June 7: We made our way to Oslo by jet. Another lovely and really expensive city. It was warm, but the hotel had A/C, which is good, since the street outside the hotel was under heavy construction.
On our first day (Jun 8) in Oslo we took the Viking "Off the beaten path" bicycle tour.
A few of the more interesting attractions on the tour were in the Vulkan neighborhood, upriver.
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| The lizard by Phlegm in the Vulkan neighborhood |
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| My favorite stall in Mathallen food court in the Vulkan neighborhood |
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| Any wonder? They weren't as good as Stan's in Santa Clara... |
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| On the bike ride along the Akerselva River |
The next day we shmeied around Oslo and took a 15 minute ferry ride to Hovedoya island, a favorite thing to do for the natives. There were lots of Norwegians picnicing and sunbathing this rare sunny warm day.
In the evening, the sun sets around 10:45 PM, and the area around us was very much alive past midnight.
June 10 was a travel day. We left Oslo and flew to Kirkenes, a town that's around 69.73°N latitude. The arctic circle is at 65.8°N... so Kirkenese is 437km (262 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. The next sunset there will be on July 28 near midnight. For those of you who never saw Insomnia, with
Al Pacino and Robin Williams... I recommend it. We streamed it from Amazon (it's only $3.00) and it provided a pretty groovy backdrop for our journey north.
On Monday morning, we boarded the good ship Kong Harald, part of the Hurtigruten line.
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| Alexandra in front of the Kong Harald. This thing is bigger than the both of us |
Hurtigruten ships sail up and down the Norwegian coast all year, and provide both transit (they stop at lots of small towns along the way) as well as tourism cruises. You can tell who the transit passengers are, as some of them are sleeping on couches in the bar upstairs.
The "high point" in latitude of our trip was at North Cape (Nordkapp), where we had our breakfast tour. We were let off the boat in Honningsvåg and driven by bus up to Nordkapp, for breakfast.
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| North Cape : 71.17° north. The furthest point north in Europe and only 2100km from the North Pole. |
Then the bus drove us through the Nordkapp tunnel to meet the boat in Hammerfest. The tunnel is 7km long, 2 lanes wide, and goes under the sea. It was completed in 1999. Took only 6 years to build, at a cost of about $500M. Contrast that with the new eastern span of the SF Bay bridge, which cost a whopping $6.5 billion, a 2,500% cost overrun from the original estimate of $250M .
Go figure.
The next day, we went on the Eagle Safari. An excursion that starts with a small boat pulling alongside our ship, and we transfer to that boat in mid-water while both boats are tied together and moving. Then we pull away from the Kong Harald, and proceed down to the Trollfjord, with one of the crew cutting up fish and throwing them to the flock of seagulls who follow the boat.
Once the crew sights an eagle approaching, the slow down and throw a whole fish into the water. This is too big for a seagull to handle, but a happy meal for an eagle.
So... today (Thur 6/14) is just a day to relax and enjoy the scenery. When I woke up today, I saw a kind of strange thing outside our cabin window. Most of the mountains that rise up from the fjords hwere have a scattering of snow that hasn't melted yet... but the scene I saw this morning was a huge field of snow going way back. We were kind of far away, but it sure looked like a glacier to me.
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| Svartisen Glacier |
Sure enough, some triangulation with Google Maps revealed this to be the Svartisen Glacier...
We have been steadily heading south. The weather (it's been typically in the mid to upper 30's in the north) has been steadily getting warmer. We are now below the arctic circle.
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| Arctic Circle monument on Vikingen island |
so when we stopped in Brønnøysund this afternoon, it was a balmy 59°F.
After that, the ship passed Torghatten mountain... with a hole in it.
We are now on the way to Trondheim... More later. The cruise finishes at 2:30PM on Saturday in Bergen, which was the capital of Norway from the 13th century until 1814.
After a stormy night with rough seas, we cruised into Bergen on Saturday afternoon.
One of Bergen's best attractions is the
Fløibanen funicular, which goes up a mountain that overlooks the town of Bergen.
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| One of a small herd of well-fed goats that are on the top of the mountain |
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| Norway has a thing about trolls that I don't quite understand |
On Sunday (6/17) we took a train to Mydal, to connect to the Flam railroad. The
train from Bergen to Mydal (which is a town no one lives in... just a train depot), starts with a 7km tunnel and climbs 866m (2800ft) .
In Myrdal, we transferred to the
Flam train , which drops back down to sea level. The train stops by a waterfall about 10 min out of Myrdal on the way down (one of many) where there is also music and a strange dance by 3 women on the cliff near the waterfall.
Flam is a small town on a beautiful fjord. We rented electric carts to drive up a road that climbs the fjord wall. The electric carts are very small, and poor Alexandra was crammed into the back of the cart. The view was lovely, though, and the fjord that Flam is on is very long and magnificent.
Then, back to Oslo by train. Arriving around 10:30PM.. Still light outside!
Another 3 days in Oslo, starting with a visit to Holmenkollbakken, a ski jump built for the 1956 olympics.
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| Holmenkollbakken ski jump |
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| View from the top |
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| The ski jump from the top |
Deli de Luca is an Oslo version of 7-11 on steroids. They bake croissants, scoop ice cream, and have an array of goodies, sandwiches, hot dogs etc. I had been eyeing this brownie thing for some time, so on our last night in town... I finally had to go for it.
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| Deli de Luca brownie with caramel |
So ends our adventures in Oslo, on a sugar high note. At 5:56 AM on Wed 6/20 we were on the train to Stockholm.
