Onward to Iceland, Norway and Back home

Sept 5 2017

We left Portland in the afternoon and arrived in Reykjavik at 6:00 a.m. on the 6^th.  It was a 45 minute ride into town and we passed through a stark landscape with its inherent beauty. Their roads were excellent although somewhat narrow with almost no shoulder. We didn’t see any litter and buildings and homes looked freshly painted. We left Portland with 100 degree days and arrived here to 55 degree days.

We found our Air BNB and went to bed at 9:00 a.m. after having breakfast at a nearby hotel.  I couldn’t sleep and both of us had foot and legs cramps several times while trying to sleep. Around 1:00 we got up and headed out to explore Reykjavik on foot. It is a small town and easy to navigate.  

One third of the population of the country lives in Reykjavik, around 1000,000. We found the Viking Settlement Exhibition with the remains of an early settlement that was left intact with the museum built around it. It was a blend of high tech imagery and the dirt and rock foundation of the settlement.

 

Many of the buildings, commercial and residential were made of painted corrugated iron. Other older buildings were made of carved stone blocks. Food is at least twice as expensive as the US. Fish and chips for two was $40. Fine dining starts at $100 per person. There are many blue-eyed blondes here.

Sept 7

Today we took an all day tour to the south coast. WOW! The landscapes here are mind blowing. Outside of town we passed through 1000 year old lava fields covered with moss that grows about 2 cm a year. Reykjavik has the 5^th largest geo-thermal power plant in the world and it also uses steam from geothermal energy to heat homes. It also heats the roads to clear them of ice and snow in the winter.

Iceland sits on top of two tectonic plates, so earthquakes are daily occurrences. Most are less than 4.0 on the Richter scale. There are 30 active volcanoes in Iceland. Some lie below glaciers so when they erupt they create a lot of ash and flooding. The one that erupted in 2010 stopped air traffic for six days. 

The Iceland horse came originally from Mongolia 1100 years ago. It is a smaller horse and very strong, able to carry 150 kilos (a bit over 300 pounds). There are 70,000-80,000 on the island. Iceland has kept the breed pure and doesn’t let other breeds onto the island. There are 500,000 sheep on the island. Iceland has strict laws regarding importing farm animals. The immune systems of the animals cannot survive being exported and it is the reason cats, dogs, and rabbits must be isolated for two months before they can be allowed into the country.

The days are short in the winter with four hours of daylight. Ten percent to 11% of the country is covered in glaciers. Due to climate change they predict that they will all be gone within 150 years.

   

On our tour we saw waterfalls, farms, the black sand beach with fabulous basalt column formations, a small private folk museum with some houses that were built into the earth and had eco roofs with plant matter. It was a full day and absolutely thrilling to see so much.

Sept 8

We got about two hours sleep as neither of us could sleep and we had to get up at 3:30 for a 4:00 airport pick up. We met Sandi and Bill at the airport and they had gotten one hour of sleep coming from RI. They had taken a train to Boston and flown on Icelandic Air from there to Reykjavik. We flew for 2.5 hours to Oslo and checked into our Air BNB. We ate lunch at 3:00 at a nearby café then walked to Vigeland Park with 100’s of sculptures of the human form by the Norwegian artist Gustave Vigeland. We returned to our apartment and visited until bedtime.

Sept 9

 We had breakfast in the apartment and headed out to to he central train station to get our tickets for the tour called Norway in a Nutshell. Next we visited the tourist information center. We walked to the Nobel Peace Museum. This small museum was a delight. Every winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was featured in a short bio with a photo of the person. In addition there was a photography show of the president of Columbia highlighting his tireless work to negotiate a peace agreement with FARC. Afterwards we ate lunch at the museum. Next we visited the Edvard Munch Museum. He was a prolific artist with 17,000 prints, 1,100 paintings and 4500 drawings in the museum. Afterwards we were saturated and nearing information overload so headed back to the apartment to relax. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood.

Sept 10

None of us slept well so we started the morning slowly. We decided to take a bus to a far corner of town and went to the Viking Ship Museum which was designed specifically for the three Viking ships it housed. OMG this was a real treat. These ships were works of art built in 9^th century. These are the best preserved Viking ships in the world. All were discovered in buried mounds. The ships were used to transport the bodies of high ranking chieftains on their last journey to the kingdom of the dead. Jewelry, weapons, and implements  were stolen by grave robbers but some pieces remained. The ships were excavated between 1880 and 1904.

 Ron loves to ride on as many forms of transportation as he can so we took a ferry back to town center then grabbed lunch and took ourselves on a self guided walking tour through Central Oslo West. 

We started at City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded here. The building was the result of a 1918 competition for design. It opened in 1950, not sure why it took so long. It was closed on Sunday but we enjoyed walking around the back entrance where we spied many carved friezes depicting Norse myths. It started to pour rain and we persisted with our tour. We all had umbrellas. We admired architecture and at one point found shelter under an overhang with five or six others seeking respite from the rain. Finally it got to be too much and we were tired of being on our feet and headed home via the tram.

Sept 11

We took the tram to the train station and started our tour Norway in a Nutshell. This is a brilliant idea. This isn’t a guided tour but you have 11 choices of tours to see a lot in a short span of time.  All transportation is arranged to work like clock work. We boarded a train in Oslo that took us to Myrdal, high above the tree line. The trip was filled with beautiful scenery of tidy farms, mountains, streams, waterfalls. 

We waited about 20 minutes to board a specially crafted train that could handle the steep downward gradient (18%) to Flam. Here were saw incredible waterfalls, rushing rivers and slowly went back into the forest. 




Flam is a small community that exists for tourists we think. It appears to be a hub of the fjord tours. Tour buses and ferries abound. Our tour can be completed in one long day but we opted to overnight in Flam. Our hotel, the Fretheim, one of the few available  in Flam, was an old historic hotel and we loved it. We had a claw foot tub with shower, pedestal sink, antique bed, tables, armoire and settee in our room. It was quite lovely. The food was delicious and expensive but breakfast was included. Our waiter spoke great English and we discovered he comes here for work from Spain each year during the high season.

Sept 12
The next morning after a good breakfast we took a hike on a nature path above the restaurant and walked to a waterfall. We explored the small village and went to the railroad museum which told the story of building the railway from Myrdal to Flam, an engineering feat for sure. Many of the tunnels were dug by hand. From the website

Engineering skills

No other standard-gauge railway in the world is as steep as the Flåm Railway. This 20-km line has a height difference of 866 meters (2833 ft), making an average gradient of 1 in 18. The horseshoe tunnel spiraling in and out of the mountain is a testimony to the most audacious and skilful feat of engineering in the history of Norwegian railways...

Lonely Planet named it the most scenic railway trip in the world. We couldn’t argue with that. At one point the train stops to let passengers de-board and walk onto a platform to take photos of the fabulous Kjosfossen waterfall. We passed through 20 tunnels before arriving in Flam and we were overwhelmed with the scenery the entire trip.

At Flam we are surrounded by high mountains and the fjord. We ordered sandwiches for our dinner to eat after the fjord cruise. We checked out of the hotel and walked to the harbor to meet our ferry. Again we were caught in the rain but wanted to get in line early as we knew the ferry would be crowded. 

We boarded, stowed our luggage and got seats near a window. It was much better to go outside to take photos in between rain showers. Again we were lacked jawed from the sights, waterfalls abound streaming from the top of the mountains to the water. They were all sizes and shapes, some twisting around crevasses and others with huge drops. The trip took about two hours and we arrived at Gudvangen. 

We walked across the parking lot to the buses waiting to take us to Voss to catch the train to Bergen on the opposite coast from Oslo. Along the way we were taken to a road of switchbacks that gave us incredible views of more waterfalls and the fjord and town nearby. WOW! 

The trip to Voss was about an hour and we waited about 10-15 minutes for our train to arrive. This trip was totally coordinated and brilliant. We arrived in Bergen around 7:30 p.m. Even this trip included wonderful scenery. I think Norway and Iceland are close seconds to New Zealand for natural beauty

We had trouble finding our BNB which was a ten minute walk from the train station but found it eventually. We were tired but happy with the days’ events.

Sept 13

The next morning Bill and I went to the grocery store to get fruit and milk for our breakfast as we still had cereal with us. After showers and breakfast we headed out. We walked through the lovely harbor area to the Rosenkrantz Tower, a fortified residence built in 1560 of carved stone. We did a lot of stair climbing here. There were four or five floors and the stairs were steep and in a spiral staircase making for slow going. From the roof top we got a great view of the harbor and town.

We walked along the quay with its historic warehouses from the 1500’s and had lunch outside on the quay.  Afterwards we took another self guided tour of old town zig zagging between two main streets down tight little alleys to view old wooden buildings that were canted every which way from centuries of settlement. Many held shops of woolen sweaters, hand crafted jewelry, leather works, etc. We rested briefly at the apartment then went to dinner at a healthy organic café with candle light. We visited there for a long time afterwards. Like Iceland food is expensive: a lamb burger is $30, coffee $5, a pasta dish is $27, a simple sandwich of one thin slice of ham and cheese is $10.

Sept 14

We walked to town center and rode up the funicular to enjoy spectacular views of Bergen and the harbor. Ten goats graze up here to keep the vegetation from blocking the views. Each one wears an electronic collar that gets them inside the ‘No Fence’. If the goat strays near the electronic fence they get a shock. It doesn’t take long for them to figure out where to go and not go.

After lunch we took a bus about three miles out of town to see the Funtoft stave church. Stave churches are built of wood, usually pine and tarred to preserve the wood. This one was a replica built in 1990’s because the original one burned down; it had been built in 1150. When this one was built they used the same techniques and tools that had been used to build the original church. It was simple but so beautiful. It took five years to build this replica.

After a rest we went to a Norwegian tapas restaurant and enjoyed sampling various dishes. Norwegian fare is heavy with meat, seafood, cream and cheese. I had to search for something I could eat. The bread was yummy as were all our dishes.

Sept 15

We got up at 6:00 and took a train to make our way back to Oslo. We were treated to a 7.5 hr trip filled with fabulous scenery. I couldn’t bring myself to read when the scenery was so spectacular. It was sunny the entire day. We did retrace part of our previous train journey but this time it was sunny. Our previous trip had been in the rain. Frankly it felt like sensory overload because of the exquisite beauty. We saw rushing rivers, placid lakes, waterfalls, forests, lichen and mosses, conifers and deciduous trees that were turning to red, oranges and yellows.

As the train pulled into Oslo I chatted with a man waiting to exit the train and learned that tomorrow the Oslo Marathon was happening and that the trams and buses would not be running during the race. Yikes! We needed to find a way back to the train station to catch our train to the airport. Once again the information centers came to the rescue. We would take a taxi from our apartment to the metro (underground!) and arrive at the train station avoiding the crowds and the idle trams/buses. Yeah!

A.C., our host, met us at the apartment and called to book the taxi for us. Ron’s SIM card had just hit its limit and he couldn’t make any calls. We decided to celebrate the trip with a fine dining experience and found a nearby chef’s café and walked there arrive around 5:45. We decided on an early dinner. Since we didn’t have reservations we were told they couldn’t accommodate us. Ron asked if we promised to finish in an hour could they take us. The hostess asked the chef and he agreed. We finished in 55 minutes! Oh my what a wonderful meal. I had turbot with sautéed spinach and Ron had monk fish. It was cooked to perfection!

Sept 16
We met our taxi at 9:45, went to the train station, bought some food for lunch and took the train to the airport. We boarded the plane a few hours later. We flew to Reykjavik and said our goodbyes in the airport as Sandi and Bill were going to tour Iceland like we did on the way to Oslo. 

Ron and I caught our plane to Portland and arrived at 5:00 a.m. Oslo time, 6:30 pm Portland time. We were beat as we didn’t sleep on the plane. On the way home we flew over Greenland.

We went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 4:45. We were glad to have gotten that much sleep. We got up and started our day: laundry, grocery shopping, farmers’ market, ironing. I wanted to have as much done as possible because on Tuesday I will have eye surgery and will not be able to be my usually hyperactive self. It was a wonderful trip and we loved it. Ron and I never lose sight of how fortunate we are to be able to travel to so many places. In 1997 Ron took his first trip off the N American continent. With this trip he has visited 60 countries…and counting.