TWO WEEKS IN NORWAY: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and a Few Ferries Too

Norway. View of the mountains from the train between Oslo and Bergen.

As our train climbed over the mountains between Oslo and Bergen, we looked out the window and  marveled at the expanse of snow that stretched as far as the eye could see. When we stopped at the station, passengers got on holding cross-country skis in their arms. While sea level gardens in Oslo and Bergen were already blooming with tulips and irises, here it was still winter.

Tulips in the city park in Bergen.

At the beginning of May, Art and I spent two weeks in Norway, a country we had never visited before. Art had a scientific meeting in Bergen, so the trip was planned around that, arriving first in Oslo, where we spent a few days getting over jet lag (9 hours from our home in California), then to the meeting in Bergen, and afterward, five days exploring Norway’s west coast. The trip began on a plane from Los Angeles to Oslo (via Copenhagen.) From there we got from one place to another by train, ferry, and driving ourselves in a rented car. (We also took a few local buses and taxis.)

View of Oslo from inside the Opera House. We went to the opera Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini.

In Oslo our hotel was in the center of the city and we could easily walk to most museums, the opera house, the harbor, and restaurants. But to visit the island of Bygdoy we needed to take a local bus. A friend helped us obtain a bus card (available at local shops), but during our trip—on a busy Saturday afternoon on the same day as a marathon race—the conductor never came to collect the fares so we ended up riding for free! 

Stave church at the Folk Museum and our guide, wearing traditional dress. The stave church, built entirely of wood, goes back to the 13th century.

Our destination was the Folk Museum, a living history park with museums, reconstructed farm buildings from elsewhere in Norway, and most famously, a historic stave church, moved there from a village in the mountains in 1880.

View from the train window as we passed through a river valley.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and boarded the train for Bergen. 

View from the train window at the top of the pass.

During the seven-hour trip we watched the landscape speed by outside the window—first past suburbs, then farmland, river valleys, small villages, and gradually up to snow covered mountain passes, then back down to more river valleys, fjords, and finally to Bergen on Norway’s west coast. It was an exhilarating trip.

Our hotel, the red building at the left, was part of a row of historic buildings lining the wharf in Bergen.

In the Middle Ages, Bergen was Scandinavia’s biggest city, due to its role as a trading center, largely as a distributor of fish from Norway’s coast. While the trading culture of the past is gone today, its heritage is preserved in Bryggen, the part of the city along the wharf which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Our ship, part of the Hurtigruten line, at the dock in Bergen.

After four days in Bergen, we set off for the city of Alesund to the north, taking an overnight ferry on which we had booked a cabin. As we sailed out of the harbor we watched the sun set at 10pm from the lounge on the top deck, only to wake up a few hours later in our cabin to find that the sun had risen again. 

View of the coastline from the ship.

As we cruised northward, we saw snow-capped mountains rising above a rocky coast, small farms and villages, and the occasional lighthouse. 

A brief stop at a village along the way to Alesund.

While most of the other passengers on the Hurtigruten ship were going all the way to the top of Norway, past the Arctic Circle, on an organized tour, we got off at the first stop, Alesund.

View of Alesund from the city park.

In 1904, most of Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. With help from other European countries, it was rebuilt, providing the opportunity for new architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Almost every building features some kind of ornament. Again, most of the museums and parks in Alesund were within easy walking distance from our hotel in the center of town.

Beginning of the path to the overlook of the cliff nesting sites on Runde.

Our final excursion was to the island of Runde, famous for its bird nesting cliffs. It is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Alesund. We rented a car at the Alesund airport and set off for Runde, relying on our GPS to get us there. In Norway, most roads follow the shoreline of the fjords, islands and peninsulas that make up the Norwegian coast, connecting from one to the other usually by bridges or tunnels but sometimes by ferry. 

View from the car ferry between Hareid and Sulesund on Highway 61.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at a tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde island to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. 

Bridge connecting Runde to the mainland.

If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until the car passes, before proceeding down the other side.

View from our hotel room in Fosnavag.

After spending the afternoon on Runde (see my post of May 20) we drove to the nearby town of Fosnavag to our hotel for the night. The next morning, we returned to Runde—going over the same narrow bridge again—for more bird watching, before returning to Alesund and getting ready for our early morning flight back to the United States.

Sunrise at 4:36am on our way to the Alesund airport.

Our two weeks in Norway were filled with fascinating visits to museums and other tourist sites, but the process of getting there--whether by plane, train, automobile or ferry--was half the fun. 

On the train from Oslo to Bergen.

 

BIRD WATCHING ON RUNDE ISLAND, NORWAY: Above the Cliffs and Along the Shore

Shelduck, Runde Island, Norway.

Thousands of seabirds—puffins, gannets, kittiwakes, gulls and more—make their summer home on Runde Island on the west coast of Norway. Birdwatching is always high on our list for vacation trips, so Runde was a must on our recent visit to Norway in May. After renting a car in Alesund, we drove to Runde, about a two-and-a-half hour trip which includes a ferry and numerous tunnels and bridges.

Bridge to Runde.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at the tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until it passes, before proceeding down the other side.

At the information center.

Our first stop on the island was at the information center (also a café and hostel) where we learned that we were unlikely to see any puffins unless we stayed until the evening. (In mid-May the sun doesn't set until 10pm!) During the day one puffin parent goes out to sea collecting food, which it brings back at sunset to its mate, who is sitting on eggs in their tunnel nest on the cliff face. (Later in the season the food is for the puffin chicks.) So, even though we knew we probably would miss the puffins, there were plenty of other birds to see on Runde.

Starting out on the uphill path to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs.

So, after eating a picnic lunch and parking in the designated parking lot, we set off to climb the steep path from the village to the overlook of the bird nesting cliffs. Huffing and puffing and making many stops along the way, we finally made it to the top, a distance of just one kilometer, but which seemed like much more.

As we peered over the top of the cliff face, we could see birds (gannets) wheeling over the water far below, but even with the binoculars, they were just tiny dots. We could see people at a further overlook spot, but we had no more energy for climbing and turned around to return to the bottom.

Skua.

The main path goes through a designated reserve where skuas nest. Skuas are the marauders of the bird world—in the Antarctic they prey on penguin chicks—but we had never seen them in the wild, so we felt lucky to see them here. We learned that on Runde the skuas chase the cormorants until they regurgitate the fish they have caught. Then the skuas get an easy meal. 

Pipit

On our way down the path we also spotted numerous smaller birds hopping around in the grass and perched on rocks and fenceposts.

Sheep.

Close to the village we passed a flock of sure-footed sheep, grazing on the rich green grass of the steep pasture. Like us, they were enjoying a warm, sunny day, although even in summer Runde can be cold and windy. I imagine the animals' heavy wool coats help keep them warm in the cold, dark days of winter.

Rocky shoreline on Runde.

Along the shoreline of Runde we had much better luck spotting birds. 

Greylag geese.

Some were foraging for food among the rocks or in the tall grass.

Oyster catchers.

We caught one pair of oyster catchers in the act of mating.

Kittiwake on a nest.

Some birds, like this kittiwake, were tending nests.

Kittiwakes displaying.

On the cliffs above, we watched kittiwakes performing elaborate aerial dives accompanied by loud vocalizations in what appeared to be mating rituals.

Shelduck.

In the shallow water, we spotted a swimming shelduck, its bright colors reflected in the calm water.

Shags.

And just off-shore, a group of shags had claimed a large rock. Shags are a type of cormorant. They are good swimmers and hunt for fish underwater.

After spending the night at a hotel in the nearby town of Fosnavag, we returned to Runde the following morning for more bird watching along the shore, spotting both seabirds and smaller birds like this pied wagtail.

Pied wagtail.

A total of 230 different species of birds have been sighted on Runde. Among the species we saw in our short visit were herring gulls, kittiwakes, shelducks, mallards, greylag geese, oyster catchers, hooded crows, herons, gannets, shags, swallows, wheatears, pipits, and pied wagtails. Although we never saw a puffin, the trip to Runde was still well worth the visit.

Hooded crow.

Note: Besides hiking to the top of Runde to an overlook of the cliffs, the other option for seeing the bird cliffs where the puffins nest is to take a boat trip around the island. Perhaps we can do that on another visit.

Village and path leading to cliff overlooks.

 

KOREAN TREASURES AT LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

 Korean Quadruple Gourd Vase, LACMA

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in March 2024. She writes:

While in L.A. for only two days, I was lucky to spend an hour at LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Viewing “Korean Treasures,” a temporary exhibition until June 30, 2024, filled my short visit with a rich experience.

The 35 items on display were selected from the vast collection of Chester and Cameron Chang, donated to LACMA. The selection offers a broad glimpse at artworks from past millennia to the present, including calligraphies, paintings, scrolls, screens, ceramics and sculptures.

The Poet Lee Baek (LI Bai) Watching a Waterfall by Yi Immun

An ink painting on silk from around 1800, traditionally attributed to Yi Inmun, shows the celebrated Chinese poet Li Bai “Gazing at a Waterfall on Mount Lu” and composing his most famous poem, the one by that title. The image includes a mountain waterfall, a timeless, universal source of awe, and two culturally distinctive and significant products of the creativity sparked by this emotion—a Chinese poem and a Korean painting.

A pair of cranes represents Trust, a Confucian virtue.

On a screen illustrating The Eight Confucian Virtues, which are Filial piety, Brotherly love, Loyalty, Trust, Propriety, Righteousness, Integrity and Sensibility, animals adorn the top of each panel. A pair of cranes represents Trust.

Stone in the shape of the Korean Peninsula.

One of my favorite forms of artistic creativity is what we see at any age in a cloud, a chunk of driftwood, or a rock. This is why I liked the sculpture by Mother Nature, titled “Stone in the Shape of the Korean Peninsula.” I especially liked how the vision inspired the artist who sculpted a wooden base for it, to carve water ripples around the stone.

Ceramics.

I liked the variety represented by seven ceramics in one display, every one of a distinctive shape and color. Vases, a jar, a vessel, a bottle and a seal are faceted in different ways, glazed in different colors, and designed for different functions. My favorite was the “Quadruple gourd vase” (photo at the top of this blog post), in part because it inspired me to make a miniature version of it some day.

Two dozen more diverse art works await viewers with differing sensibilities!

All text and photos, copyright Caroline Arnold. www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

 

 

BASQUE SPAIN: Donostia-San Sebastian, Guest Post by Jennifer Arnold

Jennifer in Donostia (San Sebastian) Spain.

My daughter Jennifer, a professor at the University of North Carolina, recently traveled to Spain for a professional meeting and had a little extra time to be a tourist and explore. I thank her for sharing her photos and impressions of the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastian. She writes:

Basilica of St. Mary of the Angelic Choir.

I travelled to San Sebastian in April 2024 to visit BCBL (The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language). It was a short trip, but I was pleased to be able to walk around the beautiful city a little, and to visit the museum of San Telmo, which focuses on Basque history.

Hotel on a plaza; the doors have numbers that apparently were used when they used to have bull fights in the plaza and people would rent the rooms to watch the fights.

San Sebastian (“Donostia” in Basque) lies on the north side of Spain in Basque country near the French boarder. I arrived in the San Sebastian airport, which is about 30 minutes from the city. When I asked my taxi driver what I should try to see, he said really the main attraction is food. 

Pastries.

He was right – the culinary experience in San Sebastian was a highlight.

Pinxos.

My host took me out for “pinxos” the first night, which is the local style of tapas. One goes from bar to bar, sampling one or two specialties at a time. The typical pinxos you see everywhere are pieces of bread with spreads and seafood piled on top, often anchovies, sardines, or shrimp. My host also took me to Bar Nestor, a famous place that makes tortilla española (a sort of omelet with potatoes).  They only make one tortilla for lunch, and one for dinner. To get a slice, we had to show up at 7pm on the dot to get our names on the list. They told us to come back 45 minutes later, when we found a lucky group of people clustered outside. They called our names one group at a time to come in and be served. 

Basque cheesecakes.

Another specialty of the area is Basque cheesecake, which is very dense and creamy, and kind of liquidy in the middle. We also enjoyed sit-down meals at local restaurants, both traditional Basque and innovative Japanese-Basque fusion. 

Asparagus--white and green.

I happened to arrive at the brief but celebrated time of the white asparagus, which was featured in many restaurants (it’s delicious).

View from Monte Iqueldo--reached by a funicular.

The city is also beautiful and easy to enjoy on foot. It sits on a bay, with beautiful walks along the sea. The city is very compact, with many apartment buildings instead of houses, and diverse architecture.

Building with arches.

Plaza.

Modern building at the University of the Basque Country.

It seems to be a very family friendly place to live, with countless beautiful refuges nestled between the apartment buildings, including playgrounds, plazas, green areas and ponds. I saw lots of people outside, many with their dogs, who were often wearing collars and little jackets and allowed to roam within sight of their owners.

San Telmo Museum.

On my last day it was rainy so I visited the San Telmo museum, which is a good way to get to know more about Basque history. 

Armor.

Dictionary in Basque, Spanish, and Latin.

Painting by Antonio Ortiz Echague (1883-1942), “Mi mujer y mi hija a la distancia”

They have ancient artifacts and displays about Basque culture from the middle ages, the enlightenment, to modern times. They also have a selection of art by Basque artists. As we left the museum, we saw a quatrilingual “Exit” sign in Basque, Spanish, English, and French.

Exit sign in four languages.