After the walk

We drove into Oslo today about a 4 hour drive from Flam. We visited a Viking museum to see ships that had been salvaged in the early 1900's and then we moved into our hotel room here in Oslo. We are in a chain of Scandinavian hotels called Scandic. Interesting setup--twin beds, same sparse scandinavian design as in modern homes. Breakfast is included in the $300 per night price tag. I'll be eating my money's worth come tomorrow.

Speaking of food, our dinner this evening cost us $100 each. I had french onion soup, salmon coated with a tomato mushroom topping on a bed of pasta and a panna cotta with strawberry rhubarb sauce. A cup of coffee cost $6.

Before dinner, we toured the home of Henrik Ibsen, a noted Norwegian writer whose work I had studied in college and taught in AP English. Very interesting. I won't bore you with the educational stuff, but I enjoyed being able to visit the home of a writer I was familiar with.

In the morning we are shopping for Nordic stuff and then heading south to Kristiansand.

Before leaving Flam, we did a boat tour of the Aurland fjord. What a magnificent landscape. We are on the water at sea level looking straight up over 1000 feet on both sides into huge mountains. And yes, we saw some seals and porpoises in and near the water.

Yet along the base of these mountains little communities stood and sometimes individual houses along the water. For some of them, water was their only travel mode. We stopped at a small village of 85 residents who made cheese for specialty shops in Norway. We had a small lecture on cheesemaking and then a tasting of a couple of the cheeses they make along with some cloudberry jam on toast with sour cream. That was better, to me, than the cheese. We were, of course, encouraged to buy some samples to take with us. I have a jar of cloud berry jam to bring home, if I don't break it before I get it there.

Riding the train up the mountain above the fjord offered some magnificent views too. The small farms and churches that dotted the landscape made you feel you had stepped back in time. As if riding a train to the top of those mountains wasn't enough, Becky insisted we drive up the "snow road" so called because it is covered with as much as 3 meters of snow each winter. Needless to say, it is closed during this time. There are posts extending many feet in the air to mark the edge of the road. So over the two days we were in Flam we went from the base of the mountains in the fjord to the highest peaks of the mountain. We were above the tree line and saw miles and miles of moss which the reindeer eat. We did not see any reindeer, but we were definitely at an altitude where they live.

So from the low levels of the fjord, the highest peaks of the snow road, and the surface of a glacier, I am ready for some city slicking tomorrow. As it is nearing midnight, I think it's time to rest for another adventure in Norway.