Day 13 - Oslo!

Akershus Fortress

Cruise photo

Our last day in Scandinavia was spent in the Akershus Brygge area.  (Brygge is the Norwegian word for harbor or bridge.  In this case it's for harbor.) First we walked around the Akershus Fortress.  The fortress was originally built around 1200 and has been remodelled several times since. Then we took a 2 hour boat cruise around the Oslo Fjord and its many islands.  It was misty when we were walking around the fortress, but stopped raining when we were on our little cruise.   Then at 3 p.m. we walked over to the ultimate touristy spot in Oslo -- Akershus Brygge -- and ate at Olivia.  The Germans we talked with in Arlandsvangen recommended it.   It was kind of chilly as some big clouds were rolling in, but the outdoor seating at Olivia is covered, has heaters everywhere, the seats are covered in sheepskin, AND, if that's not warm enough, they have lap blankets.  Olivia is an Italian restaurant.  Mom had a lasagna dish and I had spaghetti with shrimp.  It was wonderful!  While we ate, it poured...which didn't affect us at all.  In fact, we thought we had pretty good timing. 

At Olivia

It was a very relaxing way to end our visit.

We are back at the hotel now, packed, and ready to go to bed.   We'll be getting up at 6 a.m. tomorrow to get to the airport well ahead of our 10:40 flight.  It's going to be a long day, but we look forward to getting home and seeing everyone again!

Loves to you!

Deb and Marlys

Day 12 - Oslo!

What a great night of sleep we had!  I know I said it before, but sleep can never be overrated.  When done well after not being done well, emphasizing its importance is acceptable. 

After a (wonderful) late start to our day, we walked to the harbor and took a boat ride to the Bygdoy Island.  It's really a pennisula, and it looks like it could be a little on the posh end, but it also is home to loads of touristy museums.  First we went to the Norwegian Cultural Museum.  The big thing there is that they have likely over 75 historical buildings that span a 400 year period.  Sadly, there was no area specific to Gudbrandsdalen or Oppland so we couldn't see a layout of a home that our relatives would've had.  But the ones we saw were very interesting. 

Then we went to the Viking Ship Museum and saw 3 original Viking ships that were excavated.  They were excavated from burial sites.  The jury is out on whether they were used prior to the important guy's death, but no doubt *some* boats were used that looked *something* like the ones we saw.  Also at this museum was a bunch of other artifacts found at one of the burial sites.  Honestly, I started getting overloaded with information and started taking pictures of all the human faces that were carved in the various old things.  It also seemed like a lot of the wood dragon carvings could've easily been Chinese.  Yet, there was nothing to either verify or deny my conspiratorial theory about that.

On the way back from the harbor we stopped in at City Hall because there is a giant room with huge painted murals.  It's like Diego Rivera met Henrik Ibsen and painted about what he heard...in a different style.  Okay, it's nothing like that at all.  However, in this vacuous room, Nobel Prizes have been given. 

I sadly took no minature photos today.

The last museum of the day was the Kon Tiki Museum / shrine to Thor Hierdal.  Mom did this one solo as they were about to close and I was museum-ed out.  She says that it was good and that Thor Hierdal proved that people sailed before they invented the wheel.

After a nice rest back at the museum, we took an evening stroll up to the Vigeland Sculpture Garden.  Vigeland is home to way over 100 sculptures by one artist (can't remember his name) and they are all nude.  All of them.  There are also dozens of relief panels.  I made up a story on these three panels.  Moral of the story is to not play with wolves or horses when you are only 3 years old.  It will not end well. 





One last thing to leave you with: restaurants in Oslo stop serving dinner at 9 p.m. This is no New York.  This isn't even Chetek.  We did find a Subway type of place whose motto is "Food with Care", not "Made with Care."  Important distinction. 

Day 11 - Arlandsvangen (and then to Oslo)

Today (Friday) we took a fjord boat tour.  The boat picked us up in Arlandsvangen at 9:15 a.m., went to Gudvangen, and returned to Arlandsvangen by 1:10 p.m.  The tour itself was very nice and scenic, but it the weather wasn't the best.  It went from light drizzle to light rain to windy rain the entire trip.  On the positive side of that, there were some really interesting small cloud formations alongside the walls of the fjord.  They sort of added to the immense scale of it all. 

Like I said earlier, this is the most touristy area we've been in.  Our boat tour reaffirmed that as there were loads of Chinese, Italians, and a few Germans.  We talked with one younger German couple a bit throughout the day as we the only ones who got on and off at Arlandsvangen.  They were from Munich.  We shared driving recommendations as they were driving from Oslo heading north, and we were doing the opposite. 

After the boat tour we drove to Oslo.  We didn't drive any further distance or for any longer time than any other day of driving, but as we started in the afternoon, it seemed like it took forever.  During the first hour or so we went through around 10 tunnels. Then we followed some dammed up lakes and rivers.  When we got closer to Oslo E16 was closed and the detour was long and slow.  At no point did we go over 80 km/h, because of the windy-ness of the roads, so all in all it took about 5.5 hours. 

Oslo is a manageable larger city and it will be easy to get around by just walking.  We think there are around 500,000 people here, so smaller than the Twin Cities.

Also...since I'm really writing this on Saturday morning...we both had a really good night of sleep.  To bed by 11 p.m. and up at 9 a.m. Yea, Oslo!

Day 10 - Tretten to Aurlandsvangen



Drive west of Lom

 Today was a harrowing day of driving in the mountains.  We left Tretten on E6 and turned west at Otta, went through Lom, and turned south on FV302 at Turtagro to Ovre Aurdal, and then on to Aurland.  The part to Lom was pretty, but not very adventurous.  The drive from Lom to Turtagro was very mountainous: the temperature dropped to 8 C, and it was windy, sprinkling, and there was snow.  There was enough snow for the a big snow machine to lay cross country tracks all over the place at Krossbu.  It got rockier with more switchbacks and amazing vistas down valleys for huge long distances.  Then at Turtagro we took a smaller road to the south.  We had a full tank of gas, so felt pretty solid in that regard.  And I drove cautiously as there are no shoulders or many guardrails.  This road was about as wide as our driveway if it were paved.  You can get 2 cars to pass, but it's tricky so it's always better to wait for on coming traffic (if you can see them) at a wider spot in the road. 

Stacked stones

Ibsen Monument

Other than just being geographically interesting: frozen lakes, melting rivers, humongously long water falls dropping down the face of cliffs, landslide areas (in the distance for the most part) there were a few other things that were also interesting.  First, everywhere you look on highway 55, there are stacks of rocks dotting the landscape.  This road is called the Sognefjellsvegen, and after doing a little online research, it looks like the road is the most scenic mountain road in northern Europe.  I can't find any information on the rocks. They were pretty and (I can't say this enough) everywhere. Second, there was a monument at the summit of the road to Henrik Ibsen and another Norwegian writer.  The other fun things along that stretch were that I got to parlare un po' italiano with some people at a viewpoint; there was an unmanned gated toll booth (see video: http://youtu.be/2_5g-E1u6hQ); and there were loads of roaming sheep.

Ovre Aurdal



Coming into Ovre Aurdal was absolutely crazy.  There were maybe 10 (maybe more?) hairpin turns leading to the town.  The views were stunning!  We took several videos of driving today.  They are short (most of them).  After watching them tonight, I think that Mom is a saint for having the patience of being my passenger.  It's honestly been a little nervewracking sometimes driving here, but I don't think I'd be a very good passenger. 

Igloo!

We went through about 5 tunnels today including the world's longest road tunnel (as opposed to a non-road tunnel??).  It was 24.5 km long.  After the drive through the mountains I actually welcomed this.  It was darkish, but you could drive fast-ish and straight!  They put 3 areas in the tunnel that looked like we were in a giant igloos that broke up the monotony.



View from scary road down to Aurland

 Aurland is absolutely lovely and is 8 km north of Flam on the same fjord.  This is the first place in entire trip that we've met other tourists from the U.S.  It's proof that this is a more touristy area than the other places we've gone.  We went on a drive to (another!) scenic viewpoint at the recommendation of one of the receptionists.  It was treacherous and so when we got to a lookout, we stopped and took pictures. We never made it all the way up the mountain to the "best" lookout, but the road was truly crappy, SUPER narrow and not very well maintained.  Anyway, while we were stopped I chatted with some German tourists from Berlin who were driving a MOTOR HOME!  I was happy that I got to speak both Italian and German today, even though it wasn't stellar it was good to actually understand a foreign language and be able to respond.  :-)

Day 9 - Gudbrandsdalen Area

Today was a day of well deserved rest.  We haven't had a quiet day really, so thought we could use one. 

Mackerel/tomato spread

Breakfast here was pretty typical except there was this packet with a mackerel on it and tomato in the ingredients.  I tried it, but can't say I'd recommend it unless of course you like those two flavors mingled together with lots of salt. 

Single lane brige - Tretten

After breakfast and LOTS of coffee, we drove into Tretten and crossed the river for the shady side of the valley on a one lane wooden planked bridge over a raging river. From there we drove over to Favang.  Most of the roads were paved, but some were not.  Some of the gravel roads showed signs of erosion and wash out from last week's rains.  In one spot there was a gravel truck dumping new gravel for the road with a grader parked off to the side waiting to finish the work.  While you're trying to picture all of this, keep in mind that these are all really narrow mountain roads.  The paved roads don't have a center line, but there is generally room for 2 cars.  The gravel roads have no markings and rarely any guardrails.  Fortunately, we met few cars and trucks.

Our harrowing drive led us to Ringebu which has a cute downtown with cafes, bakeries, clothing stores, book stores, you name it, but nothing with the words "Ringebu" on them.  Bummer.  We did have coffee and split a sweet roll.  The bakery had about 30 different types of loaf bread, so I did the touristy thing and took a photo. 

Then it was off to see Ringebu's famous stave church!  It's a beautiful church located a few miles south of town up a windy little road.  The stave church was built in the 13th century, but it followed a post-construction church that was built in the 12th century.  Of course that one rotted, so the stave church replaced it.  The front door is from the first church, so is about 1000 years old.  Next to the front door there were symbols carved into the wall (early graffiti work?) showing the symbol for each farm in the area.  They looked like the brands that ranchers use to identify cattle.  In a post-Viking sort of way.  They didn't allow photos inside.  At the tops of the wood columns (that are sort of painted to look like marble (?) maybe) there are heads painted.  This seems like a cross between a classic era capital and a greek caryatids.  The heads here supposedly represent norse gods.  Apparently during the early parts of Christianity in Norway it was acceptable to include a little paganism. 

We visited a little art museum near the stave church and then headed off on highway 27 to see the Rodane National Park.  It is seriously one of the wierdest places I've seen.  It's a cross between Wyoming, Arizona, the Bad Lands, and maybe Alaska.  I posted a very brief video on you tube, so check it out! http://youtu.be/bhXCILPSLTY

Afternoon snack at Rodane

What makes it so wierd is that you cannot see that this area even exists from the valley that we're in.  The video was taken about 45 minutes away from Ringebu and it's like we were on another planet.

We're back at the hotel now, fed and getting ready for bed.  Tomorrow we drive to Aurland to see the fjords.  We don't think there will be any problems with the roads as the flood has visibly receded since we arrived.

Day 9

Two things that I must share before breakfast:

1.) I have figured out why our family left.  The were poor sleep deprived souls who just wanted to get some sleep. 

2.) Thank God for the Dutch!  We got in late last night (10:30 p.m.) and our hotel was locked up tight.  If it wouldn't have been for some observant Dutch tourists staying at the hotel with a room overlooking the entrance...we would've had to sleep outside. 

Day 8 - Favang!

Shazam!  We met with Ole Jon and his wife tonight.  Ole Jon is a relative of one of Mom's school mates.  Anyway, Ole Jon did some research on one of mom's (and my) relatives, so we discussed that in our hotel's restaurant over coffee and streudel (though it has to be called something else here, right?).  After our talk, they offered to drive us to some of the farms.  The first and most important farm to us is the one posted below.  It's called Bjorgevangen.  It was the last place that Mattie Vang (Mathea Amundson VANG) lived before she and all of her living brothers and sisters and parents moved to Timberland/Barronett.  She took VANG in the U.S. as it is part of the name of the farm: Bjorgevangen.  It looks like someone might own it, but they certainly don't live there on a regular basis.  It's beautiful, isn't it?  Ole Jon thinks that it was built between 1800 and 1850.  Mattie Vang emmigrated in 1894.  She was my great great grandmother.  [My mom is Marlys Nyberg Renz.  Her mother was Elva Rydberg Nyberg.  Her mother was Mathilda Hanson Rydberg.  And her mother was Mathea "Mattie" Vang Hanson.]  This wasn't a house or a farm that they owned.  They rented it and worked the land.  Mattie's father was also a tailor and a logger.  (Can we say jack of all trades?)  Ole Jon thinks that the last people who permanently lived here was in the 1920s.  We did see some other farms and homes, but they were not places that that family lived for very long.  We are tired and going to bed.  It is 11 p.m.  Still light enough to go for a walk, play frisbee with a dog, set up a tent, etc.  and we have no light blocking shades tonight.  Tomorrow might be a good day for a nap.