Moving on: Norway, Sweden, Denmark... Germany

Monday 09-Sep-2019 (Eidfjord - Oslo)

Leaving Eidfjord also meant leaving Norway’s land of deep fjords… and all that evokes… we are now heading towards the “flat lands” of the “Low Countries”… where the error in GPS’s estimate of height above sea level is probably greater than the range of heights in some of them. For example, in the Netherlands ~95% of the country lies below 35m elevation.

First stop along the way was the Nature Centre just outside Eidjford… where the goats keep the sod roof on the adjacent restaurant & shop under control.

Norsk Naturesentrer Hardanger... look carefully at the sod roof of the building in the background

Yes... this is where the goats live that trim the roof ...

Then it was on to the  Hardangervidda - a high (the road climbes to 1295m), barren (to our eyes), treeless moorland, lakes and rivers. It is the largest plateau (at 6,500km²) of this kind in Europe (with a cold year-round alpine climate). It is also home to one of the largest wild reindeer herds in Europe

The road up to the plateau had some intersting features too – including a spiral tunnel… as we worked our way up the valley of Måbødalen.

This is how GPS described this part of the road... a spiral tunnel in one direction, followed by another tunnel in the other direction (tunnels are the purple coloured sectors of the road)

But the most impressive view of the day – was of the Vøringsfossen, Norway’s best-known waterfall. Here the water is in free fall for 163m, but the total height of the fall is 182m.  The river is controlled by the hydropower operator of the Sysen Dam, with the minimum allowed flow being 11 cumecs – which is what I suspect it was, when we were there… in spring when the flow is much higher it must be even more spectacular.

The Voringsfossen and the Mabodalen Valley... it almost looks primordial. For scale - see the road in the upper middle, and the viewing "plateau" I refer to in the text, above and to the right of the top of the waterfall.

Same waterfall, different angle... and to give some sense of the scale - see the houses on the river at the top of the fall.

We first viewed the fall from the plateau in the distance on the left (of the first photo above)… where ther is no guard rail… and the drop is immediate, and long. Apparently 3 people have lost their lives here in one 5 year period. One was where a woman posing for a photograph… stepped backwards…  (So I am not so paranoid as it may appear... as this place (the plateau)had the same effect on me as the view above Reine in Lofoton… bad things can happen!).

At 1295m there is, of course, a café… and a troll, to survey the environment.

At the highest point of the road on the Hardangervidda - a troll keeps watch over the Café... and Fiat..

It's quite large... and it was very cold. Sensibly, I was wearing socks... with my sandals.

As noted - treeless, with lakes and rivers... and some of the oldest rocks on the planet (Precambrian).

Apparently they try to keep the road open in winter, but as the woman in the Café where the road reaches it’s highest point noted… it is more often closed than open in winter… and it was the same lady who gave us all the details about the tripod fires we used above… and where to buy one.

A finger of the Hardangerjokulen Glacier.... along with more moorland, lakes and a river. 

After descending off the plateau, at Geilo… a large ski resort area where it looks like they are tacking sods onto the roofs pf houses to make them look old… we happened to be pass one of the chain stores that sells the tripod fires… so called to see if one would fit in Fiat’s “garage”… it did (just), so now we are the proud owner of another device to make CO₂ – but as it is from wood – it must be Carbon neutral!

A new ski village at Geilo... including all the right rustic signals - black stain/paint on the weather boards, white windows and sod roofs.

Our route to Oslo took us down the Numedal Valley, which since medieval times was one of the main routes used by Traders and Pilgrims to travel between Oslo and Bergen.  We began to appreciate this as we went along – as there were large numbers of what appeared to be ancient buildings along the way.  We have learned since, that Numedal has one of Norway’s most concentrated collections of medieval buildings and artefacts, comprising over 40 heritage timber buildings dating from the Middle Ages.  

Stave Church at Rollag…  looks a little Gothic compared to the one at Vik (which looks... Viking / Norwegian)?

We stopped at two of these (a Stave Church from around 1660 – not nearly so interesting as the one in Vik… and locked)) and the a Loft House… which had been moved to the valley (from another farm) in 1670… Loft houses were places to gather in – and were regarded as the building a farmer would likely be most proud of.

Loft House on the Numedal road. These include a storage area, bedroom(s) and an entertainment room... and it is the latter that was most important - and their primary purpose.

Compare this part of the foundation with that of the Stave Church in Vik..

But below the wooden floor structure... the foundations (as we have seen elsewhere, e.g. on Lofoton) look rather precarious - but have apparently been like this for a very long time.  If Norway should ever suffer an earthquake... I expect that many heritage buildings will end up in places different from where they are now...

Next stop, Oslo… quite a long day with over 300km of driving… and quite a few photo stops!

It turns out that there is really only one campsite in Oslo – Bogstad Camping. We expected it to be “expensive”… but how about NOK480 per night (that’s NZ$85/night)… including two showers of 6 minutes each (at NZ$3/shower). This cost did not include working WiFi…  However, in other ways it was a very nice camp ground with friendly staff…, there was a bus stop at the gate to the Camp ground,  and they were happy for us to check out at 6pm – if we needed to.  So we decided that 2 nights would be enough for Oslo!

Tuesday 10-Sep-2019 (Oslo)

Did we mention… it had begun to rain again on our way into Oslo… and overnight (a lovely sound on the roof).. but the forecast suggested better weather in the afternoon. So the morning was spent adding captions to the last blog post – which for reasons unclear to the author’s fumbling thumbs – became “Published” a little before it was “finished”.

I again used my Pensioner credentials to halve the travel costs of my younger wife… and we headed off to Frogner Park (in part on Janet’s recommendation)… what a curious experience… The life's work of Gustav Vigeland (1869–1943), 200 bronze and granite sculptures of the human form – from babies to death.  It is one of Norway’s top tourist attractions… but we are afraid that we didn’t quite “get it”. Neither could we undertand why the statue of an angry boy (“ Norway’s most famous boy” - a curious "poster boy" for the country?) has become the focus of much attention. Apparently, the main theme in the park is the circle of life. This is also the reason why Vigeland displayed all the sculptures, except the one of himself, without clothes. He wanted them to be timeless.  Here’s some examples for you to decide…

Frogner Park - looking along its axis toward the monolith...

Just one of the 212 bronze statues in the park...

The "angry boy" seems to work for multiple nationalities... some of whom like to mimic the boy's expressions...

Can someone tell us why this "character" is so fascinating to Norwegians... and, to visitors?

One of the granite statues that surround the pedestal of the monolith.

The "monolith" - 42 man-years of stone mason's time went in to creating this sculpture... to describe man's desire to climb to the top... on the shoulders of others...?

And this is the view (from the monolith) of the axis of the park looking back toward the bridge with all the bronze sculptures (first image above).

The monolith (of granite) is 14m high, and took 3 stonemasons 14 years to create (from a plaster cast made by Vigeland… who died before it was completed).

Some other intersting things we saw in Frogner Park…

Red Admiral butterfly

A "painted lady butterfly" - we discovered this on reading an article on the BBC Science pages commenting that this year has seen a once in a decade mass emergence of painted lady butterflies in the UK (they migrat from sub-Saharan Africa!)… well they appear to have made it to Norway too. 

Oslo is a relatively “young city” – so is missing the grand “old” buildings of many other Eurpean Capitals – but it does have some stunning “new” buildings!

Oslo's performing arts centre for Opera and Ballet... and you can walk on it too~!

Part of the skyline from the Opera House.

As has been the case for many other cities we have visited... new buildings and construction are everywhere evident.

Seen around the harbour, barges with chimneys, piles of firewood, and rooftop diving platforms... yes, floating saunas! This one was particularly "architectural" (and provides a view from the sauna)... the others we saw were more focused on "function".

And some birds that are unafraid of humans… and some interesting reflections..

Yes, he is above me - at about 50 cm distance from the lens.

Likewise... these birds were happily keeping the marble parapets of the Opera and Ballet  House properly fertilised … should something ever be required to grow there...

Our reflection... in the glass wall of the Opera and Ballet House

Wednesday 11-Sep-2019 (Oslo – Stromstad (Sweden))

We did the “walk around Oslo” yesterday… but today is for Museums – The Fram, The Kontiki and the Viking Ship Museums… all conveniently in the same part of the city.

It is always some what overwhelming to visit a “ship” on dry land, be it the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, the Vassa in Stockholm, the Neptune in Karlskrona or I this case the Fram, Kontiki, Ra, and three Viking ships that have been recovered from burial mounds in Southern Sweden.

The Fram (which means “Forward”) is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen, and was designed to be able to withstand the pressures of the ice by design – it was shaped so that the ice would push the ship up (rather than crush it insitu), so it would "float" on top of the ice.  The rudder and propeller could also be lifted out of the water… and clearly the design worked.

The building that houses the ship is just the size of the ship, and the lighting is “blue” – so photography is difficult.

The Fram… notice the ice strengthening on the bow.

View from the deck

Diarama showing how the Fram was designed to "pop" out of the ice as the pressure increased on the hull.

I had not appreciated that the “Sverdrup” (1,000,000 m³/s) is named for the oceanographer on Roald Amundsen’s North Polar expedition on the Maud, from 1918 to 1925  that the “Sverdrup” (that non-SI unot of 1,000,000 m³/s). There was a Svedrup on the Fram too… but he was the Captain!

The Kontiki museum has, as you might expect – a touch of glitter to it – given the presence of an academy award!  But it was great to actually see (and touch) the Kontiki (the balsawood raft which drifted/”sailed”, via the Humbolt Current, from Peru to the Tuamatu Group (part of Tahiti) in 1947: an 8000km journey in 101 days with 6 crew (of whoch only one could swim!).  Likewise Ra – actually RA-II for those that remember, as the first Ra failed 160km short of its goal (which meant he needed a better reed “ship” builder than those he used from Lake Chad… which on his second attempt, Ra II, – he got from Lake Titicaca)… which made it across the Atlantic in 56 days (in 1970).

Kon-Tiki

Kon-Tiki, and a replica of an Easter Island statue... they are quite large.

The balsa logs - showing how the ropes formed grooves in the timber - which prevented them from failing (as was forecast to occur around 14 days into the voyage).

Ra (II)

Next – stop, lunch… for a mere NZ$28… we got the following… plus some more bird entertainment (sorry Sue)... and the sign did seem to say something about not feeding the birds... but it may have been in another language??

An "inexpensive" lunch for two - at just NZ$28.

Don't fed the birds...

Don't feed the birds... even if they are quite brave... and focused!

The Viking Museum holds the remains of excavations (in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century's) of three burial sites, all not very far from Oslo – with the most complete being the Oseberg ship – which as displayed is close to 90% original. Along with the remains of theses three ships are some of the grave goods, including a wagon, sledges and many other artefacts recovered from these burial mounds.  As grave robbers had breached the burial sites not long after the ships were interred – so no items of jewellery were present.

At the site of the Oseberg excavation - it must have been a remarkable feeling to see this ship emerge from the ground almost completely intact. 

The Oseberg ship as it appears in the museum... such fine lines... and not much freeboard!

And from the starboard side...

The carriage that was par t of the grave goods in the Oseberg ship

One of the sledges among the grave goods. These artefacts had to be "reassembled" from the many pieces that they had become..

A detail of the decoration on the carriage.

Fine decoration on the bow of the Oseberg Ship

A barrel, also part of the grave goods (see the decoration)… other things included a good number of metal rattles... wonder what they were used for?

Some fabric still remained... including evidence of the colour. In this fragment of a tapestry you can see a wagon and horse(s).

The Gokstad ship - not nearly so decorated. 

When the Oseberg Ship was excavated, the archeologists found the remains of two women, along with a rich array of grave goods. One was likely in her 50’s when she died, the other was around 70 – 80! The cause of the death of the younger woman is unclear (but she had had a good diet). The older woman probably died from advanced cancer, suffered from osteoporosis, and had two fused neck vertebrae.

During the "Viking Age" (750 - 1000 AD) - they ranged far and wide, and established communities far from Scandinavia. 

Throughout this journey, one fact has stood out at each of the archeological sites or museums that we have visited – and that is the desire of man to make “beautiful” things, not just functional items… these range from miniature jewellery from Roman and Greek sites, though the inticate carving on the Scandenavian pieces above to the decoration of churches (Romanesque, Stave, Gothic, Baroque,…). Much of what we produce today seems to sacrifice everything to function?

In order to not have to pay another night at Oslo rates – we left  the city at around 4.30pm, just as it started to rain again…. and while Oslo may have been won the European Green Capital Award for 2019 – it still has awful traffic… especially when trams, buses, truck, cars and even campers are trying to get through the same intersection!  However – they do have electric vehicles going for them!  In Oso – it would be our estimate that Tesla (electric cars) are as common as Toyota Corollas are in any NZ city!  They are everywhere..

A not unusual site... rain, and a couple of Teslas...

Thinking about the rather silly advertisement (by Meridian Energy – with ? dressed in a suit based on the NZ flag) that was on TV at the time we left NZ about us wanting to have more electric cars than Norway… it seems to me that we have a very long way to go to catchup… and Noray will not be standing still in the meantime!

And so we left Norway… and arrived back in Sweden (on its west coast)… and yes it was raining there too.  The campsite was “interesting”… and not one we would revisit (it was also very close to being under a motorway bridge).. but for one night, it was fine… and “only” 200SEK!

Thursday 12-Sep-2019 (Stromstad - Varberg)

It dawned sunny… a blue sky, and a very fresh westerly wind (to whip up the waves on the adjacent lake... but we were not in a forest!).

"Nice" campsite... almost under a motorway (i.e. a "blue" road) bridge... with some very small cabins available for rent.

This was to mainly be a day of “travel”, but not before visiting the Vitlycke Museum at Tanum – just down the road from Stromstad, a remarkable collection of bronze age (1800 to 500BC) rock drawings (petroglyphs). When created, these drawings would have been near sea-level… today their elevation is 25m. Many of the glyphs depict boats… and to help us tourists, they have been painted red (bound to create controversy within the academic community!).

One of the many rocks on which the Tanum petroglyphs can be seen... it is though that those at the top are the oldest, and as sea-level fell, new petroglyphs were added.

A boat.. with what look like some angry men...

A whale - rare among the petroglyphs.

There was a Museum at the site (free entry... its not Norway!)– that both presented information about the site – and also attempted to interpret aspects of life in the bronze age farm at this site through the use of stories from fictional characters. It also displays a copy of a bronze sword that was found in 1884 in the sea outside Ellös on Orust stuck into seabed point down all the way to the handle.

Copy of a sword found in the sea-bed (only the hilt was showing) at Ellos on Orust (in 1884).

Recreation of what a bronze age farm building (for people!) might have looked like..

And it's interior - the smoke went out either end of the build (at the apex of the roof).

I had noticed that the oil level report in Fiat’s instrument panel was showing that the oil level wasdown a bit… so in Uddavalla, we called on a Peugeot Dealer to ask them to add some oil. The reason… it is nearly impossible to see wher you add oil – as it is in behind the part of the engine that you can see with the engine cover (that piece of glass reinforced plastic that caused all the noise earlier on) raised. It needed 500ml – which seems OK after 15,500 km (and a new engine). An IKEA was nearby, and it was lunchtime… and the cafés in IKEAs sell good cheap meals… and beside they are quite nice shops to visit… After a quick tour of the store, we left a little poorer… and added another package to Fiat’s garage!

Fiat's garage on the "right side" (the left side is filled with bikes)

Then it was on to Varberg, without stopping in Goteborg (aka Gothenberg) – where Volvo was founded in 1927… – another 300+km day.

Friday 13-Sep-2019 (Varberg to Markaryd)

Camping Apelviken at Varberg was an ACSI site – so back to reasonable pricing again (€20/night, including electricity and showers).  It was right on the beach, and was perfect in every way – right down to having air compressor and tyre inflation service at the “Camper Service”(= dump (grey water and chemical toilets, and fill with fresh water… i.e. dump and fill!).  The only oddity about it was the credit card sized access card you used to access the services (kitchen, bathrooms etc.) provided enough “hot water for a 2 minute” shower… which is quite short, given it takes the first 15 seconds to heat up… but we just went on swiping the car each time the shower stopped – and all seemed to be well?  We expected to be charged extra on departure… but that didn’t eventuate either!

The beach at Varberg...

And if you look carefully - lots and lots of kite surfers

Apart from wind (it was a pleasantly “rocky” night) for the wind surfers, there was trackside (since we were also beside a train track) entertainment too…

And an image for Phil... these railway systems do make for some very large "toys"...

We then emptied more $$$ from our Credit Card… SEK1,300 (NZ$220) for groceries, and SEK1130 (NZ$185) for 70 litres of diesel. We had been holding back from re-supplying in Norway – which says something, given we know that everything is quite expensive in Sweden!

Halmstad, a little further south, is a favoured holiday location, and for summer houses (it was also the home town of the couple we met in Oppdal, and the location where a colleague has his summer house). My colleague advised us to visit Tylosand – a  beautiful place with a combination of rocks and sandy beaches.  So we chose that for our lunch stop.  When I opened Fiat’s door to go out and take some photographs… the wind almost took it away!  The breeze was the equivalent of a really fresh Wellington day… which meant the surf was up, and every grain of sand that could fly… was flying.  It was, as described by Erland… but would be quite different on a calmer day!

The beach (and offshore island) at Tylosand...

We decided on one more night in Sweden… and the choice was… on the coast by a beach, or in a forest, by a lake. It was easy really – the latter won!  And so we moved on to Markaryd – a small campsite (where we were the manager’s first guests from NZ (Sue, you will be pleased to hear that I didn’t have sufficient cheak to suggest that that fact should lead to an automatic discount…).  

Sunrise - over the lake at Markaryd

And again... but not toward the sun...

The neighbouring camper at Markaryd… could that mean we can take Oli camping with us?  They didn't let him/her out of the camper though! 

We are keeping a photographic record of most of the campsites that we have stayed at... which generally means we both take a photo... just in case! 

Saturday 14-Sep-2019 (Sweden (Markaryd) – Denmark - Germany)

With just a month to go – our focus now is on the Low Countries and France… We realise that we are not going to make it to Spain and Portugal this time… And so today we are “country hopping” – with the aid of ferries.

As you are perhaps anticipating… while the day started out in full sun (the images above)… by the time we got on the road at about 9AM, we could see a rainbow to the west… then pretty soon, a little rain began to fall as we drove through our last Swedish forest.

For calibration purposes - a "white" road.... and oh, some precipitation. Shortly after this we passed a procession of Chevrolet Camaros of various vintages... the shiny paint was going to get dirty!

We crossed the Oresund (the strait between Sweden and Denmark) at Helsingbord (to Helsingor) right in front of the Kronberg Castle (recall – this was the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which we visited back in August) – nicely completing our circumnavigational “loop” of Sweden and Denmark. The name of the ferry; Hamlet.  The cost for the ~15minute voyage… SEK2207 (or NZ$180),... but the weather was improving!

Boarding Hamlet... as at every other port - GPS has not been a good provider of direction information - much better to follow the "port signs"!

Karilyn noticed the reflection of Fiat in the bus beside us - which disgourged a load of Chinese Tourists.

Departing Sweden - Helsingborg...

Arriving (15 minutes later) in Helsingor (Denmark)… and a view from the sea of the gatekeeper of the Oresund - Kronberg Slot.

Helsingor harbour... which does look rather more attractive than that of Helsingborg.

After which we drove across the Danish islands of Zealand (past Koge Bay), Falster and Lolland, before embarking onto another ferry (DKK879, or NZ$220 for a 45 minute ferry ride)– to take us to the island of Fenharm, Germany. So, three countries in a day.

The sky is almost always a work of art here (with very different colours between the milky blue colour when looking toward the sun, and the deep blues that you see when looking in the anti-solar direction) - here we are approaching the bridge from Zealand to the island of Falster.

Fiat (recall, aka Izzy)... packed in

And so... after spending only 4 hours in Denmark... we departed for Germany!

Which soon hoved into view... and based on the weather over the last few days - we can see why there are lots of wind turbines in these parts. (We don't think we saw one wind turbine in Norway... but lost of hydro power stations)

Apart from one “red” road that runs north south on Fehmarn, and one “white” road that runs east-west… all the others don’t even make it onto our road atlas. It turns out that all the other roads on Fenharm are “less” than “white”…

On the "road" to the campsite... Our atlas has only two roads on the island... the reality is there is a large network of roads like this one... down which all the campers, and caravans that come to the 8 or so (very) large campsites on the island must travel. The locals must not be fond of such traffic?

And that ended a longish day… from the serene setting of a Swedish Lake (in a forest… but we must say that the lakes still do not look appealing as a swimming option… given their dark-brown appearance, and less than translucent properties) – to a German Baltic sea camping “resort”, via another country (Denmark). 

We notice that we haven’t managed to put all of you off yet… according to the Google Analytics…

The readership seems to be "spread"...

With a few spikes … when we get around to saying something!

We will stay here (at Camping Strukkamphuk) on south-west Fehmarn – while we catchup (again) and put some thought into planning for the next and penultimate phase of this journey…