London & Norway

Day 17 - London final day The weather was, I believe, uncharacteristically lovely here today. Temperature around 70 degrees with a light breeze and just enough fluffy pillow clouds. We walked to St. James park where we encountered a very large and elaborate monument dedicated to Prince Albert out of his can (an ancient teenage joke). We also had a nice view of Royal Albert Hall Now they know how many holes it takes… Prince Albert We found the perfect cafe for lunch in Hyde Park just next to, yes, a large number of busy tennis courts. And a beautiful garden. Tennis Anyone Please! And then on to Harrods, where the smell of perfumes on the ground level was overwhelming, and the maze of designer this and designer that was over the top - though we did see many people with Harrods bags. I thought this ensemble particularly interesting (picture it in your parlor): We had tickets to a raucous musical, “Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder,” but it was too loud for me, so I retreated to the quiet of...

Day 16 - London Anne got off to an early start and visited the Victoria and Albert museum, walking distance from our hotel. I chilled out in our cozy hotel room and collected my energy for another multi-mile walking day. ( 3.7 miles) Next to the War Rooms entrance: We visited the Churchill War Rooms after a short ride on the Circle Line from the South Kensington station to Westminster station. Headed through the crowded narrow passageways to the cafe, where we had a surprisingly tasty lunch. The war rooms complex is hard to describe. The overall structure is a steel-reinforced bunker designed to keep those running the war for the United Kingdom safe from the Nazi bombs. The main elements are many preserved rooms behind plexiglass. These rooms range from a large conference room where the war cabinet met to Churchill’s office and bedroom. Also preserved are the rooms where the typists worked, the radio room, and the kitchen among others. In the cafe. Channelling Churchill  The visit ...

Day 15 - Saturday in London Thankfully breakfast was served until 11 am, so we were able to sleep in. We had matinee tickets to see Dominic West in “A View from the Bridge.” While it was first staged in 1955, its treatment of issues around illegal immigration are relevant today. The staging and acting were outstanding, and the nearly full audience gave the cast a resounding standing ovation. We then walked to the National Portrait Gallery where we spent a few hours wandering among an amazing collection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures of centuries of famous royals, writers, poets, scholars, politicians, artists, athletes, film stars, and political activists. Who knew there were so many! King George V and Family

Day 14 - Friday Bergen to London This miserable travel day ended with an excellent boeuf bourguignon at a nearby French bistro.  We got off to an easy start as we had a driver take us from our hotel in Bergen to the Bergen airport for the first leg of our trip to London. The 40 minute flight to Oslo was crowded but happily short. Then we had to run to the opposite end of the Oslo airport to catch our flight to London - Anne and I became separated as she exited the rear of the airplane, while I exited from the front (we were not sitting together). I was the last person to have my boarding pass scanned before they closed the gate. This was another crowded flight and at least Anne and I were in the same row this time - she by the window and me on the aisle across from her seats. SAS offers free coffee and tea, but you have to buy water 🤪. Then the hiking began. (It was now 7:30 pm Oslo time - 6:30 pm London time.) We bought tickets to the Heathrow Express train which would cut our tr...

Day 13 - Thursday in Bergen Our tour guide today, Frank, a native Bergendian, showed us around various neighborhoods within walking distance of our hotel. The history of Bergen going back to 1070 has been shaped largely by devastating fires over the centuries, the last one in 1955. A number of the remaining wooden houses from the 1700s are sinking as they were built on landfill close to the central quay in the city center. Cruise ships can dock just near the city center, and there were two big ones in port, disgorging hundreds of passengers to the area. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, but even with all the added visitors it did not feel crowded. I have deliberately not talked about meals, as that is generally not of much interest (we did avoid whale and elk on several menus), but our lunch was included with the tour, and it was a doozy. We were served the tasting menu, featuring the chef’s version of classic modern Norwegian cuisine. The first course was a fish soup which ...

Day 12 - Wednesday Scenic ride to Bergen Our driver, Trond, was cheerfully talkative, so we learned much about current events in Norway and his life in Bergen. (He told a very interesting story about being a diver for Dan Snyder who brought his Rolls Royce on his mega yacht.) Aside from passing through many more tunnels, we traveled on many very narrow roads running along side of lakes and fjords. There was also a significant amount of road work underway where traffic was one way for extended periods. Much of the work involved blasting large sections of the roadside cliffs  to widen it.  We stopped at one huge waterfall that you could walk behind. Our hotel in Bergen is in the center of town and big on Edvard Grieg, as is the city itself. He was born and  lived in Bergen and had an interesting life and career - though the seagulls don’t seem to understand his importance!

Day 11 - Loftus Tuesday’s highlight was a short ferry ride from our hotel across the fjord to Aga. The settlement is named after the farmer who founded the village. We visited the cidery now run by a 7th generation man named Aga - who is 38 years old. Our guide was a delightful local woman, Bente, who showed us how the ciders are made - the business is expanding rapidly - the ciders range form 7 to 9% alcohol and are easy on the palate.  We also had a tour of Aagaunet:  Agatunet is one of the few remaining and the largest listed historic hamlet in Norway. It consists of 45 listed houses, the oldest from the Middle Ages, and ten associated boathouses. The main building is the Lagmannstova, the oldest documented courtroom in Norway. It was built by the knight and lawmaker Sigurd Brynjulvson Aga around 1220. The Norwegians have cultivated an apple tree that looks like a grape vine (see picture below), so they are much less prone to damage and much easier to harvest. Apple trees W...

Days 9 and 10 - Gudvangen and Loftus Caught the The FJORDS ferry to Gudvangen and then spent a few hours at the Njardarheimer Viking Village. Leaving Flam Typical Waterfall As seen on the Ferry I was told that this bird attacks drones Viking Decor The FjordSafari Boat The Zombie Slept Thankfully Had a very scenic drive to Loftus. Norway has an incredible number of tunnels, many very long (~621 miles in total). One we drove through has a roundabout in it! Our hotel in Loftus is grand. We are told that the Queen stays here when she visits. We are in a huge apple growing area most of which are used for hard cider, very popular here, and some for apple juice. A few views from our room: Many of the mountains top are still covered with snow, and thus there are many waterfalls as it melts. The water is clear and cold.

Day 8 -  Train to Flam The alarm woke us up at 5am, and we were on the train at 6:20am. Got off the train to Bergen at Myrdal at Noon and scrambled onto the train for Flam at 12:30 in a blowing snow storm. The trip to Flam included breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains and cascading waterfalls, including one with a woman in red dancing! Then there was the FjordSafarI tour: https://www.fjordsafari.com/activities/summer/fjordsafari-taste -

Day 7 - Oslo in the rain While it did rain off and on yesterday, it rained ALL day today. So off we went at 9 am with our driver and guide for an 8 hour tour of three cities south of Oslo (Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad, and Skjaehalden). Bronze Age stone carvings somewhere on the way: Sarpborg: “The city was founded as  Borg  by the Viking King  Olav Haraldsson  (Saint Olaf) in 1016. It was burned to the ground by Swedish invaders in 1567 during the  Northern Seven Years' War . Half the population was evacuated down the river to what is today known as Fredrikstad, about 15 kilometres (9 mi) downstream. Much of the rebuilt town disappeared into the river  Glomma during a 1702  mudslide . Again Borg was rebuilt, and it was recreated as a city in 1839, and separated from  Tune  as a municipality of its own.” Wikipedia  Fredrikstad: “  The city was named after the  Danish  king Frederick II in 1569.” Wikipedia  It has the r...

 Day 6 - Oslo Our morning tour included a visit to the Flam Museum ( https://frammuseum.no/ ). All new for me - the two buildings are home to the actual ships used in the polar explorations. We also visited this amazing sculpture garden - Vigeland Sculpture Park (   https://www.visitoslo.com/en/product/?tlp=2983043&name=Vigeland-Sculpture-Park  ) all the work of Gustav Vigeland. https://www.munchmuseet.no/en/ All this followed by a long afternoon at the 12 story Munch museum - so much more than “The Scream”!

Day 5 - London to Oslo Thanks to Anne’s “tube” navigation skills, we arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time for our 10:30 am flight for a total cost of $4.50 each! We enjoyed a delightful conversation with a 20-something American woman from Atlanta who was on her way home at the end of her 2nd year of a BA degree in international finance. She loves her school and studies and is looking forward to a career in her field. She impressed me as someone who knew what she was about and would do well in whatever path she follows - very refreshing! The trip to Oslo was uneventful, and we arrived on time to meet our driver, a feature of our tour package. Our hotel is stylish Norwegian modern and a short downhill walk to the harbor waterfront restaurants, where we enjoyed a fine seafood dinner.  Looking back, I realized the following about the city of London: Very few drivers used their horns The streets were clean everywhere - and the BigBus took us through many neighborhoods  There were ...

 Day 4 - London After a long day and late night yesterday, we got off to a slow start today. We opted for the BigBus hop on hope off tour where you can sit on the open upper deck and ride around the city getting off to see what you want to see and getting back on at any of the included stops. We got off for lunch at a traditional English pub, with a pint of Guinness and pub food. We walked around Westminster and ended at Buckingham Palace, with a short walk back to the hotel. We marveled at the ability of our bus to navigate the narrow streets and to avoid all of what looked to be close calls with bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, and other cars. The popular attractions, like Oxford Street (high end shopping), were very crowded, and the mix of fellow travelers getting on and off the bus very diverse in age, ethnicity, and attire. Off to Oslo tomorrow. One more from London.

Day 3 - British Museum and Sir Ian McKellen An ambitious agenda for sure. We spent 6 hours at the busy British Museum and sat for a 3 hour and 40 minute production of “The Players” a lively adaptation of Henry the IVth parts 1 and 2. Both experiences would require more words to describe than you dear reader would want to read, so I will be brief.  As the United Kingdom ruled one quarter of the world’s territory at one point at the height of its power, the museum’s collections are broad and deep. The building itself is a marvelous maze. To see amazing tools and jewels and weapons from 10,000 BC is breathtaking. And the sculptures and pieces of the Parthenon are powerful links to my education in Greek history and culture. Sir McKellan’s performance (at age 86) defies belief. His Falstaff was the crowned jewel of a riveting staging of the plays. The actor who played Prince Harry (Toheed Jimon) had a prominent role in the first season of Ted Lasso - his performance was remarkable as we...