8/10, Part 2

The train left us at the Mall of Norway in Flam [which is short for flim-flam] which was like Disneyland without the rides and lots of overpriced trinkets. Their amber was 10 times the price of what I sell mine for.
While we waited, Daniel cajoled me to Aegir’s Brew Hall.

Family note: Please notice that the last beer is named Lynchburg - but I doubt it's from our Ohio village.

Norwegian Bar Fly

After a 5 beer sampler tray,

Daniel drank the dwarf under the table

we were feeling much better,

and had a nice chat with a couple from Oregon.
We wandered back to the loading area and Kim and the swains were 2nd in line, so we managed a really nice table by the window on our tour of fjords from Flam to Voss.

Endless waterfalls

Gorgeous views

Sailing away

Twins

From the ferry
we took  another wild and scary ride on a bus

More waterfalls on the wild switchback road to Voss.

to Voss to catch a train to Bergen.

Daniel put the kids, the luggage and me in a cab to our Bergen digs. The cab driver dropped us off at the wrong address around 9 pm. It was about two blocks away, but several people helped us find it, and the swains managed to maneuver it all. The taxi was 420 kronen [about $50] Daniel and Kim bought groceries and took their own cab. Daniel made burgers and sweet potato fries, but we were almost too tired to eat them. Showered, packed, and passed out.

View from our Bergen airbnb

Left around 8:30 am for our 10 am flight. Ordered a large cab to take us to Bergen airport the next day. Off to Lithuania.

Norway in a Nutshell

I remember sitting in Dan and Kim's living room months ago discussing our itinerary. I believe it was Kim who found the Norway in a Nutshell tour. It was great but grueling; a real endurance test. We were up for it.

What a long strange trip it was. Up and out of our flat by 5:30 am and down the hill with bags full of damp clothes [my jacket didn't dry out till Bergen] to catch a tram to the train station for our long, long train ride

Railroad Museum

across the top of the fjords,

but we didn't really mind as we were thoroughly entertained by the alien landscape.

This is where we caught the Flam train [Myrdal].

Gello

Fjord top

We reached  Myrdal where we caught a train that zig-zagged down the fjord to the sea at Flam.

Bikes & glaciers

More bikes

Daniel tried to hire a bicycle to ride down,

but they were all spoken for, so we enjoyed our wild ride hugging the fjord all the way down,

View from the train

and at one waterfall we stopped and had a photo op with a singing water maiden perched near the fall with amplified music.

local color

Top of the World

rocks

train fall view

fjord bottom

Had to wait for hours for our 2 hour ferry tour

of the fjords which was breathtaking and worth the wait. We all had ‘eye burn’ from looking at hundreds of waterfalls. Yosemite [and I love Yosemite] is lame compared to the Norwegian fjord falls - they’re 3 times as high!

Have to go to a part two on this. Too many photos for some of my e-mails.

still more photos

More follow-up photos to go with the  Oslo travelogues:

Dylan and Max ready to go at it.

The above were in Horten.

Next up: some of the lovely sculptures in the park up the road from out apartment.

And two more from our day at the museums in Oslo.

Max & his patron, Volund.

Valkyrie from the mead hall.

And finally, my favorite from the Mead Hall in Horten.

Norway photos

Frigga

Museum chair on which you can sit!

My Queen

Odin

Thor on the Shelf

 Thor

Wall Art

At last! I’m really figuring out this photo thing. I’m doing an update of photos from my camera with brief commentary. These are all from Oslo.

One of my favorites: waiting for the bus the first day; from left to right, me, Kim, Daniel, Max, and Dylan.

Shop on way to ferry.

Sisters

Viking Jewellery

going to the chapel

Praying?

Norsk Deco

More Munch Art which inspired a Mt. Diablo painting of mine.

Been there, seen that, but not in Norway!

Oseberg revisited

Oseberg carving

Two lovely bags at Oseberg shop

Pictures were a lot cheaper!

At the Nobel shop.

Freya

Next one: Norway in a Nutshell

sacramento pagan pride 2017 9/16 & 17

Search for this event on Facebook!

I'll be vending the latest selection from Lithuania and speaking about 'Amber & the Baltic Tradition.'

at PaganiCon 2016 - I'll be at 2018, too.

Here's part of my recent travels from my blog
www.prudenttravels.blogspot.com

Preface: I returned to a week of 100 degree + weather in Antioch. I’m not used to it now having been in the Baltic circle. Last weekend, I stayed with friends in SF and showed off my loot. It was a welcome respite from the heat, but no internet there, and although I’ve written up a lot of the copy for these travelogues, I’m still working on how to share the photos with you. I do think I have the problem solved; we’ll see. I hope to post at least one of these before I take up a friend’s offer to spend the holiday weekend in Humboldt. I’ve never been to the Emerald Triangle. I’ll be gone Thursday - Monday, and we plan to visit Hobbitown on our return. High temp should be no more than 80 while the East Bay is expecting another weekend of 100 + temps. It’s 92 while I’m typing this at 3 pm in Antioch. Leaving for SF Wed. 8/30 around 5 pm.

Monday, August 7th

Our first day to explore, so Daniel signed us all up for a 3-day Oslo pass. For $73 and 72 hours, I could ride any local bus, tram, train, subway, or ferry, and have FREE admissions to most museums. We got our money’s worth!

First, we took the tram to the Ferry where we hopped aboard to visit the Oseberg ship! The sight of this ship is engraved on most Heathens’ minds. Indeed, we make a model of it every year for our Ostara ship offering. It was truly awesome to see it and a lot of its artifacts up close and personal. I learned that it was a burial vessel for two women, aged 50 and 80. Astounding!

Next, we caught a bus to the Open-air Folk Museum. This place was packed with historical buildings from all over Norway. Most had been collected by the King in the 19th century and moved to this site. There were farmhouses, smithies, stables, and more. Once again, we were rewarded with another Norsk icon, the original stave church. We could  actually go in and out of it, touch the wood, and really enjoy the experience.

It was late afternoon by now, so we headed back on the Ferry. Once on the docks, we tried to go to Modern art museum, but it was closed on Mondays.

Instead, Dylan was hungry, so we went to his choice of restaurants on the pier. It was a campy, seafood house.

I’m allergic to shellfish, so I thought I might just have some soup, but the Monday special was a Smoked Cod lunch and was totally delicious. There were two large, unbreaded pieces with a mushroom sauce on the side, and I couldn’t finish it. Kim ordered a ‘bucket of shrimp’ and it actually came in a bucket at least 6” high and at least 6” in diameter. It was a lot of shrimp. Norway is far from cheap, but this place was a real find. My lunch was only about $20; the shrimp about $30. The boys enjoyed their cheeseburgers!

After that, we waddled up the pier towards the tram stop, but detoured at the Nobel peace center. As we left it was drizzling, so we headed home. The family got off at the stop 400 meters below our apartment to go grocery shopping, but even in the light rain, I continued to the stop about 800 meters above our place to walk down.

As I left the tram, I could see that this elevated view was fantastic and when I looked behind me I could see a beautiful park with beckoning statuary, but figured I’d be back Tuesday or Wednesday.

The view of Oslo bay and downtown on the way was spectacular. I was looking forward to seeing it again under better conditions. We ate at home that night and caught up on our devices. Went to bed early for me - around the 10 pm sunset- to rest up for another full day of touristing on Tuesday.