Norway: The Land of Trolls and Midnight Sun

Norway is out of this world in so many different ways!

A lot of people ask me, could I live in Switzerland permanently? My answer is a quick and resounding yes! Do I think I could live in a lot of other places in Europe permanently? Probably not. Yet, without a doubt I could live in Scandinavia. During our time in Europe we visited four of the five Scandinavian countries and I absolutely fell in love with them. It was pretty easy to do considering many of the similarities they share with Switzerland including a very high standard of living (which is also a reason why they all make many top 10 in the world lists).

At the end of July, we visited our third Scandinavian country of Norway. We flew out bright and early on a Friday morning and we had the treat of sitting next to the most polite, smartest six year old I have probably ever met as she was fluently carrying on conversations in English, Swiss German, and Norwegian. Although I might have felt a little stupid next to her, she was too sweet as she saved us the complimentary chocolates that Swiss Air hands out during the flight as we all dozed off for a few minutes. We quickly found out that she was quite typical of the majority of Norwegians who all are extremely nice and smart!

Anyways, after a connection in Copenhagen, it was still only mid-morning by the time we landed in Oslo. We picked up our rental car and some coffee before making the drive into the city center to explore downtown Oslo for the afternoon. It was disappointing but not surprising as we quickly verified that Norway tops Switzerland with how expensive it is. Starbucks cost us 2.5 times what it would in the U.S. and a can of soda in a convenience store cost nearly $5!!

Emma running away from a troll!

With the few hours we had in Oslo we meandered past a palace, castle, old town, and had a "reasonable" lunch on the harbor. While it seemed to be a nice city, there was nothing super intriguing to us, so we were happy to hit the road towards central Norway. We reserved a hotel for the night just two hours outside of Oslo that was conveniently located along our driving route, simply meant to be a place to break up the drive. In the interest of full disclosure we knew ahead of time it wasn't going to be much more than a simple motel room, but we definitely had no idea it was going to be located ABOVE a gas station! I kid you not, we had a balcony on the 2nd floor and straight below it was gas pumps... talk about scenic! Yet, all of us were exhausted so we found a quick dinner and more or less headed straight to bed.


Just an "average" road side stop on our drive

Saturday morning came and I got my first taste of what the midnight sun feels like when I woke up at 3 am and the sun was rising (we weren't far enough north to have sunlight 24 hours a day, but it was close as it didn't set until close to 11 pm). I was excited to enjoy my first of many nice Norwegian runs (it included lots of hills, which was good since I was training for a mountain marathon at the time). After a quick breakfast we got back on the road for another 2.5 hours to Flam, Norway which was our destination for the next two nights. Although Friday's drive had been nice and reminded me a lot of northern Minnesota filled with pine trees, lakes, and rolling hills, Saturday's drive very quickly became more beautiful and dramatic as we headed into central Norway. It was a much more rugged terrain with waterfalls, and surprisingly we maybe saw more sheep and goats than we did in Ireland. We truly felt like we were either in the Lord of the Rings or Jurassic Park movie set at times. And as we hit the small fingers of the Sognefjord the scenery was very dramatic with towering cliffs and deep valleys. As a result our drive was quickly consumed with tunnels (there were even sheep and goats that found their way into the tunnels!) cutting through the landscape. Lucky for us we had the privilege of driving through the world's longest tunnel several times over the next few days (which says a lot since many of the tunnels in Switzerland are quite long as well that cut through the mountains). However, the Laerdal tunnel tops them all at 24 km (15 miles) long. We found it best not to overthink the logistics behind the construction of such a long tunnel as we drove through it.

Out of a tunnel and bam! What a view of the Sognefjord!

As we arrived in Flam near lunch time we did our first of many change of plans due to weather and forecasts for the days ahead so we could try to fit in all of our outdoor activities in the best conditions. We then enjoyed a traditional Norwegian lunch of meat, potatoes, and salad and from there took a scenic two hour out and back train ride through the Myrdal valley which was full of waterfalls and said to be one of the most scenic train rides in all of Europe (while very scenic, there were still definitely several Swiss train routes that could rival it in our opinion).

Kjosfossen Waterfall along the scenic train ride

A little corny, but it sets the mood...

Quite the waterfalls and roads!

So much fun on the old scenic train!

Content with our first taste of the Norwegian fjords we made our way to the apartment we rented for the next two nights just outside of Flam in a small town called Laerdal. We stocked up on groceries to cook a few meals at the apartment since Norwegian food wasn't anything to write home about and to save a little money. While it was disappointing to find out the sale of beer and wine is very limited to certain times of the day and limited stores are able to sell it, we figured it was probably good as it saved us more money!
 

Such a fun boat ride!



With a taste of the Sognefjord right outside of our apartment balcony we were excited to take a scenic two hour boat ride on Sunday. We took the first one out as the forecast didn't look very good for later in the day. While it was still overcast, we avoided the rain and got to enjoy amazing views on the fjord instead (at least Steve and I enjoyed the views, Emma enjoyed playing with the three dogs on board instead).

Back in Flam I had a non-Norwegian lunch of pizza while Steve picked the very Norwegian choice of a reindeer burger before we headed to the apartment to enjoy a "lazy" afternoon and the views from where we were staying, as we knew we had a busy few days planned ahead. While Steve and Emma's quiet afternoon included a nap and finding the playground by the beach, mine was a 15 mile run along the water. While it was far from lazy I wouldn't have it any other way as it was without a doubt one of the most spectacular places I have ever run. There were countless small waterfalls running into the fjord and I was countless reindeer crossing signs along my route.

To give you a better idea if you aren't familiar with what a fjord is (I know I wasn't prior to moving to Europe), it is a narrow inlet of water that flows into the land from the ocean and surrounded by steep sides or cliffs. Much of Norway is filled with these fjords as the ocean literally seems to finger its way into the country and in technical terms the fjords add thousands of coastline to the country. And if you haven't figured it out yet, the fjords are stunning.

A view from Bessggen Ridge over Lake Gjende

Monday morning was again an early start day as we left Laerdal and the Sognefjord and drove about two hours away to the Jotunheimen National Park, which means "Home of the Giants." While we originally intended to make Monday a driving day only and just enjoy the scenery, we pushed up our scheduled Tuesday hike to a day earlier as the forecast looked menacing for Tuesday. Our hike for the day was along the Besseggen Ridge, which is situated alongside one of the country's most beautiful lakes, Lake Gjende. It is also known as Norway's most famous day hike and was full of glaciers, mountains, lakes, waterfalls and two of the highest peaks north of the Alps at about 8,000 feet.

To start the hike we took a short boat ride halfway down the lake to the start of our hike from the Memurubu hut, which would eventually take us back to where we parked our car near the Gjendesheim hut. Although there was substantial elevation change throughout the hike, the majority of the increase came at the beginning as we ascended to the top of the ridge that ran alongside the emerald green lake Gjende that's nearly 500 feet deep. Meanwhile the ridge is closer to 4,000 feet high at points. These thousands of feet up and down led us past amazing views, particularly of the glacier formed lakes. As it was nearly 8 miles in length we knew it would not be a quick hike, especially as we like to take frequent breaks and let a certain little hiker to get out and stretch her legs as well.

Me and my hiking buddy

A 360 degree view of the area we hiked along the ridge.

At times during our hike we felt like we were on the ends of the earth, even the moon as we had never scene landscape and terrain anything like it. It was without a doubt one of the most difficult hikes we had done, which was a bit to our surprise as we saw people of all ages along the way. It certainly tested our bounds. When we heard that 30,000 people a year did this hike it really surprised us, but it is a testament to the tough, outdoors people that Norwegians are, perhaps more adventurous than the Swiss. While the Swiss will get out and explore anywhere, they still like their conveniences and have found ways to string cable cars and mountain huts and restaurants most anywhere throughout the country. Not so much the case in Norway as there was no such sign of life on this well traveled path. While we were tested along the hike, I think we will both forever remember it to be perhaps the best hike we went on in our time in Europe. The views were once in a lifetime and we feel blessed to have made the hike and that Emma was a great hiking buddy that day. If you want to get a full taste of God's amazing creation, watch this video I found of the hike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObBXbIkOseI

We couldn't stop ourselves from taking a lot of photos either...



After a long, strenuous day we were extremely happy to find our way to our hotel for the evening. We found some very non-Norwegian food, Thai food, and quickly crawled into our warm beds for a good nights sleep.

While we had originally planned to hike on Tuesday and stay in this hotel for two nights, we again had changed plans, altered hotel schedules and set out on the road on Tuesday to make it to our next destination a day early in another attempt to beat bad weather for our planned outdoor activities. We spent both Tuesday and Wednesday driving about four hours each day in order to make our way to the southwest corner of the country and the city of Stavenger for the end of the week. Lucky for us we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful and enjoyable four hour drive each day (let's just say its a little more scenic than the drive from St. Louis to Kansas City). We made picnic lunches each day and just stopped wherever we felt, taking in magnificent views along several other large fjords and seeing waterfalls that were out of this world. The Hardangerfjord was especially impressive.

What a beautiful drive, and narrow roads of course...

Powerful waterfalls along our drive

Every now and then we would come across these very, very old wooden "Stave" churches

Another beautiful old church

Tuesday night we stopped in the small town of Tyssedal and stayed in a hotel literally perched over the fjord. While it was nice, it was still exorbitantly priced and served more bland Norwegian food for dinner. At least the very friendly staff made up for it a little!

By Wednesday afternoon we finally arrived in our last stop of the trip, Stavenger. We were excited that we had found such a great place to stay as well. A beautiful one bedroom private apartment made us all feel at home for our last four nights and was surprisingly the least expensive of all the places we stayed that week!

Emma was pretty pumped about her toys at the Stavenger apartment! What else would you expect in Norway, a rocking reindeer!

We made our way just outside of Stavenger on Thursday to take on the Preikestolen hike (otherwise known as Pulpit Rock), which was located on the Lysefjord. It was a rocky hike up two hours to an amazingly strange large flat rock that juts out over the fjord. Not only had I never seen anything quite like it, but I had never experienced anything similar in terms of such a crazy busy hiking path. It was two hours of constant lines formed along the path up. I seriously questioned whether I was in the Norwegian countryside or a famous Paris museum. It once again reconfirmed my conclusions that the Norwegians are avid outdoorsmen.

On the way up

Beautiful scenery on the way to the top

First view over the Lysefjord

And that's why they call it Pulpit Rock!

View from the edge of Pulpit Rock

Steve had to take the really cool photo...

View from above Pulpit Rock

On Friday we enjoyed another scenic boat ride, this time along the Lysefjord for views from below. Although similar to the other fjords we saw further north into the country, there was still a different feel and look to this fjord, likely as the climate still was quite a bit different from what they experience in other parts of the country. Also, we were much closer to the start of the fjord/the ocean so we got a feel for what the mouth of the fjord feels like and all the tiny islands surrounding it.

After the boat ride we took some time to meander around the old town in Stavenger. While we still had an unplanned day ahead on Saturday before we had to leave on Sunday morning, we knew that severe storms were supposed to come in so we tried to take advantage of the remaining nice weather while it lasted. We were glad we did as most of Saturday kept us inside, although we did eventually find ourselves doing a little shopping downtown and seeing a few of the key sites in the area. And of course like normal we enjoyed some non-Norwegian food on our last day with a stop at a Irish pub followed by dinner at a Mexican restaurant!

We were certainly sad to see Sunday arrive and have to head back to Zurich. It was a wonderful nine day trip full of unbelievable scenery and experiences. Norway definitely tops the lists of places we would love to go back to as it is a big country with so much more still to see!






Hope we all can re-create this photo again one day!