Norway Top Five

October 7, 2018 1 By admin

#1 Bergen

Bergen was an easy place to visit. Right off the plane, we took the light rail into the city. Nicole, Danielle, Amanda and I stayed in the “City Box,” a basic hotel room with couple of beds and a shower. My first impression of the city was how clean it was and it had a feeling of classy organization and efficiency to the neighborhood.

Our first stop was the fish market down by the wharf. Two long rows of tents served the morning catch of mussels, lobster, whale, halibut, shrimp and salmon. The girls picked out a few plates to share and found them each delicious. As a traveler that doesn’t eat fish, I found a cold beer and it was also delicious. Further along the harbor, I found another food stand that offered Norwegian sausage and waffles instead.

Around the wharf, we walked to the classic row of tall wooden buildings still standing since the merchant days of the 14th century, albeit with repairs and modernizations. Painted in earth tones of red, orange and yellow, the old buildings have an enduring slant and lean with centuries of age. We stopped for a beer and popcorn in a bar in the old Bryggen buildings and enjoyed the history while listening to live music. Just imagine the early meetings of the merchant guilds in the 1300s, drinking beer and planning their trade routes around Norway and Northern Europe.

Next we tried another bar and sampled a variety of local beers. We met a group of travelers also from the Midwest and were surprised that we discovered we had friends in common halfway around the world. Walking out of the bar, around 1:30am, we were also quite surprised to see it was finally dark out. Visiting Scandinavia in the summer, the sun set for only a few hours each night.

In Bergen, we noticed the neighborhoods were more diverse than our previous stop, Iceland. Norway, while mostly a homogenous society has welcomed several rounds of refugees in the past decades from around the world. This is evident when walking down the street and seeing store signs in Arabic and restaurants serving shawarmas. Unfortunately with our limited time and list of more outdoor activities, we didn’t have many opportunities to get to know any locals to share their experience or culture together.

#2 Driving in Norway

While in Norway, we got around mostly in our rental car. This time we rented an automatic vehicle so I got a break from driving. I spent most of the time looking at the scenery out of the window, or taking a nap. Leaving the city, we took the highway with an overlook of the harbor to one side and on the other side a view of houses stacked up on the hillside with their vibrant earth tones and steep roofs. Once outside the populated area we were surrounded by the tree covered mountain sides of the fjords. The two lane highway curved around long, deep blue lakes with crystal clear water and rocky and boulderly streams. Each day was sunny with blue skies and wispy clouds. Absolutely beautiful.

Occasionally we pulled over to take in the scenery. We parked in a small village at an old church with a cemetary. It was built on a large lake so we took a stroll along the shore and passed a few houses. Later we stopped for the view at the Stalheim Hotel overlooking the long valley and at the Tvindefossen Waterfalls. We weren’t in any rush to reach our next destination.

With the hills and mountains, tunnels were commonplace when driving in Norway. Some compared to short tunnels we knew from back home where you can see one entrance or the other. We also drove through really long tunnels, up to eleven kilometers. It’s a bit claustrophobic to be so deep inside of a mountain. These massive tunnels were regularly marked with signs indicating how far until the entrance or exit; 9 km ahead, 2 km behind.

Most days on the trip we pulled over at a scenic spot and had a roadside picnic. My favorite picnic lunch was in a small village with a local market. We loaded our basket with fresh bread, salami, strawberries, apples, marmalade and sodas. We also picked a local cheese. It was wrapped up so we couldn’t see it until we started the picnic lunch. It was a brown, soft but crumbly, hairy. We could eat it on bread but it certainly wasn’t our favorite of the trip. We also kept a bag of stroopwafel cookies in the car with the soft wafers with caramel inside and always found a place for a cup of coffee.

#3 Flåm

Our next stop was to Flåm, a village a two and a half hour drive inland from Bergen. Here were stayed in a campground with a variety of lodging options; camping, RVing, cabinning and a hostel style dorm, where we stayed. In addition to our private room, there was a community kitchen and living room and a wraparound balcony. It was a nice afternoon to slow down and spend some time journaling and reading.

In the evening we went to the harbor where the fjord waters were fed by the glacial streams. A large dock area offered many stores and restaurants for the daytime tourists on the cruise ships. In the evening without the cruise ship the area was mostly empty but we found one fancy restaurant that was open for dinner. After we went to the Ægir microbrewery, a modern establishment designed as a middle ages Norse lodge. It focused around the central circular den and fireplace with wooden statues of Vikings and carved wooden furniture. We sampled a flight of their five most popular beers. I prefered one of the lighter lagers over the stout.

The next day we returned to the wharf which was packed with people from the newly arrived cruise ship. We took a two hour boat ride slowly chugging through the fjords. The hillsides to our left and right raised sharpy above the deep trenches of brackish water. Each bend of the river revealed the next round of mountains. We passed one small town and several small clusters of houses along the shore. The water seemed too chilly to swim but some brave, energetic kids were splashing around near a campsite.

#4 Gudvangen

We hopped off the ferry and into a touristy bar and restaurant area. Being the only place with a TV, we choose to watch the final of the World Cup there. I sipped my pear cider surrounded fans rooting for both France and Croatia. After France won the game, we drove to our cabin for the night. This place was darling. We stayed in a sweet cabin painted a deep red with white trim and a slanted roof. Inside it had bunks and a loft and outside a front porch with a view of the fjords on each side and the green grass of the valley floor out front. That evening we cooked a family style dinner of spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread and stroopwafel cookies for dessert.

#5 Hike near the Village of Rimstigen

We parked our car in a small village of maybe fifteen houses and a small campground. Our plan was a two hour hike but we extended the route further with such beautiful scenery. Once we found the right trailhead, we began our steep accent with dozens of switchbacks up the face of the fjord. The trail was well-marked with some steep rocky sections and a few spots with loose sand and rocks. The views behind us across the fjord were absolutely stunning. The water showed shades of blue with the deep dark river and the layers of the rocky mountainsides jutted in and out along the shore with sheer rock faces and patches of green forest.

The views were amazing looking outward but glances down some of the steep sections brought out my fear of heights. I just kept following the mantra, “keep your eyes on the road” to remind myself not to look down. Soon the town disappeared below us and the boats shrank into small dots as we climbed almost a kilometer above our starting point.

Some sections of the trial had shade but mostly the path was exposed. Between the sun, the heat, and the picturesque landscapes, we took frequent rest and photo breaks. We stopped a small wooden mailbox to jot our details in a notebook that contained messages from previous hikers.

We took a long rest along a flat section next to a stream to fill our water bottles and dip our toes. The fresh, cool glacial water was delicious. Once we reached the top, we continued hiking further back to where a lake exists in the colder months in an upper plateau and valley. This time of year, there was no lake, just some boggy spots along the trail. There were several slight waterfalls that together eventually filled the stream.

The way back down was long and slow with careful footing on the loose sections. We returned past the few scary steep spots with an even clearer view of the steep drop offs. With sore knees and ankles, we made it back to the bottom about six hours later. There, we rinsed in the fjord waters and started the drive back to Bergen.