It doesn’t matter if you’re in the Sierra Nevada’s in California, the Cascades in Washington, the Austrian Alps or Mt-Hard-to-Pronounce in Norway; when you get high enough that trees no longer grow, you get that unmistakable feeling of being of being on top of the world. The light is different up there. Today we drove from Oslo to Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. We got far above the tree line and saw snow on the side of the road and ice in the lakes.

The views were spectacular; deeps gorges, mirror-like lakes, steep climbs and descents and adorable little houses dotting the landscape. Too bad we didn’t take any pictures. Actually we took several but always from a moving car. There are almost no places to pull over. We did get a few…

So if you get way up there, you have to come back down. As you can imagine, they road switches back and forth as it comes down the side of the mountain. That’s pretty usual anywhere in the world. They also have a lot of tunnels through the mountains. But we saw something we never saw before today; a spiral tunnel. See the map:

The part that is somewhat transparent is the tunnel. We entered from the right, dropped elevation in the tunnel, came out on the left, made the hairpin turn and then went back in the tunnel. From there we corkscrewed downward for a few revolutions and finally popped-out going north. And then… more tunnel! It was amazing. We can only imagine how long it took and how much it cost to build this road.

We only drove 500 km, but it took seven-and-a-half hours not counting the stops for lunch, the grocery store or the ferry. Yes, there is a one-mile ferry ride along the way.

BTW, it’s 11:15pm here in Bergen and it looks like 8pm in Washington. Sunset is still a ways-off. And tomorrow is the first day of summer.

Here is a photo of our hotel we took around 10pm:

We’re finally at our furthest destination, 2,564 km from where we picked up the car. That’s 1,589.7 miles. We’re about two-thirds of the way through our time in Europe, so we need to pick up the pace on the way back.

Actually, it’s a lot more.  The Vigeland sculpture park holds 212 of Gustav Vigeland’s sculptures; and most of them include more than one person.  The Monolith alone comprises 121 bodies entwined around each other.  All of them, all the people in the 212 sculptures, are nude.  If you follow them in order, you see the whole span of human life from birth to death.  It’s hard to do the park justice in words and we’d have to include fifty or more photos to give you a true sense of the place.  A few photos here and on Smugmug will have to suffice.

Monolith at Vigeland Sculpture Park

Sculpture at Vigeland, one of 212

Vigeland was a contemporary of Edvard Munch’s.  Apparently they did not like each other; once Munch wrote on his tax return that none of his money should fund Vigeland’s work!

The park is in a neighborhood called Majorstuen in the west part of Oslo.  Oslo itself was pretty much closed for Sunday, so it was good we saved the park for today.  It was however cold and rainy when we left the hotel.  The T-bane is closed between downtown and Majorstuen, so we learned the trolley system.

In the afternoon we walked on the roof of the Oslo Opera House.  That’s right; you get to walk on the roof.   It’s all white marble and fairly steep.  It was a challenge for the booted of the two of us.  But we made it.  As we ascended the sun came out and it got quite hot.  The building is spectacular.  Norway is a small country, but they think big about public works and places.  After descending, we sat in the café and had coffee while gazing out at the Oslo fjord.  A very nice, serene afternoon.

The Oslo Opera House

‘Pano’ from the roof of the Opera House

Tomorrow we’re off to Bergen.  It’s a long drive through some really forested areas; should be pretty.

If I had a boat

I’d go out on the ocean

And if I had a pony

I’d ride him on my boat

And we could all together

Go out on the ocean

Me upon my pony on my boat

– L. Lovett

The Vikings had a boat. They had a lot of boats. And we saw a few of them today. The sun was out when we woke up, a real surprise given the forecast. So we took advantage and hit the museums on Bygdøy. It’s a peninsula into the Oslo fjord, just a few minutes from downtown. You could drive or take public transit but we’ve already done planes, trains and automobiles. So we took a boat to see the boats. It’s a small passenger ferry and the ride is about fifteen minutes. We enjoyed it and got some photos from water-level. See Smugmug. We’re almost over 100 photos up there now. You can skip to the last page to see the latest.

Once on Bygdøy you walk almost a kilometer to the Viking Ship Museum. They have three boats there that date back to about 900AD. They are well preserved because it was common to bury wealthy people in their boats. They loaded the boat with food, drink, money, jewelry and other things the dead person would need in the next life; then wrapped it in cloth (the sails maybe) and buried it in clay. Over the years grave robbers got the money and jewelry but left the other artifacts. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s archeologists uncovered the boats and eventually put them on display.

The Vikings were great sailors and went as far as America (before it was called that of course) in these fairly small boats. Our passenger ferry is bigger!

From Vikings to more modern Norwegians we went by going to the Kon-Tiki Museum. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl and some other crazy Norwegians got in an even smaller boat made out of balsa logs and sailed from South American to Easter Island. They did it to prove a point about how cultures could have mixed and cooperated hundreds of years ago. Today it just sounds like another horrible reality TV show.

From there we went to the Fram Museum. The Fram was a polar exploration boat and it made trips to both the North and South poles. The expeditions were about 100 years ago and this is one serious boat. It had to be to break through the ice. Even so, they only got so far and then set out by dog sled to get to the actually poles.

After the return trip, on yes, a boat, we went to Bakefri, the only entirely gluten-free restaurant in Oslo. Norwegians are like the Danes and the Swedes; they eat a TON of bread. It’s pretty common to see people eat three rolls to start breakfast; one with butter, one with jam and one with marmalade. So we are surprised by how gluten-free-friendly the town is. We hear McDonalds and Burger King have gluten-free hamburger buns. We have not checked that out. Bakefri was excellent. They have the best tasting gluten-free bread we’ve ever had. We both had sandwiches and dessert. A common dessert here is a thin, sweet waffle with strawberry jam. And we got some rolls for the road.

Press button to start fountain.

We rested at the hotel for a while and then went out for dinner. We ate at ‘Eataly’ but it does not seem related to Mario Batali’s Eataly in New York City. Later we sat people-watched at the Aker Brygge (fancy shopping mall) and took a nice walk in the sun back to our hotel.

Well, actually we don’t want to scream. The weather is exactly like home in March; raining all day, high of 52 degrees. Looks like it might be that way the whole time we are here. But we are having fun anyway. This being Friday, we thought we would hit the Viking Museum and Kon-Tiki Museum before they get really crowded over the weekend. But with the rain, we didn’t want to ride the boat over to Bygdøy. (Not that we’ll want to ride in the rain tomorrow either!)

We went to the Edvard Munch Museum (Munch museet) instead. And… we rode the subway to get there. For the equivalent of $85 each we got an ‘Oslo Pass’ good for three days. It gives us free entrance to most of the museums in town, free parking in municipal garages and free use of the subway (T-bane), trolleys and busses.

Edvard Munch (pronounced Monk) was a strange dude. Of course he painted ‘The Scream’. But his body of work is far more interesting. He influenced modern impressionism (although some people would say modern impressionism is redundant.) He evolved his own style several times over his life. If you traverse the exhibit in time-order or backwards like we did (oops!) you can see the changes over time. He had his demons and they really come out in his work. We each found a favorite or two that we went back to look at.

We had lunch in the café at the museum. Food is Oslo is REALLY expensive! A salad and sandwich plus bottles of water ran to seventy dollars. We found a local pizza chain that serves gluten-free pizza. Each single-person pizzas was over thirty dollars. And they had a line nearly out the door. The tax on food and everything else is twenty percent. In Sweden is it twenty-five percent. Coffee for two at a café (more Farkle) was twenty-three dollars. We don’t think we’re paying tourist prices either; food was also expensive in Denmark and Sweden. These three countries have very high social services and therefore very high taxes. And they are relatively small countries that import a lot of goods. So we’re not really surprised…

This is the half-way point; twelve nights gone by, twelve more to go. We’re not quite halfway through the driving though, so the last third of the trip will be mostly on the road. We’re have a great time!

We spent three days in Stockholm, Sweden and never once saw Swedish Meatballs on a menu or Swedish Fish in a store? What’s up with that?

Overall we found Stockholm to be a little dreary and maybe a little gloomy, at least compared to Copenhagen. Could be two reasons for that; it was somewhat rainy where Copenhagen had been sunny and we didn’t like our hotel that much. But even with that, people in Stockholm seem less cheerful than in Copenhagen.

But we’re outta there anyway having pulled into Oslo tonight. The ride across Sweden is just beautiful. It starts out, like, well, Connecticut. Lots of trees, farms and small-ish towns. But then it becomes much more like Washington. You know you are getting close to Norway. The terrain becomes hillier, deciduous trees give way to evergreens and you see a lot of lakes and rivers, all running north-south. It’s glacier country, or was.

We struggled for a while to find a bank, but eventually did in a small town called ‘Ski’. We picked up our fourth currency, Norwegian Krone (NOK), about five to a dollar. [Swedish Krone (SEK) are about six to a dollar and Danish Krone (DDK) are also about five to a dollar. Plus the Euro (about a buck-fifty each) in Germany.]

This is also our fourth capital after Stockholm/Sweden, Copenhagen/Denmark and Berlin/Germany. So far we’ve put just under 1,300 miles on the car. We’re getting about 22 mpg.

We had a great dinner in Oslo at ‘New Orleans’ including Creole food and live jazz. It’s still light out; sunset is at nearly 11pm. Sunrise comes early, before 4am, makes it hard to sleep late!

So far we’ve not really been doing the museum thing on this trip. We’re not sure why. But today we broke the spell and visited the Millesgården. It is the home and grounds of Carl Milles, one of Sweden’s most famous and prolific sculptors. He died in 1955 but not before bequeathing his property and sculptures to the people of Sweden. You can see some of his work on the Smugmug site.

We spent a lot of time here. They have a gallery for presenting modern works and we really enjoyed the works of Björn Wessmans. He’s a bit of a modern impressionist and his work is very colorful.

We spent the most time walking the grounds. There are tons of pieces on display including sculpture of course but also ponds, reflecting pools and even architecture. The house is quite large and packed full of art and sculpture that Milles collected in his lifetime.

One of the very curious things about the museum is that you need a code to LEAVE the restaurant. You can get in, but unless you paid to see the museum, you can’t get out!

The museum is in a wealthy suburb of Stockholm. Yesterday we learned the T-bana (subway) system; today we learned the bus system. It was fun, and in fact, we out-smarted some natives. Two busses arrived at once and they all went for bus 203. But we were smart and got on 207. A few moments later they schlepped off 203 and joined us on 207.

Some observations and notes about Stockholm and Sweden:

The day is damn long here. Today sunrise was at 3:41am and sunset was at 10:05pm. It’s likely we will never use our headlights on this trip. It fools you too; when you leave dinner around 9pm or so, see next item, you think it’s earlier in the evening than it really is.

It takes freaking forever to have dinner in a Stockholm restaurant. You can wait ten minutes to get a menu, twenty minute to order, thirty more minutes to get your food, another thirty or so for them to come for the empty plates and then another ten or twenty minutes to get the check. We’ve been paying with cash, so at least we don’t have to wait for the credit card machine!

Public transportation in Stockholm is very modern. Electronic signs at the stations tell you when your train or bus will arrive. Inside the train or bus, you get notices about the stops that are coming up. And everything runs to the minute. We parked the car when we got here and haven’t used it since. Hope it’s there tomorrow!

Tomorrow we head for Oslo. It will be a fairly long drive. Not as many kilometers as Copenhagen to Stockholm, but almost as many hours.

T-Bana is short for the Tunnel-Bana, or tunnel road, or subway. Today we learned how to get around underground.

One of the big shopping streets in Stockholm is right outside our door. It’s called Drottinggatan and it runs straight to the central station. We strolled that for a while and then launched into our subway adventure. We bought day passes and took a train to Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm. In 1600 or so it WAS Stockholm, home to about 6,000 people. Now it’s but a small part of the city. The official royal place is on Gamla stan along with a bazillion post card shops. We had a really nice day walking all over, sitting here and there and at one point hanging out in Espresso House, a sort-of Starbucks here. The barista at Espresso House knew we wanted non-fat milk before we ordered – because according to her, all Americans order non-fat milk.

Last night our waiter brought us gluten free bread from a store called Friends of Adam. Today we visited the store and stocked up on bread and crackers for the next half-week or so. Adam is the ‘bonus child’ of the owner. That is the Swedish term for step-child.

It was a very relaxing day. We didn’t hit any museums or specific sites, just hung out together and took it easy.

And everywhere looks like Connecticut. Look at the picture below and tell me where you think we took it?  (Click on it to get a larger version.)

I think Rein’s is around that bend. Of course it is not; this is the E4, a major highway through Sweden, heading toward Stockholm. But there surely is a McDonald’s around the corner, because the McDonald’s of Sweden is… McDonald’s. They are everywhere, along the highway and in the towns. Driving through Sweden is like driving through any state in the US, but particularly like Connecticut. Rolling hills, big sweeping turns, lots of trees plus occasional businesses clustered around the larger junctions (called trafikplats here.)

Not that we’re complaining; we had a great day. We drove 679 km (422 miles) today over 7.5 hours including stops. This is the most distance we’ve every driven in one day. The car just eats miles, or here, kilometers. We drove two hours shifts and felt fresh after each one. And, we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch because they have gluten-free salads and they are so damn convenient.  And the countryside really is beautiful.  We saw some awesome lakes.  Plus each town puts a lot of creativity into the sign that welcomes you as you pass through. 

Dinner was  interesting. We ate at Rolfs Kök, a classic Swedish restaurant. They were all over the gluten-free thing including serving bread they bring in from a gluten-free bakery in town. We will find that tomorrow and check it out. Traditional Swedish food seems to include fish, sausage, cream sauce and at this time of year, asparagus.  And no, it doesn’t really all taste like chicken.

When we traveled in Germany three years ago we ate a lot of traditional German food until we finally became all schnitzel-ed out after two weeks. From that point on it was Italian! This time we have only had one traditional German meal and now one traditional Swedish meal. We’re feeling a little lighter on our feet!

Our hotel is also more traditional that what we’ve seen so far. We’ve had a Marriott, a Westin and the Australian version of the Residence Inn (in Copenhagen.) Big rooms with big bathrooms. Our hotel here is tiny. Photos coming soon.

We walked around just a little after dinner. It was ten pm and the sun was just setting. The town looks interesting; we will do some exploring tomorrow.

Except for restaurants and bars, almost everything in Denmark is closed on Sunday. We had a long day yesterday and wanted to take it easy today anyway. The only thing we brought that does not seem to like European voltage is the Sonicare toothbrush charger. So we decided to drive to Sweden, where the stores are open on Sunday, and buy a converter.

One of the surprises when we laid out this trip is how close Denmark and Sweden are. They are as close as two miles at the northern tip of Zealand, the island that contains Copenhagen. We went to that point the other day on our drive around the island.

At the southeast corner of Zealand the two countries connect via a tunnel-bridge combination that is relatively new. On the Swedish side is the medium-size city of Malmö. We did a little Internet research, found a department store (Clas Ohlson) and set off.

The first problem we found is that our on-loan navigation system (See Day 3 for that saga) does not cover Sweden. We quickly figured out it does not have Norway either. So we have no coverage for half the countries and more than half the driving.

We went back in the hotel and grabbed the free lobby wireless with one of the iPads, looked up directions to Clas Ohlson, wrote them down (in Anglo-Swedish) and set off. The bridge is supposed to be spectacular and it is cool, just not spectacular. But it is expensive; about $60 each way.

Anyway, long-story-short, we found the department store, got what we needed, had lunch, sat in a café in a nice breeze and set off for the return trip. The new navigation system (Garmin nüvi 1200) works great. I’m updating the maps and downloading Germany as I type this entry.

Tomorrow will be the longest drive of the trip, over 600 km, or almost 380 miles. The car is a great cruiser, but speed limits in Sweden are a good bit lower than in Germany. We’ll take plenty of breaks and use the cruise control a lot!

PS No photos today, it was hazy on the bridge and Malmö wasn’t that picturesque. Sorry Malmö!

 

We took a little walk today. Well, we spent six-and-a-half hours out and about around Copenhagen and covered a little over six miles. Yeah, that’s a slow pace but it includes a stop for coffee, another stop for dinner, a fascinating conversation with a local who had gone to high school in Kirkland, WA and a whole bunch of short breaks to rest the Achilles a little.

The post title is Denmarkian for ‘The Little Mermaid’, a famous statue in the Copenhagen harbor. See below.

Oddly, there was no crab singing ‘Under the Sea’. Turns out this little mermaid comes from a Hans Christian Andersen story as does that other Little Mermaid. But Sebastian the crab was made up for the movie.

We were walking from the mermaid to one of the canals when a stranger approached us and mentioned the nearby museum was really good. We try to blend in but everyone picks us out as Americans instantly. Turns out our stranger spent a lot of time in America, including going to high school in Kirkland. He was fun to chat with, but we skipped the museum anyway.

In approximate order we saw: The Little Mermaid, a fortress, a fountain, guards in fuzzy hats at the royal palace, the Opera House, some really old boats, more canals, the Nyhavn neighborhood, the Christianhavn neighborhood, a hippy commune called Christiania, a fashion photo shoot, the old stock exchange building, more canals, Stogert street again, Danish fast food and the King’s garden.

The highlight was supposed to be Christiania. It’s a hippy commune with its own rules and customs. I think we expected this to be a Danish version of Williamsburg. Instead it seems to be the place to score dope, hash and hash brownies. We spent little time there. Instead we continued walking and got some more good photos of doors and canals. See Smugmug.

Eventually we stopped for dinner at Sunset Blvd, a Danish version of an American fast-food burger joint. We were able to get them to make something gluten-free. It was all so-so, but interesting anyway.

Overall, we got a little too much sun and probably walked more than we should, but just the same, it was a fantastic day.