Scandinavia Trip 2009

Day 3 - Stavanger, Norway (Hike to Pulpit Rock!)

2009-11-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

09/12/2009

This morning we were up bright and early for our hike to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock)! We began with a great breakfast at the hotel and then a walk to the harbor to catch our ferry. The morning was cloudy but not too cold and there looked to be some hope for sun. The ferry from Stavanger to Tau was fun and the scenery was misty and fjord-y and gorgeous. The ride to the town of Tau took about 45 minutes and then we had to catch a 25-minute bus ride to take us to the trail head for Pulpit Rock. William was in heaven on this trip simply because of all the forms of transportation we got to ride!

On the ferry from Stavanger to Tau.

Little Norwegian islands between Stavanger and Tau.

Arriving in Tau. Boarding the bus to Preikestolen ("Pulpit Rock").

Once at the trail head, things started to go downhill a little bit. It started to sprinkle and the sky looked a lot more foreboding that it had in Stavanger. John and I had one raincoat between the two of us (John's) because the weather had seemed so mild when we left the hotel (mistake #1) and when packing for the trip, I had left the weather-proof baby backpack cover back at home in CA (mistake #2). Notwithstanding, we started up the mountain, ignorant to what lay ahead.

On the bus between Tau and Preikestolen.

"Base camp" where you start the hike up Pulpit Rock.

The calm before the storm.

So happy, so naive. ;)

The first section of the trail was all boulders and the incline was pretty steep. We were all out of breath by the time we got to the first stopping point -- we still had a loooong way to go! Thank goodness I had been training for this hike for a few months (walks up steep hills with Will in the backpack!)

The hike is supposed to take 2 hours (between 1-3) each way and the trail varies in difficulty. Some sections were completely flat on a wooden walkway, others were slight inclines on gravel/dirt and others were strenuous climbs over giant boulders. It sprinkled on-and-off but was not too bad and William slept in the backpack nearly all the way up the mountain.

First steps of the hike.

Still pumped up and excited!

Getting harder...and more cloudy...and more wet.

Push on, soldiers.

Still finding time for art.

Hiking up a steep face of boulders.

As we got higher the weather continued to get worse. We didn't feel very confident that we'd be able to see anything once we reached the top but we tried to stay positive. Meanwhile, the rain started getting steadier and heavier. Luckily, Eric had been brilliant and got some big trash bags from the guy in the store at the trail head. We were able to put William's legs inside a bag and tuck it all up so that his legs and feet stayed dry. I was getting pretty soaked, myself.

Cara, aka Sacagawea...with William, aka Jean-Baptiste. Yes, that's my son wrapped in a garbage bag. (Thank you, Eric!)

At one point an emergency helicopter landed just ahead of us on a flat part of the mountain. A few minutes later we arrived upon an older lady who had fallen off of a ridge onto the trail below (she had followed the wrong path). She was laying face down and did not appear to be very coherent. It was really horrible and I hope that she ended up being okay. I'm still kind of spooked by the whole incident.

William certainly was excited by the helicopter though. We got to watch it fly around and then land and walked quite close to it. He wanted to ride in it so badly! It was really cute and he was really upset when I told him we couldn't go for a ride. He actually cried. I told him that it was just for people who got hurt. Now, whenever we see a helicopter he tells me that he is hurt and needs to go in the helicopter. Ha!

Finally, we neared the top of the mountain. Just as we were coming upon it there was a break in the clouds and we could see quite a bit of the fjord below us. We were so excited that we would actually get to see something from the top!

Into the white.

Emergency helicopter rescuing a fallen climber.

A glimpse of the view about 2/3rds of the way up...right before everything turned completely white.

Clinging to the side of a cliff.

Working it.

However, in the 3 minutes it took to get to the very top, the clouds had rolled back in. Everything was completely white and it was pouring rain. I was absolutely soaked through (I was just in a hoodie) and soon even those who had raincoats would be soaked as well. We tried to take refuge from the rain in a space between two rocks to wait it out. Meanwhile we were starving (Mistake #3: we packed only a few small snacks, but it was too wet to eat anything anyway) and Will was crying. I don't know why we didn't think of it earlier but we made a poncho out of another trash bag for me. Some sweet Norwegians gave us their umbrella before heading back down the mountain themselves.

The rain continued. We were freezing, wet and tired. Finally, we decided that we couldn't wait any longer. We got our photos at the top to prove that we did it and then hastily started back down the mountain.

Yeah, if that mist wasn't there...John probably wouldn't have gotten that close!

Money shot #1! The big one.

Money shot #2! Proof that it's really us. :)

William was pretty miserable at this point but only cried for a few minutes. Eventually he fell back asleep as I hurried as fast as I safely could back down the mountain. At one point I slipped on a rock and fell -- barely managing to keep myself on hands and knees so that I wouldn't fall on William. He slept through the whole thing! I think all of us fell at one point but nothing serious.

Two hours later we arrived back at the bottom of the mountain. Hooray! We survived! We bought William a sucker in the little shop and took him out of the backpack. He was very cheerful and happy about the sucker, but the poor kid couldn't walk! He had been in the backpack for nearly 6 hours and his legs were like jelly. I felt so bad. The plan had been to let him walk around once we got to the top but that just wasn't possible. He was dry, though, thank goodness, and in a great mood.

Will is super happy and in a great mood even after being in the cold and wet and strapped to my back for nearly 6 hours! This is moments after getting we finished the hike and got back on the bus. Such a great kid!

All of us were wet and freezing and tired but we still had almost 2 hours of travel ahead of us before we would be able to get out of our wet clothes. The bus and ferry ride were pretty miserable, but the good company made it bearable! Once at the hotel, the hot shower and heated floors of the bathroom were heavenly. We put on dry clothes and were like new again.

Recovering in our hotel room.

Being exhausted out of our minds, and starving (none of us had eaten since breakfast!), we decided to just eat at the hotel restaurant. The breakfast had been really good so we were very disappointed with the mediocre dinner we ended up with. It was also one of the most expensive meals of the trip! I can't remember what any of us ate (I think we all were half-asleep).

After dinner we immediately went up to bed -- first thing in the morning was a flight to Bergen!

Day 2 - Oslo, Norway

2009-10-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

09/11/2009

Will is ready and excited to go sight-seeing.
We woke up bright and early on the second day of our trip and started with a really good breakfast in the very pretty restaurant of The Grand Hotel. I love European breakfasts! Instead of a buffet of fried foods they offer really good bread (all of the bread in this country blew my mind -- it was soooo amazing), meats and cheeses, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, lots of juices and fruit, raw vegetables, muesli and sometimes some hot meat and potatoes. Plus a million different condiments, including pickled herring (which I did not try!). Oh yeah, and the butter was really good, too! (My trainer is loving reading this! Haha!)

Just look at that table full of bread!
Our first stop of the day was up to the Akershus Fortress which was just a few minutes walk from the hotel. The fortress was so beautiful! It was built in 1299! Unfortunately there was no tour of the inside on the day we were there but just walking around outside was amazing and offered lots of opportunities for photos. It was here that we really got cobbled by the cobbled streets -- it was nearly impossible to push the stroller so Will got the monkey backpack on and had fun running around.

The Fortress
Will at the Fortress
Next up was the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. We walked all the way to the other end of Karl Johans Gate which was probably close to a mile and uphill (and luckily Will fell asleep in the stroller on the way despite the bumpy ride!) While waiting for the thing to start we talked to some cute Taiwanese girls who were visiting Oslo from Denmark where they were going to school -- they were hilarious! The actual changing of the guard was, as expected, not super thrilling but still something we had to go do.

Guys. Marching around.
A walk through a gorgeous, green, tree-filled park took us to Vigeland Sculpture Park. But this time William was awake and ready to get out of the stroller. There was a really cute wooden playground and sandbox near the entrance to the sculpture park so William and I stayed there while John, Ruth and Eric went to see the sculptures. After seeing the photos of the sculptures I was glad to not have gone in -- they are really creepy! While William played I had fun just watching the locals with their children. I noticed several differences in how the Norwegian parents interacted with their kids: first, all the parents were actually WITH their kids in the sandbox or playground, instead of watching from a bench on the side. Every parent was actively involved. There were also a lot more dads there than I've ever seen at any American playground, many even alone there with their children. Also, public breastfeeding without any huge sheets or even a blanket! Very interesting to observe the cultural differences (I love stuff like that).

Uh...what's supposed to be going on here exactly? Glad I protected my child's innocence and kept him out of the sculpture garden. :)

Ruth and Eric in the sculpture garden. That is one angry baby.

William happily plays in the sandbox with some Norwegian kids and a French girl.
Once John, Ruth and Eric were done with the sculptures we decided to hop on a bus to ride back down to our hotel area. Since all the signs at the bus stop were in Norwegian we weren't sure how it all worked. So we just got on the next bus that came. And we accidentally stole a free ride. Oops! Didn't know we were supposed to pay before getting on.

For dinner we found a really beautiful little restaurant called Cafe Skansen that had super delicious food. I wish we had taken photos of everything we ate on the trip. John and Ruth had turkey with cabbage and sweet potato puree that was incredible. My open face chicken sandwich was very good. Eric had the Arctic Char which he also enjoyed. The building itself was so adorable.

Can you find us in this photo?
I was ready to move right in. How lovely is this restaurant?
After dinner we found dessert at a fun cafe on the way back to the hotel. I had a chai latte and a little marzipan filled chocolate (had to get it cause it says 'William'!), Ruth had hot chocolate and the boys went to the bakery next door.

Cute cafe!

Good chocolate.
By this time we had to head to the airport for our first (of many) domestic flight of the trip. We picked up our bags from the hotel and then walked all the way back down Karl Johans Gate to the train station for the 20 minute train ride to the airport. It was just a short plane ride to Stavanger and a bus ride to our hotel -- The Myhregaarden. Our room was quite small but really cute with a black chandelier and gas fireplace. We had to get to bed right away because in the morning we were going to hike Preikestolen -- Pulpit Rock!

Day 1 - Oslo, Norway

2009-09-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

09/09/09-09/10/09

On the plane.
We did it! We survived over 13 hours of airplane travel with an almost 2-year-old! I was really nervous about our flights to Oslo but everything went more smoothly than I thought it would. Naps, snacks, airplane books and Little Einsteins on the iPod made it easy -- as did the extra seat we got lucky enough to score for the longest flight from New Jersey to Oslo. Will fell asleep and slept for the night in the extra seat which meant that we could get some sleep, too!

We landed in Oslo, Norway at about 9:30 am. The airport was beautiful -- all glass, vaulted ceilings and light wood. Definitely Scandinavian. We caught the airport express train into the city -- our first experience with the outrageously high prices of things in this country! -- which also gave us our first little taste of what Norwegian culture is like. The train was very quiet. No one was speaking and even though there were television screens on in the train, there was no sound. There were also no advertisements in the train. It was all very refreshing compared to the bombardment of advertising and constant audio everywhere in the States. People even respected the "no cell phones" signs in the part of the train we were in and took their calls outside the compartment. Amazing!

Karl Johans Gate in Oslo -- the main drag, also where our hotel was located.

The Grand Hotel Oslo
The train ride to the center of Oslo was only about 20 minutes. From there we had about a 10-15 minute walk up Karl Johans Gate to our hotel. We were able to leave our luggage since we were too early to check-in and then immediately went out to hit the sites! We knew we'd have a long day ahead of us trying to catch up to local time (9 hours ahead) so our plan was to stay busy and power-through.

Ready to see some stuff!
This stroller was not designed for cobbled streets, to be sure. Cobbled!
Now here I have to talk about strollers and European streets. I bought this little travel stroller at the last minute before leaving LA (I was originally going to backpack Will around the entire trip - what was I thinking?). I wanted something lightweight and portable as we were trying to pack as light as possible. Well, this stroller is light and portable -- but not so great for cobblestone streets. This stroller, with its small, swively wheels and non-existent shocks, was definitely designed for American sidewalks, pavement and ramped curbs. It's been quite the adventure trying to push this thing over the very cobble-y streets of Norway. Everyone here has these prams with large wheels and shocks and I have definitely wished for one of these guys every day of the trip.

The only advantage to having the small stroller is that when traveling by plane we can push Will all the way up to the door of the plane and then just fold the stroller up and put it in the overhead compartment. I saw a family checking their pram on our most recent flight and it was actually quite an ordeal -- it has to be broken down into two parts, bagged, and then checked like luggage.

So, there have been advantages and disadvantages to this little rickety thing but overall, I'm just glad to have brought anything! The compromise between the big pram and a tiny stroller would actually be our normal stroller we use at home that has larger wheels that can also be locked into a fixed position (so they don't swivel and get stuck in between cobbles). If we ever travel in Europe again with a stroller-aged kid, this is definitely what we'll do.

Stave churches are sooo cool!
First on our itinerary was a visit to the Norwegian Folk Museum. It's located on a little piece of land that juts out into the harbor. To get there we had to take a 10-15 minute ferry ride and then a short walk through adorable neighborhoods, which I loved. The Folk Museum is a collection of structures from different time periods and areas of Norway all moved to this one area. It was incredible. The time span of these buildings was from the 1300s up to examples of present-day decor. This museum was a highlight of Oslo for me as I love historical things that represent day-to-day life and any kind of house in general. There was also a Stave church at the museum which was very cool to see. Stave churches are completely wooden and very dark inside -- there are just a couple of small windows to let in any light at all. I'd like to learn more about them.

This grass-roofed cottage is from the 1300s!! Too cool.

Walking around the neighborhoods.
I love me some white houses!
Viking ship!
The next stop for the day was the Viking Ship Museum which was just another short walk away. The museum is quite small but worth going to. The building itself is beautiful and the ships are really cool. There are also several other Viking era artifacts to see there.

After the ferry ride back across the harbor, we had dinner at a hopping but disappointing (to be expected) Tex-Mex restaurant and were definitely ready for bed at about 8:30.

A review of our hotel: The Grand Hotel is beautiful and historic (opened in 1874). The rooms were small but very clean and comfortable (love Scandinavian beds)! The breakfast was amazing, the concierge and desk staff were very nice and helpful and the location could not be beat. The only complaint I have is that our room faced the back of the hotel which also happens to share the street with a bar and the delivery area of the hotel. The first half of our night was spent trying to sleep through loud music and voices and the second half was spent listening to delivery trucks drive in and out. Luckily we had earplugs, which helped a bit, but I would definitely recommend getting a room that is not in the back. It was not the most restful night I've ever had.

This concludes the first day of our grand adventure. Stay tuned for more fun!