Norway Part 1: Bergen and the Hardangerfjord

This month Noah and I had our big vacation of the year (I emphasize ‘our’ as Noah already had an epic trip to Brazil in June).  Our destination: Norway.  We spent 10 days traveling the amazingly gorgeous and amazingly expensive country, splitting our time between the Hardangerfjord area and the Lofoten Islands.  Since we saw so many things and took way too many photos, I decided to split the blog in two.  This is Part 1 – Bergen and the Hardangerfjord Area (my title should have already given that away).

We began on Friday the 8^th by flying into the coastal town of Bergen, which is apparently the leading cruise port in Norway.  In fact the Norwegian Air employee asked if we were going on a cruise when she saw we were checking into a flight to Bergen.  Heck no we aren’t!  Not with my fear of boats!  Our trip started off with a snag when our first flight was delayed an hour due to tire issues, which led us to miss our connecting flight in Oslo.  The good news was Norwegian Air automatically rebooked us onto the next flight out.  The bad news was our checked bag didn’t receive the same fate.  Luckily they were able to deliver the bag to us that same night at our hotel. I think our leverage in getting the bag quickly was the fact that we would leave Bergen early the next day to our hotel in the fjords.  My guess is Norwegian Air wanted to avoid that drive.

Knowing we only had the one evening to explore Bergen, we decided to make the most of it and check it out by foot.  It helped that the sun sets so late in Norway in August (no midnight sun though) which gave us plenty of time to walk around.  After a quick sushi dinner, we meandered through a very cute little neighborhood near the harbor.  It seemed like the perfect little fairytale small town that the Gilmore Girls would live in if they were Norwegian. 

We then made our way to the Bryggen Wharf – the tourist hot spot of the city.  This section of little shops and restaurants lies directly on the Bergen Harbor.  We were able to find our main Norwegian souvenir here too – a beautiful blue wool blanket to match our green Icelandic version. 

Though the most impressive find of the trip was to locate a ‘Noah’ Coke bottle.  The cokes with people’s names on them have been around Europe for a few years, and we knew we would never find our names in Germany.  Recently they made their way to the US where a website will show you if your name is available.  As is typical with poor Noah (which actually is a common US name so I don’t get it) – his name was not an option.  So to find this here in Norway, among the Øysteins and Bjørns, was very surprising.  And we checked – it was a Norwegian bottle, not an import.  Next door to the Coke discovery was a bakery selling delicious skillingsbollers (a Norwegian cinnamon bun).  Perfect combo to sit and watch the sun go down. 

 Saturday morning began our road tour of Norway.  Our hotel was 2.5 hours away via the most direct route and assuming no stops.  However we chose instead a route with a small detour to see some waterfalls, plus we had to stop often to enjoy the views from all the lookouts we passed along the way.  We quickly became acquainted with Norway’s tunnel system.  I cannot even begin to count the number of tunnels we passed through during our 10 days driving around Norway.  Though I can count the dollar impact of the tolls for some of these tunnels… but that is another story. 

Two of the smaller stops (as in – hop out of the car and take a few pictures) before the main waterfalls included a lookout at Trengereid followed by the Krigsminne waterfall. 

After only one wrong turn (even with Garmin’s help), we made it to the Steinsdalsfossen falls.  These are amazing waterfalls because they have a path that takes you right behind the falls safely (as opposed to the frozen slippery ‘path’ of the Seljalandsfoss falls in Iceland).   These waterfalls were great practice for us and our new ND filters – filters that block out light so you can get long exposures of water in the daylight.  Of course this meant taking more photos than ever necessary. 

As we continued our drive towards the hotel, the weather began to turn dark and stormy.  But Norway is such a beautiful place that instead of dampening our moods and views and making the drive miserable, the terrain was almost enhanced with the ominous and spooky lighting.  

It was on this point of our trip that we encountered underground roundabouts in the tunnels.  Yes – the Norwegian tunnel system is so vast and complex that they even have roundabouts in them!  It felt like something out of an older alien movie. 

Finally in the late afternoon we made it to our hotel – Hotel Ullensvang.  Hands down this hotel has one of the best locations I have ever seen, with a wonderful heated outdoor/indoor infinity lap pool you can relax in to take in the views (which we did every day we were there).  

The view from our hotel room

Sunday morning we were off to (what else) another waterfall!  After stopping to buy a bag of apples from a roadside farm, the next stop was an overlook with an incredible view of the Osafjorden and Eidfjorden. 

Left: The apple farm and the bridge of my nightmares (had to cross it a few times, once was because of a wrong turn); Right: our bag of apples

We were incredibly lucky to have the sunny blue skies at those fjords, because not 30 minutes later this was the view along the road (Simadalsfjorden and Eidfjorden). 

Eventually we made our way to the Voringsfossen waterfall.  We definitely checked it out from all angles.  First from the main roadside overlooks with the gift shops (hard to get a good view here), followed by driving to the Fossli Hotel for the best views (and the most crowds), ending with hiking out to the source of the waterfalls (though only the photos of the river that feeds the falls were any good).  

Left: Roadside overlook; Right: View from Vossli Hotel

Source of Voringsfossen

Downstream from the waterfall is a nice lookout area that leads to Måbø Bru – a bridge that crosses the Bjoreio and leads to the old road.  While we were taking our long-exposure shots of the rapids below the bridge, we caught the attention of a little weasel.  He was so funny to watch – he would pop his head out of one hole in the rocks, then seconds later appear two rocks over.  It felt like a real life version of Whac-A-Mole, minus us trying to smack the little guy in the head. 

We ended the night by checking out the hotel’s Norwegian buffet and sitting out by the dock to enjoy the not-quite-sunset.  The highlight of the buffet was the long dining table that was covered in all kinds of desserts.  I skipped the small dessert plates they had set out and grabbed another dinner plate to load up my first plate of cakes and pies.  To my credit, I fit the second trip to the dessert table on one of the smaller plates. 

Our best sunset - the sun was always behind the clouds in the evening

The next morning we headed south to see a swamp monster.  Kidding – it was another set of waterfalls.  The Låtefossen falls near Odda go right under the main road, which makes it easy to see (and another popular tourist spot).  The spray coming off of that thing was fantastic – I donned my poncho and Noah his raincoat to walk along the bridge a bit for better views.  

After getting our fill of falling water, we decided to make the drive up to Folgefonna National Park.  Originally I had checked out doing a glacier hike up there, but because of the constantly changing weather and the fact we had done one in Iceland we decided against it.  But why not just head up to the glacier area anyways?  The road heading up was rather intimidating to me as a passenger, so I can’t imagine how it was for Noah.  The road was often wide enough for one car, which made it difficult to maneuver around descending vehicles.  Though this made the drive an amazing adventure in itself, with unique and gorgeous scenery urging us upward.  

Towards the bottom of the mountain

A few of our obstacles in the road

I don't even want to know how that happened

Almost to the top

A sense of the one lane road

At the top is actually a summer ski area – though it looked like the season was at its end with all the blue ice peeking through. 

A bit below the peak was a small parking lot with a little trail heading off.  By now the rain and wind had found us, but from our short experience we figured we would have a break in the weather soon.  After about 10 minutes the rain seemed to let up, so we grabbed our camera gear and headed to the path.  Our ‘hike’ lasted long enough for us to take a few photos of the river running down before the break in the weather ended.  Thankfully I had on my trusty orange poncho and could keep both myself and the camera safe and dry. 

Running back to the car when the rain returned

Our last night consisted of eating crappy convenience store pizza (gotta save that money somewhere!) and watching the Norwegian version of Schlag den Raab, a German game show we are familiar with.  Then the next morning it was back to the Bergen airport so we could fly way up north to the Lofoten Islands.  Which you can read about in Part 2 of the blog – once Noah writes it and posts it!  

No meaning behind this photo Noah took other than I liked it and had nowhere to put it

Celebrating the 29th year of my existence

Last week, Noah and I packed up the car and the dogs and headed west for my birthday vacation.  While the destination wasn’t as ‘cool’ as an Amazonian jungle (how Noah spent his 29^th birthday last month), it was still an amazing vacation spot: Lake Constance.  The lake lies on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  We decided to stick to the German side of the lake – mainly because it was the closest spot to Munich / the shortest drive for us.  Plus as Switzerland is not on the Euro/ I hear it is rather expensive, we passed on that country.  So even though I could look across the lake to the Swiss side only 15 kilometers away, I still have yet to set foot in Switzerland.  Future trip here?  Ok, I digress…. 

Switzerland across the way (and a Swiss boat to boot!)

We stayed at the beautiful historic Hotel Bad Schachen near the island of Lindau.  The history of this hotel began over 250 years ago when a mineral spring was transformed into a spa.  The current hotel that we stayed in was built in the early 1900s.  In fact after WWII, the French occupational troops used Hotel Bad Schachen as a holiday location until 1949, when the hotel began to welcome guests once again.  Of course I just did all this research writing this blog, so we had no idea of all of that when we were actually there last week. 

But what we could easily see was that our choice of hotels was perfect.  For starters, we had a wonderful corner balcony with a beautiful view of Lake Constance. 

The next great perk of the hotel: a lakeside swimming pool with a huge lawn of lounge chairs and direct access to the lake.  My first birthday activity (after unpacking of course) was a given.  It was time to lather up in my SPF 100+ sunscreen and do some swimming.  After dipping one foot in the lake, I bailed and dragged Noah to the swimming pool which was supposedly 2 whole degrees warmer.  Once I had my fill of swimming, I was ready to lay in a lounge chair and enjoy my book.  Noah, who can never get enough of the water, grabbed his snorkeling gear and jumped into the lake.  Crazy boy. 

The only picture I took of the pool area... and you can't see the pool

Soon it was evening and time for my birthday dinner.  Noah had found a BBQ restaurant nearby – Stadthaus – known for high quality BBQ.  As we are always looking for alternatives to a traditional Bavarian-German meal, this sounded fantastic.  And we both knew that we shouldn’t have our expectations too high, what with coming from Texas and all.  My official review on this place is if you go in expecting a unique style of smoked meats, and not Texas BBQ, then this place is great.  But even though my mind knew that the pork in my pulled-pork sandwich was truly fantastic, I couldn't help but wish it had some amazing BBQ sauce in it to truly make it perfect.  Damn you Texan BBQ and the high standards you have instilled in me!!! 

Ready to head out for my birthday dinner

The next day we decided to check out the island of Lindau – about 3 kilometers away.  Since the morning weather was so perfect, we skipped on figuring out a train route and instead leashed up the dogs for a wonderful walk through Schachen and then along the lake.  We passed some truly amazing homes mansions, and I spent some time dreaming about a life where we could live at one of these places.  Though I will happily take a 5 day visit and count myself lucky. 

The dogs waiting at the train crossing; Beautiful photo of the park path Noah took

40 minutes later we were in the heart of the island.  We stopped for an amazing lunch at Cafe/Bar/Restaurant Großstadt, a lunch so great Noah claimed this was his favorite restaurant ever and began outlining a plan for us to open a similar place ourselves.  Our food was simple – a pepper soup and a Mediterranean wrap – but it was done so perfectly and with such a freshness that gave it an edge that other wrap/soup cafés just don’t seem to have.  Though you should pass on the chocolate milkshake – it was a room-temperature protein shake.  I don’t know when I will finally learn my lesson and stop trying to find a good chocolate shake in Germany.  

We spent the next few hours exploring the little island of Lindau, which was so small we could walk all the way around it in that short time.  We saw the Rathaus, strolled along Maximilianstrasse, saw the pretty tiled Diebsturm, and checked out the harbor, Seehafen.  We even found a place that would put your name on rice.  I had no idea how international this idea was. 

Left to Right: Diebsturm; Rathaus; Cute colorful buildings

Seehafen

Your Name on Rice!

As we walked back to the hotel, we could feel that the temperature had definitely risen since our morning stroll.  So what better way to cool off?  Back to the pool/lake – where this time I toughened up and skipped the pool and went straight for the lake.  We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and reading and relaxing.  That night after dinner, we watched The Shining.  I had mentioned to Noah that the hotel reminded me a bit of the hotel in the movie and was shocked to learn he had never seen it!  Now he is all up to speed on the famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene, and next time will not be shocked to learn what Redrum means. 

Our only set plan for Friday was to rent a paddle boat in front of the hotel, but when we woke up to choppy water and lots of wind we decided to move that plan to later in the afternoon.  Instead we took a short drive down to Austria’s Pfänder Mountain where you can take the award winning cable car up the mountain.  Seriously – it earned the title of "Ausgezeichnete Österreichische Sommerbahn", or “Excellent Austrian Cable Car”.  At the top there is a small ‘Wild Park’ with a walkway through a few zoo-like pens.  We accidently started at the back and wound are way to the front, where only after we exited the entrance did we see the sign that the dogs weren’t allowed.  Oops! 

The trip down

Back at the hotel that afternoon, we saw the water had finally calmed down.  Paddle boat time!  We Noah paddled us around to check out the beautiful mansions that neighbor the hotel.  And of course I had my floatie with me, so I was prepared for our swim in the lake.  

I'll take either one of these - I won't be picky

Saturday brought the rain with it.  And it was nonstop rain – beginning at 10am Saturday and then following us back to Munich the next day.  I had expected the weather to turn, so we had made sure to fill our prior three days with all the outdoor activities that were a ‘must’ for us.  Because of that, we had no problem with the idea of staying inside all day.  We spent the morning reading on the balcony, and then had a nice lunch of cake down in the hotel lobby.  In the afternoon we checked out the hotel’s spa / indoor pool area (have I mentioned how amazing this hotel was?).  I am finally learning to use vacation time to simply relax, and this was definitely the place to do it.  The rest of the day was spent watching movies, reading, and playing minesweeper on the iPad (we are both obsessed).  The dogs were also happy to have a respite from such ‘busy’ days so they could work on catching up on all that missed daytime sleep.  

A well-rounded, healthy lunch

When Sunday morning arrived, it was time to make our way back to Munich.  Of course the dogs were extremely alert to our packing - working hard to ensure they didn’t get left behind.  By the time we made it back home, we had left the rainstorms behind and returned to blue skies.  And since I have extra vacation days from working while Noah was in Brazil, I was able to take Monday off too.  It was nice having one more day of sleeping in before returning to reality (sorry Noah!).  

Sadie watching our every move while we packed up

Post World Cup (Adventures?)

Julie here!  Now it is my turn to write about the World Cup, or the Weltmeisterschaft if I want to be cocky with my German! 

Since Noah has returned from Brazil, no World Cup game has lived up to his USA v Portugal experience.  But that doesn’t mean we didn’t try.  The first big match we went out to watch was USA v Belgium in the Sweet 16 (or whatever FIFA wants to call it).  Sadly for us the game was at 10 pm on a weeknight here.  But who cares – we decided to go to be real fans and go out and watch it at Hirschgarten with all the other true Americans!  Yep – all 9 of us were there. 

To be fair – it had been raining that day, and it was even sprinkling on us a bit while we waited for the game began.  This reduced the massive crowd from about 30 people to about 20 (not everyone was American, you see, hence my earlier estimates of 9).  Noah and I were set up on the first table under the tree with our American flag spread out on the table like a nice brotzeit tablecloth.  Noah had on his jersey, and I was sporting the scarf.  USA! USA! USA!

A group of three American college kids sat at the table next to us, though sporting exactly 0% America.  Lame.  I get that you might be uncomfortable drawing attention to the fact you are an American tourist as you travel through Europe, but come on!  You are there to root your country on!  Have some pride!  After two drunk Germans came up to us and our American paraphernalia and started wishing our team luck and wanting to talk America with us, the youngsters next to us finally stopped whispering their English and relaxed.

The other 5 Americans that I counted sat two tables behind us with some of their international friends.  For the record – Noah and I were the original ones there, so I like to think our outlandish patriotism drew our fellow countrymen to us like magnets.  So even though it was a late night, and even though we lost, Noah and I had a good time in our tiny crowd of people cheering on America.  

Now that USA was out of the running, I decided to throw my support behind the country that gave me a work/residence visa.  Go Deutschland!  Now I had been saying from the beginning that I thought Germany would win, which was reflected in my ESPN bracket that I set up.  It sometimes seemed I had more confidence in Germany than others around here.  I heard many people voicing their doubts due to the wake of the injuries the German team had sustained before the tournament.  Soooo un-American.   (Get it?  Because they are Germans?)

We decided to go back to Hirschgarten to see Germany play France in the Elite 8.  This time it was a Friday afternoon, so we knew the place would be packed.  To keep it more low key, we took the dogs and blankets and dinner and posted up on the grass behind the beer garden.  The view wasn’t amazing, but it was nicer than being jam packed into the beer garden.  As I wrote that I realize how old I sound.  Anyways, the crowd inside the beer garden was massive, plus many others were on the grass with us, so we all got to cheer Germany on as they won 1-0.  Viva La Germany! 

Skipping Germany’s 7-1 domination of Brazil (poor Neymar) in the Final 4, I’ll fast forward to the finale on Sunday.  Earlier that afternoon we took the dogs to Hirschgarten for their walk, and the beer garden was already full of people – many who were decked out in German colors and already plastered.  As I already established our lameness earlier, and adding the fact that the game started at 9pm, I will readily admit we just stayed home and watched it in our living room.  I was really hoping Germany could just win in regular time so I could get to bed at a reasonable hour, but they decided to stretch it out into extra time.  Finally around 1am Germany scored the only goal of the game, and I was super excited because of the win it was bedtime. 

Only (partly) kidding – I was happy for Germany.  And I couldn’t truly get to sleep for another hour and a half with the fireworks booming (scaring poor Sadie, but what doesn’t?), the people from Hirschgarten screaming, and people driving down the street outside our bedroom honking their horns until 2:30am.  Though I wasn’t angry about that – I mean I am not going to deny these people their celebration for their country’s fantastic win!  In fact I was in awe that so many people had fireworks.  This highlights the wonderful planning of Germans – these people had to prepare 7 months out at New Years.  They stockpiled fireworks back in December for a potential World Cup win.  I was impressed. 

I do have to admit I was a bit disappointed the next day on my way to work.  I felt like barely anyone was continuing their celebration.  I believe if this was USA, and USA loved soccer as much as the rest of the world does, then everyone would be wearing USA clothes or colors or flags, high fiving each other all the way.  Instead I saw a whopping three people with tiny painted flags on their cheeks throughout my entire commute, both to work and home.  What is going on here Germany?  Where is your outspoken pride??   Just one more difference between our cultures I guess - Germans will totally shout and celebrate, but only for a reasonable timeframe.

Overall I do enjoy watching the World Cup, like I enjoy the Olympics.  It is cool to be able to get with your entire country and cheer with pride for your team.  And all those people who think those of us who only watch soccer during the World Cup are somehow ‘lesser than’… I also only watch Gymnastics during the Summer Olympics, and snowboarding during the Winter Olympics, so don’t worry about it.  That is why it is so exciting – because it is only every 4 years.  Though unfortunately here in Europe, there are about 16 different soccer championships every year or two, so I won’t be able to escape it completely until 2018.