We leave Eugene at 8 AM. Drive up to Portland, stop and grab our
Scanrail passes from a travel agent. Then we get to the airport and
discover our first flight has been delayed. Mom has a minor heart
attach until we found it didn't effect our connections. Flew to
Detroit, ran around the airport there grabbing food, peeing, then
jumped on to the plane. Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic it
turned into ...
Jul 21 Thur [Kym]
Land in Amsterdam, Mom and Chris quickly turn into super-tourists and buy a magnet and t-shirt respectively. Fly to Oslo, get our bags, deal with money, then onto the train into the city. By this time we are all completely wiped out and so as Mom and Dad discuss hotel options with the tourist info people, me, Chris and Eric try to stay standing while keeping our eyes open!! It's really hard work but we manage, even finding enough energy to walk to our hotel, Anker Hotel (run by Best Western). Once at the hotel us lovely kids literally walk in and crawl into bed and pass out. Dad did try to wake me up at 9pm, but it was a no-go for me. So Mom and Dad walked around for a couple of hours.
We woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning, for absolutely no reason. Breakfast wasn't even until 6am!! So we sat around and ate some of our small food store (garnered from the flights). Finally at 6 we went down to our free breakfast which some people thought was deluxe. Dad lived the weird ketchup, mustard, and some other weird condiment looking thing that all had fish in them! It looked disgusting, but he was thrilled. After breakfast we went up to the room to grab some things, then headed out. We bought Oslo Passes that were good for 24 hours at the central train station. Then we walked to the ferry that went to Bygdoy Peninsula. The ride took a grand total of 10 minutes so we were fresh and ready for our 1st museum - the Norwegian Folkmusuem. The Norsk Volksmuchet (or something like that) is a huge outdoor museum that has all sorts of old houses, buildings and whatnot. However, before we could see any of these it started raining (completely shattering mom's belief that it never rained in Norway in the summer0 so we sent into a long building that held the traveling exhibits. Not so interesting so we stepped out into the rain/sun mix the sky was throwing us. We walked around and saw lots of houses and farm buildings from all over the country. At atave church (totally over-run by tourist groups) and a replica of an old city. Apparently Norwegians used to live in little log cabins with grass and just about every other type of vegetation you can imagine growing on the roof. By the end of the exhibits I was famished, and we still had 3 more museums to go!! There was nothing to eat around the Folkmuseum so we wandered around trying to follow signs to a restaurant that we found was closed for the season. Thanks for taking down the sign, guys. I ended up eating a bag of overly-salted peanuts, but they were enough to last the rest of the museums. The next was the Viking ship one and far from being boring as I expected, I was pleasantly surprised to be blown away by the power of the shops. I suddenly understood why those helpless English villagers had been so afraid of those marauding Vikings. They understood the power of intimidating people and used it to their advantage. After that we went to the kon-tiki museum, which was essentially an ode to the vision of Thor Heyerdahl. He sailed across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans on these rafts made out of papyrus reeds and ropes. Ecologically minded, he was a pioneer in all sorts of causes. The last (thank god!) museum was called Fram, after the boat used in polar explorations, mostly by Roald Amundson. ["hanging on in great desperation is the English way" - Pink Floyd] We sailed through this museum only stopping to run through the boat once - then we got out. Done with the museums we ferried back to downtown Oslo for lunch. Right next to the docks was a big shopping thing called Aker Bygraee. We ate lunch there then went to our family's favorite store - the grocery store! We loaded up on peanut butter and jelly, bread, chocolate and potato chips because we are good Americans, but not the stereotypical so we got strawberries, too. By then it was late afternoon and everyone was still pooped from jet-lag. and the mind-numbing amount of museums we had seen earlier. We went to the hotel and crashed. At about 5:30ish Dad woke us up, but we didn't go anywhere because Mom called one of the phone numbers she had gotten from Susie. She talked to her 2nd cousin Else, for the first time ever and we planned to take the train to a town near where she lived July 24th. Then we went on a walk/dinner hunt. We ended up at a little Greek Restaurant where Eric had a HUGE gyro and Chris accidently ordered an entire chicken pizza. Food was good, we ate, then went back to the hotel and crashed
Woke up, went to breakfast with lots of Japanese at 7am, then packed up and got out of our hotel room. We stored the bags in the hotel so we could use the remaining two hours on our Oslo Pass. Took the tram to Radhus, the town hall, to see the resistance museum and where the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out. We got there right before it opened so we read the stories behind the crazy murals outside. At 9 we were in, looking at the enormous room in front of us, where they give the Peace Prize every year. It was extremely impressive but it turned out the other museum was at the castle, Akerhus. Once at Akerhus we discovered the resistance museum didn't open until 10am so we walked all around the castle. We went through the museum reading everything until the info and tragedy overwhelmed us. One entertaining thing - a Japanese woman couldn't tell Hitler apart from the other white guys in the picture! Made me feel better about times when I have a hard time telling people from other races apart. Then we went to Karl Johan's Gate and went shopping. Mom and Eric bought books, I bought a sweater, then we went to eat lunch. The street performers were out, some acting like statues, some playing music, some scaring the b'Jesus out of Mom by moving when she dropped a coin in their hat. After that we took the tram (for free - very illegally!) to Vigeland Park. Vigeland Park is in the part of Oslo I would live in, if I lived in Oslo. It was huge. The sculptures are as crazy as the guide book had said. First there was the bronze sculptures, mostly of individual people, then there was the stone sculptures of groups on the steps leading up to the huge stone pillar of bodies that dominates the entire park. The whole thing is very surreal, occasionally erotic and deceptively artistic. The sky started to cloud over so we took the tram back to the hotel, got our bags went next door and checked into the hostel! After a short game of foosball we went to our room where some people slept, some read and one cleaned. Mom talked to Else again. We went on a little walk, right after we ate a little dinner of PB&J and leftover pizza. back to the room and we crashed.
Woke up, had a breakfast that was exactly the same as dinner last night. Dad did test the limits of the stove, toasting bread and pizza slices. Onto the train station to make the 9:30 train to Elverun. The trains are super nice and we rode up to Hamar where we switched trains to get on the Elverun line. We got into Elverum at 1pm and played frisbee until Else and her husband (with a very Norwegian name) arrived in their Toyota van. [Eric] We then drove to Else's house where she showed us pictures of her children and relatives. We had a late lunch (around 4pm) which is explained by Mom in the back. We then drove to Stou, the campground we would be spending the night in. Next we were carted around in the minivan, and Else showed [Kym] us Nielsrud, Gjerud, old folks home, Valer church, both our great-great-grandpa and grandma's houses (everything on the same road! In this area called Ranum.) and the graveyard. Then we went to Kari's for dessert, or so we thought. Really it was us, Else's family, Kari and her husband, Paul, plus three other people that we are somehow related to. Not much English was spoken, so we sat there as we drank coffee... ate a meal... looked at pictures... ate some (or all if your name is Chris) of the 3 desserts... looked at more pictures... drank more coffee... then left. It was interesting, especially for Mom. Back to our cabins at Stoa and we went to sleep.
Woke up at 8:30am, pack everything up and go with Else back to her house to have lunch with her, Kari and Haugen. More taking pictures and eating before we talk Else into getting up to the train on time. Of course then we get to the train station we find out the train is 25 minutes late. It arrives surprisingly quickly, so we say goodbye, and jump on. Elverum to Roras has lots of the "standard" Norwegian scenery. Pine forests, rivers, largish hills, picturesque farms, nicely painted houses and little towns. We get into Roros at 3:30 and the place is hopping! Tourists from all over have over-run the town. As Mom and Dad hang out in the tourist office, looking up hotels, I see enough of the town (about 4 blocks) to realize it is a mining town that has turned upscale. Children are thrilled to be climbing up slag heaps! Could Butte, MT be this in 200 years? We were sent to a hotel that was quite an uphill hike outside of town. Once we got there it was full anyway, so we trekked back. The next one was a hotel connected to a hostel and it was close to town and had room! We took it and got settled in. After that we went and ate at a Thai restaurant! In Norway! Actually, only I had Thai, Chris and Mom had hamburgers and Dad and Eric shared a moose plate. "Please pass the moose" is one of the best things we've heard on this trip. After dinner we walked around town with bright eyes and full pockets. [Chris] Unfortunately most shops were closed. We wandered up the hill to a very old church and oohed and aahed over the gravestones and steeple. Feeling enlightened we picked our way down the hill, stopping in a grocery store for chocolate and checking out the "kaffeenKafe." Mom was thrilled. After a break we huddled up and decided to go back to the hotel. After stopping at the Kiwi grocery store (it was green) we went to our rooms. We hung out there for a bit, then me (Chris the genius) and Dad went to play frisbee while Mom and Kym wandered. Eric soon joined our lively game but we quickly tired of tossing around a plastic circle and called it quits. Mom and Kym returned shortly afterwards from walking to the hospital. We crashed shortly after.
Breakfast was from 8 to 9:30 so we scampered down for a full meal of open-faced sandwiches, cereal, bread with butter or jelly, and mustard fish sauce (if you were Dad). We trooped over to the mining museum which was better than I thought it would be. They had lots of mini models that moved. Mom and Dad were very excited about some hike but gave up after a bulldozer threatened us. We then scampered down the hill to a delightful bakery were we stuffed our faces. Dad's chocolate eclair was the size Kym's head and my pie was exquisite, although some vanilla ice cream would have been sweet. After this we went hiking on the only sand dunes in Norway. These dunes were created by a glacier and are very different in Oregon. They have tons of rocks in them and there are way more plants. We hiked down to a suspiciously pond looking "lake". On the way I picked up about 20-odd skipping rocks all of fine quality and good breed. Upon reaching said "lake" I was begged to share with everyone else who neglected to pick up their own. After realizing they wouldn't be getting any of my precious rocks, they demanded a show of my rock skipping talents. After we left I believe the family respected my right arm and rock picking and skipping ability a bit more. [Kym] "Well doesn't deserve a little pat on the head?" [Chris] "I also deserve some gold teeth and lotsa money but that's another story." We then went back to the center of town and ate. (Pizza, PB&J, snickers and coffee.) Ahh, the life of a tourist. There are many pretty girls in Norway. We went back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and speed walked over to train. Peace out Roros! [Kym] We took the train from Roros to Trondhiem and saw some waterfalls, 2 hang gliders and a funny looking deer. We arrived in Trondhiem at 6pm and Mom and Dad promptly ran off to check on the tourist info office, everything was all right there and we even booked a room! We hiked through the city, right up to our hotel, went in and got settled. Before we could even warm our butts we were out again, going on a walk to the harbor and the other side of the river. It was very pretty and everything but our stomachs were calling so we walked back to the Torvet (the center square) to see what else we could find. Naturally one of the parents had to ask at the tourist office, but they weren't much help so, much to Dad's dismay we ate at the Egon restaurant. Dad had a beer, while the rest of us actually ate dinner. By then it was late so we sauntered back to the hotel, stopping to examine and eat the Norwegian candy.
I woke up on my cot, cuddled under 2 of those absolutely amazing
comforters that are everywhere here! Wonderful. I was told to get
up! The shower had a removable head but it did not have the option
of simply raining down on you. You had to use it as a garden hose,
sort of. Not much fun - by far the worst shower we've run into
here. Breakfast was delivered to our door and it consisted of an
apple, (questionable variety) an orange juice juice-box, and a ham
and cheese sandwich. Most people were quite happy with this meal,
but as a non-pork eater, I had to go get some yogurt from the
convince store close by. Why do they serve so much port/ham/pig
sausage in this country?? What do Jewish people do? I feel
discriminated against! Mom hurried us out of the room, marched us
down to Nidaros Cathedral, bought tickets as we just sort of
followed and then sat looking at the side of the cathedral that was
filled with statues of saints. For saints they seemed to be a
little blood thirsty. One stood on a head, one held 3 other heads
in his hands, one stood on some sort of evil-looking Viking cat,
while my favorite was headless! (Other people in this family
thought he was a hunch back, but I was soon proved right!) Inside
the cathedral was also very impressive, but it quickly became
over-run as every tourist bus in the country pulled up and
discharged the masses into the church. Me, Dad, Chris, and Eric got
out and went to the Archbishop's Palace which was next door. We
made plans to meet Mom later and then proceeded into the Army
Museum (which had some entertaining translations - one that said
the entire country had 2 soldiers!) then another museum which had
all sorts of info and old sculptures and statues from the
cathedral. Quite exhausted with these museums, we met up and went
to a completely different one- The museum of decorative arts. It
was like a museum of modern interior design with an emphasis on
Scandinavian design and tapestry. It was really way cool. By the
end we were starving so we walked to Torvet to see if there was any
food in the stalls set up around the square. Nope. But they were
giving away (Free!) Coca-Cola Light (ie. Diet Coke) all over the
place. Mom was in hog heaven. Mom and Dad ate leftover food while
us kids found sustenance at 7-11. Then we all sat on a bench to
finish our meal. It was cloudy and windy and cold. In my shorts I
was freezing and I convinced everyone to break up up for 30 minutes
for speed shopping. We all set our watches and planned when and
where to meet up. Then we split and I speedily shopped through some
stores, eventually finding nice pants for $27! A great deal in
Norway! I changed into them and bam! We are out. Mission
accomplished. Dad had a walk through the city planned that we did.
Then we went to investigate an estuary cruise, which turned out to
be done running for the day. However on the same dock was a fish
shop that had fish cakes, fish and chips, and salmon burgers that
looked awesome. I was definitely very interested. I had found where
I was eating dinner. [Chris] We then went back to the hotel,
gathered our clothes and went back to the fishy market, ate 3 large
baskets of fish and chips. The weird mayonnaise stuff was okay but
after about 3 bites it turned repulsive. Eric and I went back to
the hotel to watch some T.V. Kym, Mom, and Dad went laundrying and
returned unsuccessful. We all went down to the pub across the
street and people watched. We then worked on our ever-changing trip
plan and soon went to bed after watching "Cool Hand Luke".
Jul 28 Thur [Chris]
We woke up, packed, snagged our breakfast in a bag and promptly head for the train. We took the train to Lillehammer! Home of the 1994 Winter Olympics! Have I mentioned that there are many pretty girls in Norway? We went to a hotel that was literally a block away from the train station. Literally! It was very nice and we stayed in the business suite (Dad thought it was the honeymoon suite but we figured that newlyweds didn't need a dry erase board.) We went looking for food and a laundry place. What we found was a delightfully salty Italian restaurant overlooking the street and a laundry mat that was open the next day. The planners had set up a hike we would take; first we had to find it. Then it started to rain, hard. We shop-hopped back to the hotel. Along the way Kym picked out everything she wanted when she gets married from a kitchen store. There are a lot of book stores in Lillehammer. We went into 3 in the short span of about a block! Fortunately we found some playing cards with the right price tag and snapped them up. I stuck my head into a few bike shops but nothing special. We then went back to the hotel where we played a very stimulating game of French Twist. We forgot who won. [Kym] We went on the hike and it was pretty cool. Once you found all the paths (which was hard) it was easy to pick a gorgeous route next to a river. We ended up on the Birkebinerstein route. I guess that's the name of a huge cross country ski race they have here and in Wisconsin! Mom was ecstatic about the wild blueberries on the side of the trail. We walked until the trail kinda ended and then went down, stopping often to munch on the blueberries. By the end it was pretty late, although not dark at all because the sun is always up. We stopped at the grocery store and got lefse - that classically Norwegian potato bread, raspberry jam, milk, yogurt, more fruit and cookies! Then we went back to the hotel and feasted! Everything was amazing, even though the brownie cookies were crunchy. Norwegians don't know how to make chocolate chip cookies or brownies! Later we went to sleep.
We woke up at 8:30am to find that Mom and Dad were already at
breakfast. By 9am Mom was running off to the laundry woman's store,
while us kids sat down to a highly anticipated breakfast. It was
delicious! Croissants, warm eggs, yogurt, watermelon, and coffee.
What more could you want? Afterwards, we went on a short walk down
by the lake, then mom went and got the newly clean laundry. We
greedily divided it up and flew into the train at 11:14am. We ended
up in a "Komfort" car, which we soon discovered was first class.
Whoops. (our passes were 2nd class) But we ended up staying because
the train lines were being repaired all the way from Hamer to
Drammen (south of Oslo). So we had to take busses. Basically we
spent most of the day on trains and busses. We finally pulled into
Larvik at 5pm! Some very friendly man helped us find a hotel for a
reasonable price. Then we wandered around, looking for a
restaurant. We choose one and Dad and I split a gyro. Which could
have been amazing, but of course they have to dump about a liter of
mayo on top. Yuk. After dinner we continued to walk around looking
for a beach (the town was strangely empty) or a grocery store.
Found the store first then to the beach. Nice, sandy, small, cold
water. I guess to go to the good beaches you need a car or a boat.
Bummer. It's 8pm by then so we head back to the hotel and play gin
rummy. I lost terrible while Chris won by a lot. We spent the rest
of the night planning how we were going to get out of Larvik on
Saturday since not all the trains run.
Jul 30 Sat [Kym]
Woken up at 8am by Mom, or favorite alarm clock, and at breakfast by 8:30. This was our first (maybe it'll be our only) breakfast served to us, not buffet style like usual. It was delicious anyway and some of us even got to save our bread for the train. The train left at 9:20 to get into Drammen at 11ish. We then had an hour there so we left our bags in a locker at the train station. [Eric] Then, upon stowing our bags we (or maybe just me) set off in search of ice cream. We waltzed around a Saturday-ish market, without the tie-dye and hippies. Then with more time than predicted, we arrived back at the train station and jumped on the train. [Chris] We went to Christiansand. We found an apartment that was HUGE! It had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a large living/dining/kitchen room. We walked to a small fort, played around on a spinning see-saw and I poked around on a stake park. We walked along the beach, seeing the only palm trees in Norway (they are carted inside for most of the year). We then walked back to the city, stopping at a delightful Asian were you picked your dish, sauce, and vegetables. After eating and stealing post cards, we left fully satisfied. We walked back to the hotel and started watching a movie. During the commercial break we discovered something far more appealing. The Whistlers Convention National Grand Pre World Championship of Whistling or the WCNGPWCW. These guys are serious! There are different techniques and it's all very intense. Some guy from Holland won and we were very excited. After practicing our own whistling we went to bed. We woke up, went for a walk and left. On the walk we saw someone swimming! (crazy Norwegians). We took the train to Stavanger. [Kym] Once we arrived there we immediately went off to the tourist info. They gave Dad directions to the hotel and he set off, all of us following. One really steep hill and about 10 blocks later we were following Dad yelling at him about where we were going. Finally we stopped and just stood there, screaming at each other. A local taking out his garbage stopped and stared, then walked away, shaking his head at the crazy Americans. Nothing was really solved but we all felt better so we went on to our B & B. There we were met by the charming people who worked there. Free coffee and hot cocoa anytime? Free waffles at every night? We were in heaven! By then it was 4 in the afternoon so we went down to the wharf to find the restaurant recommended. It was by a football club, celebrating a win at full volume, but they cleared out before we even got our food. Which was delectable, by the way. Then we walked around desperately seeking chocolate. Found it and went back to the hotel. Ate our waffles, then spent the rest of the night watching "Back to the Future!!"
We woke up to cloudy and gloomy weather, went down to an average breakfast, then found out the B&B was full the next night. Not a very good way to start the day. After making our plans we packed up, said bye, and headed out. We were going back to the tourist office (of course) but on the way we stopped at the Rainbow Hotel. A half hour later we had a room and head out to walk around Gamle Stavanger, the old town. The old town was filled with little white houses, flowers, cobblestone streets, views of the harbor and the oil company owned skyscrapers all around. Adorable, simply adorable. At 11am the canning museum opened. The canning museum could also be "the museum with nothing to explain what it is displaying" or "a random collection of machines used to can sardines" or "Stavanger sardine company's would use any type of brand name to sell fish." This includes but was not limited to many drawings of white, blue-eyed Native Americans for brands like "Wigman", English kings and scantily clad women. From there we went down to this bakery I had seen the night before so I could ask about buying one of their t-shirts. Once we got in I realized I didn't like the t-shirts as much as I though, but we did buy some baked goods. Then we went to a bagel store and got lunch. Bagels are amazingly delicious! Yum, yum, yum. Then we walked into Domkirke, the medieval church in Stavanger. After that the kids went to chill in the large, spacious hotel room while Mom and Dad ran through the Maritime Museum and then "enjoyed a beer by the wharf". "A very expensive beer I might add" ($9) directly quoted from Dad. They came back and we went to subway for dinner. Dad had a gyro from next door. We took a short walk before bed.
We woke up (Dad had got up one hour before), ate a giant breakfast with bacon, mini-omelets, mini apple pies, and lots of other good food; Although they undercooked the bacon. Mom and Kym stole some sandwiches and we were off. There are lots of good looking girls in Norway. we got on the ferry and picked up Dad (he took an earlier ferry and stopped in a town to wait for ours) a bit later at a lovely looking town which I forgot the name. I though that I left a mini-disk on the boat when we got off th switch boats. After much panic, cursing and yelling Norwegians, I realized I had actually left it in my bag. When we got off we also made another Norwegian angry by going the wrong way to get our luggage. We got mad at Dad as well because he kept yelling at us to hurry up. From the boat we wandered the weary and well travelled way to the nearest tourist information. The lines were long and the rest of the place was not very interesting, so we settled for smacking each other with a rolled up mat while Mom bravely navigated the lines. After freeing ourself from the tourist info we set off toward the hotel. [Kym] We saw the sun for the first time in years! Our hotel was still under construction, but I guess they were finished enough to accept customers. We found our room then decided to go eat down at the Fish Market. It was sort of like a Norwegian Pike Place market, but with whale meat, raw and in sausage form, which we all tried, except for Mom. It was gross! Tasted kind of like ham, sick! Anyway, I ended up with fish and chips, Mom and the boys got Elgburgers (that'd be moose!) while Dad had a classic smoked salmon sandwich. Once again we had to go to the tourist office for extremely ridiculous reasons. I think if we had have stayed in there longer we would have become one with the furniture. Ugh. We did get the Bergen Card, which gave us free access to lots of things, so we decided to use it to go on the funicular. The funicular was like a little train car that just ran up and down the mountain. We took it up then we went on a little hike to a lake. Dad was sick of walking so he took the funicular down, while the rest of us braved the walk down and into the hotel. At 8:30 the rest of the family went to a Norwegian Folk dance. There was a dance troop that danced regional and fighting dances to songs played on a mouth harp and a fiddle type thing. I guess they all wore different regional dress mainly from around Bergen. It must have been really good because even Chris liked it!
We woke up to discover that the guide book wasn't lying when they said it rained 266 days a year in Bergen! After a breakfast in the room we realized it was just going to keep raining all day and we had to use our 24 hour Bergen Cards. Mom wanted to go to the Bryggen Museum which was down at the "Bryggen" or harbor. There are really old trading houses on the harbor that are sort of Bergen's trademark. The museum was pretty worthless in my opinion but I think Mom liked it... As we left the museum the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs as Mom sprinted ahead. Running after her in confusion the rest of us didn't have a clue what was going on. We ran around a huge, tall stone wall looking for a way in. Finally after almost coming 360 degrees we found the way into the castle walls! Once in the actual castle we found out we were in King Hakon's Hall. It really just consisted of a large "meeting room" and then a sort of basement area that was set up with a million chairs and tables. Then we went next door to Rosenkranitzs something-or-other. It was a building. Although no one but Mom really wanted to go to Rosenkrantiz's thing, it ended up being pretty cool. This was mainly because you just wandered around in this really really old castle. There was something in the rooms to tell what it was (it. the king's bed chambers) but not much else in the way of lame - exhibits. You could even walk outside, on top of the castle like you were a guard, guarding the place! And the walls were like 6 feet thick while the doors were built for people under 6 feet! Perfect for me! However it was lunch time and we could feel it! Mom wanted to book a hotel for Oslo so she walked while the rest of us bussed it back to the mall. Once at the mall we settled down to lunch. We were almost done when Mom walked in so we waited until she had finished. Dad and I wanted to go to the knitting museum even though it would take two hours round trip on the bus to get to the little town it was in. While we waited for the bus/ shopped every one contemplated whether they wanted to go. Since Dad and I are the trend setters they all followed. The bus ride started out normal but for the last 15 minutes we were on a single lane road curving down this hill! All cars had to pull over for us [Chris] because our bus was so fat. We ended up in a tiny town on the sea and walked about 2 blocks to the knitting museum. It was AWEsome! The place was huge and we had our own personal tour guide. She showed us how all the machines worked and demonstrated nearly all of them. It was worth the hour bus ride to get there. On the way there we had seen a giant shopping center (composed of 2 "mini malls" and 1 giant Ikea store), so on the way back we stopped. Mom and Kym scampered off to Ikea like moths to a lamp that when they touched it instead of burning you, it sucks your money. [Kym] Ikea was the shopping highlight of my trip. Enough said. The bus brought us back to Bergen and we walked to the co-op across from our hotel and bought a chicken dinner. Similar to what they sell in grocery deli's in the states. We planned to eat in the kitchen on the 3rd floor but it was occupied. After a wait, we went down and fixed our delightful dinner. [Rick] Played cards in the kitchen for awhile while talking with a woman from Holland about the unfinished nature of our digs. Mom did laundry.
Pouring rain - stash luggage - go to fish market. Eric gets a
"CCCP" t-shirt made. More shopping, Mom buys lots of stuff since we
won't be able to shop in Oslo. After debating the whole trip to buy
a Norwegian sweater or not, Mom finally decided it had to be done.
Before we made it to the sweater shop we looked in at this famous
Juals Silver Gallery. Within 5 minutes she had picked out a
traditional silver and gold Norwegian pin. Ten minutes later she
was walking out of "Dale of Norway" with a brand new Norwegian
sweater. Eat Chinese food. Jump on train to Voss, very pretty
scenery, arrive at 7pm in hostel about 1 km away. Before going to
hostel, eat at cafe in other hotel. Mom, Dad, and Kym try to walk
to town along the lake next to town and hostel but we bail out due
to lack of path. Window shop in Voss. Head back and crash. Happy
partyers noise about midnight.
Aug 5 Friday [Kym]
Woke up, ate, went to the bus station and found out the bus didn't come until 10am. We sat around the station, killing time with the other tourists. At 10 we went out to get a seat on the 1st bus. As soon as we settled into th front of the bus people started pouring out of the station and the train that had just pulled up. They eagerly lined up to get on the bus, excitedly talking in all sorts of languages. This was clearly going to a 100% tourist trip. We left Voss and headed into the hills. After awhile the views got better and then they got so good they had to build a hotel. Which we stopped at to look down this huge valley. Fifteen minutes later we were herded onto the buses and we started our descent. It started as a nice grade but quickly turned into an extremely scary, hair pin turn, road. Sitting in a tippy - tippy bus slowly going down the side of the mountain, I thought we were going to fall off the side. Then, with our brakes about ready to give out, we STOPPED so the tourists could take pictures of a waterfall. Ugh - I was done with this. Finally we ended up at the bottom and were soon at the ferry. After being herded to the ferry we grabbed some seats on the top of the boat. The view was really spectacular. The fjord was big, even though it was just the arm of an arm of a real fjord. We saw mountain goats on the side of the fjords and a seal in the fjord!! And we were so far from the actual coast. [Rick, with help from Kym] We docked in the town of Flem and then Dad walked around while everyone else ate. We tried to fit in one more walk but we had to buy train tickets. The Flamsbama Railway provided views, extremely high pitched squeaky wheel sounds and even stopped at a waterfall. Like good little tourists we got out to look at the waterfall. Things quickly went from normal to melodramatic when music started to play and a figure emerged on the rocks. Wearing a long black dress, she beckoned, presumable for us to jump into the falls after her. When none of us stupid tourists followed, she disappeared. This seemed very bizarre and fabricated but the tourists got into it by frantically clicking their cameras. Several switchbacks and tunnels later we arrived at Myrdall. We discovered our train wasn't running so we had 2 hours to hike. We hiked down a popular hike-bike trail that zigzagged along a stream. It started to rain rather hard as we were walking back so we came into the train station drenched. Hop on train and off in Geilo. Got an apartment at the tourist info office. The apartment was furnished with Ikea and just glistened with Scandinavian design and cleanliness. Kym had her own room, the boys had their own room and Mom and Dad had their own room! [Chris] Very large kitchen! Kym and Dad immediately started scheming on what to make for dinner while Eric and I watched TV. We all trooped to the grocery store where food was snatched for breakfast and dinner. We went back to the hotel where the adults made Italian food while Eric and I watched "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy". We hiked around a lake (ie. got lost, bush-waked and wondered through horse poop). [Rick] Chris, Eric, and Kym went back to watch TV. Mom and Dad went to check out the town. Found a bakery but it was closed.
Cereal and fruit for breakfast. Hike up to the ski hill, make
faces and talk to the cute4 cows in the path. We all decided to
take the chair lift down but after Chris and Eric head down, Mom
declares "I'm not going". Rick goes down to be with the boys. We
check out mountain bike park while Mom and Kym hike down. Starts to
rain. Check out street fair, lots of mean, crafts, and hot dog
stands. Waited for train while listening to live music playing at
the street fair. [Chris] Dad had fun dancing to the accordions. We
boarded the train and rattled and rolled our way to Oslo. We got to
Oslo at 10:30pm and walked to our hotel. On the way we got to see
tons of hobos and drunks. [Rick] Actually most of the 1000's of
people in the street seemed pretty tame and were probably just
intent on being out and about. We got to the Rainbow and
crashed.
Aug 7 Sunday [Chris]
We woke up and ate a giant breakfast. It had a waffle maker,
three kinds of jelly, 6 kinds of meat, lots of fruit and other
goodies. After a hardy feast we went to the National Gallery where
we saw Picasso, Munch, Monet, and Manet. There were many cool
paintings and we left feeling very sophisticated. We then went to
the "frog" which had modern art. Very confusing. [Rick] Kym, Mom,
and Dad walk a very cool street with lots of nice shops and
cafe's.
Aug 8 Monday [Rick]
Eat last "super breakfast" in Norway and hike to train station
on Johans Gate. Train to plane to Amsterdam, Minneapolis, then
Portland.