It was a day of travel.
We left Kirkenes this morning just as it began to rain.
The Taxi Cab office was in the same building as the hotel and we had been told to just knock on the door when we needed to go to the Airport. There were about 6 drivers all in out of the weather in a smoke filled room. They decided that the youngest driver was the one to take us and told him so.
So we loaded our bags into a fairly new Mercedes station-wagon - we only travel in style. The driver made small talk, found an English music station on the radio (Tina Tina a la 70s) and was rewarded when we left the balance of our NOK with him. He had quoted us 350 NOK, the meter said 305 NOK and he said just to pay 300 NOK. Smile on the dial when he
realised that we gave him 550 NOK and told him that we were leaving Norway. Sometimes it pays to be at the bottom of the ladder!
We arrived at the airport about 9 am so we could be well ahead of the Hurtigruten bus of people.
Doesn't really matter as we have allocated seats. Plane was full and we got on near to last so that people did n't need to be pushing past. Getting out to the plane was interesting in the rain. Like at Hervey Bay, you need to walk out to the plane and climb the stairs. People bunched up and hurried in small groups so that you did not have to wait to long in the (light) rain. It was however quite cool at about 8 degrees. We left a few minutes late and landed at Oslo late. Oslo is a balmy 26 degrees.
At Oslo we thankfully disembarked via the flybridge, and with about 30 minutes only to our next flight, had to hurry from one terminal to the other at the far end - as always!
Our flight from Oslo to Helsinki is leaving from one of the outer parks on the tarmac. We are cram into a bus and are taken to the planeside. Smaller plane, and they are not allowing bigger hand luggage to be carried on - instead, they are stowed under the plane - a few disgruntled people, but honestly, some of them take 'hand luggage' to the extreme. They do not police it half as rigorously as they do at home.
The steps up into this plane are very steep and we wait until the last to get on so that Donna can give me a 'bottom' nudge to help!
This plane is a 2+2 combination so we can sit together without feeling pressured to let others off in a hurry. There are a number of people hanging back to get off so I take the opportunity to go. Trouble was, those stairs were worse going down with the rails not starting until the very edge of the first step.
Helsinki airport is spread out. Again, it is warm when we land 24 degrees (at 5 pm). It takes a bit to find the hire car desks, but when we do Giulia is very helpful and efficient and we are on our way over to find our car about 15 minutes later.
We are driving an Opel Astra stationwagon with 3842 kms only on the clock. Nice to drive and very roomy.
And so we head northeast for Turku. It is 168.3 km and the speed varies from 50 kph in the city to 120 kph on the open motorway. We drove in to the street where our accommodation is right on 8 pm. Can't find the apartment anywhere and although we have phoned the owner who is meeting us with the key, we need to phone again and talk through instructions on where the unit is. Turns out that the street number relates to the block, not the building. Funny how a Lidl supermarket can be a placemarker :)
The apartment is a 3 bedroom, with tiny lounge and reasonable kitchenette (not that we intend using it!) and not one but two bathrooms. It also has a washing machine so we make use of that. There is no parking at the apartment, but street parking is free between 6 pm and 9 am and we found a spot about 100 metres away.
We are going through the bags in the morning and deciding what to donate via Riikka, and what to send home via post - we seriously need to shed some weight and get rid of all the useless winter clothes - hardly needed anything really.
Went for a quick drive to find somewhere to have dinner after a foot reconnaissance didn't come up with anything in the immediate area. End up at the Pinella Bar and Restaurant on the River Aura. Set menu of three courses:
Entree - Gravlax Tartar (1960) with whole grain mustard and dill oil
Main - Parilla Grilled Beef Steak (1940) beef fillet, Cafe de Paris butter and garlic potatoes
Dessert - Ice Cream Cake (1950) sponge cake, Frozen berry
coulis, chocolate icecream topped with torched marshmallow and minute flowers.
The city is filled with new University students tonight, out celebrating 'O' week. Noisy, boisterous and all having fun. Lots of groups ranging from 10 - 20 people. And we watch some people trying to manoeuvre a speedboat into a berth on the river without any lights.
Back at the apartment now tired as! Time for bed.
Day one of the ' Oh my god's '
Sunday in Oslo is quiet. If we thought that the centre of town was quiet on other days/nights, this morning was dead. Literally. Until we got to the railway station about 5 blocks away, we saw the sum total of three people!
The day began with a little scare. Instead of adding a block to our (read my) walk, we chose to go down the back exit which meant that Donna had to carry the suitcases down a flight of stairs. So far, so good. Get to the bottom of the stairs and open the heavy exit door, Donna carries the cases out, she is now outside the building and then just before the door closes behind me, we realise that the heavy, huge iron gates - you know the massive ones that you see at the opening of many historic buildings in Europe, were closed and locked with a padlock. All of them. On both sides of the building. Its about 07:25 am and the train goes in an hour. So I jam my foot in the door while Donna checks out the exit. Little scare, not a big one - there is an exit release - phew!!! Disaster averted.
The road is damp underfoot - it must have rained during the night, but the morning is clear and cool. Lugging our (getting heavier) suitcases it takes us about 15 minutes to walk to the station and get our bearings. And, thanks to Murphy's Law, our carriage is the furthest one out. We finally make the door, lug the suitcases up the steps and find a spot to store them in the luggage vestibule. As we move in to the carriage, we find it filled with the passengers of an Indian tour group AND four of them are in our seats.
One of them wanted an argument, but man, that wasn't going to happen. We stayed firm and it was only a couple of moments before the tour guide came and insisted that the four of them return to their allotted seats. He took one of the last two and just as the train was due to depart, in rushed the last passenger - Kimberly, a nurse from Venice Beach in California. We hit it off straight away and have made a new friend!
Both Donna and I feel that today really starts the trip of adventure - even though we have now been travelling for a week and seen and experienced some wonderful things.
Today we are doing a self-guided tour called Norway in a Nutshell. It involves five legs:
- train Oslo to Myrdal
- scenic train Myrdal to Flam
- boat cruise Flam to Gudvangen
- tour bus Gudvangen to Voss
- train Voss to Bergen.
The train departs Oslo smack on time at 08:25 am. It is not long out of the City Sentrum before we begin to encounter the working day for some, with farmers harvesting cauliflowers in the morning dew. Its not long before we find ourselves in bucolic scenes from some European folksong. The streams and rivers are bubbling alongside us in every shade of glacial blue and the open meadows morph into valleys between towering mountains. And yes, we do mean mountains, not the hillmountains we have back home.
And still we have the reach the real Oh. My. God. Scenery.
We pass by the Geitanosi glacier, near Finse where the snow scenes from Star Wars was filmed - the things you never knew! Finse is the highest railway station on the entire Norwegian railway system at only 1222 m!
And pass through tunnels before reaching Myrdal and changing for the the Flåm Line is a 20.2 km long railway line between Myrdal and Flåm in Aurland, Norway. A branch line of the Bergen Line, it runs through the valley of Flåmsdalen and connects the mainline with Sognefjord. The line's elevation difference is 866 meters; it has ten stations, twenty tunnels and one bridge. The steepest incline is 1:18 - and without cogs!
Even though the journey to Myrdal takes 4 hours, the time flies. As we pass Finse we see little huts hunkered down hugging the earth as if to protect themselves from the cold winters. Many have moss and alpine plants including flowers growing on their roof, like a blanket keeping in the warmth. Kimberly is not travelling to Flåm today, but going direct to Bergen so before we leave the train, we exchange contact details and make loose plans to catch up tomorrow in Bergen.
Crossing the platform takes us to the departure point for the Flåm railway. The Flåm railway is considered to be the world's most beautiful train journey and provides a panorama of some of the wildest and most magnificent mountain scenery in Norway at any time of the year. There are rivers carving their way through deep gorges, waterfalls leaping off steep mountainsides with snow-covered mountain peaks, as well as mountain
farms clinging tenaciously to steep slopes. Down at the bottom, you can enjoy the scenic cultural landscape of the Flåm Valley and admire the beautiful Aurlandsfjord. On the way, the train makes a stop to allow everyone to get off the train to take photos at the Kjosfossen Falls where the Hulda sang to lure us into the waters of the waterfall. Thankfully no-one succumbed!
We continue our journey down the valleys into Flåm railway station. The scenery is jaw-breakingly beautiful and the camera and our two phones get a massive workout today. If you want to see more of the photos, then ask us to put on a slide show for you when we get back!
At the end of the line, we have arrived at Flåm harbour. We have a chance to catch a breather here and meet three American sisters travelling together for the first time to visit their grandfather's birthplace near Bergen. We grabbed a coffee and an amazing Pistachio biscuits with chocolate and raisins. Crisp on the outside and chewy inside. It was the size of a bread and butter plate! Mmmmm.
Here we catch a Fjord cruise on Nærøyfjord with Fjord Norway. You know those times when you say that you couldn't get the whole vista in one photo? Well, up close this is what the scenery is like. Mountains tower over you and dwarf elfin little hamlets and villages with perfectly manicured lawns right to the water's edge, surrounded by untamed brutality of the mountains and thundering waterfalls (nice description Donna). Everywhere you look is another view down another finger of a gorge or a fjord. It really is an oh. my. god. day.
The two hour trip is done all too soon and we dash for a bus that will take us up and over the mountain into Voss. We head out the only road into the Gudvangen harbour and then the coach pauses before the driver turns off the perfectly good double lane road on to the old highway that was the only access until 1981 for traffic in both directions. This is a very steep mountain pass road with 11 switchbacks immediately one after the other. The bus creeps down most of it in low gear doing about 10 kph. Which is good for anybody wanting photos of the stunning mountain peaks or waterfalls (if you can get a clear view while staying seated in a seatbelt, and vying for window space with your seat partner. Behind us are the other two buses that met the cruise boat. If one goes,it is likely that we will all go!
Soon enough, we reach the bottom and rejoin the new highway for the remainder of the trip in to Voss where we clamber over makeshift steel and planking walkways to the train for our last leg of the day. Old Murphy obviously thought he had tortured us enough for one day as on the final train trip down to Bergen we are in the second car. We are travelling through increasing urban areas, although still manage to go through two ski resorts, one complete with Ski Jump. We pass through a multitude of tunnels and by the way our ears are popping, we are dropping in altitude rapidly. In 90 minutes we reach Bergen arriving right on 9 pm, 13 hours after we left Oslo this morning. A distance of 463.9 km in the most direct route and 7 hours by car. And do you know, I would not have changed a thing.
The hotel doesn't have a restaurant but we passed the fish markets about a block and a half back so Donna heads out to get some fish and chips. The prawns are tiny, frozen and $65 AUD per kilo. Crab claws were $100 kg and the king crab,well there wasn't even a price on them and you know the saying that if you have to ask the price you can't afford it.
Lovely fresh white fish (but quite bland) and chips that the seagulls back home would refuse, but washed down with a bottle of Italian Chardonnay, worked a treat. Was definitely a better $60 spend on the wine than the same cost for the takeaway meal! Meanwhile, Bergen by night looks lovely and everything we have read of the old port area sounds intriguing. Some exploring early tomorrow, perhaps a catch up with Kimberley before we board the Kong Harald to sail north later in the day. How exciting!
So it is cooler. Heading for a maximum of 16 degrees. With a breeze.
And wet. Again.
But today it is wet enough to hinder some of the options of things to explore.
Being a Saturday, it is also a later start for most of the attractions. We decide to head to the National Theatre stop and go to The Viking Planet, a relatively new attraction that only opened in June 2019.
From the comments on their site, most people seen to enjoy the experience.
As we enter Princengate, one of the four streets that bound this building, we can hear the music festival we saw them setting up for yesterday in full swing. The band is on a stage inside a partially enclosed marquee, there are a few children playing on the playground that was constructed, but in the drizzle, everyone is hurrying by under umbrellas or a range of rain jackets, seemingly oblivious to the music. We are bound for the tram stop on the opposite corner, and like all the other people passing by, we do too.
It is only a couple of tram stops from where we are, and as we near, the rain lifts for a few minutes, allowing us to have a look at the statuary that is dispersed among the gardens of the National Theater. Currently showing is Romeo and Julie(tte) and Alice in Wonderland.
Like many other areas within the City of Oslo, there are gardens and green spaces, filled with flowering beds. In the centre of the square between the National Theatre and the Universitat buildings are formal and rather austere surrounded by lots of cobbled stones, but also with large tubs of flowers at regular intervals. Large brass statues are in every square and courtyard, no doubt notable scholars. And in pride of place is the Norwegian counterpart of Sydney's El Alamein Fountain!
We realise that we again are walking away from the area that we are wanting to visit. Google maps is a fail as far as using it for walking directions. I just wonder how much of it is because we are surrounded by large stone edifices.
Finally City Hall is ahead of us and we know that we are about to reach our destination. This is an imposing modern towering building and rather stark. And even though there are garden beds along the broad stepped raisers to the entrance, they seem lost against the brick and concrete. The bells are ringing and we see a wedding party gingerly try to rush to waiting cars at the bottom of the steps in the again increasing rain. But we are here to see something else - The Viking Planet which is across the crescent from City Hall.
You actually enter the building through the souvenir shop. There is a uniformity in the offerings at most of the museums here - not only in the basic choice of souvenirs, but also the prices - that is good. And each attraction then also has a range of unique products, but again, at comparable pricing.
Tickets cost us just under AUD$50 each. We are not too phased at the cost and by the time we have finished our experience, we actually think that it is really good value for money. The staff are very attentive and eager to assist. They explain the basic concept and offer suggestions on the route through the attraction. I actually think that being a wet day has worked in our favour as there are not a lot of people here.
We began with the Fjordr - the cinema taking us through more than 1000 years of history before setting the Viking life in the context of European history.
Then came the highlight of the visit, the Longship Ambush - VR Cinema experience, told as a story being recanted to a youngster - and from where the title of this blog originates. As neither Donna nor I had ever used a VR (virtual reality) headset, the staff member made sure that we were well seated in the seats and the headgear correctly fitted before telling us to make sure to look all around us. Now, if this is the future of movie experiences, bring it on. It was AMAZING. It is a 4D experience as the chairs move to adjust to the movement of the longboat on which we are 'seated'. We set out in the longboat on a raiding run and move from active rowing to gliding passed small settlements quietly across the water.
At one moment, a huge whale surfaces right beside us and the rower straight ahead of us jumps up (too late) to grab his bow and arrow to fire at the whale. Let me tell you, as an archer, he makes a great oarsman! This seems to be the pivotal point in the journey and now we are the subject of flaming arrows, some falling short, some overshooting the longboat and eventually, many making their target and the longboat begins to burn. As we reach near the end of the fjord, another longboat comes rushing in from the left and rams us with a bone-crunching crash that beaches our longboat. We are boarded and before long the entire crew is dead. We finish the experience a little 'exhausted'. This is a full immersion experience with the seats rocking and bucking and shaking at the appropriate moments.
We sit through it twice, and in the second sitting, you see so much that you miss the first time. Obviously, with the headsets on and all the experience
happens quietly from the outside, there are no photos of this experience to share.
We work through the other exhibits in the centre - from the Hologram Theatre where we see life size depictions of 25 Viking characters with the implements of their daily lives, the building of a Viking boat, the creation of the Viking Volka (female shaman), take a Viking 'selfie' and finish up at the Sagascope - a 270 degree cinema experience that shows daily life in a Viking village
through to their murders in a raid, Viking winter explorers etc.
All in all an amazing 2.5 hours or so.
Venturing back in to the street, it is still raining so we opt for a late lunch/early dinner at the nearby Prima Fila Ristorante where we share a Marghuerita Pizza and Tagliatelle allo Scoglio with a glass of Prosecco each.
Back on the bus because it stops almost in front of the entrance door. Music has now stopped, so I guess you call that concert a wash-out.
We have re-packed ready for any earlier departure. Tomorrow we head for the coast in a 12 hour train, train, ferry, bus, train day between Oslo and Bergen which includes the scenic Flam railway. Just a little excited!
All night long, we were lulled with a muted rythmic rumble. Turns out that there is a very regular tram line that runs under our window. They run every 2 minutes during the day and not much less even into the wee hours of the morning. The triple glazing must be excellent, as we are not disturbed at all. In fact, it is quite soothing.
Well Oslo is a bit of a surprise. Brunch this morning is fabulous coffee (oh, how I have missed you) and the lightest, plumpest cinnamon scrolls that look like a double carrick knot. Its cool but not cold and without any breeze. As we sit enjoying our food, we here sirens and then a protest march in the near distance. Great. Not. I guess that being a little on edge is becoming the new norm for travellers. Don't worry. Not close enough to cause any concern.
The public transport is amazing. This morning Donna got out the guide book and spent an hour or so cross referencing the transport map and the locational map to identify which trams and buses would get us to places such as the Opera House, the main railway station and the Vikingskipsene - our major destination for today.
And before we go any further, I just want to note that Donna has absolutely NO sense of direction. Google maps sending us the long way around or not (as it does), she still has no natural sense of direction. Thankfully, I do! And thankfully Donna is a whiz at working out the connections.
We pick up the bus outside our building. This is the former main Post Office - a beautiful building that covers an entire city block, it now houses apartments, shops, offices etc. The bus stop is on one stage of the block and the tram stop on the other side of the building. So the bus stop is at the front door and the tram at the back! On to Bus no 30 we head out.
We have not been able to find out how or where to buy a ticket and are hoping that we can buy them on the bus. And yes we can, but only with cash, which I had bought prior to leaving Australia. But the bus driver could not make the change needed and so told us to sit directly behind him in case an inspector got on. Everyone just boards the buses, you do not need to show your ticket, there is no tapping and I am guessing that there would be plenty of locals who ride the transport for free, taking a chance on not seeing an inspector who can demand to see your paper ticket or your electronic ticket on your phone.
A 21 minute bus trip through part of the historic areas, past a number of the embassies and consulates and through (obviously well-to-do) residential areas and eventually into some rural settings, takes us up into one of the ridges and finally to the Vikingskipsene. You can recognise it by all tourist buses parked outside! And yet there are not too many people here. As we go in, once Donna has divested herself of her backpack and bought our entry tickets at a very reasonable AUD $33 for the two of us, we learn that this morning there were three cruise ship groups in and they had to hold people waiting outside because the museum had reached capacity.
THIS is a museum and a half. The building is quite austere, painted all white inside. This allows the pitch-black of the Viking ships to stand out in stark contrast. Each of the three main ships is housed in a wing off the small foyer, entry desk and souvenir shop.
They are mind-blowing!
Obviously restored, these three boats were only discovered in the 20th century. But all were built in the first century AD. The level of detail and care taken with construction and decoration of not only these main vessels, but all the artefacts found buried with them talk of the pride of the Vikings.
As we learn more about our earliest ancestors, we learn more of the prowess and skill they had.
No longer can we believe anything that we knew of the barbaric thugs we knew of as children. These are sophisticated people with complex class structures and a true sense of adventure. We sit through a really well done visual presentation of Viking history that showed the peoples they had dealt with across the globe as well as highlighting the natural features of their home lands. I comment to Donna, that I wonder who was that first brave person who thought to build a boat and launch into the treacherous northern waters. I would have had heart attack after heart attack if it were me in one of the slight (looking) boats as it tossed and heaved in the swell depicted.
The Norwegians are obviously proud of their Viking heritage - and rightly so!!
Our wander back in history done, we catch yet another bus where the driver cannot make the change (and yet it appears to be a common event as we were not the only tourists to be caught out). We quiz him on where to buy the tickets and he says online (been there, tried that one unsuccessfully) or many shops such as 7-eleven - yes, the same chain as at home! (Small world). We make our way down to the very modern Opera House and nearby find the main tourist office and the Olso Sentralstasion and in the harbour close to the Opera House are two enormous cruise ships.
While there, Donna went in to the tourist office to purchase bus tickets for tomorrow and we see some unique art pieces. The 'trees' are found in the children's play area and the 'foot' sculpture (which looks totally different in side view as the space between the toes and the body of the foot is open) is on the concourse.
Tickets bought, we head turn for the apartment searching as we go for a restaurant and find ourselves at the Cafe Cathedral in front of the Cathedral where we order Baked Salmon - Fresh Norwegian salmon with fennel salad with dill, orange and apple. Served with potatoes, asparagus and white wine sauce and (the best ever) Fish Soup - Our famous creamy fish soup with shrimps, salmon and vegetables. Served with bread.
Finished with a cheese plate, a pinot grigio and pear cider. Oh what a night, and a meal.
Another day dawns soon and bed beckons. Chat soon all.
It was a day of travel.
Back at the apartment now tired as! Time for bed.
