On to Amazing Norway

Fredrikstad

Travelling north into Norway, we meandered through beautiful farm land and rolling hills and also took the time to stop and see some of the historic and archaeological points of interest along the way.  This area of Norway has the most concentrated collection of cultural monuments from the Bronze and Iron Ages:  ancient burial mounds, large rock circles, ancient refuges and monumental rock carvings depicting the prehistoric Norse way of live and religious beliefs.

We had been looking forward to our Fredrikstad stop for months because we would be able to visit with one of Sarah’s Camino Grannies, Inger Halaas. Inger and Sarah met five years ago when Sarah did her solo Camino pilgrimage and we met Inger when she visited Vancouver in 2016. We were especially interested in having a chance to discuss the French route of Camino and get some pointers from an expert:  Inger has walked the Camino 6 times!

Fredrikstad is Norway’s first Renaissance city, with the best preserved fortified old town in all of Northern Europe. It is beautifully situated on the river Glomma, with a modern promenade on one side and the old town on the other.  We had only a short time there but Inger led us on a lovely city walk and ferry ride up and down the river, with a beer stop along the way to cool off (somehow we didn’t expect 30 degree weather in Norway!). 

Inger invited her friend, Trond to join us – very interesting and friendly guy who is a big fan of Vancouver and the West Coast. Seems he visited his cousin in Campbell River for one month when he has around 20 and so fell in love with BC that he has been back many times.  He is determined to bring the running club to which he and Inger belong to run the Sun Run next year!  We look forward to that happening!  Inger most thoughtfully decided to serve us for dinner something which we were likely not to have had:  reindeer steaks!  They were amazingly tender and not very gamey at all. 

As we sat and enjoyed our coffee and dessert (Norwegian vanilla ice cream and strawberries – incidentally strawberry season in Norway is almost 6 weeks later than Germany…I guess that makes sense as it the warm growing season starts that much later…), and looked out over the fields in Inger’s back yard, we watched first one and then another moose come into the field to graze, drink from the stream and eventually flatten a bed in the high grass and lay down to sleep!  And if that wasn’t enough for our first night in Norway, there was also a full lunar eclipse!

Oslo

Arriving in Oslo, we were delighted to find that our apartment accommodations were located right in the most beautiful, hip and happening waterfront district: Aker Brygge. A former industrial wharf area, this has now been transformed into a neighbourhood filled with apartments, restaurants, shops and bars, all surrounded by a waterfront promenade for strolling, sunbathing and swimming.

Like Vancouverites, the Oslovians get outside as much as they can if the weather is half-way decent. Not so much a cycling city as there are too many hills and not enough bike lanes, but it has a great bus, tram and ferry system to get you around to where you want to go. We spent our 4 days there walking the waterfront, visiting the Vigeland sculpture park (sculptures of naked human figures, in all variety of poses and situations) and going to some amazing museums.

One of the most interesting for us was the outdoor folk museum: started by the King as a way of preserving and showcasing some of the traditional Norwegian buildings and architecture from various eras from all over the country (examples of which he had moved to this site). For instance it was here that we saw one of the best examples of a Stave Church, which is a medieval wooden church building with a structure of post and lintel construction. Most of the surviving ones were built between 1150 and 1350 AD.

Along our travels we were lucky enough to see a few more in their original locations.  Another thing we saw their first and very often again on almost every traditional Norwegian farm was the stabbur, or storage house, a building designed for the storage of food. Even though the farms we saw often had a modern home, they also would have this very traditionally built log structure on stilts, designed to promote air flow from below as well as keeping out the critters.

One thing we didn’t do much of in Oslo was to eat or drink out because boy oh boy is Norway expensive: everything is at least double (if not triple) what it is at home. In a simple restaurant, a burger will set you back $35 and the beer to go with it will be $15! Luckily we had the most beautiful fully equipped apartment with amazing patio and rooftop garden from which to enjoy our own food and drink.
Fun Facts

Norway is ranked as the world’s happiest country due in part to employment standards that favour the welfare of the employees and a great life/work balance.  In fact, King Harald’s military horses have a ‘6 week on and 6 week off’ schedule!  And during the last week of their ‘on’ period, they are led out by a cadet to the lawn to graze on the grass in order to re-accustom their stomachs to the fresh grass diet they will enjoy in the fields during their 6 week holiday!

Riding the Hardangervidda

Art chose a route he had read was the most picturesque in Norway: one of the “National Highways”. Because of the rain we purposely shortened our ride as the weather was forecast to improve on day two. As predicted, we left the rain behind and rode through some of the most interesting and unique landscapes as we entered the Hardangervidda National Park (though they buried the danger deep in the name I caught it). 

This park is a mecca for hikers and skiers (both downhill and cross country) but we both agreed that it was like nothing we had ever seen. We were above the tree line and it looked more like a moonscape that a mountain region and was dotted with lakes, scrub brush and moss. We were riding literally 15-20 meters below snow patches and Inger had told us they had snow in this area just a couple of weeks before, so needless to say we wore numerous layers. That night we stayed in a cute little cabin at a campsite just outside the park nestled alongside a river.

Day three we entered the fjords from above, riding some of the more challenging roads of my motorcycle career. The Norwegians love tunnels, long ones, short ones, even corkscrew ones. We rode through one tunnel that was over 8 kms long and had two traffic circle roundabouts in it for heaven’s sake! But the best (or worst depending on your perspective) was the corkscrew tunnel we rode as we made our way down to sea level at Eidfjord.

We lost 3500 feet of elevation in the last 26 kms with many hairpin turns, but I have never ridden a corkscrew tunnel until now. This tunnel was 1/2 Km long and turned around in a circle what seemed like four times. As we emerged from the darkness the road hair pinned back the other way and we were looking down a cliff that fell hundreds of feet. Needless to say, Heidi was not a happy camper and everything on me was clenched tight. We made it through safe and sound, but Heidi established one thing for sure, “we are NOT going back that way.”

Bergen, our Gateway to the Arctic

Bergen lies on the west coast and is the second largest city in Norway and sits at the 61st parallel (about the same as Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Anchorage). We were told Bergen was similar in climate to Vancouver with the coast mountains, marine weather and natural beauty, we concur.  We planned to explore Bergen for a day before boarding our voyage to the Arctic, but had no idea what a great one day stay it would turn out to be.

We stayed at a hostel high up on the hills overlooking Bergen, a stunning view awaited us. Inger was kind enough to have arranged for us to store our motorcycle at the house of a friend of hers for the 12 days we were to be on our cruise. Sten and Veronica not only agreed to store the bike but gave us a guided tour of the Bergen harbour to see the tall ships which happened to be in town (did I mention how lucky we have been?). We had missed the tall ships in Copenhagen and Fredrikstad but were lucky to see them in Bergen on a picture-perfect day. 

We went for a walk in the morning before the cruise and as we turned a corner we saw the people of Bergen lined up to the shoreline to watch the parade of tall ships leaving for Copenhagen. It is really spectacular watching the big ships under sail. To end the Bergen experience with a bang, the Mexicans were the last to sail and to steal the show, they had all the sailors climbing up and standing in formation in the sail riggings. The perfect way to end our day.