Amazing breakfast spread, most impressive so far we think, so as usual, we ate enough for two meals(!), we never seem to stop for lunch, so that's not too bad we think...
Quite grim looking day early, very low cloud, and still about -5C. We ventured across the road to the brand new Opera House - stunning building, lots of blonde wood interior, and a lovely feeling, sitting right on a headland of reclaimed land, jutting into the bay, which still has a large proportion of the surface covered in ice.
We wandered off up-town again, this time getting as far as the Royal Palace, just in time to catch the very end of the changing of the guard.... The entire Palace is set in vast grounds, most of which are entirely accessible to the public, and are still covered in snow - very pretty. We wandered around to the front (which seems to be at the back??), and this is at least fenced off more securely, with guards on gates etc. Indeed, this is the part of town in which the poor people do NOT live.... The houses sharing the neighbourhood with the Palace are stunning, but not on large grounds, just very large houses..
We went on to the Waterfront which is a new development for Oslo, and it's gorgeous. By this time the sun was shining, and everything was very attractive. Most of the cafes are not yet open (after Winter), and many of the "party boats" moored there are still covered in several inches of snow, but you get the feeling that the proprietors are just bursting to get their businesses up and running again, after the Winter hiatus. There was much hosing down of boats, steps, and concrete pathways.
It does have the advantage of facing South, so every single ray of Winter sun is taken advantage of, whereas Melbourne's Docklands faces South (in the Southern Hemisphere), and is a shocker.... Cold, miserable, and...... empty!!!!! How did we get it SO badly wrong???
Found a brilliant little local cafe which serves great coffee and great almond croissants, they are few and far between unfortunately.... 2pm, lunch. Siesta........
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Tuesday 5th March, Flam to Oslo
The hotel graciously opened the dining room an hour early so we could have breakfast before we jumped on our wee train! We did the Backpacker thing, and included a nice take-away sandwich of ham and cheese, wrapped in a serviette, in the package!! We were going to be on the road for several hours!
The first 40 minute leg of the journey was on the famous little Flam Railway which wandered along the most gorgeous scenery, more frozen and partially thawing, rivers, frozen waterfalls, and cottages snuggled into deep snow. There were only three others on the train, so we could wander about from side to side, depending on the best view.
We had to change trains at a town called Myrdal.
Heaps of twenty-somethings again boarded, all decked out in ski gear, and proceeded to eat and drink for the entire trip. Really; mountains of food continued to appear out of back-packs, and disappeared equally quickly! It must be very strenuous exercise - skiing, they were all built like greyhounds.....
Finally, at a ski resort, whose name escapes me, they mostly left the train, and all was rather quiet again.
There have been heavy snow blizzards criss-crossing Scandinavia over the last week it seems, but we appear to have escaped them. Today was mostly clear and the sun was trying to peek through light cloud, but we could see that literally hundreds of cottages were buried up to the tops of their roofs in deep snow. Obviously no residents in sight, and equally obviously, these were Summer cottages; all dotted along what would no doubt be stunning lakes, but which at the moment are frozen solid. Too many photo's..... How many is too many??
Arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon, and went out exploring on foot.
Very nice town, could be nowhere else but Europe - buildings remind us of some German cities. It's still very cold, about -5C, but clear. After a couple of hours' walking, we were dying to shed our hot outer clothes, at least I was - Arthur was not so over-dressed as I... As usual, EVERYWHERE is so hot inside, that it's a constant problem - dressing and undressing...
We've finished our wine, so had a small Bundy before we ventured out for dinner. Found a nearby restaurant, and had a bowl of pasta; small serve, about our entree size, one glass of beer each, and about $100 later we left..... God, everything is SO expensive here!!!!
Went back to our hotel and thought we'd have one more beer before retiring... So bravely, ordered a Norwegian Draft beer - too horrible to drink, but we took the glasses up to our room, planning to have a decent Bundy later!!! Early night...
The first 40 minute leg of the journey was on the famous little Flam Railway which wandered along the most gorgeous scenery, more frozen and partially thawing, rivers, frozen waterfalls, and cottages snuggled into deep snow. There were only three others on the train, so we could wander about from side to side, depending on the best view.
We had to change trains at a town called Myrdal.
Heaps of twenty-somethings again boarded, all decked out in ski gear, and proceeded to eat and drink for the entire trip. Really; mountains of food continued to appear out of back-packs, and disappeared equally quickly! It must be very strenuous exercise - skiing, they were all built like greyhounds.....
Finally, at a ski resort, whose name escapes me, they mostly left the train, and all was rather quiet again.
There have been heavy snow blizzards criss-crossing Scandinavia over the last week it seems, but we appear to have escaped them. Today was mostly clear and the sun was trying to peek through light cloud, but we could see that literally hundreds of cottages were buried up to the tops of their roofs in deep snow. Obviously no residents in sight, and equally obviously, these were Summer cottages; all dotted along what would no doubt be stunning lakes, but which at the moment are frozen solid. Too many photo's..... How many is too many??
Arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon, and went out exploring on foot.
Very nice town, could be nowhere else but Europe - buildings remind us of some German cities. It's still very cold, about -5C, but clear. After a couple of hours' walking, we were dying to shed our hot outer clothes, at least I was - Arthur was not so over-dressed as I... As usual, EVERYWHERE is so hot inside, that it's a constant problem - dressing and undressing...
We've finished our wine, so had a small Bundy before we ventured out for dinner. Found a nearby restaurant, and had a bowl of pasta; small serve, about our entree size, one glass of beer each, and about $100 later we left..... God, everything is SO expensive here!!!!
Went back to our hotel and thought we'd have one more beer before retiring... So bravely, ordered a Norwegian Draft beer - too horrible to drink, but we took the glasses up to our room, planning to have a decent Bundy later!!! Early night...
Monday, March 4, 2013
Monday 4th March, Flam.....
Sunday 4th March, Bergen to Flam.
Early start to the Railway Station in Bergen - train, tram and omnibus trip today!
Very nice morning, and the train was positively bulging with youngsters en route to the ski fields for a day's skiing. Great scenery some of the time, but there are very long tunnels en route to Voss, which was the point at which we disembarked the train, and pushed our way onto a bus for the next leg of the trip. Once again, great scenery, mountains, snow, ice, water.......
Finally, off the bus, and onto a ship for a two-hour trip down one of Norway's longest fjords. Truly lovely scenery, and mostly a very nice day. We were even able to stay outside for almost the entire trip, which was a nice change. Much of the fjord was frozen in patches in the early stages of the journey, and the boat just crashed through, sending large shards of ice in all directions.
Tiny villages clinging to life along the fjords - what on earth do they DO there???? Cannot imagine... They can't all be holiday shacks, surely.....
At the very end of the fjord we reached the tiny settlement of Flam. It appeared to be deserted, and indeed almost was!!! It's still the Winter season here, and there is really no reason to visit, so most of the shops are indeed closed, and the only restaurant, attached (but not physically) to the hotel thankfully, was serving dinner - to be FINISHED by 6pm..... Okay.
Very comfortable room, corner balcony, and great views to left and right. To the centre, the view is of thousands of logs, cut and ready to be shipped out - somewhere!!!
Anyway, late afternoon, I went down to get a jug of ice and some glasses - we had a small amount of white wine left in our Hardy's wine cask, which we had bought in Finland!!! So, having put the wine cask OUTSIDE to chill (there being no fridge in the room), and the jug of ice cubes outside also, we had a couple of glasses of wine pre-dinner, and very nice it was.. Having not been in the habit of imbibing wine from a cask for years, we have been very pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to drink - perhaps that's because there's not much choice, not sure!
Anyway, we were ushered into the dining room, on our arrival at the restaurant, to find a total of TWO other guests there!!! (There was a casual cafe type thingo, but we had the 'package' of dinner and breakfast, so ate in the proper dining room!)
They took one look at Arthur's "Quark Expeditions" jacket he had flung over the chair, and proceeded to talk about their adventure with Quark too. Small world eh? Anyway, they're two travellers from Oz, Melbourne even, and even more oddly, Hawthorn. 6 degrees of separation?
We had originally been sat at separate tables, but we soon changed that, and the four of us had a lovely dinner (brilliant food), and a good chat, and were 'home' in our rooms by about 6.30pm. Had a read for a couple of hours, and then fell into a coma. Slept for about 12 hours - fantastic!!!
Monday 5th March, Flam
Same couple for breakfast, and they are on their way in the opposite direction, to go on the Cruise Ship up north, to SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. We wish them luck in their endeavours.
Did I ever tell you that we never saw even a glimpse of the damned Northern Lights????? Bugger..
They are going on our list of "never gunna see 'em" with the Moose!
Went for a long walk in the middle of the day, very pleasant, warm even in our heavy jackets, and there was no wind. Came back to our room to do the necessary 'clerical' bits and pieces, and having finally downloaded the Age online, had a little read of the news. Have missed that.. We did buy a 3 or 4 day old English newspaper in Bergen one day, we were so desperate to read a paper!!! It takes about 24 hours to well and truly get over watching the endless repeats of snippets on the BBC.
And MY GOD, the Queen has a tummy bug!!!!!!
Forgot to mention also, that when in Bergen, at a restaurant, we were offered two dishes of Horse... One was as Lasagne, and the other was sirloin. One of our number braved the sirloin, and said it was very nice, I was unable to bring myself to eat it on that occasion, but if I'm offered on another occasion before we leave Norway, I might have a taste!
Okay, it's 4.15pm, not long now until Dinner, so just time for a drink and a freshen up. We leave here at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday) for Oslo, the first leg is a pretty cute train ride apparently.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Saturday 2nd March, Bergen
Really low cloud over the Fjord this morning, but after a short snow shower, pretty quickly the cloud lifted and the sun came out - just like Melbourne in Spring!!
We wandered off to the Natural History Museum.... What to say???? The displays are like something out of the mid twentieth century, and there are SO many moth-eaten animals and birds on display, often in no particular order, that it is pretty awful really. In one room, they were so short on space for housing their displays, they had plonked an enormous dugong above a display of various and sundry deer and elk.... There was a really ancient, sad little platypus, and the grottiest little Tasmanian Devil you have ever seen... The Government would be better off injecting some of the funds they currently direct to the under-used and unwanted Churches, into their Museums.
Finally found a really good coffee, with a real Espresso Machine, and good cake. The cafes often even have commercial sized coffee machines here which use the "pod" method of producing coffee; very average... We were even given a luke warm 'coffee' with a straw yesterday!!
We wandered off to the Natural History Museum.... What to say???? The displays are like something out of the mid twentieth century, and there are SO many moth-eaten animals and birds on display, often in no particular order, that it is pretty awful really. In one room, they were so short on space for housing their displays, they had plonked an enormous dugong above a display of various and sundry deer and elk.... There was a really ancient, sad little platypus, and the grottiest little Tasmanian Devil you have ever seen... The Government would be better off injecting some of the funds they currently direct to the under-used and unwanted Churches, into their Museums.
Finally found a really good coffee, with a real Espresso Machine, and good cake. The cafes often even have commercial sized coffee machines here which use the "pod" method of producing coffee; very average... We were even given a luke warm 'coffee' with a straw yesterday!!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Friday 1st March, Bergen
The entire week was pretty much spent gazing out the windows on the boat, trying to make out the coastline through the fog and sleet!! VERY disappointing.....
The ship did stop a couple of times along the way, briefly, and on one occasion Arthur and I hot-footed it up and down a few streets, in the freezing cold, for an hour - mainly just to get off the boat really!!!
A very festive mob from Sydney had managed to secure themselves very swish suites, so we had "drinkies" there most evenings, prior to dinner. We had all brought casks of Australian red on board, (purchased in Finland prior to embarkation), and we had our bottles of Rum, so all was well, and by the time we got to the dining room we were happy to drink water. Although one night, I did have a glass of "house white wine", and it was very drinkable, and only about $15 anyway!!
We knew wine was horribly expensive in Norway, but they told us yesterday that it is taxed at 80%!!! Lots of lovely taxes here - motor cars are taxed at 100%, and one of the things which perplexed us was that EVERYONE pays something like 0.5% tax to the state for the upkeep of Churches, and one of the major old churches in Bergen is being renovated at great expense, a project which will take about 4 years. And, only about 3% of the population actually goes to Church!!! What-the?????
By the time we left our last port of call Thursday morning, the sky had cleared and we had a lovely voyage into Bergen.... Even got up on the top deck in the sunshine for the last hour or so. What a difference the sunshine makes! Bergen's a lovely town, very large area-wise, as it clings along the banks of the Fjord, and spreads out for miles in a narrow strip, below the hills.
We had a nice tour around the city for a couple of hours when we arrived, and it was good to get a view from the bus.
Hotel's okay, and very handy to everything. We walked about 15 minutes around to the very old part of town for dinner, arranged by our "waste-of-time" tour guide.... Dinner was pleasant enough, but typical of a 'meal-for-a-price' which these tour groups seem to think they need to provide. However, it was a chance to say good-bye to those who were leaving very early this morning.
Friday 1st March
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day, so after breakfast, headed off before it rained. Bergen has about 245 days of rain every year, so the odds are stacked against having a totally dry day!
We tagged along in a group of six to have a look at a couple of Museums in the old part of town, and then Arthur and I decided to go up in the Funicular (sp?) to view Bergen from on high. Great view, and with the sun still shining, everything looked amazing. One cup of very bad coffee later, we exited the cafe to find the sun gone and heavy low cloud coming in across the fjord, very quickly!!! Surprise!
Down town again, we wandered around a few shops, but it's really annoying - you get all rugged up; hat, scarf and coat, perfect for negotiating the approximately 2 degree days, but then when you enter a shop of any sort, you have to strip because they're so heated, that you can barely breathe...
So cute to see all the little kids - 3 and 4 year olds, rugged up in their little ski suits and boots. Have not heard one child being a pain yet - must be something in the lovely clear air up here!!
One interesting thing is that EVERYONE in Norway (it seems) speaks fluent, perfect, English, but there are very few signs of any sort, in English, no menus, no descriptions of food in refrigerated cabinets, or on shop windows. There are some of course, but very few.
We're having an early dinner tonight, one of our couples is leaving the hotel at 4am tomorrow, so no late nights for anybody. There are about 10 of our whole group left in Bergen, but by Saturday night, there will only be four of us I think. We leave here on Sunday morning.
The ship did stop a couple of times along the way, briefly, and on one occasion Arthur and I hot-footed it up and down a few streets, in the freezing cold, for an hour - mainly just to get off the boat really!!!
A very festive mob from Sydney had managed to secure themselves very swish suites, so we had "drinkies" there most evenings, prior to dinner. We had all brought casks of Australian red on board, (purchased in Finland prior to embarkation), and we had our bottles of Rum, so all was well, and by the time we got to the dining room we were happy to drink water. Although one night, I did have a glass of "house white wine", and it was very drinkable, and only about $15 anyway!!
We knew wine was horribly expensive in Norway, but they told us yesterday that it is taxed at 80%!!! Lots of lovely taxes here - motor cars are taxed at 100%, and one of the things which perplexed us was that EVERYONE pays something like 0.5% tax to the state for the upkeep of Churches, and one of the major old churches in Bergen is being renovated at great expense, a project which will take about 4 years. And, only about 3% of the population actually goes to Church!!! What-the?????
By the time we left our last port of call Thursday morning, the sky had cleared and we had a lovely voyage into Bergen.... Even got up on the top deck in the sunshine for the last hour or so. What a difference the sunshine makes! Bergen's a lovely town, very large area-wise, as it clings along the banks of the Fjord, and spreads out for miles in a narrow strip, below the hills.
We had a nice tour around the city for a couple of hours when we arrived, and it was good to get a view from the bus.
Hotel's okay, and very handy to everything. We walked about 15 minutes around to the very old part of town for dinner, arranged by our "waste-of-time" tour guide.... Dinner was pleasant enough, but typical of a 'meal-for-a-price' which these tour groups seem to think they need to provide. However, it was a chance to say good-bye to those who were leaving very early this morning.
Friday 1st March
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day, so after breakfast, headed off before it rained. Bergen has about 245 days of rain every year, so the odds are stacked against having a totally dry day!
We tagged along in a group of six to have a look at a couple of Museums in the old part of town, and then Arthur and I decided to go up in the Funicular (sp?) to view Bergen from on high. Great view, and with the sun still shining, everything looked amazing. One cup of very bad coffee later, we exited the cafe to find the sun gone and heavy low cloud coming in across the fjord, very quickly!!! Surprise!
Down town again, we wandered around a few shops, but it's really annoying - you get all rugged up; hat, scarf and coat, perfect for negotiating the approximately 2 degree days, but then when you enter a shop of any sort, you have to strip because they're so heated, that you can barely breathe...
So cute to see all the little kids - 3 and 4 year olds, rugged up in their little ski suits and boots. Have not heard one child being a pain yet - must be something in the lovely clear air up here!!
One interesting thing is that EVERYONE in Norway (it seems) speaks fluent, perfect, English, but there are very few signs of any sort, in English, no menus, no descriptions of food in refrigerated cabinets, or on shop windows. There are some of course, but very few.
We're having an early dinner tonight, one of our couples is leaving the hotel at 4am tomorrow, so no late nights for anybody. There are about 10 of our whole group left in Bergen, but by Saturday night, there will only be four of us I think. We leave here on Sunday morning.
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