Category: 2024 Spring – Norway

Oslo

A short day walking around in Oslo does not do this magnificent city justice. We downloaded another mobile phone walking tour and followed an excellent two hour narrated stroll. It started from the ‘Oslo Fjord’, with the Nobel Peace Centre, took us past the Royal Palace, down Karl Johans Gate, Oslo’s main street, the Oslo Opera House, and ending at Akershus Fortress, with its fantastic armed forces and resistance museums.

Oslo is the capital of Norway, with about one million people. It has a long history, beginning with the Vikings around 1,000 AD. Norway lived through invasions and agreements with neighbouring Denmark and Sweden. Although Norway declared itself neutral, Germany invaded Norway in 1940. Norway was too important as a source of iron ore, and geographically for stopping the flow of war material from the Allies to the Soviet Union through the Bering Sea. Thousands of Norwegian sailors lost their lives in the convoys sailing to Murmansk.

Architecture and culture feature prominently in Oslo. The opera house is spectacular, and the new Munch Gallery, honouring the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, is outstanding. Rob and I enjoyed an aquavit, a Norwegian liquor, on the top floor of the Munch. Rob bought. The drinks were about $40 each. Thank you Rob.

Further to that – Norway is EXPENSIVE. However, Norway has an enviable sense of happiness and contentment. I’ll be back. Tomorrow morning we catch an 8:00 train through Sweden back to Copenhagen.

And more fantastic pictures from Rob Mee.

Trondheim to Oslo

This morning we installed a phone app called ‘VoiceMap’ and purchased a one hour long self-directed tour of Trondheim. The tour cost about $20 each, and was very impressive. It led us to a starting point, gave us walking directions, and the narrative was timed by GPS to our progress. Highly recommended for wherever you may be.

Trondheim has been the capital of Norway off and on for centuries. Founded in the 900s, it is considered the cultural and technical centre of Norway. Leif Eriksson, the famous Norwegian explorer and settler of Greenland, is said to have spent much time in Trondheim. The Cathedral in Trondheim is magnificent, and the river view of the pile-supported homes from the old bridge is beautiful.

The fortress on the hill was built to defend from raiding Swedish armies, and became to military base for the German Army in 1940. The anti-aircraft guns have since been removed!

We boarded a bus at noon for the first leg of our trip to Oslo. Construction on the rail tracks necessitates a five hour bus ride. Now we’re on the last hour and a half train journey from Favang into Oslo. Next – two nights in Oslo!

A few beautiful images of Trondheim from Rob Mee.

Svolvaer to Trondheim

BIG travel day today. A three-and-a-half hour ferry from Svolvaer to Bodo, and a ten hour train south to Trondheim.

Because the days are now so long the northern lights suffer, but our guide yesterday said that at 2 am the night before they were great. Rob got up at 2 am last night and reported a dud. Just a slight glow in the northern sky.

We boarded the ferry for a smooth ride to the mainland. Bodo (pronounced Buddha) is the seventh largest city in Norway, and features mostly new construction. It was damaged severely by bombing in WWII. We walked around for a couple of hours and weren’t too impressed, but were very fortunate to listen to a wonderful organist rehearsing for a recital in the cathedral. The video below includes a couple of minutes of her playing. The piece is by Henri Mulet, and is a tribute to the Sacre-Coeurs cathedral in Paris.

During the train ride we were fortunate to see a herd of reindeer clustured around the Arctic Circle marker. The train ride gave us all types of weather, and afforded fantastic views of snow-covered mountains and deep valleys.

We’ll be arriving in Trondheim at about 10:30 tonight (I’m writing this on the train).

An interesting note. You’ll see a thin wedge shaped Norwegian flag hoisted at the harbour. Norwegians are allowed to fly these rather modest flags, but can only fly the normal rectangular flags when given the OK by the county or state. Valid reasons are the death of a family member or a beloved neighbour, as well as important sombre national occasions. I like that. It keeps fervent nationalism at bay. The Norwegians are a kind, patient and easy-going people.

More great images by Rob Mee.

Lofoten Photo Tour 2

Lofoten is a group of islands in Norway, at 68 degrees latitude, north of the Arctic Circle. Lofoten includes many islands, with seven ‘main’ islands. Today, travelling west (or south) we traversed Austvagoya, (the furthest east, includes the ‘capital’, Svolvaer), Gimsoya, Vestvagoy, Flakstad and Moskenes. A non-stop drive from Svolvaer to Moskones takes about two and a half hours.

Yesterday (Tour 1) we saw the highlights of the first three islands, Austvagoya, Gimsoya, and Vestvagoy. Today we explored Flakstad and Moskenesoya. As we ventured west the mountains became more rugged, and the space between mountain and sea reduced to not much more than a road width.

The crossing to Flakstad is the only under-sea tunnel in Lofoten. It is 2km long and 150m deep, and recently replaced a ferry. The first stop was Flakstad Beach, very popular with surfers. The beach includes a famous small old red hut, and the mountain behind is known for its profile of a woman.

Flakstad has a deep fjord which requires a long drive around. We stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the surrounding mountains and take a few photos.

The final island, Moskenes, features one of the most photographed places in Norway, Hamnoy. The stunning mountainscape behind classic red Lofoten fishing cabins simply cannot be beat. Red is a common building colour in Lofoten because years ago paint was hard to come by so the fishermen used a mixture of red fish blood and cod liver oil to protect their dwellings.

A picturesque town just south of Hamnoy called Reine afforded us a delicious fish-on-a-bun lunch. Reine is famous for its long staircase hike up the Reinebringen. A difficult climb at best, winter makes the stairs impassable with snow and ice until May. Warning signs and barriers are not enough to prevent foolish adventurers. Today we witnessed a helicopter rescue of four hikers who made it to the top but ‘chickened-out’ on the icy descent. What goes up …

Tomorrow Rob Mee and I catch the 6am ferry to Bodo on the mainland, and connect to a long train ride to Trondheim. Many thanks to Lofoten Lights for their excellent tour, and to wonderful Lena for her fantastic guiding and driving.

More photos by Rob Mee.

Lofoten Photo Tour #1

We enjoyed the first of two tours around the northern half of the Lofoten Islands today. Lofoten consists of seven main islands; today we explored three. Svolvaer, the ‘capital’ of Lofoten, is on the most northerly.

The islands are connected by a single road, with bridges built in the early 1960s. Parts of the road which followed up steep cliffs are gradually being replaced with tunnels. Lofoten does not use road salt in the winter because it is bad for the environment and bad for the vehicles. The most important reason to avoid road salt, though, is that wild animals, mainly moose, can be easily hit by cars as they lick the salt on the road. Lofoten diligently plows and spreads gravel, and all vehicles must use studded tires during the winter months.

For six weeks mid-winter the sun never rises. And for six weeks mid-summer, the sun never sets. Today was windy and chilly, about 2 deg C, with alternating partial sunshine and thick snow flurries.

Here’s a short video of some of the places we saw today. The last minute or so shows a cod hanging rack. The cod fishery is busy during the winter months as the cod move from the cold water of the sea into the warmer waters between the islands. The catch is preserved as ‘stockfish’, whereby the tails of two fish are tied together and the pair of fish are hung over rails, heads down, to dry. After two months or so they are put into storage or exported. The heads are mostly sent to Italy, and Nigeria is the prime destination for the dried carcasses.

Here are four beautiful pictures taken by my travel-mate Rob Mee. You can see all of his amazing travel photos on his website, focusonmee.com.

Leknes to Svolvaer, Norway

We left Copenhagen this morning for three flights though Oslo and Bodo to Leknes, north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. We then caught a bus for a ninety-minute ride to Svolvaer. The three videos below show the snow-capped mountains on the bus ride and the lovely and rugged Svolvaer harbour.