold.

The trees and flowers seemed to change slightly as we went further inland and higher up, becoming scrubs and eventually tundra. Our fellow passengers were also pretty interesting to watch: a few soldiers going home for the weekend, and some student musicians probably coming back from some field trip. What they must’ve thought of the American who kept trying to take pictures out the window and got excited at the most mundane things. And then we started to see something I dreaded encountering in June: snow.

For quite some distance, the landscape was a barren expanse of white and the lakes were iced over. Where was Maggie taking me?! Thankfully we’d soon be heading back to sea level.

At the village of Myrdal we switched trains to the Flåmsbana, the train that would take us from 866 meters to 2 meters in about an hour. The scenery was stunning as we hugged the valley walls and twisted through 20 tunnels.

Our car was nearly empty so I was able to run back and forth to both sides of the car, snapping as many pictures as possible with my fellow tourists.

We even stopped at one of the waterfalls for a photo break, which is where we met the friendliest fellow traveler I’ve ever encountered. Scott from Florida was surprised by his wife for his 50th birthday with a trip to visit his Uncle Bjorn in Norway and reconnect with long-lost family. Since his daughter is nearly our age he quickly took us under his wing and was a delight to chat with during the ride.

As we pulled into the village of Flåm on the last train of the day, nearly everything had already closed and we were one of the last to check into our “huts” before the office closed. Still, it wasn’t dark yet so at 11 PM we wandered down to the water’s edge and saw the nice hotel where Scott and Bjorn were staying.

Notice the clock in the lower right corner.  The sky was really this color at 11 PM!!!

Camping Norwegian style really appeared quite posh, with many camper vans and such.

Our hut was actually rather nice with a kitchen, laundry, etc. In a surprising turn of events, the toilets were free (hooray!) but they had pay showers. Intrigued by the novelty and always up for a good shower, today my 10 KR went to a coin slot in the shower that provided me with ample hot water to wash and rinse. Thankfully I hadn’t attempted to wash my hair, because it didn’t tell me how much time I had left. Instead, when your time was up it would abruptly turn cold and then off. I’m hoping this idea doesn’t get back to Papa Koenig.

Out and About in Oslo

This morning required a bit of a slower start, and as we got ourselves sorted I admired our view towards the hills around Oslo and all the bronze church towers rising above the other buildings. It also came with the disappointing realization that I’d lost my pedometer the night before somewhere between the train station and the hostel. I doubt whoever finds it will even appreciate it, as they’ll probably have a different stride and not care how far they’ve walked in imperial units. Instead, I’ll just have to assume that we walk an average of 3-5 miles daily, and also assume that it will offset the quantities of chocolate, cheese, and pastries I hope to eat.

We started with a return to the train station and the Tourist Information (“TI”) office, and a reintroduction to one of my least favorite things about Europe: bathrooms that require a payment for entry. It was clean and safe, but was it really worth 10 Kronor? Hard to say, but this did have one unique feature: vibrant blue lighting in the stalls. Looking like a Smurf was a novelty, but Maggie explained it was to prevent drug addicts from shooting up in the stalls because the blue light made it harder to see their veins. My thought: what addict would pay to go in there in the first place, and what does that mean for every other bathroom we encounter that doesn’t have this lighting? I’m trying not to think about it, other than keeping an eye out for every free bathroom we’ll encounter.

We walked towards City Hall, stopping in a few shops and passing their lovely Parliament building along the way. City Hall’s architecture, on the other hand, wasn’t really to my taste but it was very interesting. We’d planned to see the art inside, but were denied entry because…Aung San Suu Kyi was coming to receive the Nobel Peace Prize they’d awarded her years ago! A very cool reason, and I was sorry we’d miss her and the party in her honor. Instead we focused on the courtyard’s wooden murals depicting Norse mythology. Thanks to “The Avengers” and Richard Wager some of the stories were familiar, but some were totally new; a few of those new ones were so disturbing I was glad we weren’t learning more.

Their City Hall is on the waterfront, and we caught a ferry from there to a trio of nautical museums. Along the way, we saw blue sky through the clouds for the first time that day and noticed that the water was full of jellyfish. It was very cool to see, and a confirmation that I wasn’t going swimming in that water anytime soon.

The Maritime Museum presented an interesting overview of the different types of boats built over time for various purposes, and included a video that gave the impression that everyone in Norway owns a boat and a vacation home right on the water. It also showed fisherman making salted cod by tying them in pairs and throwing them onto scaffolding to dry in the open air, apparently in an unchanged manner for hundreds of years. I’m excited to try the food here, but I don’t think that’s making the list.  The Fram museum is an A-frame building built around a boat of the same name that was used in polar exploration. Fascinating stories of its design, of the successes and tragic failures of attempts, of the tools they used, and the personalities involved in this. It confirmed that while I like exploring and discovering what is new and unknown to me, I’m of a different breed than these guys. I don’t do extreme cold, possibility of death, etc.  The Kon-Tiki museum honors Thor Heyerdahl, who built a balsa wood boat and in 1947 sailed it from Peru to French Polynesia to prove the possibility that Polynesia was settled by peoples from the Americas. This actually sounded like fun, until they mentioned shark encounters. Apparently a new movie about it is coming out later this year.

We ferried back towards City Hall and stopped by the Peace Center to learn more about the prize. For anyone else who’s a little confused about the Nobel prizes, I’ll attempt to clarify. It appears the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian royal family in the Oslo city hall. The other Nobel prizes (e.g. sciences, literature) are awarded by the Swedish royal family in Stockholm’s city hall. It was interesting and inspiring to learn more about some of the recipients.

Since it was still daylight, we made one final stop on the outskirts of town: the Holmenkollbakken ski jump. You could see it in the distance, and while the tram took us quite far up the hill it was still a bit of a hike. They’ve had a ski jump there for over a hundred years, using the natural slope but making it even bigger and steeper over time.

Not pictured: the other half of the massive jump and the pit where they land.

 We took an elevator to the top and the view over Oslo was gorgeous in the setting sun.

 The ski jump itself was also an impressive sight, and included a ski museum underneath. We learned that skiing is such a strong part of their cultural identity that they put their kids in skis as early as possible, evidenced by adorable pictures of kids skiing around. And when Norway became independent from Sweden in 1905 and imported a Danish prince and his British wife to be their king and queen (they had previous ties to the Danish monarchy), the royal couple used skiing as a means of endearing themselves to their subjects and it's a tradition that apparently continues. If I didn’t already think Norwegians were a little crazy after learning about their polar exploration, seeing a movie of their back country skiers there confirmed it. They’d hike up ridiculously steep mountains, and not so much ski down them as fall, occasionally touching snow and trying to outrace the avalanches they were causing in the process.
It still wasn’t dark, but it was so late that most restaurants closed by the time we returned to the downtown. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and were thoroughly exhausted by the time we returned to the hostel.

London Layover

Today we began our 2-week Scandinavia Smorgasbord. Applying lessons learned from Indonesia with the Istanbul layover, we began with the longest layover we could find in London. Our red-eye flight arrived at Heathrow and we took the Tube to Hyde Park, arriving at Buckingham Palace in time to see the changing of the guards. Due to the recent Jubilee there was still a good deal of bleachers and fencing they were taking down, so at first it looked like we could only glimpse it from a distance through the fence. Walking a little further, we arrived at The Mall (the road running from the Palace to Trafalgar Square) in time to see the passing of the horse guards and a small group of soldiers marching right past us.

Thinking that was it, we began to wander through St. James’s Park. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit London twice before, both times in November, and I was pleasantly shocked to see the seasonal transformation. The day was mostly sunny, and just cool enough to warrant a light sweater as we strolled through gardens with an abundance of flowers and baby swans. My favorite was a giant replica of the queen’s crown out of different types of plants.

We left the gardens just in time to see and hear a military band parade past us, and followed them out as we began our search for food and drink.

On previous trips to England, I noticed that one of the things I enjoyed most were the guided tours and today proved to be no exception. An older London gent decided to become our tour guide for a few blocks, explaining the buildings as we passed and leading us to a convenience store by Trafalgar Square before bidding us a good day. I got my Cadbury fix, and Maggie sampled one of their unique flavors of crisps (aka potato chips). We ate these while watching school kids climb on the lions around Nelson’s Column, and the giant countdown clock for the Olympics (44 days to go!) in front of the National Gallery.

The rest of our time was spent strolling towards Tower Bridge, people watching on The Strand and enjoying a beautiful day. The steps of Saint Paul’s didn’t have an old woman feeding birds, but it was full of people enjoying their lunches. Inspired (and hungry), we crossed over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge and enjoyed lunch at an outdoor market before continuing on to Tower Bridge. I’d seen the iconic bridge before, but today was lucky enough to walk across it.

On the other side, we hopped on a double-decker bus back to Trafalgar Square and took the Tube back to Heathrow, finally acknowledging our tired feet from the walking.

Our flight to Oslo was brief, and as we landed my disorientation wasn’t just from the new landscape and language. We arrived after 10 PM, yet the sky was still light! By the time we cleared customs and took the train into the city it got a bit darker, but was still just the dusky color of a sun recently gone down. This was a good thing, as we were a little disoriented leaving the train station and took the scenic route to our hostel.

Orlando Day 4: Leaving already?

Our flight wasn’t until later in the day, so we spent the morning driving to see the Orlando temple, and visiting some of Florida’s more natural attractions. 

Aubree at the Orlando temple.

Wekiwa Springs State Park wasn’t too far away and was wonderful!  Under the hanging Spanish moss was a swimming area of clear water coming from the springs.  It was a bit brisk at first, but once you started moving it was refreshing.  Thankfully I didn’t see the sign about alligators until afterward, and I’m pretty sure those boards under the bridge were enough to deter them, right? 

enjoying nature's theme park

with our faithful rental car

I frolicked in the water as long I could before we had to leave for a lovely lunch and heading to the airport.  As we headed to our gate inside the terminal, we looked out the window and saw an alligator in a pond and darkening skies.  Sure enough, the heavens opened for a massive downpour just before our flight.  The lightning delayed us a bit (something about not letting us walk through metal tubes to the plane), but we were just grateful it only poured once we were inside an not while we were at the parks.  All in all, a great time!

Orlando Day 3: Harry Potter

Today was the part I was most excited about:  the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.  Aubree and our hostess, Kim, were all about the roller coasters, so this was a pretty tall order given our limited time.  Our solution was to splurge on Park Hopper passes with an option to shortcut in most lines.

About to enter!  The sign says "Please respect the spell limits."

 As we entered “Hogsmeade”, I couldn’t stop smiling and was blown away by their attention to detail and how much it felt like we were in the movie…if the movie had hundreds of American tourists as extras.

So excited!

The castle...and lots of other excited people.

We rode the roller coaster and decided to come back later to explore more.

With Aubree in line, and in front of Hagrid's cabin.

From there, it was on to a slew of roller coasters.  They were fantastic, but I sadly discovered that my body doesn’t like going upside down like it used to.  So much for being a stunt pilot or astronaut.  After lunch, we went to the other park and enjoyed a few more rides that mostly stayed upright. Just the walking was good for me, and I was a little relieved when I “needed” to hold everyone’s bags for a final coaster.  From there, we returned to HP World so I could go inside the castle.  The line was still long, but once you were inside there was so much to see that it actually moved too quickly before bringing you to the terrific ride you were technically waiting for that whole time.  We were actually able to ride it a second time before calling it a night, and I celebrated by buying several kinds of sweets at Honeydukes.

Like a kid in a...

Exhausting to have 2 days of intense walking back-to-back, but so worth it!