Travelogue: July 5 - 16, 2005
Prologue - So the adventure
this year was boiled down to either Ireland or Norway. It was Curt's
choice since I had chosen last year. He couldn't decide on a final
destination so I gave a gentle push, ok a hearty shove is more like it, in
the direction of Norway. My brother Jeff traveled throughout Europe
when he lived and worked in Scotland for a few years and I always remembered
him saying how amazing it was in Norway. Prior to the trip we got a
number of inquiries as to where we were going on vacation this year.
When I replied with Norway, we got a lot of interesting expressions and
comments of "Norway, interesting" - which when translated means "Why the
hell are you going there". Not to worry, I was confident that my
brother (and my boss who is Norwegian) would not disappoint. So off we
went on another one of our rip roaring adventures into the unknown, ok well
not quite that dramatic, but we were off.
Day 1 - Tuesday,
July 5th: San Francisco, CA to Olso, Norway - With 2 mongo
suitcases packed with riding gear and clothes (of which we would never wear
half) and 2 backpacks with books, travel documents, tour books, more travel
documents, helmets, and other said accouterments, we were off to San
Francisco airport at 6:30AM sharp. Dowd, our neighbor, was kind enough
to battle the morning traffic and drop us at the airport. I was cringing already
and getting in a mental dither just remembering the horrors of last year's
International air travel fiasco. Last year it was Delta Airlines and
the flights were awful with delays, missed connections, and medical
emergencies, etc. Delta had been crossed off the Christmas list and
this year we were flying Continental. But the memories were all too
fresh in my mind, hence my constipated state of mind. An
analogy/joke comes to mind that goes something to this effect: This
guy breaks down with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere and finds out he
doesn't have a jack to change the tire. He is pissed of course.
He does see a farmhouse off in the distance with a light on. The guy
gets to thinking that no one is going to help him and poor me, what am I
going to do. He finally decides the farmhouse is his only option so he
starts walking over. He has completely worked himself all up and is
convinced that no one will be home or help him. He knocks on the door
and a man opens the door and asks how he can help, the guy replies "take the
jack and shove it up your ass". I hadn't yet told the gate agent
to shove the wing up his ass yet, but I was thinking about it. I guess
being prepared for the worst and not expecting anything worked this time, or
else the travel gods had taken pity, as our flight went off without a hitch.
Woo-hoo. We connected in Newark, again without a hitch, and landed in
Oslo about 10:00AM on Wednesday.
Day 2 - Wednesday,
July 6th: Oslo Arrival - We cleared customs, retrieved our bags,
exchanged money for kroners, and took the Flytoget express train to
our hotel. Thanks to Rick Steve's handy travel book we knew to
take the Flytoget to downtown Oslo, but he failed to mention at which stop
to get off. Perfect. Kind of an important item to leave out, ya think
Rick. Fortunately a friendly gentleman whom was a flight attendant
seated next to us offered his help as he was going downtown too. He
even showed us to our hotel after we got off at the central station. A
very good thing, as it was a maze of shops and such and no signs of how the
heck to get out of the matrix. He definitely won the good citizen
award for the week for helping the handicapped.
Fortunately the hotel let
us check-in early, it was either a bed or a bar at that point. Bed was
preferable of course in our tired state. We crashed until 4:30 that
afternoon, and then decided it was time to reconnoiter as we were both
parched, a bit hungry, and anxious to wonder around and check out our new
surroundings. We wandered back to the central train station
(Ostbanehallen) and sorted out the matrix, then over to the bus terminal, and
finally we sniffed out the local bar - Venterommet Pub. Never mind
that 2 beers cost 100 kroners, about $17.00 USD...ouch...but we sacrificed
all in the name of vacation. Our bartender was Frank who was very cool
and eager to chat about America and San Francisco in particular. He
had never been to the states and desperately wanted to come visit and check
it out. After about 4 or 5 or 6 beers later, all sort of a blur, I
think he has an open invitation to our couch. We didn't want to turn
into the Cheers characters just yet, seeing is that we were gonna be in Oslo
for a week, so we stumbled on out of the pub and up to Karl Johans
Gate. Karl Johans is the main drag in Oslo and is closed to cars, only
pedestrians are allowed. There are tons of shops and restaurants and
street entertainers. If you walk up to the end, there sits the Royal
Palace. Time for dinner, so we plopped down at Peppe's Pizza for
some grub. Yep, in a foreign country and we are so adventurous as to
try pizza, how inspiring are we. I must say though that the pizza was
outstanding but the check was scary. 1 medium pizza, 1 Cesar salad,
and 2 beers later (yes, I need a liver transplant after this vacation), the
bill came to $80.00 USD. Oh well, it was all in kroners so it didn't
count, right? More walking, no more beer, but the ice cream vendor was
looking pretty yummy (yes, and did I mention that I gained 8 lbs these last
2 weeks, gee how did that happen). We were back to the hotel and
in bed again by 10:30PM - but up at 2:00AM wide awake. Back to
sleep at 5:00AM and up at 7:00AM for breakfast - gee I am famished ;-)
Click on the small pictures for a larger view to appear.
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Looking out hotel window in Oslo
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Hotel room in Oslo
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Central trail station in Oslo
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Curt with "tiger by the tail" in central square
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Laurel "poking the tiger"
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Karl Johans Gate - main drag
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Day 3 - Thursday,
July 7th: Oslo Sightseeing - The breakfast buffet, which was
included in the price of the hotel, looked oh so yummy the first day.
There appeared to be all sorts of scrumptious goodies, but on closer
scrutiny and a taste test we quickly learned that Norwegian fare and our
finely developed palettes (yeah right) were not destined to be. One
entire area was dedicated to some sort of fish something-or-other dishes.
Curt was the brave one and tried some sort of, ya, something. Mr. iron
gut Curt, nothing bothers me, gave a horrified look upon swallowing whatever
it was. Yeah, about that, no thanks, think I'll just choke down some
dry white toast over here. Ok, so I am being a little harsh, but lets
just say I stuck with the fruit and cereal route for the rest of the stay.
Me and my sensitivity tummy didn't need an ImodiumAD episode out on the
ferry somewhere.
Tourist attractions on the
menu today were the Viking Museum, the Norwegian Folk Museum, and the Aker
Brygge mall area. The Viking Museum and Folk Museum all required a
trip over to Bygdoy (pronounced Big-Doy). We jumped on bus #30 for the
20 minute ride and ended up getting to the Viking Museum about 30 minutes
early. No problem, find a shady spot under an apple tree and proceed
to fall asleep for 45 minutes - seriously. We were still foggy and
jetlagged and anytime your butt was planted it was easy to just keel over
and pass out. Awakened by streams of tour buses and diesel fumes we
figured it was time to vacate our shady oasis and check out the ships.
As we walked passed a tour bus, the tour guide had just come off the bus
ahead of us and for some strange reason thought we were with her group on
the tour. She turned and just started babbling away at us in French
and keep walking. We of course kept walking behind her because there
was only one door. As we approached the door she turned and handed us
tickets and kept babbling. Curt and I obviously had strange
expressions on our faces and I think it finally dawned on her that something
was amiss. Finally I said "ah, English?". She grabbed the
tickets out of our hands and said "you are not with my tour", no shit lady,
what was your first clue. She then proceeded in English and said "so
you understood nothing I said", I simply replied "that's right, but it
sounded good". She went scurrying off to find her group I guess...sheesh...French
people, no humor. What a ditz - hair flip please.
Since we didn't score on
the tickets from the French lady, we had to buy our own, damn, and wandered
around the museum. Not too big, but very impressive. There were
massive Viking ships that had been reconstructed from various burial
remains. There were also other neat artifacts and such.
Fortunately, Curt and I are both on the same page with museums and art
galleries and the like, bigger is not better. My attention span
tends to wan after a short while, unless there are motorcycles involved
somewhere somehow. And then add annoying French tourists getting in
the way of every cool shot you try and take. Oh well, onward to
the Folk Museum down the road. Now this place was cool. They had
actually taken a bunch of old farmhouses and created an open-park village on
the grounds. There were about 150 houses, shops, and a neat old stave
church on a hilltop. After a few hours of museums and rude French and
Japanese tourists it was time to head back to Oslo. We decided to take
the ferry back instead of the hot stuffy bus. A good call, as the walk
to the ferry was very pretty through shaded lanes with nice houses. We
met a big fluffy friendly kitty on the way that I had to stop and adore.
The ferry deposited us at
the Aker Brygge mall area in Oslo that is a waterfront open area. You
can go inside to the shops but the attraction is the waterfront with a huge
open plaza area. Great for people watching and enjoying the scenery.
We decided to grab some lunch but weren't into a sit down meal so we hit the
grocery store and bought fixings for sandwiches and ate in the seating area
in the store. Exhausted, we finally headed to the sanctuary of our
room and napped from 2:30 - 8:30, just a quick cat nap. By 9:00PM we
were wide awake again and restless, hmmm, imagine that. The night was
young so we decided to venture out and ended up in the SideSport Pub which
was the other bar that our favorite bartender Frank worked. He had
told us to come by the night before, and of course we couldn't disappoint
him. After a few beers and god only knows how many hundreds of kroners
later, we asked Frank for a dinner recommendation and he pointed us to the
Bella Napoli. Outstanding Italian food and another friendly encounter
with more Norwegians that loved Americans - hey our lucky week. Good
thing, as most other countries hate us at this point. While finishing
dinner and heading out with a few other patrons we ran into Knute and
Kristian (father and son) who had been to a Black Sabbath concert down
the way in Oslo. They were hilarious, and I think they have an open
invitation to our couch as well. We ended up chatting with them on the
street in front of the restaurant for about an hour before we all disbanded.
By this time it was about 12:30AM and you guessed it, I had the ice cream
munchies again. Fortunately there is either a 7-11 or McDonald's on
every block so crisis averted. We finally made it to the room and I
think we actually slept until 5:00AM or so.
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Viking Museum
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Viking Museum
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Viking Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Norweigen Folk Museum
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Day 4 - Friday,
July 8th: Oslo Sightseeing - Plan for the day was to find the
Harley Davidson motorcycle shop for a visit, then to Frogner park to see the
Vigeland sculptures, and possibly the Holmenkollen ski jump. We had
the address for the Harley shop so we asked the concierge for help on how to
get there. He looked up the address and with a grim expression
explained that it was a very long ways out of town and will take at least 30
minutes to get there by bus. Oh my, that far you say. Ok, I was
polite and didn't laugh, I just asked which bus we needed and he directed us
to the bus terminal across the way. We inquired about tickets and bus
# at the terminal and bought an Oslo day pass for 60 kroners each. Off
we went on a nice sweltering bus for quite the journey, Gilligan's Island
theme comes to mind - a three hour tour. The buses were nice, it is
just that there is no air conditioning and you can't open any windows so you
feel like you are wilting inside a greenhouse. Water, I need water.
After 30 minutes, almost on the dot, we hopped off the bus and walked a few
blocks to the Harley shop. We wandered into the showroom and were
greeted by the owner, Sverre. I wish I would have taken a picture of
him, as he was something right out of a Viking history book. Big
burley guy with long wavy locks and a beard. We just needed a Viking
hat with the horns and we'd be in business. He was the nicest guy
though and offered several of his bikes to us to take a test ride. We
noted that we in shorts, t-shirts, and thongs but he didn't seem to care.
He just shrugged and said "I have helmets for you". All very
hospitable and appreciated but I kinda like my skin attached to my body - we
both politely declined. We chatted for over an hour and he
showed us around his garage where he builds custom bikes. We made some
souvenir purchases, thanked Sverre profusely, and headed down the road to catch our bus back to
Oslo.
This is where the 3 hour tour part comes in.
We jumped back on the right bus number but we caught it going in the wrong
direction. Duh. We ended up on the bus for 50 minutes waiting
for it to turn around and loop back, of course it didn't. This is
where too much optimism gets you in trouble. Finally we stopped at
some other bus terminal with the bus driver kicking everyone off.
Beautiful. Ah, ok, how do we get back to Oslo Mr. Wizard. The
bus driver pointed us to another bus across the way. Great now we had
50 minutes plus the original 30 minute ride ahead of us in a sweltering bus
with no windows. Can you say nauseous, good thing I didn't have any of
those sardine thingies at breakfast, eeewww. Who's idea was this...oh,
that would be mine...damn. On the plus side though we got out of town,
ya way out of town, and got to see the countryside. Oh and did I
mention that our day passes were now invalid because we were outside of Oslo
so we had to pay again. Wow, we were gonna need a second mortgage by
the time this vacation was over. Finally back safely to the room by
early afternoon. We were exhausted, nauseated, and dehydrated, but it
was all worth it. Yep, more napping was next on the agenda, the ski
jump and sculptures would just have to wait for us.
We drug ourselves out of nap mode around
6:00PM and ventured out for sustenance and libations, yes, terribly habit
forming ;-). After perusing around for a bit, Curt wanted to go see
the sculptures in the park. Because we didn't have enough fun on the
bus ride in the morning we thought we'd torture ourselves once more with
public transportation and caught a bus over to Frogner park. Again,
totally worth the trip as the park was cool. The sculptures were done
by Gustav Vigeland who was considered the greatest sculptor in Norway.
There are 192 bronze and granite sculptures in the park. We ooh'ed and
aah'ed for the appropriate amount of time, then wandered through the rest of
the park. There were tons of people, mostly younger folks, just
hanging out and enjoying the summer weather. It doesn't get dark until
about midnight and then the sun comes back up around 3:00AM. Makes for
some funky sleep patterns, and then toss in some jetlag and we got a real
mess. Back on the bus, heading the right direction this time, hopping
off at the Aker Brygge area to scout out some dinner. We spotted an
inviting cafe and parked there for a yummy dinner of steamed mussels in garlic
broth with fresh bread and a big Cesar salad. We waddled back to the
hotel, sans the ice cream that evening as the pants were starting to get a
bit tight, hmmm.
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Harley Davidson shop
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Frogner Park
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Frogner Park - Vigeland Sculptures and Curt
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Frogner Park
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Frogner Park - Vigeland Sculptures and Curt
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Frogner Park - Vigeland Sculptures
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Frogner Park - Vigeland Sculptures
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Frogner Park
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Frogner Park - Vigeland Sculptures
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Cafe where we had dinner
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Day 5 - Saturday,
July 9th: Oslo Sightseeing - Today we were boycotting public
transportation and decided on a walking tour, as our stash of Pepto Bismal
and Alka Seltzer for our nauseated tummies was running scarcely low.
Rick Steve's book had mapped out a cool route up the Aker's river and over
to the Grunerlokka District, which was claimed to be the Greenwich Village
of Oslo. We packed up with plenty of water and headed out. It
was a great walk, through picturesque streets, a cemetery and church,
a back lane with beautiful gardens, and a path that followed the river.
We cut over to Thorvald Meyers Gate and headed down into the district.
Unfortunately we were a bit early and not much was open, but we poked
around anyway and hung out in the local park for a while. I spotted a
restaurant that advertised Vietnamese food and sushi and made a mental note
for dinner. Curt seemed a bit skeptical and tentative to try it.
Can't say I blame him, one bad sushi dinner could ruin a few days if you
know what I mean. I started to have visions of our breakfast fish
being stuffed inside some sort of "mystery roll" - ya, bad idea. Back
to the hotel after our 5 mile walkabout for some relaxing, reading and
lounging.
We rallied again in the early afternoon and
decided to head to a fjord town outside of Oslo called Drobak. We
walked over to Aker Brygge to catch the 1 hour ferry but had just missed it.
The thought of a bus ride put us both over the edge, so we decided to have a
beer to calm our twitching. Once the twitching subsided we perused
around Karl Johans Gate again, then, throwing all caution and self
preservation to the wind, we decided to be bold and went to the
Vietnamese/sushi restaurant back in the Grunerlokka. We hoofed up the
way about 2 miles to the restaurant and were greeted by the owner who spoke
about 3 words of English - fortunately beer was one of them. She had a
young daughter who took our order of a couple of sushi rolls to start.
After a long while the sushi appeared and we held our breath on the first
bite. To both of our surprise it was some of the best we had
ever tasted. The rice was freshly stemmed and all the ingredients were
so fresh and tasty. More sushi please. Since that was so tasty
we decided to really go all out and ordered Pad Thai noodles. Equally
fresh and delicious. After a great meal we thanked mother and daughter
and headed back to town, fortunately it was downhill, whew. The night
was young and the weather was gorgeous so we stopped at the Ostbanehallen
pub, and sat in the outside cafe area for a nightcap and watched the crowds
meander by. We then went back to the room and lights out around
midnight.
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Aker's river walk
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Aker's river walk
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Aker's river walk
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More Vigeland sculptures on Aker's river walk
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Entrance to Ringnes Brewing Company, darn too early
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Ringnes Brewing Co
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Day 6 - Sunday,
July 10th: Off to Alesund, Norway - Time to pack it up and head out
to Alesund for the motorcycle touring portion of the vacation. We
signed up with a company called Edelweiss (same as last year) and you pay
one price which includes your motorcycle rental, hotel, breakfast and some
dinners, tour guide, and transport to and from airport. We were both ready to go, we had a
great time in Oslo, but the roads were a calling. We checked out of
the hotel in the morning and hopped on the Flytoget train, in the proper
direction, to the Oslo airport. We caught a flight over to Alesund and
was promptly met by our German guide Claus as we retrieved all our
bags. He loaded us up in the van and took us to the Scandic Hotel in Alesund
where we would stay for the duration of the trip. He informed us that
there was a briefing at 5:00PM and our bikes would be handed over to us at
6:00PM, and dinner would follow at 7:00PM. The 5:00PM briefing
commenced and not soon after did the cast of characters take form. We
had the pompous ass doctor and his blonde beauty wife (Walt/Pam), the
obnoxious CEO with his blonde queen (John/Deb), the English couple (Martyn/Janet)
living in the US, the retired couple (Richard/Kit), the pilot and his
wife (Eric/Tammy), and the 5 Germans that spoke no English. The doc,
CEO and English couple were all buddies and worked together. I
took an immediate dislike to the doc and wife because they had to advertise
over and over that he was a doctor and went to MIT and blah, blah,
blah...The guy couldn't put down his BlackBerry for 2 seconds to listen to
the guide during the briefing and in turn kept asking questions about things
that the guide had already explained. Oh wait, do I do that...hehe...ok, I am
not that bad, at least I was on vacation and shut mine off. But then
again, I am not a doctor and didn't go to MIT. Alright, enough Walt
bashing, I've got plenty more for later. Anywho, onward with the
briefing and bikes and then to dinner with the group. As we were
eating dinner and getting to know one another a swarm of people bombarded
the dinning room. The guide mentioned that the hotel gets a lot of
tour buses, hence the crowds. We nicknamed them the "locust", because
that is literally what it was - a swarm of people buzzing around the food
and tables and when they disbanded all the food was gone, wah-huh.
Just when you were having a nice quiet breakfast you could hear them coming.
Run Forest, run. We retired early as we had gone nap-less throughout
the day, quite a feat, and were hoping for a good night's sleep.
Success. Finally whipping the jetlag.
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View from our hotel - rough duty being on harborside
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View from our hotel - cafe with blue awning where we had dinner one night
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View from hotel
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View from hotel
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View from hotel - restaurant on the hilltop where we went to later
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Day 7 - Monday,
July 11th: 1st Day of Motorcycle Tour - Breakfast at
7:00 and briefing at 8:30, don't be late, you know how those German's are
about punctuality. Ok, time for more Walt bashing. This guy is
so type A antsy that he can't wait 15 more minutes for the briefing to
start. He jumps on his bike and starts blathering away to the CEO and
his wife to come on and hurry up, let's get out of here, we are burning
daylight. Gee, ya got 21 hours of daylight, genius. So they zoom
off in a blaze of glory leaving everyone else thankful for their departure.
Whew, got rid of him, now we don't have to hear about how many lives you
saved last week due to your brilliance. The rest of us fools mount up
and bring our steeds out of the parking garage for the briefing. 15
minutes later we are off and in route to conquer Trollstigen pass. Imagine
who we run into at the first coffee break stop of the morning, yep the
prominent doc and company. Beautiful. More Pepto Bismal please.
On the road again we meandered around fjords and the most breathtaking
scenery I have ever encountered. The pictures don't even come close to
doing it justice. Claus set a nice easy pace to assess everyone's
riding ability. For the most part everyone was a good rider, but
Richard and Kit were a bit slow. They were cool most of the time
though and told us to just go ahead, as they would catch up. Everyone
had a detailed map and the route for each day already laid out for them.
Plus, the roads were so well marked and easy to follow you would of have to
work at it to get lost. After a while we reached the start on the
Trollstigen pass which was quite treacherous. This was a one lane road
with tight switchbacks going up and up and up. Imagine my surprise
when I started seeing tour buses coming down the mountain and also going up.
At one point a camper and a bus were at a standoff and could not pass one
another. Neither could safely back up either. We all sat on the
bikes watching the stalemate, there was nothing we could do to pass.
Finally the bus inched over into a ditch off the road and the camper scraped
by. Never mind that there is only a knee high stone guardrail on one
side that drops off into the netherworld..holy crap Batman. Let's just
say I was a bit relieved to finally hit the top of the pass and have it open
up to two lanes again.
Lunch break, picture taking and souvenir
shopping were in order at the top of the pass. We were soon off and
down the backside of the pass which was much tamer than the front. We
had reached the halfway point and were headed back to the hotel. We
had a few more stops and one more coffee break along the way. Claus
also took us high atop a mountain where there was a restaurant and a great
view of Alesund. We finally rolled into the hotel around 5:00 and 180
miles later. A good safe day, no crashes, no fights :-)
We were on our own for dinner, so we showered
up and headed for the cafe that we had spotted across the harbor from our
hotel window. We started off with a few beers and a recap of our day's
adventure. No sooner had we started Walt/John (CEO) bashing and Eric
and Tammy strolled up. We asked them to join us and we ended up
getting stupid until the wee hours of the night with them. They were
hilarious and we instantly bonded. Tammy and I had a mutual dislike
for the doc and company. We nicknamed the wives the Gucci Mommas, it
really fit. We had hours of laughter throughout the trip with that
one. Turns out that Eric is a pilot and flies mostly the rich and
famous all over the world. So he kept us all entertained with some
great stories.
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Morning coffee break
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Coffee break - Richard, me, Curt, Tammy in the back, Janet and Eric
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Partial shot of the start of Trollstigen pass
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Waterfall on Trollstigen pass
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Shot from top of Trollstigen look back down the valley
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Top of Trollstigen pass. Whew, made it. Lunch and change of underwear.
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Walt and Pam - aka Doc and Gucci Momma 1
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John and Deb - aka Head Troll and Gucci Momma 2
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Top of Trollstigen
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Top of Trollstigen
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Top of Trollstigen and some rock thingies
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Needs no intro
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Rest stop after Trollstigen
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Rest stop after Trollstigen
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Rest stop after Trollstigen
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Rest stop after Trollstigen
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Shot from restaurant on top of hill looking down into Alesund, Norway.
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Group shot
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Lupine everywhere
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Day 8 - Tuesday,
July 12th: 2nd Day of
Motorcycle Tour - I think I said something about swearing off
alcohol this morning in my hazy fog. Good lord, who made me drink all
those beers. Oh well, time to light the fires and kick the tires and
head out for another glorious day. Another sunny day so Claus decided
to change the route and do Geirangerfjord. This is one of the most
famous and beautiful fjords in Norway. A 1.5 hour ferry ride up the
fjord was part of the itinerary, so a sunny day would be much more pleasant
then a rainy one. Oh it rains in Norway, really, as we would soon find
out the following day. The doc and company headed off on their own
again, as this would be the pattern for the remainder of the trip which
suited everyone just fine. I think I would have slit my wrists if I
had to listen to them all day. We took off at 8:30 to catch our first
ferry of the day. A pleasant ride through the pristine roads -
no gravel, no potholes, no cracks, nothing but perfect grippy pavement.
We made our way over to Geirangerfjord and waited in line for the ferry.
The ferry ride up the fjord was stunning! Every direction you turned
was a view of the steep mountains with waterfalls rolling down hundreds of
feet. Once at the end of the fjord, Claus took us up to a lookout
point where we captured some great shots. There were a few cruise
ships in the fjord, these are regulated and only a certain few ships can be
in there and only for a limited number of days. From the fjord we
headed up another steep mountain switchback trail with Rainer, myself and
Curt right on Claus' heels. He had certainly picked up the pace after
he figured out we were all very experienced riders. We had a romping
good time up the pass at amusing speeds. A comment that Claus made the
first night kept ringing in my ears, and I was oh so tempted to act upon it.
He had said in his German accent "this is not a race, this is a fun trip,
everyone should go at their own pace, and I will not be impressed if
you pass me". Won't be impressed, huh, ok, we'll see about that :-) .
At the time, Curt and I kind of grinned and chuckled because we knew we had
to mess with him now and at some point pass him, safely of course. But
the time was not quite right yet, patience Grasshopper.
As we approached the top of the pass I think
Claus was a bit surprised that we were all still chomping at his heels, he
was no doubt an excellent experienced rider and he was haulin' ass up the
pass - that's a technical motorcycle term. He pulled over at the top
amidst the snow and we all had big grins on our faces. Hmmm, wonder
what the workin' folk are doing about now...who cares. The rest of the
pack motored up shortly and we proceeded with a snowball fight, thanks to
Curt the instigator. Off we went to another lookout point called
Dalsnibba. This was a graveled road several miles long, which was no
problem for our bikes with the dual-sport tires but some of the other folks
were none too thrilled slip sliding around on the bigger bikes. Next
up was an even longer road that was a hairy combination of gravel and
pavement, ya, my favorite. I don't mind one or the other, just not a
combination thank you. The road kept going and going and I was
wondering where the heck he was taking us. I was following blindly as
most good motorcycle lemmings do, but just as I was about to get a good rant
going with my inner monologue inside my helmet, we popped out at a ski
resort. Wah-huh, snowboarding in mid July, anyone, anyone.
A much needed rest stop was in order as we dinned on diet coke and ice cream
of all things. Fortunately, the rest of the way back to the main road
was paved and in beautiful condition. I had jumped in behind Claus and
we had a marvelous time weaving down the road. The best part was when
we came up behind the doc and company and whooshed by them. Unlike
Claus, they did happen to be impressed - they later admitted so at dinner.
It did my heart good and gave me a little chuckle. Curt had soon
caught up with us and just couldn't help himself, his throttle paw was stuck
and just couldn't slow the big BMW GS1200 down. Curt had strategically
waited until we got to some big fast sweepers and blew by Claus like he was
standing still, ooops. Well, far be it for me to sit there loafing, I
gotta go catch my wingman. Claus got goosed again as I rocketed by
him...hehe...sorry Claus, well actually, not really. Gotta go bu-bye.
At the next stop he just grinned and chuckled and shook his head. I
let out a little giggle of glee myself.
We finally dragged back into the hotel at
7:00 and we had a group dinner planned for 8:00 at a restaurant down the
street. Curt got stuck next to the Gucci Mommas and Walt and I
strategically sat on the other side so I could talk with Tammy & Eric, and
Richard & Kit. After that evening the Gucci Mommas were relabeled and
branded as the Stepford Wives. Equally fitting as these two never shut
up, they were always on. Blathering away about some important party or
social event or their hairdresser or manicurist. I swear they had a
switch on the backside of them that was stuck in the on position.
Enough about me, what do you think about me. Yak, yak, yak. We
finally wrapped up dinner and walked back to the hotel around 11:00. I
smartly drank water that evening and woke up feeling rested and refreshed,
wow, imagine that.
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Ferry taking us to Stranda
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Ferry taking us to Stranda
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Stranda
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Shot of falls while in line for ferry to Geirangerfjord
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Ferry boat on the way to Geirangerfjord
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Falls on the way to Geirangerfjord
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On the way to Geirangerfjord
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Geirangerfjord
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Geirangerfjord
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Group shot at Geirangerfjord: Kit, Richard, Me, Curt, Steffan, Holger
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Claus with Deb and Pam - careful don't activate the switches
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Break after climbing Geirangerfjord hills
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Break after climbing Geirangerfjord hills
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Shot from Dalsnibba - looking down at Geirangerfjord
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Road winding up to Dalsnibba - can you say vertigo
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Day 9 - Wednesday, July 13th: 3rd Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Ah, refreshed and ready to ride hangover free,
life is good. Since the weather was rainy and cold, Claus decided it
was a good day for the island of Runde loop. This was suppose to
include a 2 hour boat tour to go see some sort of birds on some rock.
Hmmm, not my bag baby in all categories. Seasickness and rocks filled
with gooey bird "scheissen" just wasn't tripping my trigger. Oh but
there was another option of a 1 hour strenuous hike to see the birds from
afar as well. Brilliant, another excellent idea hiking up steep slopes
in motorcycle boots and garb in the rainy mucky weather. Curt and I
decided to yank out the map and opt for plan B after we got to Runde.
We wanted to ride over there with the group but we were gonna bail and blaze
our own trail from there.
The ride over was wet and cold but the
landscape was different and interesting. We all huddled in a cafe and
drank hot chocolate as Claus checked on the boat for those who wanted to go
to the bird rock. Due to weather they weren't running it but
surprisingly half the group opted for hiking. The rest of us wanted to
ride. The hikers agreed that the riders should go on ahead and they
would find their way back to the hotel later. Curt, myself, Rainer,
and Eric & Tammy all headed off with Claus on what turned out to be my
favorite day of the trip. Claus had announced that we had a few riding
options that he could show us and was wondering if we were interested in
scouting some roads he had never ridden but was curious about. Of
course we all chimed in, eager and willing to discover new trails and terrain
- sort of felt like a Viking adventure.
With Claus only having 4 bikes on his tail it
was easy for everyone to stay together and follow along nicely as he wicked
it up. I was mostly in lemming mode again and really didn't care where
we went, how we got there or where we'd been. First up was to check on
a little trail that looked like it dead-ended at a lake on the map, but
Claus wanted to see if the road may actually go thru via a trail. The
pavement started out ok, but soon turned into a dirtbike trail, no matter,
we all had dual-sport tires so we motored on in search of enlightenment.
Unfortunately, enlightenment was early lived as we ran out of road about a
mile into the trail and completely dead-ended, no way thru to the other
side. Bummer, but still a fun excursion. On to the next goat
trail exploration. But not before a hearty lunch of bacon-wrapped hotdogs and fries from the gas station. Yum! Tanks and tummies
fueled we marched along behind Claus as all good soldiers do, fall in you
maggots!
From the gas station we wound around some new
roads in search of a trail that was suppose to connect to another main road
over a mountain ridge. We missed the turn off and ended up in some
guy's barn down a gravel road. Ooops sorry. The owner was
actually in the barn doing repair work, imagine his surprise, helloooooo.
Claus showed him the map and he pointed out that we missed the turn off just
a quarter mile back. Zoom zoom, in a cloud of dust we spun around and
found, once again, a dirtbike trail up and up the side of this mountain.
We all shook our heads in the affirmative that we were game and we charged
up the steep hill with some gnarly switchbacks. A little dicey even
with the dual-sport tires but everyone eventually made it and we were
treated to wonderful views and a lake at the top with a multitude of fishing
cabins. Coming down the backside was great fun too. We ran into
several herds of sheep and goats towards the bottom. Upon leaving the
dirt and going back to the pavement there was a gate. When the sheep
and goats saw the gate had been opened by Claus for us to get out, they all
came running and they nearly escaped. Claus barely got the gate closed
in time before the stampede got to him.
Claus wanted to try one last road and since
there was plenty of daylight, we happily obliged. He was delighted
with our enthusiasm and we were delighted we weren't working and on
vacation. We were easily amused. On the last dirtbike road we
ventured onto who did we run into, no, not again, the doc and company.
UGH. I swear, these people were like bad pennies, they just kept
turning up everywhere. Wow, fancy meeting you here. We were
polite and chatted for a few and then quickly moved on. My departure
was a rapid backwheel spin that I think, ok I know, kicked up just a wee bit
of dirt and gravel and launched it in their vicinity...I am so evil...I am
sure I am going straight to hell for that one. I am sure the Gucci
twins are still cussing me...hehe.
Back to the hotel by 7:00, exhausted, dirty,
but absolutely elated. We cleaned up, met Tammy & Eric at the bar for
a drink then all went down the street for dinner. We were about 2
drinks into our recap of the day's adventure, and guess who picks the same
restaurant for dinner. Mmm-hmm, them, again. Unbelievable and
really quite comical at this point. We were in one corner and they
went to another so no shots were fired across anyone's bows. All was
peaceful in the land of Alesund that night.
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Morning ferry crossing to Runde...brrrr!
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Ketchup dispenser for hot dogs in gas station - how novel. No packets to spray yourself with
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Eric, Tammy, Me in same ketchup dispensing gas station
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First goat trail that ended in dead-end at the lake. Curt on his trusty steed with Rainer in the back
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Same road to dead-end but sure was fun
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My trusty steed front and center
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View from atop the second goat trail
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Tammy, Eric, Curt, and I on the second goat trail
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John, Walt, Janet on goat trail
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Gang on goat trail
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Day 10 - Thursday, July 14th: 4th Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Today was the Atlantic Road loop which took us in
a westerly direction. The weather was a bit threatening so I put
the electric vest on early before any chill set in as did the day before.
Up until yesterday, I had not tried the electric vest that Curt bought me
for Christmas. I liked the idea of staying warm but I kinda thought it
was silly and that I would somehow be less of a biker chick for cheesing out and
wearing electric clothing. Next thing you know, I'd be wearing
electric socks and underwear, good lord, the horror. But I am ashamed
to say I have been converted and swear by the electric vest. It wraps
up around my neck and if you are not careful can put you to sleep after
lunch or a big meal. It's like having a big electric blanket wrapped
around you. Never mind that you feel like the Michelin Man wrapped up
in this thing. I think if I took a spill I would probably bounce
instead of slide...sheesh. All joking aside, I was toasty and I really
didn't give a rats ass how I looked.
We took several ferries throughout
the day and crisscrossed a few different islands. The roads were not
as twisty and creative as the day before, but the scenery was all good.
Yes we got spoiled on yesterday's ride and were now backroad snobs. We
stopped in a town called Bud (pronounced Bod) where old World War II
paraphernalia was on display on a hillside. Afterwards we had a sit
down lunch of fish and chips at a nice restaurant that Claus had sniffed
out. After lunch we meandered around on more mostly straight roads and
stopped at a stave church for a break. I was so in nap mode after
lunch and found a nice bench at the church to pass out on for a quick cat
nap.
Claus had to be back before 6:00 to get to
the BWM/Harley shop in Alesund to change out someone's tire so he was in a
bit of a hurry on the way back. Richard and Kit kept poking along so
we told Claus and the other Germans to go ahead. We'd wait for Richard
and Kit and ride back as a group along with Eric and Tammy. This was
fun as we got to pull out our maps and follow the breadcrumbs back home.
Eric and I did a fine job taking turns navigating, ok it wasn't that hard, I
think we had 3 roads we had to take. But it all sounded so brave and
adventurous in a foreign land. We were back by 7:00. Our usual
routine of shower, bar, and dinner with Eric and Tammy commenced at 8:00.
No doc sightings at dinner that evening, whew, we got a reprieve.
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Stop at the WWII site in the town of Bud
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Stop at the WWII site in the town of Bud
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Stop at the WWII site in the town of Bud
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Town of Bud
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Lunch stop in the town of Bud
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Cool bridge somewhere, I can't remember
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Another cool bridge
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Nappy time....zzzzzz
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Random shot during the day
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Day 11 - Friday, July 15th: 5th Day of
Motorcycle Tour - Last day was day of the fjords as we wound around
14 different fjords with spectacular twisty roads and views. Poor
Claus was riding a Harley Sportster 883 today. He had to give up his
BMW GS1200 to another tour group and the only bike available for rent was
the Sportster. Bummer dude. We of course ribbed him and told him
he could follow along in the back today and we'd make sure we got him home
before dark. Haha. We soon learned how good a rider Claus really
was. Not 5 minutes off the first ferry he was scrapping something
underneath. Well, alrighty then. He rode the wheels off that
thing, very impressive! Curt and I still had to pass him just for
shits and giggles, but he was a good sport and took the beating like a man.
In fact, most of the day Curt and I rode out
ahead. The group was slow today, especially with Claus taking it easy
on the Harley. When the road forked or we got far ahead we stopped and
waited a spell for everyone. No fun riding without your pack-mates.
The day was great though, as the roads around all the fjords and villages
were vacant of cars and the weather had cleared for one last nice day of
riding. We did do one flat goat trail somewhere along the way.
No incidents or accidents with the big bikes or the Harley. Lunch
break was yet again another gas station to fuel up on hotdogs. Claus
was really into the hotdog and gas station thing. Guess he figured he
could kill 2 birds with 1 one stone. Worked for me, as I would rather
ride than sit around and eat. Coffee break later in the day was at a
neat cafe overlooking a town down below. All in all a calm riding day
and back to the barn by 6:00.
We had a final group farewell dinner that was
nice. Claus handed out t-shirts and a CD with photos that he had shot
during the trip, which was a nice touch. Dinner was shared with
one last locust swarm of tour bus people. The partings were cordial
and not overly gooey or emotional. None of us cared much for doc and
company, and the Germans were great, but since they didn't speak English nor
us German, there was no big drama there. Eric and Tammy were the only
ones we really bonded with and we said our goodbye's and hugs later after we
had all excused ourselves from the rest of the group.
We turned in early for us as we had a 5:30AM
wake-up call and a flight out of Alesund to Oslo at 7:00AM. Our stuff
had of course expanded during the week and we weren't sure if everything was
going to fit back in the suitcases. Why is that, it's like you just
added water or something and everything doubles in size...huh. With
some cussing and shoving of items in various nooks and crannies, we managed
to get it all together and prayed we didn't blow out a zipper. It made
me giggle in the end as I remembered a funny story by Curt. One time
he had gone to Las Vegas for a conference and upon claiming his baggage, the
zipper on his suitcase had busted and all this clothes, were twirling around
the baggage carousel. Lovely. He quickly scurried around and
gathered everything up, God how totally embarrassing. And that was
only a two day trip. Imagine one of our suitcases with 2 weeks worth
of stinky riding gear and such twirling around the carousel. I think
they'd have to shut down the airport and fumigate.
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Claus with the Harley at the hotel in the morning
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Mid-day shot of Curt and I on our final goat trail
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Lunch break - Curt, Me, Eric, Tammy
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The German crew - Holger, Rainer, Steffan, Regina, Manfred
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Claus' trusty steed. I think his butt and hand were numb by the end of the day
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Final afternoon coffee break
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Day 12 - Saturday, July 16th: Home to
California - Claus promptly met us in the lobby at 5:30AM to shuttle
us off to the airport. Oh, and did I mention that the doc and wife
happened to be on the same flights with us all the way back to the states.
By now I was used to them and their antics and would just roll my eyes.
Our flights all went off without incident, which was a huge relief and why
Continental is my new best friend. On the Oslo to Newark leg I got
seated next to some Norwegian diva that rattled on incessantly. She
had been a stewardess for PAN-AM and left Norway for the USA 35 years ago,
married a filthy rich sociopath and lived the life of luxury, but is now
divorced, knows Donald Trump and lived in Trump Towers, and on and on.
Why me, ugh, enough for one week please. Then she proceeds to have an
outburst with the flight attendant over a bottle of wine. She buys one
bottle which they bring her, then she decides she wants another and pays for
both but the flight attendant forgets to bring the other bottle. 10
minutes goes by and she starts screaming at another flight attendant to
bring her her wine. Great, I have an 8 hour flight with Lizzie Borden
next to me.
We finally touched town in San Francisco that
evening, claimed our luggage - no broken zippers or random clothing floating
about thank goodness. However, the baggage handlers did manage to rip
one of the wheels off the smaller roller bag. If I hadn't been up for
24 hours and wasn't dead tired, I would have made a stink and had them pay
for a new bag. Not on the priority list though - cab, shower, bed were
my top 3.
Epilogue -
Norway is an amazing place, we enjoyed every aspect of our trip and
would certainly return at some point to do more riding. In the one
week of riding we logged over 1000 miles and only saw 3 motorcycle
police, and they were in the city. People literally police themselves.
They drive the speed limit and obey traffic signs and circles. No one
yells or honks or flips you off, in fact, they pull to the side for
motorcycles and let you by. There was never any litter or trash strewn
about that I ever noticed. The Norwegians manners and demeanor were
always pleasant and sincere. A great time, a great trip.
Hope you all enjoyed the
travelogue and photos.
