Back to the USA

We were up early (again) for breakfast in order to catch the bus to the airport. The sad part was we had to say goodbye to Steve and Kathy who were planning an extended detour up Norway's coast for another five days.

We arrived at the airport and checked our luggage. We had a little time to kill so we visited with Dawn and Bob since they would be taking a different flight to Oslo, through Reykjavik, Iceland, and then on to Baltimore. We said our goodbyes and our plane left Trondheim for Copenhagen. Dawn had made me promise to watch out for Mom and Dad. Funny how things get reversed as you get older.

From the air it is amazing how flat Denmark is compared to Norway. We had to go through passport control and then we made our way to the gate. If we had had more time it would have been fun to try to meet up with Rasmus, a foreign exchange student who had visited Tahoe and done some shows with us there.

The flight from Copenhagen to O'Hare was delayed about 45 minutes. Since Mom and Dad didn't have a lot of time at O'Hare to go through customs and then catch their plane to Cedar Rapids I think they were getting a little concerned.

During the flight I watched V for Vendetta, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. I had seen V before, but I liked the Matrix movies and this one also was written by the Machowski brothers. We both dozed off a while, but finally reached Chicago.

We all got through customs fairly uneventfully, but we were trying to hurry to catch our connecting flights. We said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad and thanked them for the opportunity to spend some time with them visiting the home of our ancestors. I found out later their flight had been delayed, so they made it easily enough.

Our flight, on the other hand, got cancelled and we had to get booked on a later flight to Minneapolis that didn't leave until 10:20 Central time. If I remember right it was delayed too. (WARNING: Don't fly through O'Hare if you don't have to.) Having got up at 7:00 am in Trondheim you can imagine how tired we were by then. We decided to get a little dinner at Chili's in the meantime.

Our flight left Chicago and got into Minneapolis 11:30. By the time we picked up our baggage, got a shuttle, and arrived at the Hampton Inn it was after midnight. We both fell asleep slightly before our heads hit the pillow, I think. What a day.

Trondheim city tour

We were up early for the breakfast buffet and then onto the bus for a 3 hour tour of Trondheim. We stopped briefly for a photo op at the Kristiansten Fort.

 
Kristiansten Fort. Dad and Dawn in the upper left. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We drove past the Haltdalen Stave church at the Trøndelag Folk Museum. We passed the Royal Residence, the Old Town Bridge (where lovers are supposed to kiss), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and stopped briefly at the Utsikten (viewpoint) for more photos.


View of the Nidaros Cathedral. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

Definitely the highlight of the city tour for me was visiting the Nidaros Cathedral. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside. I ended up getting the guide book.


Front of the Nidaros Cathedral. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)

 
Another shot further back. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

We had the rest of the afternoon free so Junel and I went for a walk along the Nidelva River to the "Kissing Bridge" and then to do a little shopping at the Julehus. The only problem is we walked right pass the store so we got in a little extra mileage that wasn't intended. She did find a couple of nice ornaments there.

 
The "Kissing Bridge," Trondheim. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.) 

We went a little further and had a late lunch at Primo, an Italian restaurant. Fish and potatoes were starting to get a little old. I ended up having a bruschetta and Junel a nice salad. Quite good. We then moseyed back to the hotel and took a short nap before dinner. Mom and Dad had gone to a concert at the Cathedral and then saw the Crown Jewels that were being exhibited nearby. Before dinner we met with MariAnne to go over some details for our flights out tomorrow. She mentioned how much she had enjoyed being our tour guide and that she knew everything was going to be fine for this tour because before the tour had even left she had been praying for each and every one of us. 

Earlier she had asked me about singing something and I mentioned I had done a concert version of Phantom of the Opera. So when she was through I volunteered to sing "Music of the Night." Of course, I think it sounds better with background tracks, but sometimes you just have to make do. We had dinner and we all said our goodbyes to MariAnne. Her flight was leaving at 4:30 in the morning. Junel and I were tired so we headed off to bed.

On to Trondheim

Today was an early wakeup call, 6:15. With breakfast again provided we were on the road again heading to Molde. We reached Vestnes to take an hour long ferry ride across the Moldefjord to Molde.


View on the ferry ride to Molde. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

Two-thirds of the town was destroyed by German bombers during WWII who were searching for King Håkon and Crown Prince Olav. The town is also well known for its roses. We then headed NW to Bud (pronounced Boo). From the Molde & Romsdal Travel Guide 2006:

In the 16^th and 17^th century Bud was the biggest trading post between Bergen and Trondheim. The last meeting of the national council in Norway was held in 1533 under the leadership of Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson. Today Bud is still an active and charming fishing village with several good fish restaurants.

We ate lunch at one of those and I think it was the best salmon I ever had.


The town of Bud. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)

 

Before that though we stopped at the Ergan coastal defences.

Ergan is a restored German coastal fort from World War II with command center, cannon positions, sickbay, and water reservoir built into the rock. In addition to the 350 Germans, Bud was home to 150 Russian and Polish POWs. The fort has a view of the whole of Hustadvika bay, the shipping lanes to Ålesund, Molde, and Kristiansund as well as the fishing villages of Bjørnsund and Ona. (Molde & Romsdal Travel Guide 2006)

Exhibit at Ergan. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

 

After lunch we got to drive across part of the Atlantic Road which "zigzags across bridges and rockfills from island to island." One of the bridges we crossed looked like a skijump. We stopped for some pictures and then retraced our steps instead of going on to Kristiansund.

 
Bridge along the Atlantic Road. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

 

We had one more short ferry ride and then headed up E39 to Trondheim. We were getting tired and took a short little nap. We had a short stop at Heimdal to stretch our legs and grab a soda and when we got back on the bus, Dawn and I surprised Mom and Dad by singing "The First Forty Years Are the Hardest." That brought on a round of "bus karaoke." I think people were getting punchy from being on the bus all day.

 

  

Roadside stop on the way to Trondheim. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)

 

 We got into Trondheim and headed for the Radisson Hotel. MariAnne pointed out some of the sights we'll see tomorrow more closely on our city tour. After getting our bags to the room I went down to the lobby where Dad, Dawn, and Bob were having a beer. Since I needed some cash I went out and searched for an ATM machine (or Minibank as the Norwegians say). After I returned I also got a Dahls beer and then blogged a little before dinner. They had a decent buffet and we all said goodbye to our tour driver, Tor Ivar. I think we'll probably try to get to bed early tonight. More tomorrow.

Geiranger Fjord and Ålesund

We got to sleep in a little later today. Wakeup call was at 8:00 and we were on the road by 9:30.

 
Scenery on the way to Geiranger. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We drove from Loen over to Geiranger to catch a ferry across the Geiranger Fjord (recently placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List) to Hellesylt.

 
Cruise ships in the harbor at Geiranger. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

The Geiranger Fjord is breathtaking. There were 5 cruise ships in the harbor. (One is hiding around the corner in the picture above.) We stopped at the top of the mountain above Geiranger to get some photos, (The one below is courtesy of a kind stranger.) and then got on the ferry for the 1 hour ride. We hurried to grab some lunch at the onboard cafeteria before the line got too long.

 
The Williams clan above Geiranger. From left: Steve, Kathy, Dad, Mom, Bob, Dawn, Mark, and Junel. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.) 

There are several attractions along the way to Hellesylt. We saw the Ørnevegen (Eagle Road) which has 11 hairpin turns that wind up from the fjord. Right before the Sju Systre (Seven Sisters) waterfall is the Knisflå, an abandoned farm way up near the top.

 
The Seven Sisters waterfall. The Knisflå farm is in the upper right hand corner. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

The Seven Sisters themselves are a group of seven waterfalls that drop almost 250 m. to the fjord. Across from the Seven Sisters is a waterfall called Friaren (The Suitor). I don't think that requires an explanation.

 
The Suitor waterfall. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.) 

 Next is the Brudesløvet (Bridal Veil) which closely resembles the identically named waterfall in Yosemite.

The Bridal Veil waterfall. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

After taking lots of pictures we went back down and boarded the bus so that we could leave quickly once docked. Our destination for the evening is Ålesund. From Hellesyllt we through the wild landscape of Velledalen. When we reached Ørneset we got on another short ferry to Magerholm, drove about another 1/2 hour and we were at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Ålesund. We got in about 4:00 so we had three hours to kill before dinner. Much of Ålesund was destroyed in 1904 in a fire. Most of it was rebuilt in the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau), so it has very beautiful and interesting architecture.

 
Dance move in Ålesund. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

Mom, Dad, Steve, Kathy, Bob, and Dawn went to the Aquarium. Junel and I decided to walk downtown. She enjoyed taking pictures of the buildings. I wanted to climb the 418 steps to the Fjellstua Viewpoint on Mt. Aksla. Junel was a good sport about it, but after about 3/4 of the way said she'd wait for me. I made it to the top and took a few snapshots.

View from the Fjellstua Viewpoint. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

The views of Ålesund, the islands, and the majestic Summøre Alps were worth the sweat I had worked up. I got a couple of sodas at the cafeteria and headed down. At the bottom in the Town Park is a statue of Rollo the Viking. Rollo founded Normandy in the year 911. Back then the "Vikings" were called Norsemen. Rollo was an ancestor of William the Conqueror who conquered England in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. If I remember correctly he was also an ancestor of the Sinclair family of Roslin, Scotland.

 
Rollo the Viking. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We headed back to the Radisson for dinner. All these wonderful buffets are not helping my waistline, but they sure are good. We met up with the rest of the clan, visited while eating, and then headed to our room. Junel did some reading while I wrote up today's adventures. Tomorrow we get up early again to go to Trondheim.

On to Loen

We got up about 6:15 and on the road by eight. The breakfast buffet was excellent as usual. We left Voss on the way to Loen. First we drove over the Vik Mountains. The weather was a little overcast and rainy. Since we had been at Edvard Grieg's summer home and our tour director, MariAnne had mentioned one of his songs, "Jeg elsker dig," that I had sung in a recital some years ago, I thought it might be fun to surprise Junel by singing it for her in Norwegian. So MariAnne let me and sure enough, she was surprised. She cried a little too. We have the reputation on the tour as the "cute honeymooners."

 
View of Vangsnes and the Sognefjord. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We had a photo op at the top of the mountains before we descended to Vangsnes to take a ferry ride across the Sognefjord to Hella. The views and scenery are simply magnificent. I found and bought a little booklet that featured many, if not all, of the stave churches. The ferry ride was fun. We got off the bus to walk around the boat a bit. The ride was only about 20 minutes and were across in Hella and heading up along the fjord to Sogndal. There we headed north along the Fjærland road across some beautiful countryside. Everything is so lush and green--waterfalls everywhere (Think Fantasy Island).

 
Waterfall on the way to Skei. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

Eventually we came to Skei on the Jølsla lake where we had lunch and got to do some shopping at Audhild Viken's Weaving Workshop. They had lots of beautiful Norwegian sweaters. Junel and I each got one and best of all they were 40% off. Junel also picked up some gifts and some Christmas ornaments. We left around 1:00 for our next destination, the Briksdal Glacier. The narrow 1 and 1/2 lane road we were on was adjacent to Jostedalsbreen Nasjonalpark which explains all of the waterfalls. Breen is Norwegian for glacier. The Jostedal Glacier is 480 sq. km.

 
Another waterfall. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We drove up to Utvik on the Innvikfjord then turned east to Olden. There we headed back south to Briksdal. We got out of the bus at a rest stop below the glacier that had a gift shop and a cafeteria. We transferred to some John Deere tractors pulling a six person cart up to where you could hike to the bottom of the glacier. It started raining so we grabbed the camera, the umbrella, got aboard the wagons and headed up.

 
Briksdal Glacier. Note the people at the bottom left for scale. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

The hike from where the tractors dropped us off was about another 15 minutes to the bottom of the glacier. We got some really nice pictures. The glacier ice contains minerals leached from the rocks it grinds up and so it has a pretty bluish color.

 
Briksdal Glacier near the bottom. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

From the Jostedalsbreen Souvenir Guidebook:

A glacier is like a sluggish river. The force of gravity pulls the ice down and grinds against the substratum tearing loose large and small stones and producing large masses of gravel and sand. This is how glacial streams get their typical gray-green color.

Blue-green glacial stream. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.) 

We headed back to the tractors and down to the bus. We were all starting to get pretty tired. I dozed off for a bit. All of that fresh air can wear you out. The bus doubled back to Olden. Sometimes if we met another bus we would have to back up to a spot in the road wide enough for each to pass the other.

 
Gorgeous scenery on the way to Loen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

We got into Loen around 5:00 and headed for the Alexandra Hotel. We thought about taking a jacuzzi, but I was tired and dinner was at 7:00, so I took a little powernap instead. The dinner buffet was the best yet. Lots of seafood and salad. I had some reindeer stew and steak. Junel had some pork and tandouri chicken. Why the Norwegians were serving Indian food I'll never know. They had some delicious desserts at the dessert bar. Chocolate mousse, apple pie, strawberry and raspberry tarts, and different cheesecakes. Uffda! Diet time when we get back. After dinner we visited a while, had a drink in the lounge, and listened to the band playing. Soon it was time to go to bed, but what a fantastic day.

Day trip to Bergen

Unfortunately I woke up about 4:30 for some reason and then couldn't get back to sleep. So I went down around 6:00 and almost got caught up. Our bus was leaving at 8:00 for a day trip to Bergen. So we had the breakfast buffet at 7:00 and were on the bus and ready to go. The weather was foggy and raining when we left Voss, so we weren't able to see much on the 1 and 1/2 hour ride to Bergen. I was dozing off anyway.

 
City of Bergen from the lookout. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

Bergen was founded by Olav Kyrre, king of Norway between 1066 and 1093, and was Norway's largest city for the next 600 years. Bergen became a vital link for the Hanseatic League because of its harbor and commercial importance (dried fish). The waterfront, called Bryggen in Norwegian, thrived up into the 1700s and is now a World Heritage Site.

 
Bryggen, Bergen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

We drove first a little around the city with our guide pointing out things of historical interest. He spoke of how during WWII, a German ship carrying munitions blew up in the harbor and caused a huge fire destroying much of the town near the waterfront. Next we went to see Troldhaugen, the summer home of the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, which has been preserved and made into a museum. They also had a gift shop there where I was able to get a CD and a booklet. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside, otherwise I would have photographed some of the original manuscripts they had exhibited.

 
Rear view of Troldhaugen, Bergen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

Norway has lots of trolls. Junel got a picture of a tree troll on the way back to the bus. We then drove up to the top of one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen for a picture of the beautiful view. (See first picture.)

 
Tree Troll. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.) 

The driver took us back down, parked the bus, and we walked around the Hanseatic Wharf.

Mariakirken, Bergen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

 

Junel got a picture of the Mariakirken (St. Mary's Church, c. 1140-70), as well as some of the old buildings and alleyways of that time.

 

 
Alleyway, Hanseatic Wharf, Bergen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

 

We met up with Mom and Dad and Steve and Kathy and had lunch at Bryggeloftet & Stuene. Junel and I had whale steak. It actually tasted a lot like beef with a little bit of a fishy aftertaste. I had to have a Hansa Fatøl to go with it. Afterwards we still had about an hour and a half for shopping before we had to be back on the bus for the return trip to Voss. We checked out a few sweaters, but only ended up buying some postcards. At the fishmarket we saw the ugliest fish in the world. (WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURE.)

 

 
World's ugliest fish, Fishmarket, Bergen. (© 2006, Junel Bacigalupo.)  

 

We walked down to the end of Bryggen and got pictures of the medieval Rosenkrantztårnet (16th c.) and Håkonshallen (13th c.). Håkonshallen was King Håkon's (1241-1261) Royal Ceremonial Hall. It was the largest and most imposing building of the royal residency at the time.

 
Håkonshallen, Bergen. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

 

The Rosenkrantz Tower was built in the 1560s by the governor of Bergen Castle (Bergenhus) Erik Rosenkrantz and served as a combined residence and fortified tower. Part of the structure also dates back to c. 1260.

 

 

Rosenkrantz Tower, Bergen. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

 

We got back to the bus right before 4:00 and headed back to Voss. The sun had actually come out and we had a chance to see some gorgeous views on the way back. We had dinner at the hotel and this time we were able to take a short jacuzzi and walk before bed. A great day.

Going to Voss

We were up early for the breakfast buffet and then on the bus to our next destination. The bus took us through the beautiful Hallingdal valley. We stopped at Gol for a quick photo op and a piece of lefse and some soda.

 
View at Gol. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

We continued on to Hol for lunch and then down the gorgeous Aurland Valley into Flåm. The views of waterfalls and the Sognefjord were spectacular.

Spectacular scenery on the way to Flåm. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)  

At Flåm we got on a train, the Flåm Railway, for the trip to Voss. The ride is ranked as one of the top 20 train rides in the world. It was one of the best I've been on, but I've only been on two.

Train station at Flåm. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)

The train ascends 2800 feet to Myrdal. It stopped once to let us take a picture of a fantastic waterfall.

 

Waterfall on the way to Myrdal. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)

 

There were two women dancing out in front of it to some Celtic music. At Myrdal we switched trains to the Oslo/Bergen Railway for the ride to Voss.

 

 
Celtic dancer. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)

 

At Voss we are staying at the historic Fleischer Hotel. Voss is a small country town, about 8,000 people, which is known in Norway for its food and cooking traditions.
Fleischer Hotel, Voss. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.)

 

We arrived in Voss a little after 6:00 pm and had only enough time to get our baggage off the bus and into our room before dinner. It had been raining since we left Myrdal, so we were tired and hungry and a little wet. Dinner was a buffet which had salmon, pork, potatoes, salad, bread, dessert, etc. We had a couple of drinks too. I had a Guiness and Junel a chardonnay. We then tried to make it to the jacuzzi inside the pool area, but it had already closed.

 

  
View from our hotel room window. (© 2006, Mark D. Williams.) 

 

Junel went up to take a bath and I went down to type up a few more posts to this blog. Wouldn't you know it, I ended up having to wait for my cousin Steve who was trying to get help online for his cel. Soon he got it to work and then I was able to do some blogging for about an hour. Then I went to bed.