Tag Archives: Norway

Posts from Base Camp

The DNA Test – Travel through time

1 Comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s post is a little different, but still very much in the spirit of travel.

Although I had been thinking about it for a while, I finally got around to requesting an “Ancestry DNA” test this spring. And the results have now arrived.

Getting caught by the waves at the same beach where my father played as a child (‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands)

On the surface, the expectation was simple. With one Swiss parent and one Dutch parent, one would expect the results to be 50% from each country. But I also heard some other distant echoes from the past.

My ancestors lived in Maassluis, the Netherlands, many centuries ago

Over time, family stories become almost accepted as fact. And one of my family stories was that we had some Spanish ancestry, due to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands in the 16th century. With respect to the Swiss side of my family, I wondered if there might be some Italian influence, given the fairly close proximity of Italy to my ancestral place of origin. And I also wondered what other interesting connections may have been forgotten in the mists of time.

A church in Lenk (Switzerland) – I wonder what important family events took place here?

I was pretty excited when the results finally arrived. When I clicked on the link, I discovered something very interesting. Switzerland and the Netherlands each belong to the same two broader groups: “Germanic Europe” and “England and Northwestern Europe”. And I had almost complete (92%) ancestry in those two regions.

Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)

I found the “England and Northwestern Europe” region interesting. Consisting mostly of England, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, Northeast France and Switzerland, I had never really considered that DNA from England would be connected to both of my countries of origin. This region even contributed more to me than the anticipated “Germanic Europe” region.

Mårten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden (Stockholm)

And what about the other 8%? The stories and guesses were, in a word, wrong. No Italy. No Spain. As it turns out, most of my other ancestry was from Sweden/Denmark, with a smaller part from Norway. I had always been looking south, but it appears that I should have been looking north.

Terminus of the railway to Flam (Norway)

I know that these tests are not 100% accurate, and of course some ancestry is lost with each passing generation. But way back in 2012, I felt very comfortable in Stockholm (see photo at the very top of this post). I thought it was a place in which I could live. It makes you wonder why I had that feeling.

Posts from Base Camp

More buckets!

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

I decided to look back at what I was writing at this time last year, when I had just finished my year of (almost) constant travel.  I must admit that I really enjoyed reading my post about the Top 5 “Wow” Moments of 2014  and I invite you to take a look at it.

A summer evening's view of Bergen, Norway from the top of the Fløibanen funicular
A summer evening’s view of Bergen, Norway from the top of the Fløibanen funicular

Other than a very quick trip to France, most of my 2015 travel was in Canada.  As a result, my passport is well-rested and looking forward to more of a workout in 2016.   I previously mentioned that I would be skiing in the Via Lattea (“Milky Way”) region of Italy this winter; I have since added some other sightseeing nearby and am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.

However, there will be a bigger trip during the summer  of 2016:  this time, it will incorporate at least two and maybe even three countries in the Southern Hemisphere that I’ve never visited before!  We are really excited about this one…it includes a couple of bucket list items that have been kicking around for a very long time.   After my tremendously enjoyable visit to Peru, I knew it was only a matter of time before I crossed the Equator again.

The Olympic ski-jumping facilities in Lillehammer, Norway
The Olympic ski-jumping facilities in Lillehammer, Norway

Of course, it is impossible to do everything that you want to do.  Even in 2014, when I had a great deal of flexibility, there were some things that just didn’t happen despite my best efforts.  Here’s a brief list of missed experiences from that year:

1.  Memphis, U.S.A.  I had great plans for this trip, including visits to Graceland, Sun Records, and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.  Unfortunately, my flight out of Chicago was cancelled due to a rare southern ice storm and I ended up spending the time in Chicago instead.  I really enjoyed Chicago but still want to get to Memphis someday.

Costumed Interpreters at the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo, Norway
Costumed Interpreters at the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo, Norway

2.  Day trip to Albania.  The hostel in Kotor, Montenegro, advertised day trips to the mysterious country of Albania.  This was a very insular place during the Cold War years and I really hoped to take a look.  However, there was not enough demand to offer the trip and I ended up visiting Durmitor National Park in northern Montenegro instead.

3.  Climbing Croagh Patrick.  This distinctive mountain just outside of Westport, Ireland, was clearly visible from my B&B.  It was calling to me and I really wanted to climb it.  Alas, the allotted day was plagued by a “fine Irish mist” and it would have been a miserable exercise.  I had to move on to Northern Ireland the next day.

The Norwegian Glacier Museum in Mundal (Fjærland), Norway
The Norwegian Glacier Museum in Mundal (Fjærland), Norway

4.  Wadlopen in the Netherlands.  The ancient northern Netherlands sport of wadlopen (“mudwalking”) also was calling to me.  I even went as far as renting the requisite boots.  Alas, the walking conditions were nasty on the day of the hike.  We still enjoyed a great day on the island of Schiermonnikoog and, after seeing some pictures of how messy wadlopen really is, I don’t really regret missing out on the mud.

Kjosfossen waterfall near Myrdal, Norway
Kjosfossen waterfall near Myrdal, Norway

5.  Waterfall Rappelling in Costa Rica.  This “adrenaline” experience looked like it would have been a lot of fun.  Alas, my injured shoulder was at its worst when I visited Costa Rica and I didn’t want to undertake anything risky with one useless arm.  As with wadlopen, however, I found a substitute activity that might even have been better!

As a tribute to Santa Claus and the North Pole, today’s pictures are all previously unposted photographs from the nearby northern nation of Norway.  Stay tuned – the next post will be from the road!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback – Cultural Sights in Oslo (2010)

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

There is more to Oslo than the sporting thrills described in my previous post.  We found a lot of cultural sights as well, many of them located on the Bygdøy peninsula.  While we took a bus to get back from Bygdøy to downtown Oslo afterwards, it was more fun to take a ferry there and feel like we were escaping urban life.

Happy pigs in Oslo
Happy pigs in Oslo

Our first stop was the Norwegian Folk Museum (Norsk Folkemuseum) a 35-acre outdoor complex including more than 150 buildings brought from all over Norway.   From grass-roofed farm buildings and old stave churches to cobblestoned villages and recreations of 20th century apartments, every conceivable aspect of Norwegian life over the past 1000 years was on display here.   There were costumed guides and farm animals too – I’ve included the pig photo as they just looked so happy!

Stave church
Stave church from 1212, re-assembled at the Norwegian Folk Museum

We found the more recent displays on 20th century living to be especially interesting, as they were just modern enough to look familiar but still different enough to show how much things have changed in a relatively short period of time.  Although we could have spent the entire day here, there were more Bygdøy sights to be seen.  First up was the Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskiphuset).

Not-too-distant Norwegian past
Not-too-distant Norwegian past: the early 20th-century on display at the Norwegian Folk Museum

The Viking Ship Museum is not huge, nor does it have very many items on display.  However, the well-preserved pair of ships from the 9th and 10th centuries are extremely impressive.  Seeing these elegant but nonetheless lightweight boats, particularly after our experience sailing off the northern coast of Iceland, reinforced our immense respect for the bravery of the maritime Vikings.

From the Viking Ship Museum, it was a short walk to the Maritime Museum, the Fram Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum, all focusing on Norway’s seafaring history.  We skipped the Maritime Museum but were glad that we had enough time to visit the other two.

Viking ship
One of the original boats at the Viking Ship Museum

The Fram Museum (Frammuseet) is essentially just a shell hosting the 125-foot Fram boat used by famous Norwegian explorers Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen to travel farther into the Arctic and Antarctic oceans than anyone else had done.   We could climb and explore all over this famous ship; while fascinating (they had a piano!), it also reinforced how lonely, cold and confined these journeys must have been.  Indeed, it was difficult to take any worthwhile photos, given the cramped quarters inside.

Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Raft
Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki Raft

Claustrophobia was the least of Thor Heyerdahl’s worries when he sailed the Kon-Tiki raft from Peru to Polynesia in 1947.  Built entirely out of materials that would have been available to early South Americans (and using only tools and techniques available to them), the idea was to show that these ancient people could have settled Polynesia.  As with the Viking ships from more than 1000 years ago, you will have immense respect for Mr. Heyerdahl and his crew once you see the lightness of the balsa-wood raft…even if the ancient Peruvians probably didn’t make such a journey themselves.

Centrepiece of Vigeland Park, Oslo
Gustav Vigeland’s Monolith at Frogner Park, Oslo

We ended our cultural day with a walk around Oslo’s Frogner Park, a 75-acre city park whose 192 sculpture groups represent the “life statement” of Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland.   The photo at the top of this post shows the centrepiece of the park, including the writhing Monolith that you see just above this paragraph.  While visitor impressions of the sculptures (especially the Monolith) range from fascination to being totally creeped out, the park remains a massive and well-used safe place in the heart of the city.

Hopefully, this account of one day in Oslo gives an idea of how many cultural sights there are in Oslo…and I haven’t even talked about “The Scream” yet!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Exciting Oslo! (2010)

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s flashback takes us to Oslo, Norway. In English, the name of this city is probably the least exciting of the northern European capitals.  After visiting Bergen and the mighty fjords, we anticipated seeing a few major sights and then moving on to somewhere in Sweden or southern Norway with a better travel reputation. Oslo’s legendarily high costs also weighed heavily on our minds. Surely, we wouldn’t spend the entire remaining week of our vacation there?

But a funny thing happened on the way to somewhere else: Oslo grew on us!

View from the top of the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, Norway
View from the top of the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, Norway

The high costs were partially offset by the saving grace of Scandinavian tourism: because business travel basically shuts down during the summer, Oslo’s better hotels all compete mightily for the modest number of tourists that find their way to the city. The result: 4-star hotels at (almost) bargain prices. The unforgettable (and included) smorgasbord breakfasts remain the same year-round, so we were able to skip lunch most days…as long as we treated ourselves to some hitherto unheralded Norwegian gelato in the early afternoon!

View of the Holmenkollen ski jump from the "take-off" point
View of the Holmenkollen ski jump from the “take-off” point

Norwegians are sports-crazy and it is only fitting that two of our favourite Oslo experiences were sports-related…and yes, very exciting!   The first was a journey to the legendary Holmenkollen ski jump facility (also known as Holmenkollbakken) in the northern part of the city.  The Norwegians excel at ski jumping and this facility is the Mecca of ski jumping in Norway.  The ski jumping events at the 1952  Winter Olympics were held here and it has continued to host prestigious meets ever since.

Looking down the still-under-construction Holmenkollen ski jump
Looking down the still-under-construction Holmenkollen ski jump

When we visited Holmenkollen, the structure was in the process of a complete rebuild.  Nonetheless, we could still go to the top and look down from the top of the ski jump.  I’ll cut to the chase:  if you think flying off a ski jump is crazy, don’t go to the top of a ski jump and look down.  It looks even crazier, with a steep, narrow path ending in absolute nothingness and seemingly certain death.   It is definitely scary, even for someone who has spent on awful lot of time on skis.

The facility also has a ski museum that traces the development of skiing from its earliest cross-country roots to modern day alpine skiing, ski jumping and freestyle skiing.  For a kitschy bonus, I decided to take a ride on the alpine skiing simulator set up there.  Along with a handful of strangers, I got to experience a World Cup ski race…complete with chattering ice and every other unnerving effect you can imagine.

The skiing simulator in action - I'm inside and in the process of being horrified
The skiing simulator in action – I’m inside and in the process of being terrified

I  once experienced a scary radar-gun-verified speed of 85 km/h on skis on a controlled slope in Switzerland and, after seeing a colleague take a bad spill at roughly that speed, it was something I resolved to never try again.  However, that uneasy feeling was nothing compared to this terrifying simulation at roughly twice that speed.   Ski racing is just as crazy as ski jumping!

The other sports experience in Oslo was seeing a professional soccer game at Ullevaal Stadion, home ground for Oslo’s legendary Vålerenga soccer team (wearing blue, in the photo at the top of this post) .   As with our visit to an international match in Stockholm two years later, we had a great time at the game itself and really felt like we had experienced a “real” aspect of life in Oslo.  There were few tourists here!

Vålerenga fans show their colours before the game
Vålerenga fans show their colours before the game

It was great to see a lot of goals, as  Vålerenga romped to an 8-1 victory over IK Start from Kristiansand.  Despite the one-sided result, fans of both teams were boisterous but well-behaved.  We’ll never forget the fans from Kristiansand singing on the subway out to the game!  We were also impressed with Vålerenga’s appreciation for their supporters.  As with Feyenoord in the Netherlands, jersey #12 is reserved for the  Vålerenga fans as the “12th player” and the players diligently saluted their fans when the game was over.

Vålerenga salutes their fans after an easy 8-1 victory
Vålerenga salutes their fans after an easy 8-1 victory

While these sporting expeditions were memorable, there is plenty more to see and do in Oslo.  Stay tuned for details!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Bergen, Norway (2010)

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

I’m a big believer in serendipitous travel.  When we were researching our 2010 trip to Norway, we thought it would be nice to see the Atlantic coast of Norway.  At the same time, it seemed like a waste of time to travel out to the coast from Oslo…and then back again to Oslo for the flight home.  It turned out that Icelandair served a number of Norwegian cities from Reykjavik…so we were able to book a flight into Bergen and then out of Oslo at no extra cost.  We didn’t know much about Bergen but figured that there must be something worth seeing.

As it turns out, there was plenty to see.  We quickly learned that Bergen was one of the major Hanseatic League cities:  a Germanic trading organization that linked the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Germany and Poland.  Of course, there was no united “Germany” yet, but German was definitely the language of commerce.

Close-up of buildings in the historic Bryggen district of Bergen
Close-up of buildings in the historic Bryggen district of Bergen

The historic Bryggen district, dominating Bergen’s waterfront, contains a large number of brightly coloured wooden buildings from the Hanseatic days.  We spent the better part of a day exploring the various museums embedded into the Bryggen buildings.  Everybody takes pictures of the exteriors but the dark interiors are equally fascinating.  And there is a lot of dried fish, too.

On our first evening in town, we took a gondola lift up to a park located high above Bergen’s harbour.   In just a few minutes we were hiking around a verdant wilderness, wondering whether there might be bears, and completely forgetting that we were in Norway’s second largest city.

One of many historic buildings on the Bergen waterfront
One of many historic buildings on the Bergen waterfront

Bergen is also a modern city and we spent some time shopping and visiting markets.  This was the summer right after the Vancouver Winter Olympics:  Norway’s men’s curling team had made a real splash at the Olympics with their outrageously colourful curling pants.  By the summer, however, the novelty had begun to wear off.   and we saw a lot of plaid curling pants for sale.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any that fit me.

A quaint little red house, hidden from the street in Bergen
A quaint little red house, hidden from the street in Bergen

While I was unsuccessful in the curling pants department, I did find a Helly Hansen rugby shirt (Helly Hansen being a famous Norwegian brand of sports & outdoor clothing) that was almost as striking.  To this day, it attracts cries of “Where’s Waldo?” whenever I wear it.  The shirt has turned out to be a nice souvenir that I’ll forever associate with Bergen.

As Bergen was the first city we’ve ever visited in Norway, we will also forever associate it with huge and unique breakfasts.  As the price of food in Norway was quite outrageous, we learned to take extreme advantage of the hotel’s smorgasbordesque breakfast and not eat again until dinner.

Our hotel in the modern part of downtown Bergen
Our hotel in the modern part of downtown Bergen

I suppose the amount of fish at breakfast was to be expected; this is, after all, a country with a huge fishing heritage.  Yet it was the cheese, of all things, that was most surprising.   For the first time, we ate brunost…or “brown cheese”.   Here’s a link to a Guardian article about it: from its orange-brown colour to its fudge-like texture to its surprising sweet and salty flavour, it is something else that I will never forget.  Just like some of my favourite Dutch treats, brunost does not seem to have caught on much outside its home country.

Just one of the quirky things we saw in Bergen
Just one of the quirky things we saw in Bergen

Bergen is a beautifully situated city and a great springboard for exploring the fjords.  If we make it to Norway again, we will focus on the Atlantic Coast…and it would be great to start with a return visit to this very livable place.

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: The Fjords of Norway 2010

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Our 2008 trip to Iceland was so much fun that we decided to continue our Northern theme and visit Norway in 2010. Once again, we braced ourselves for high Scandinavian prices…and found them! Our trip began in the coastal city of Bergen and ended in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.  In between: lots and lots of fjords!

Hiking above Balestrand and the Sognefjord
Hiking above Balestrand and the Sognefjord

From Bergen, we took a relatively high-speed boat up the Sognefjord to the resort village of Balestrand. The scenery along the way was impressive but not astounding:  near the ocean, the Sognefjord is too wide to make you feel completely surrounded.   Balestrand was still a very pleasant base for our exploration of the area, however, and we were able to explore a number of the narrower (and more dramatic) fjords from here.  We stayed in a characterful hotel overlooking the Sognefjord and had a delightful al fresco dinner in an orchard just down the street.

The boat we took from XXXX back to Balestrand
The boat we took from Fjærland back to Balestrand

Balestrand also had an interesting aquarium with an even more interesting promotion:  a ticket to the aquarium came with a free  canoe rental.   Well, we just had to take advantage of that!  While it certainly wasn’t part of our plan, we can now say that we have been canoeing in the fjords of Norway!

Stave church at Vik, Norway.
Hopperstad stave church at Vik, Norway.

We took two interesting trips from Balestrand.  The first was to the Hopperstad stave church at Vik.  These wooden churches are obviously very vulnerable to fire, so there are only a few surviving examples.   This one is approximately 900 years old and is built on the ruins of an even older church.  Internal photos are not allowed but I can tell you that it is very dark inside.

Rapidly retreating glacier
Rapidly retreating glacier

The second trip was a “Glacier Tour”to Fjærland.  The boat trip to Mundal (the village in Fjærland) was amazing:  the fjords looked like the ones in all the tourist brochures.  The photo at the top of this post was taken on the way.   Alas, the Glacier Tour itself was rather underwhelming.  We didn’t get very close to the glacier itself, as it has been retreating for a number of years but the tour infrastructure (road, glacier museum, etc.) has naturally  remained in the same place.  It was a pleasant day but we will definitely be more selective about glacier tours in the future.

Terminus of the railway to Flam
Myrdal, Norway:  terminus of the Flamsbana railway from Flåm

After a few days in Balestrand, we made the long journey by boat and train to Oslo.  We took the Flamsbana from Flåm to Myrdal; it is advertised as the most scenic train ride in the world.  While it is undeniably beautiful, it is perhaps a little overdeveloped for tourism.  For evidence, see the photograph below.  The train stopped for photographs at a dramatic waterfall and, on cue, a collection of mystical maidens suddenly emerged to the musical accompaniment of a stirring symphony and re-enacted a folk tale.   Very cheesy.

Mystical maidens emerge from the mist on the Flamsbana railway
Mystical maidens emerge from the mist on the Flamsbana railway

Actually, we shouldn’t have been surprised.  The Flamsbana is part of the “Norway in a Nutshell” tour:  it is a highly coordinated (and choreographed) route designed to show some of Norway’s greatest natural highlights.  While it would be fine for somebody who only had a day to see the fjords and mountains, we felt somewhat “herded” on this part of our journey.  We preferred spending a few days in the fjords and exploring on our own.   Norway is a beautiful country and it doesn’t need to rely on gimmicks to impress.

Stay tuned for more flashbacks and other travel surprises!