Norway Our Way - September 2017

If you look at a map, Norway is one of the oddest shaped countries in the world.  It’s elongated, stretching roughly 1,500 miles from north to south, and is the longest country in Europe, with a third of its area lying north of the Arctic Circle.  It has more than 50,000 islands, hugging the coast along the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  

As many know, Norway is famous for its fjords. There are more than one thousand, many of which are spectacular.  They were formed during the ice age when glaciers cut U-shaped valleys through the mountainous terrain, leaving the fjords deeper than the surrounding sea.  National Geographic magazine rates the Norwegian fjords as the world’s best travel destination.

Norway is the northernmost country in Europe, with Cape Nordkinn the northernmost city, at 71 degrees north of the equator.  Norway is bounded by Sweden on the East, Finland and Russia in the north, the North Sea on the southwest and the Norwegian Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean) on the northwest.  The most northern part of Norway, above the Arctic Circle, is referred to as Lapland

For years Misti and I had considered a trip to Norway to explore the fjords and spectacular scenery.  We had read about Hurtigruten, the Norwegian coastal ferry/cruise ship, which sails the northern coast from Bergen, goes beyond the Arctic Circle, and terminates in Kirkenes, near the Russian border at latitude 70 degrees north.

We planned a four week trip, starting in Oslo and Bergen, then a week on the Hurtigruten ship, driving the roughly 1,300 miles back to Bergen and finally flying home from Stockholm.  We wanted to see the country both from water and land.

We arrived Oslo, after an easy overnight flight from SF through London, and stayed three nights at the Grand Hotel on Karl Johan Gate, in the center of the city.  We spent our time in Oslo mostly wandering around and absorbing the city; walked down by the harbor (Aker Brygge) and visited the National Gallery (Nasjonalgallieret) where we learned about Norwegian art, especially the famous artist, Edward Munch.

We tried to go into City Hall, which has interesting historical statues, but it was closed because voting for parliament was in session.  As we strolled through downtown Oslo, we saw people queued up in long lines waiting to vote.  Elections are taken very seriously in Norway, and 78% of registered voters cast ballots.  We were later in the trip to hear much about the Norwegian election and its impact on the country

Our first evening, exhausted from exploring, we found the Engebret Café, near the Harbor Fortress, a restaurant dating from the mid 1870’s and a favorite gathering place for authors and artists.  Our waitress told us we were sitting at the table across from where Edward Munch used to sit.

We spent the next day exploring the medieval Akershus Festning, the harbor fortress dating back to 1299, when Oslo became the capital of Norway.  We also visited the Resistance Museum, dedicated to those who fought against the nazis during WWII.  Because of Norway’s strategic location on the sea and its proximity to Germany, Hitler stationed more than four hundred thousand Wermacht (German Army) soldiers throughout the country, anticipating an invasion that never came.

We heard that everything in Norway was expensive and quickly learned how true that was, one reason being there is a 25% tax on everything.  We estimated prices were about a third more than at home.  The currency is the Norwegian Krone, and the rate was one krone equaled thirteen cents US, so one hundred krone was thirteen dollars.

We were surprised at the number of Chinese tourists in Oslo, especially since it was off-season. China now has a huge middle class, more than three hundred million, and with all their money they’re quickly becoming the number one tourist group in the world.  Norway is a safe and interesting travel destination, and Chinese people seem to be enthralled with seeing the Northern Lights, so they flock here.

We were also surprised seeing so many Muslim refugees.  Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and even though it’s not part of the European Union, it borders Sweden, which is a EU member and has had a huge refugee influx. Because Norway is connected to the EU through trade agreements, it therefore must honor the Schengen Agreement, which abolished passports and border controls between the 28 EU members.

The Muslim refugees clearly stand out, especially the women with their hijabs (head coverings), and many can be seen begging on street corners, often with a child.  Immigration is a very serious issue among Norwegians, and citizens seem divided between welcoming them and closing the borders. In the recent election, parliament shifted more to the right, likely because of the refugee issue, and following a pattern in other European countries.

Our time in Oslo coincided with Miami facing hurricane Irma, which has been described as the most powerful Atlantic storm since records have been kept.  We watched on CNN as Irma devastated much of the Caribbean and marched it’s way north toward South Florida, but the worst of it narrowly missed Miami.  My sister and two brothers who live in Miami and Orlando chose to ride it out and not evacuate, and while they sustained some property damage they weren’t injured.

Calamity almost hit us the fourth morning of our trip.  We were scheduled to take a train from Oslo to Bergen, a seven- hour trip billed as the “most beautiful train ride in the world,” and were supposed to leave Oslo’s train station at 12:03 PM.  When we awakened that morning, I looked at my watch and saw it was 11:30.  The train was leaving in thirty-three minutes.

We panicked, and I said we’d miss the train because we overslept. Misti said, let’s try, maybe it’s possible.  We had mostly packed the night before, we tossed our things into our bags, rushed downstairs, asked the bellman to call a taxi, told the driver we only had twelve minutes to catch the train, got to the station in seven minutes, and got on the train two minutes before it left.   Missing the train would have been a big hassle and cost us nearly a thousand dollars.

Bengt Nyquist, who is Yngvil’s brother (Yngvil is the wife of my cousin Phil), met us at the Bergen station, drove us to our hotel and invited us to join he and his wife, Eli Kjersti, the next day for an Edvard Grieg piano recital, as well as lunch at their house.  Edvard Grieg, who lived from 1843 to 1907, is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, is considered one of the leading Romantic era composers and was a major factor in putting Norwegian music on the international stage. 

It was an enjoyable day; the concert and Grieg museum were great, and spending the afternoon into the evening chatting with Bengt and Eli was a highlight of our visit to Norway.   It was wonderful to be welcomed by Bengt and Eli; it’s a special feeling to know someone in a foreign city, especially if they are relatives, because it makes you feel like you belong to the community.

Bergen is Norway’s second largest city, but is relatively small with a population of a quarter million.  The city originally developed as a trading center, and in the 13th century became an important part of the Hanseatic League.  It was founded in 1070 and its name means “the green meadow among the mountains.”  The old section, Bryggen, on the harbor, is a World Heritage Site and is impossibly cute, with its multi-colored wooden houses.  Bergen is on the tourist route and was crowded with cruise ship passengers. 

We spent three days in Bergen. In addition to our time with Bengt and Eli, we wandered through old Bryggen (means “the dock” in Norwegian), visited the Hanseatic museum, saw works by Edvard Munch and other Norwegian artists in the Kode museums, and took a ninety minute tram ride, for $2.50 each, an inexpensive sightseeing trip, especially considering the ridiculously high taxi fares.  Just about every Norwegian speaks English, which makes it easy to ask directions and just chat.

I should also mention that Bergen is known for it’s rainy days, and we did have rain, on and off, the time we were there. But coming from the usually dry state of California, we enjoyed the rain and cool climate, especially after a recent California heat wave with several days over 100 degrees.

Before this trip I knew that Norway had a great deal of wealth from its North Sea oil production, but I didn’t know about what they call the “Oil Fund”. The Oil Fund, also referred to as the Government Pension Fund, in 2017 was the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with a value of about one trillion US dollars.  It’s funded not from pension contributions but from oil profits, and holds 1.3% of all global stocks.  If the fund were to be distributed to all 5.2 million Norwegian citizens, each person would receive about one million krone ($200,000), making them all millionaires. Unlike many other countries, Norway was smart to hold on to their oil profits and use them for the benefit of their citizens.

The highlight of our Norway trip was our six-day cruise on the Hurtigruten Nordnorge ship (Hurtigruten means “express route” and Nordnorge means “Northern Norway.”)  We boarded in Bergen with our final destination being Kirkenes, about 1300 miles away, near the Russian border.

Hurtigruten ships are not “cruise ships” in the normal sense.  While the ships offer many luxuries including exceptionally good food, unlike most cruise lines there are no amenities such as casinos or swimming pools.  Rather, the voyage is all about the spectacular coastal scenery, which can be enjoyed as the ship threads its way at a leisurely ten knots among the seemingly endless and incredibly beautiful islands and fjords.  It deserves its billing as, “The world’s most beautiful sea voyage.”  Nordnorge was renovated in 2016, and is designed to maximize outdoor viewing, with large windows everywhere.  The only “activities” are several lectures each day on the fjords, history of the coastal cities, the Vikings, the Northern Lights, etc. 

The ship visits thirty-four cities/towns on it’s seven day northern run, and then repeats the same itinerary when it returns south to Bergen.  It only stops for about fifteen minutes at most towns, just enough to take on and let off a few ferry passengers, as well as load and unload cargo.  Hurtigruten serves a dual purpose of being a cruise ship for tourists wanting to explore the Norwegian coast and is also a working ferry and cargo ship.  For the past one hundred years it has provided a vital link to the remote towns and villages along the 1,300 mile northern Norwegian coast, some of which are not accessible by road.

The ship makes longer stops of three or four hours at several of the larger cities including Alesund, Trondheim, Bodo and Tromso, giving passengers enough time to wander around and take in a museum or something else of interest.  We especially liked Bodo and Tromso, and spent more time there when we later drove down the coast.  As cruise ships do, the boat offered many guided tours at each major stop, but we shy away from these, preferring to go off on our own.

We had booked our boat trip with full board, meaning it included breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Breakfast and lunch are buffet style, while dinner is served as a three-course meal.  The food and service were excellent, and if you love seafood, as Misti and I do, it’s heavenly.  I don’t know if you can die from overdosing on salmon, but we ate it cooked in every possible and wonderful way.  Because it was off-season, the ship was only three-fourths full, with about 250 passengers, so not very crowded.

Our plan was to drive back from Kirkenes to Bergen, a distance of about 1300 miles, thus enabling us to see and experience much more of the country.  To avoid a huge drop-off charge, we rented the car in Bergen. Even though this meant we couldn’t use the car for the six-day voyage, we saved more than five hundred dollars.  A bonus renting the car in Bergen was our being upgraded to a Volkswagen Tiguan SUV, with four wheel drive and GPS, from a smaller Audi A3 sedan. 

When we boarded the ship, I asked if there were any suites available, and there was one; the largest cabin on the ship. I asked the price, was quoted a deep discount since we were about to sail, and we spent the next six days enjoying a large two-room suite.

On our third night, near Bodo, at 67 degrees north just above the Arctic Circle, we saw the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, our first sighting of this natural wonder.  Earlier that day the ship had a lecture on the Northern Lights, and we learned they weren’t very reliable, especially in the summer.  But that night, like magic, they filled the sky.  An amazing sight, wavering green bands that moved across the sky like a laser light show; this was Mother Nature at her best,.  We saw the lights one more time in Svolvaer, in the Lofoten Islands, but they weren’t quite as bright and didn’t last as long.

We disembarked Nordnorge in Kirkenes, and began our ten-day drive back to Bergen.  Out of curiosity, we first went to the Russian border for a look, although there wasn’t much to see. We then headed for Karasjok, in Finnmark County, the northernmost part of Norway, and the center of the Sami culture. The Sami are Norway’s indigenous people, who live primarily in what is referred to as Lapland, comprising the northern parts of Norway and Finland as well as parts of Sweden and Russia, all above the Arctic Circle.   We learned that the Sami are the only people in Norway who could own reindeer, and many make a living raising them.

From Karasjak we drove about five hours southeast to Alta, the second most populous city in Norway’s Arctic region.  With a small population of 14,000, it’s considered the northernmost city in the world with a population over 10,000.  The shortest way south was through Finland, and since both Norway and Finland observe the EU Schengen Agreement, we just breezed into and out of Finland with no border check. The only way we could tell we were in Finland was from the road signs; the Finnish language is very different than Norwegian.  We were careful to observe speed limits for our short drive through Finland, since we had learned, on a previous trip, that speeding fines in Finland are based on your income and can be painfully high.

This was the beginning of our search for reindeer.  We had heard there were hundreds of thousands that roamed the forest, and saw road signs warning of reindeer crossings.  We came across one meandering down the road, coming toward us, probably out of curiosity.  These reindeer don’t seem to fear man, and this one came right up to our car. 

We were in reindeer country for the next few days and saw many more, sometimes in small herds.  We also ate lots of reindeer dishes, including reindeer soup and stew, and while beef is certainly available, reindeer was more common on most menus.

A word about coffee in Norway; you can never be more than a few minutes away from a good cup of coffee and everyone is always drinking or offering you coffee, and it’s always very good.  We were told that Seattle has a large Norwegian population, and perhaps that’s a reason why Seattle is also such a coffee loving place.  Also, Norwegian bread may be the best in the world.  Since breakfast was always included with our rooms, we had ample opportunity to sample the breads and, as a bread lover, I give them an A+.  Someone should start a Norwegian bakery in San Francisco.

We left Alta and drove another 150 miles to Tromso, Norway’s largest Arctic city, and for the past one hundred years, the center of all Arctic exploration.  Tromso has a population of about 150,000, is Norway’s third largest city, and has a cosmopolitan feel.  It attracts many Asian tourists looking to experience the Northern Lights, and many are disappointed, since the lights are fickle, and it’s not unusual for tourists to leave without seeing them.

We got a harbor view room in the Raddison Hotel, on the wharf overlooking the Hurtigruten ship Spitzbergen, docked on its way north.  I flashed back to our boat trip just a few days earlier, and realized how different, and in many ways better, was the experience of driving through the country.  I meandered through town and found a seafood restaurant where we had local shrimp, mussels with gnocchi and salmon roe and a halibut dish with vegetables, accompanied by a Marlborough white wine.  A bit expensive, but well worth it.

Harstad was our next destination, 180 miles southwest and a gateway to the Lofoten Islands, which are considered the scenic highlight of Norway.  We arrived at the dock just as the ferry left, resulting in a ninety minute wait, teaching us that it’s important to know the ferry schedules, available online.

An amazing dinner in Harstad, where we spent the next night.  The owner of the restaurant in Tromso had recommended a restaurant called De4 Roser (Four Roses).  He called ahead and made a reservation for us, which resulted in a word-class almost three hour meal, and great conversation with the owner, Trond Dahle, who helped us map our next few days going through the Lofotens.

It’s impossible to describe how beautiful the Norwegian coast is, especially the Lofoten Islands. Thousands of small islands, mountains rising up out of the sea, fjords and lakes everywhere, small fishing villages with red fishermen cabins and swirling bridges that can make you dizzy.  This is a place where you can easily overdose on natural beauty.

After Harstad, we stayed a night in Stockmarken and another in Svolvaer, before driving south to the ferry to Bodo.  In all, we took five ferries through the Lofotens, and since even though it was still considered summer (until September 30), it was off-season, which meant there were no waits for the ferries and we had no trouble booking hotels at the last minute.

Before leaving home, Misti had mapped out a tentative route south, taking us from Kirkenes back to Bergen, a distance of about 1,300 miles, over ten days.  She listed eight cities where we could spend the night, all of which were roughly equidistant.  The plan worked well for the first week, until we realized that we needed more time to enjoy the scenery and sightseeing, and the remaining distance was daunting, with several days of long drives. 

So we created a Plan B, whereby we took a four-hour ferry from Moskenes in the Lofoten Islands to Bodo, saving half a day of driving.  We decided to return our car in Trondheim, rather than Bergen, cutting off two days of driving.  We booked a flight from Trondheim to Stockholm, so we could spend the last week in Sweden.

Our last night in Norway was spent in Trondheim, the third largest city, with a population of less than 200,000.  An excellent last Norwegian dinner where we met some locals and chatted about Norway, the US and world politics.  An easy flight on SAS the next day and we reluctantly left Norway to go to Stockholm, for the beginning of our one-week Swedish adventure.

Just about everyone we met in Norway told us how lucky we were with the weather.  A few rainy and overcast days, but lots of sunny ones. We were told this weather is unusual, but that seems to be case all over the world.  Global warming or just normal climate variations, whatever, best to enjoy any good weather that comes our way.

Thus ended our trip to Norway, leaving us with many memorable sights and experiences and a better understanding of the Norwegian and Scandinavian way of life.

Art Faibisch, September, 2017