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  • An itinerary for visiting Norwegian fjords and Archipelago

    An itinerary for visiting Norwegian fjords and Archipelago

    This summer we did a trip around the Norwegian fjords and out to the islands at the North West coast of Norway. Here is our itinerary from this trip as well as some tips for you who either considers or already wants to visit the North West coast of Norway to see the famous fjords and sea landscapes. We started our trip in Oslo and planned to be out on the road for about one week. I’m fairly familiar with the area as I have been visiting the North West often during my childhood, and with a guest from abroad we wanted to pack as much of the good stuff into our trip as possible. We stayed some of our nights at family cabins, but here you can easily find accomodation nearby. We added a few days between our arrival close to Kristiansund and our return, and I would recommend you to take some breaks along the way as the schedule is quite tight. 

     

    First day: leaving Oslo and head for the mountains. 

    Leaving Oslo we headed north on the E6 towards Trondheim. This is the fastest route getting out of Oslo and along the way you pass the main airport of Norway Oslo Gardermoen, and get to see the Mjøsa lake (the largest in Norway) as well as pass by the Norwegian constitution building at Eidsvoll and the Viking Ship ice skating stadium at Hamar. The three latter well worth a stop. North of Hamar you see the highest wood building in the world in Brummundal, and you can also visit Lillehammar, the host city of the 1994 winter Olympics. We drove to Ringebu and chose to pass over the mountains from the Gudbrandsdal valley to the Østerdal valley over the Venabygd mountain road. From Sollia you drive along one of the Norwegian Scenic Routes (we are in total seeing four of these on the trip) and take a stop at the Harald Sohlberg view point ( named after a painter) towards the Rondane mountain area. This was, by the way, the first area to gain status as National Park in Norway, and this is the point of the motif of the Winters night in Rondane painting which can be viewed at the National Gallery in Oslo (whenever they open to the public again). 

    Vinternatt i Rondane by Harald Sohlberg. 1914, Nasjonalgalleriet Oslo
    Photo from the Harald Sohlberg view point along the National Tourist Road. Ola Løvholm 2019

    Drive towards Folldalen. From Folldalen we went to Tynset and further Savalen, where we stayed at the family cabin. From Tynset it is about an hour drive to Røros, which is a former copper mining town with roots back to the 17th century, unique architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage title.

    The main street Røros. Picture from an earlier visit. Ola Løvholm 2019

    Second day: From the Mountains over Dovre to the Fjords

    This day we went back to Folldalen and went towards Hjerkinn instead of driving back along the National Scenic Road over Sollia. This leads you into another famous mountain area of Norway; Dovrefjell. Along this road you find Snøhetta (height: 2286) which is the highest mountain in Norway outside the Jotunheimen mountain range and namesake for the architecture agency behind among other buildings the Oslo Opera and the new Library in Alexandria. And if the weather is clear, you can drive up to a viewing point at Hjerkinn (or you can even climb the mountain and a stay at Snøheim cabin – but then I would recommend an additional day).

    From Hjerkinn drive south to Dombås and then along the beautiful Rauma valley toward Åndalsnes and the fjords. On your way down from the mountains to the fjord there are several places to stop, but most famous and spectacular is the Trollveggen (the Troll wall) just before arriving at Åndalsnes.

    After pitching our tent at one of the several camping sites in Åndalsnes, we went for dinner in Åndalsnes. This is not a culinary highlight, but the town has quite a few different places and cuisines from which you can choose.

    Several spectacular walks can be found in the mountains of the Romsdalen area, including a 10 kilometer long walk along Romsdalseggen. Since we were just staying the night we took the slightly shorter (3 – 4 km walk up to Rampestreken which gives a good view from 550 meters above sea level.

    Third day: The Fjord of Fjords and a Glacier

    Close to Åndalsnes and on the way towards Valdal and the Geirangerfjord, is the Trollstigen mountain road. With several narrow curves, water falls and an amazing viewpoint at the top, this is worth both the drive and a stop. At the top there are constructed sturdy viewing platforms so you can get a good view of other drivers snailing their way up the mountain side dodging tourist busses passing down (a slight exaggeration – the road is nowhere so scary as many mountain passes in countries with a more intimate driving style). It’s also a cafè, facilities and many parking spaces. This is also a Scenic Route (check)

    Trollstigen road from above. By ThartmannWiki CC-BY-SA-4.0

    After getting a pretty nice view, it’s time to drive down to Valdal to take the ferry onwards towards the Geiranger fjord. Valdal happens to be the strawberry capital in Norway and during the summer and early autumn you will see several strawberry stands along the way. Stop and buy some berries! You will need them, not only are they good, but also provides nutrition when you are queuing for a ferry

    A good drive later including a ferry trip and another mountain passage, you reach Geirangerfjord. Once you arrive from the mountain, you will be amazed as you see more and more. Stop at one of the viewing points at the top of the decent down to the village for one of the best views for casual travelers (the best is probably by hike – and from the car, the two others being from a mountain plateau once you’ve left Geiranger or from the expensive car ferry you can take to Hellesylt).

    The village in Geiranger is a busy place when the large boat loads of tourists arrive. The village contains a fjord centre and several activities, but the village itself is not the attraction. Get up or out on the fjord! We decided to head on towards Olden and the Briksdal glacier so we left the village in direction of the fjord centre and up the road towards Stryn. At the top, we passed a small lake (Djupvatnet – Deep lake) and noticed a road up to the left. The road is a toll road taking you to a viewing platform, and this was quite cool. On the top it was still snow, in July and another good view of the Geiranger fjord.

    Geiranger fjord from Dalsnibba at 1500 meters above sea level. Ola Løvholm 2019

    The road furter towards the glacier is very pretty with many nice view points. One of our favorite was in from Olden towards our rented house in Melkevoll close to the Briksdal glacier where the water clearly was colored by the water from the glacier.

    One of three beautiful waters between Olden and the Briksdal glacier. In the far back you can spot the Jostedal glacier. Alexandra Macovei 2019.

    You can drive fairly close up towards the glacier, and it’s a short hike from the last parking place into the glacier. They do offer guided tours on something resembling a combination of a tractor and a train, but we found that our feet could do the job without any extraordinary (or ordinary for that sake) strain. The trip to the glacier is well worth the trip, and signs along the way reminds you on how big the glacier once was. The glaciers or Norway is steadily shrinking and it is an afterthought that this may be the only time you get to view the glacier, and that later generations will most likely not be so fortunate.

    Briksdals glacier. Once covering the whole valley visible in this picture. Ola Løvholm 2019

    Fourth day: Leaving the fjord for Ålesund and the Archipelago

    Leaving Olden and the fjords inside the country, you head towards the coastline and the archipelago outside Ålesund, the biggest city in the region. Ålesund is the largest city in the Møre og Romsdal county and has a particular style as it was rebuilt after a large fire in 1904. The city was reconstructed in the style of the day, the Germanic counterpart of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil. Ålesund also have a few good restaurants, and we had good sea food and wine at the Bro restaurant. Ålesund also have a nice stairway to the local mountain Aksla well worth a hike. Ålesund is a pretty and quite unique city, so I would recommend spending a half day, if not more, in the city.

    If you want to explore the archipelago, you need to head towards the sea from Ålesund. As you have to take a ferry out into the archipelago make sure to have some buffer and check the ferry times online on the travel planner. We stayed at Finnøy Havstuer, and can recommend cabins here as they are located bang on the harbour where the ferry for Ona island leaves as well as providing lovely sunset out at the Atlantic sea.

    The sunset seen from Finnøy. Alexandra Macovei 2019

    Fifth day: Island trip and the Atlantic road

    Leave the car at the harbor and get on the first ferry to Ona. We were lucky as the ferry had a scheduled pause on Ona before heading back to Finnøy. This left us with about an hour at Ona, enough to see a bit around. The local ferry visits several stops on it’s journey and once back at Finnøy we had enough time to drive the car onto the ferry (we parked it in the queue) and travelled with the ferry to Småge, where we said our good byes and drove towards the Atlantic road, another Scenic Road.

    Ona island far out in the North Western Archipelago of Norway. Alexandra Macovei 2019.
    The Archipelago seen from Bud. The cannon in the picture were formerly part of the Norwegian fortress (along with other cannons and defense structures along the coast) built by Nazi Germany during their occupation of Norway from 1940 – 1945. Now part of a local museum. Ola Løvholm 2019.

    Once of at Småge, the Atlantic Road leading to another city on the North West coast, Kristiansund, is not far away. The Atlantic Road is spectacular. Starting close to Bud, you drive northwards through coastal terrain with the Atlantic coast on your left side. Close to the end, you will pass over a few bridges, where one of the bridges has become famous due to its architecture and its proximity to the sea.

    The Atlantic Road during the winter season. Jørgen Vik 2010 CC-AT-SA

    The Atlantic Road ends up in Kristiansund, a fairly smaller and less extraordinary city than Ålesund, but still worth a visit. We found a good Brazillian restaurant here: Boteco. Of remarkable attractions here is to take a guided trip to Grip, which like Ona is a formerly inhabited fishing community out at sea. Kristiansund also have one of the oldest public transport routes still in operation. Founded in 1876, the Sundbåten is a small boat transporting you across the four ‘bodies’ of the Kristiansund city. Here our journey together also comes to an end. From Kristiansund our trip took us to family cabin in the vicinity. There are many ways to travel onwards from Kristiansund. You are not so far from the third largest city of Norway, Trondheim (though it’s several hours – Norway is a large country), which is the home of the Nidarosdomen cathedral as well as many cosy small streets, neither are you far from the Trollheimen mountain area with it’s spectacular nature.

    The return

    Heading back from a holiday is primarily about transport as most of the experiences now are behind you. The route we chose back was the fastest road back to Oslo: The Riksvei 3 through Østerdalen. Although this road is infamous for its long stretches of endless tree scenery, there are some highlights along the road. South of Alvdal you may see the largest canyon of North-Europe; the Jutulhogget. And further south, in Stor-Elvdal, you can stop to view a gigant chroma Moose statue. As you are closing in on Oslo, you can also stop for the busiest bun-making-petrol-station in Norway, the Espa petrol station famous for their Espa-boller, a little sneak peak into Norwegian popular culture there.

    Chroma moose along the Riksvei 3 in Stor-Elvdal municipality (winter season). Ola Løvholm 2019

    I hope this can be of inspiration! Have a good trip!

  • Into the exclusion zone

    Into the exclusion zone

    I was born in 1986, and one of the names always being associated with this year is Chernobyl. Yesterday I had the ambivalent “pleasure” to visit parts of exclusion zone: the buffer zone, the Pripyat zone and the 10K zone in which the reactor is located. Towards the end of 2017 a new shelter, or sarcophagus, was put in place over the reactor. This, together with the old shelter and the work of 500.000 liquidators after the catastrophy, makes the zone a safe place to visit for a shorter timespan, and today it’s grown an industry around taking people into the zone and show them around.

    Following a test run on the reactor on 26th April reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant exploded sending a huge amount of radioactivity into the sky. The cloud created by the accident first blew north and then westward increasing radioactivity levels throughout the Soviet union and the rest of Europe. The accident became known in the West as radioactivity levels were picked up outside the Soviet union, but within Soviet it was kept as a secret and the consequences were played down. In fact, already on the 1st of May, a few days later, the mayday celebration in Kiev, a few hours by car to the south, went uninterrupted.

    At the same time, a huge operation were initiated to get control over the fire and constant radiation being spread by the accident. At first fire men tried to take out the fire without any protective gear. At this point any direct exposure was lethal. Later helicopters were used to throw sand, clay and later lead into the fire. Still this job was leathal. Much was done; water was drained from under the reactor to avoid a fatal reaction which would leave large parts of Europe uninhabitable, in the area around the reactor villages were emptied and buildings demolished, Pripyat of around 50.000 people were evacuated and people were to never move back. Above the reactor a sarcophagus was erected. First by robots as the radiation was leathal from as little as 20 seconds exposure, but as some of the robots malfunctioned humans were used as well; bio-robots covered in makeshift protective gear. The human tragedies, still continuing to our day, was and are immense. About 500.000 people were involved in the clean up, many exposed to large amounts of radiation.

    The first sarcphagous was built to last for around 30 years, the new will last for another 100 years, but this area will stay uninhabitable for thousands of years.

  • Bestille togreise i India

    Bestille togreise i India

    Å bestille en togreise i India kan være litt tricky, men er absolutt verdt å gjøre. Det er et enormt tognettverk mellom de forskjellige byene og regionene, og stor spennvidde i hvor god plass og service du får og hvor lang tid togene benytter. Ikke minst er det en flott måte å se landet mellom byene.

    Under vårt India-opphold benyttet vi Rajdhani (betyr hovedstad) mellom Mumbai og New Delhi og fikk på førsteklasse egen lugar, te, kaffe og tre-retters middag. Mellom New Delhi og Agra reiste vi med 2. klasse og hadde ingen egen lugar, men fikk egne senger og kunne begrense innsyn ved hjelp av gardin. Når du skal bestemme deg for togavgang og klasse er det to ting det kan være lurt å tenke på:

    1. Prioritet i jernbanenettet. Noen avganger får høyere prioritet enn andre, og reiser derfor raskt og enkelt igjennom verdens mest komplekse nettverk av ruter og stasjoner. For eksempel går Rajdhani-avgangene alltid på tid, og har lite forsinkelser og problemer.
    2. Komfortnivå. Det er mange kupé og billettklasser på indiske tog. Skal du reise et par timer kan det være morsomt og rimelig å reise i en enklere billettkategori, men dersom du skal overnatte eller reise langt kan det være godt å ha større plass i en luftkondisjonert vogn.

    Bestillingsprosedyre

    Da vi bestilte togreiser i India gjorde vi det igjennom Cleartrip. Det kan ofte være stor interesse for enkelte togavganger og pågangen er stor, derfor kan det være lurt å bestille billett god tid i forveien, men med en søkemotor, slik som Cleartrip, kan du finne alternative ruter dersom hovedforbindelsen er utsolgt. Det kan ta et par dager å bestille første reise igjennom Cleartrip ettersom du trenger en verifisering av e-post og telefonnummer for å kunne gjennomføre et kjøp igjennom det indiske togselskapet IR sitt reisebyrå IRCTC. For å gjennomføre kjøp av våre billetter gikk jeg igjennom denne gode guiden hos Indiamike. Det gode med denne gjennomgangen og Cleartrip er at når du har fått knyttet din Cleartrip-konto til IRCTC så vil du kunne bestille nye togbilletter uten store problemer. Det kjedelige med denne fremgangsmåten er at den krever at du har et pass og kan scanne dette.

    Dersom du skulle ha noen problemer, ta kontakt.

  • The Cloud in the Sky

    As I’m writing this I’m watching the clouds over the mountains between the east and west of Norway from above. On this DY 1354 flight to Edinburgh with Norwegian Air Shuttle I was promised Internet connectivity, but technical errors occurred and I had to write this blog post in my OpenOffice editor instead of in the WordPress back-end. I got a bit disappointed, but now writing and having a cup of coffee I’m satisfied. Internet aboard airplanes is not a habitual necessity, and my hope for a connection was related to curiousness and not from withdrawal. I hope you already have understood that this post is not a complaint, it’s the opposite: a positive feedback on the new frontier of the ever more ubiquitous Internet.

    This Boeing 737-800W has an altitude of 30.000 feet, and a speed of 820 kilometres per hour and still it should be connected to the cloud*. I don’t know what kind of connectivity the plane has, but I would suppose a terrestrial solution at a lower frequency e.g. the 450 MHz formerly used by the pre-GSM Nordic mobile network, now by companies such as ICE. Two years ago I attended a broadband conference at the airport that I just left and here I heard about the fantastic technology serving high-speed transportation vehicles with connectivity. At this conference the example was a Japanese high-speed train, but I would guess the technology also goes for aircrafts.

    I wanted connectivity to get the latest reports from Steve Jobs presentation held at the Apple Developer Conference simultaneously with this flight. At this presentation quite firm rumours were telling that a new cloud service named iCloud would be presented. According to MacRumours iCloud is a new service to share content between different devices through the cloud. I didn’t get cloud connectivity on this flight, and I didn’t get to follow the Apple CEO’s presentation, however, I find it quite poetical and technical interesting that the metaphorical and the denotational cloud have been unified. I hope that I on my next flight will have the opportunity to try Internet at its margin: the cloud in the sky.

    * At this point I should introduce the cloud as a metaphor. If you know what I mean with my usage of the word you can continue reading the main post. Perhaps you have heard expressions such as “cloud computing” or “connected to the cloud” before. It has for a long time been a tradition depicting Internet as a cloud on networks schematics. This has its practical reasons as the Internet is quite complex and we can abstract its underlying structure by just displaying it as a cloud.

     

    Picture is taken by Edward Kim and uploaded on Flickr under a Creative Commons licence. Refer to the Flickr page for more information.

  • Berlin

    The Berlin wall

    Berlin – today   it is the capital of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, but it has not always been this way. During the last century, Berlin has been the capital of many countries. This is just one thing which makes the city so exciting.

    In the beginning of the 20th century, Berlin was the capital of the growing Keiserreich, or Empire, of Wilhelm II. After it’s defeat in the First World War, it became the arena of political conflicts in the Weimar Republic. In 1933, the Nazis seized power and the city, as well as the country, entered what can be called the darkest hour of modern civilization. After the Allied and the Soviet victory of the Second World War, the city was divided within the puzzle of world history, firstly into four pieces and then in two. There were two ideologies ruling one part of the city each, which were later separated by a wall in 1961. The wall stood until 1989 and after the Mauerfall the two countries – BRD and DDR – became one.  There is no question about it: Berlin is a city worth visiting if you are interested in history.

    One of the first things you should do when you get to Berlin is visit the parliament, the Reichtag. The building has recently been renovated and a glass ceiling was added to the new assembly hall, which functions as a patio from which you can see the Berlin skyline. From here you can get a glimpse of the city and locate famous landmarks. You can also borrow an audio-guide that follows your line of vision providing information on what you see. Access to the roof and loan of the audio-guide are both free.

    Much has changed since the city was united, but there are still big differences between the neighbourhoods. In former East Berlin you can find Karl Marx allé that was the wide parade-street. You can follow Karl Liebknecht-Strasse through Alexanderplatz to the Museum Insel. Here you will see the Berliner Dom, erected during the empire era. Directly across the street from the Dom you will see a construction site. Here was the former Palast der Republik, now demolished to make room for the reconstruction of the Berlin City Castle, destroyed by the DDR after being heavily damaged during the Second World War.

    Berlin is an economical city to visit. In general, food is cheaper here than in the rest of Germany, and you will find many restaurants where you can get a delicious meal at an affordable price. Savignyplatz and Kathe Kollwitz platz are great places to go to fill an empty stomach. The first is located in the west and the second in the east. Zwiebelfisch at the Savignyplatz is a place worth visiting, not only for the food but also for the atmosphere.

    You should not leave Berlin without taking a walk down OdeKauf Dich Glücklich is a nice café in Berlinrberger Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg. Here you can find a varied selection of cool cafés, restaurants and shops, most of which are alternative. On this street is the café/toy-store ‘Kauf dich Glücklich’ (translated to ‘Buy Yourself Happy’), which is a cosy place with an interior similar to your grandma’s apartment. You will find food and drink here that will make both your mother and your dentist worried.

    Berlin may be a poor city on an economic scale, but when it comes to history, culture and its general ‘sexiness’ it is definitely one of the richest.