wandering-europe

Day 34 -- Interlaken to Kandersteg International Scout Camp -- Tuesday, July 17th

We had the simple breakfast at the hostel then packed up, checked out, and put our luggage into the free day lockers in the basement.  Our time at the Backpacker's Hostel had come to an end, and we were sad to go, as it was a pleasant place to stay.  It was so much nicer than the Legoland Village Family Hostel we'd stayed at in Denmark.

Our next accommodation was only about an hour and half away, and we couldn't check in until 16:00, so we decided to take our time getting there.  Our stay at the Backpacker's hostel came with free entry to the town swimming pool, which we hadn't taken advantage of the last two days because of our day trips.  I wanted to walk around Interlaken, and the girls wanted to swim.  Daddy took the girls to the pool and relaxed in a lounge chair while they played in the water.  Even though we'd already checked out, the hostel was nice enough to loan us (for free) two beach towels to take to the pool.  Aubrietta was ecstatic to get a Lion King towel, and wished she could take it home!

The girls had a great time at the pool complex, which had not one, but several outdoor pools, complete with tube slides.

Meanwhile I walked through town and tried to find the tiny hotel on the pedestrian street where my brother and I stayed in 1997.  I came across a darling shop featuring items made in Switzerland.  I'm not much into souvenir shopping, but I did have to buy this beautiful wooden memory game featuring Swiss icons.  We love games in our family, and it would bring back happy memories each time we played it.

In my wanderings I also went to the large Migros grocery store, which was closed Sunday and was closed every evening when we needed it.  We were now on our way out of town and would be juggling luggage on the train, so I could only look, and not do a big shopping.  Tempting me from the coolers were about 50 different kinds of yogurts and custards.  I couldn't care less about the knicknacks and jewelry most women swoon over  -- just show me to the nearest gourmet grocery store and my wallet magically opens.

The hard-boiled eggs called to me as well, but even in the protective casing I knew they wouldn't travel well.

And cheese!  These sampler packs with 4 different types of regional Swiss cheeses in each would have been perfect -- except that I had no way to keep them cold for 3 hours, and it was getting to be a hot day outside.  If only the small convenience store in the little town we'd be staying in next had this much selection.

I did buy some things to take home.  Paper napkins are lightweight and don't take up much space in the suitcase, and they are fun to pull out in the future and remember our trip by.  The little embroidered felt hearts are table decoration, but I plan to add ribbon and hang them on our Christmas tree in December.

Here are some other things that made it home in my suitcase: Menthol eucalyptus chewing gum (great for cold season), assorted chocolate (some to give to neighbor kids, some for me), and my favorite Appenzeller Biberli: spicy gingerbread cakes with marzipan filling.

Around 11:30 am we met back at the hostel and I took the girls back to the Migros for lunch at their pay-by-weight buffet restaurant.

We absolutely love buffets.  What a great opportunity to try lots of different foods in one sitting.

The girls will eat anything, especially after the last 3 days of hostel breakfasts and microwave / picnic dinners.

The canapes looked especially inviting.  Aubrietta announced that she is expecting me to put these in her school lunches from now on.

In the end we got mushroom spatzle (potato dumplings similar to Italian Gnocchi), salad, potatoes, fresh fruit, and a big slice of ham and leek quiche.  We split one giant cantelope lemonade between the 3 of us.  At $4.50 USD for the beverage I wasn't about to get one for each of us.  The total cost of all the food was under $20.00 USD, which was great for a meal for three of us.  Daddy was resting in the garden back at the hostel (he wasn't very hungry and just had some leftovers while cleaning our things out of the hostel fridge). 

When I got back to the hostel with the girls we barely had enough time to get the luggage from the lockers and rush out to the bus stop.  We thought we'd missed it (we were 3 minutes late, and this WAS Switzerland after all), but miraculously the bus was late and rounded the corner just as we pulled the last suitcase over the curb.

At the train station.  It looks like a lot of luggage, but it contains everything we needed for 6 weeks in 5 countries, from 2 pairs of trekking poles, to down jackets, to hostel sheets, to extra shoes.  By the way, I brought only 2 pairs of shoes on the trip -- hiking boots I wear most of the time, and sport sandals (closed-toe like Keens).  I bought a new pair of heavy duty insoles to put on top of my orthodics before the trip and this morning I had to throw them away because I had worn them to shreds with all the hiking we've done on this trip.  Right now I would love a pair of cushy slip-on Merrells like I wear at home all the time.  My husband brought 4 pairs of shoes  (which I thought was too much), the girls have 3 pairs each (boots, athletics, and sandals) , and now I'm thinking I should have had 3 pairs, too.

Ready to go!

We changed trains in Spiez and headed up a valley toward the mountains.

We'll get off in Kandersteg, just before the train goes into a long tunnel through the mountains.

We happened to get on a train car for the disabled.  It had a beautiful, large bathroom, and everything was automatic -- except the toilet.  Put your hands in the sink and the water turns on, move your hands to the right and soap squirts onto them, move your hands to the left and the air dryer dries them.  Toilets, however, are push-button, which makes much more sense.   I despise the trend in the US of auto-flush toilets, which often start flushing before you even sit down, and then flush a couple more times before you are finished.  Europeans obviously trust that you are capable of flushing the toilet on your own.

When the train pulled into Kandersteg we saw a line up of cars going through some sort of toll booth.  We weren't sure what it was, but we didn't have time to wonder for long as we busied ourselves with collecting our bags and rushing to the bus, which only ran once an hour.  When we got off the bus at the camp (you can see the tiny blue bus stop sign in the right of the photo above), a loud whoosh from the train tracks above explained everything.  There was only one tunnel through the mountains, and it was for a train only, so when cars, trucks, or even tour busses (!) wanted to avoid a 3.5 hour detour around the mountains, they drove onto the "car train" and were transported through, still sitting in their vehicles.

We checked in and were given a room in the most modern building, "KanderLodge," which had rooms with 2 single beds each sharing a bath with another 2 bed room.  The lodge was designed for troop leaders, families like ours, and young troops not ready to sleep out in tents.  Our lodge is that gray building wedged between the river and the train tracks.  (The colored patches with numbers are group camping spots.)

Unfortunately our room looked out on the train tracks, and every time a train passed (which was every 10 minutes), the building seemed to vibrate.  We didn't know how we would possibly sleep, but at least we weren't in tents!

 

The beds were like the ones at the Backpacker's hostel.  Narrower than a US twin bed, but a lot longer (even long enough for me!).  In the photo above you can see how this room opens into the common bath.  Door to the left is for the shower and toilet.  To the right is a sink and mirror.  See the heated towel rack (such a great idea!) -- to the right of that is the door to the hallway.  To the left of this long and narrow room is another room just like it in mirror image.  The girls shared one room, Daddy and I the other.  Daddy claimed his bed by the window and was soon sleeping.  The girls and I went out exploring.

Many campers prepare their own meals at their campsite or in the communal kithcens, but there is a dining hall with food service that some troops treat themselves to.  I'd signed on for dinner each night, and figured we could do breakfast and lunch on our own.  We were curious to see if the camp food here was better than the horrible food at Girl Scout Camp back home.

The girls do not look pleased about tonight's dinner menu.  You wouldn't find alcohol at a scout camp in the US, that's for sure, even for cooking purposes.

Camp staff come from around the world and are called "Pinkies" because of the pink t-shirts they are required to wear.  And look, there's an espresso machine!  Coffee was included with dinner, although it wasn't great quality.  We liked how you could go down the food line and say, "a little more please," and "not much, thanks."

The girls are all smiles, but the "Pork in Beer" was pretty disgusting, reminsicent of dog food.  We filled up on the potatoes (really tender German butterballs), baked eggplant & tomatoes, and fruit sorbet.  I also asked for a little bit of the vegetarian option, which was cooked vegetables.  There was also a meager salad bar containing only 4 items: iceburg lettuce, diced bell pepper, canned pineapple, and sliced tomatoes.  Daddy was late joining us for dinner, and then returned to the room to lie down.  His knee was really killing him, and the pain medication he was taking made him tired.

At 19:00 we headed to the sports field for the evening's all camp activity, "Race the World."  It was a team challenge with relay games from around the world.

It was suddenly obvious that we were the minority here -- most of the campers were teenage boys.  Teams of 10 were formed, and Aubrietta was the only girl on a team with 9 sixteen-year-old boys.

Kelsey refused to participate.  She sat down and befriended this Boy Scout Leader from the midwest USA.

First up was a relay where two teammates sidestep across the field and back while pressing a balloon between their chests, no hands allowed.  If the balloon falls, they return to the start and go again.  When Aubrietta heard this she blushed deep red and wanted to slink away, but she's a sport, so as the boys paired up, she stepped forward when one of the boys chose her as his partner.

There she goes, chest to chest with a boy she has just met.  I was so proud of her, although I know she was dying of embarrassment.

The next relays were not quite as "intimate," thankfully.  Above you can see Aubrietta the white and tan blur to the right.  I could tell she was pushing herself to impress the older boys and keep up with them.

"Pinkies" demonstrate the next relay, which is a classic game of leapfrog.

Teams listen as the rules are explained.  In the background you can see some of the tents where campers sleep.  Aubrietta is in the center of the photo above, just a few inches shorter than the guys on her team.

Toward the end, Aubrietta steps away from the team briefly to tell me that she is having the time of her life.  She is just radiant, and dare I say a bit smitten with some of her handsome teammates.  I didn't ask her, but I bet she was wishing for another go-round with that balloon pressed between her chest and that of another boy!

After the event the three of us walked around the campsites.  Each area represented a different region of the world.  There were lots of little signs and things to find.  At the reception desk I'd picked up a scavenger hunt booklet, and we looked for some of the things on the list.

The camp ends where the train tunnel begins.  The Loetschberger Tunnel was built between 1906 and 1912, so its 100th birthday was this year.

On some railway sidings extra vehicle transport cars were stored, so we got to look at them up close.  It was amazing to us that huge tour buses and shipping trucks could drive onto these (with not much overhead clearance, obviously), and hurtle through the tunnel on a train going at full speed.

We continued through the campsites, admiring the different tents, and the views they had of the mountains.

Here's an interesting tent.  Nice tall walls, but no windows.  I bet it is dark in there. 

Irish scouts sleep here.


 

The sun was setting, so we headed back to Kander Lodge.  On our way to the room we went into the building's common kitchen and living area and met a troop of 11 to 14 year old Girl Guides from Scotland.  There were 8 girls and 3 leaders, and unlike in the US where leaders are often the parents, these 3 leaders were young women in their 20's.  Aubrietta and Kelsey started chatting with the girls while the leaders and I compared notes on our respective organizations (I've been with Girl Scouts for 6 years now, in several leadership roles).

We were joined shortly by 3 Eagle Scouts -- one from Texas and 2 from Louisiana.  They were between 18 - 21 years old.  The young man from Texas was so charming, had such a sharp wit, and got all the girls laughing hysterically when he belted out  camp songs and various country music ballads in his Texas twang.  This was exactly the experience I was hoping to have by coming to this camp, a chance for the girls to meet people from around the world and share good times together.

Sometime after 23:00 I pulled the girls away from the group and told them it was time for bed.  Some of the Scottish girls were fading, too, whereas the Eagle Scouts and the young lady leaders from Scotland looked like they could go on for hours.  (I wondered if any of them would end up in bed together later... there were signs in all the bathrooms saying that condoms were available at reception!)

The girls were so tired that they were quickly asleep, trains and all.  My husband was snoring away as well, oblivious to his painful knee for awhile.  I wrote for an hour or so on my iPad, until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, then reached for my earplugs and tried to ignore several passing trains, until finally sleep overcame me.

NEXT:  Day 35 -- Part 1 -- The Girls Explore Kandersteg -- Wednesday, July 18th 

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Day 27 -- From Oslo, Norway to Zurich, Switzerland -- Tuesday, July 10th

Today was a "transit day," so I'll share with you the logistics of this as a family traveling internationally.  It has adventure, challenges, and humorous moments.

Our flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 16:45, so we could have done more exploration of Oslo before heading to the airport, but we just didn't have the energy or interest for it.  It was another dark day of low hanging clouds, our bags were all packed, and with all the construction downtown around the train station we just wanted to get to the airport and not worry about being delayed by unforeseen traffic jams.

Our host, who we had not met, was driving from Lillehammer to clean the apartment before the next guests arrived that evening.  He said he'd arrive around 11:00am, so we waited around, hoping to meet him.  We're good guests in that we cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, stripped the beds, and swept the floors.  We'd even defrosted the freezer!  Most guests probably walk away and leave a mess, but we like to be thoughtful, even when we're paying a lot of money to stay somewhere.  In the case of these airbnb rentals, it's usually an individual trying to make a little money to help pay their mortgage, and we can easily imagine ourselves in their shoes. 

Our host was running late so by 11:30 we decided to leave and start the journey to the airport.  We went down to the bus stop and the bus pulled up dripping wet.  I wondered if it had just come out of the bus wash. Ours is the first/last stop, so it was possible that the bus had just come from the bus barn to begin it's route.

Half a mile down the road a sheet of rain awaited.  That solved the mystery of the wet bus -- it was pouring!  By the time we got downtown (just 5 minutes away), a heavy downpour slammed us as we struggled off the bus with our luggage in the middle of the construction zone.  The bus stop was located in the center of a 6 lane road, surrounded by concrete barriers, and the only way out was up about 100 steps to a pedestrian overpass.  The alternative was to cross the street away from the train station, toward the opera house, and go around the traffic circle, and backtrack beyond the barriers, walking 10 minutes out of the way.  Either way we'd get soaked, so we just tromped up the stairs to the overpass, dragging our luggage behind.

At the train station we found the tent set up near the road where the "bus for tog" was replacing the non-running trains.  A bus had just left so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.  There were only 2 benches, so Daddy sat down with his bum knee and the girls and I stood and waited as the crowd grew.  When the bus pulled up there was a mad rush and before we even got to the exit of the tent, a worker cut us off and held us back.  I was livid.  Here we were waiting for 20 minutes, before most of the other people arrived, and because we didn't aggressively push ahead, we would have to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus.  I turned on the "Angry American" and loudly "suggested" they have a take-a-number system, or stanchions to keep people in line.  I kept on ranting, and before long the four of us were plucked from the crowd and pointed toward the bus, which had a few seats left.

On the bus Daddy and Kelsey sat together and Aubrietta and I were together.  We were grateful to find seats together at all.  Aubrietta pulled the "safety card" from the seat pocket and we got a chuckle over "item D," above.  I guess we should feel lucky that we weren't riding below in the luggage compartment!

On our drive out of the city we passed the IKEA that we had wanted to go to, but didn't.  We found out late yesterday that IKEA runs a free shuttle bus service from downtown to their store.  Most businesses in Scandinavia post their open hours in plain view.  Here you can see that IKEA is open Monday - Friday until 23:00, which is 11:00pm!  Saturday hours are in parenthesis, so in this case, 9am to 9pm.  And as we now know, EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday, even IKEA.

When we boarded the "Bus for Tog" train replacement downtown we were told to pay when we arrived at the airport.  We thought the bus would take us all the way there, but instead it took us about 20 minutes outside of town and dumped us at a train station.  There we were confused about what to do.  Did we need to buy train tickets now?  Separate staff in "Flytoget" vests directed us onto a special train that was about to depart, saying we could pay at the airport.  When we arrived at the airport we found ourselves on the other side of these gates pictured above, and the only way through was to insert a ticket or credit card -- a European one embedded with a chip, not the magnetic stripe like our US cards.  Lukily there was an attendant in a booth, there to let through those who had paid online with their smartphone, or those rare people like us who wished to pay in cash.

Inside the airport we decided to kill time before going through security.  It was still nearly 4 hours before our plane was to depart.  There were cute play areas that the girls spent some time at.  They made some friends, including a little girl named Silja who was coming from Canada to spend the summer with her grandmother in the Norwegian countryside.  Pictured above you can see a female soldier, there with her young son.  There were a lot of Norwegian military troops in transit, and I wondered if Norway took better care of their troops than the US does of theirs.

We had coffee, soft raisin rolls fresh from the oven at a 7-11, and a Greek salad.  We kept all our luggage with us, not checking it in until 2 hours before our flight, so it wouldn't sit around and get misplaced back in the abyss.  I worried that if we sent it through too early it would arrive back in the sorting area before they had a bin set up for our flight, so it might be set aside and forgotten.  Although I was still trying to "spread out" our clothes over 4 bags, I had gotten a little careless about the balance, and if we lost a bag it could be likely that one of us would be left with only two shirts for the rest of the trip.

Bags checked, we entered the line for security.  This was to be our 5th flight of the trip, and so far our security experiences had been vastly different at each airport.  Some scruitinize your passport at multiple spots along the way, as if you might change your nationality by marrying someone while standing in line (some of the lines are long enough, I suppose you could hook up and even gestate, give birth, and add a member to your traveling party).  Here they asked for the passport just once, and didn't even look at it closely!

We were told to leave our shoes on, but the steel shanks in our hiking boots set off the metal detector alarms which sent us to the line for pat-downs.  Aubrietta was ahead of me, already through the detector, and the female security person who was leading her away from me took a second look at Aubrietta and realized she was a child, even though at 5'3" she was taller than the security guard.  The guard looked at me on the other side of the metal detector (I was still waiting to go through) and asked me quickly "OK to pat down?" as she was leading Aubrietta off, and I said "OK" and hoped Aubrietta would be fine with what was coming.  

I watched from afar as the security woman felt over my daughter, brushing past her newly budding breasts, and frisking her inner thighs, and I was wondering if Aubrietta was feeling embarrassed.  I hadn't really prepared Aubrietta for this, although back in Seattle when we started this trip and the girls and I watched Daddy being inspected, I had joked to the girls that Daddy was lucky to score a free massage.  

When I was finally reunited with Aubrietta I asked her how her massage was, and she said, "Fun!" as if she had won a prize, so all was good.  I then turned to Kelsey and told her maybe next time she'd get lucky, too (although her boots didn't have a steel shank, so she never sets off the detectors).  Other mothers might have made a big deal about their 12 year old being felt up, but I think if you put it in a positive light, its not so bad.  Sometimes we have to do things we don't like, such as get vaccinations, not for ourselves so much, but for the benefit of others.  Going through security is a hassle, but it is one of those things that the law-abiding have to put up with to ensure that the evil don't slip through.

In order to get to the International Departures area of the airport we were funneled through Duty Free.  We had some cash left, but we didn't buy anything here.

Near our gate we found another play area, so the girls got straight to work playing.  These two little blond-haired boys were so cute as they took their role as pilot and co-pilot seriously.  They spent a good amount of time going through "checks" of the instruments in front of them, then peeked out the windows to find a stow-away above them.  They asked Aubrietta, in Norwegian, to get down, and when she didn't understand, they started madly gesturing.  I told her to get down, she knew full well what they wanted, and she should respect their wishes.  Aubrietta is really too old and too big to play, but she is still very much a child at heart, and I have to remind her that she is not on equal footing with the other children.  She needs to make way for them, stand aside, and not interfere.  If she is invited to play with them, great, but she should not hog the play equipment -- the younger children have priority.

As the hours wore on announcements kept being made about delays, and soon our flight was added to the list of delays.  We bought baguette sandwiches as the dinner hour approached.  Kelsey occupied herself for a good hour, tearing off bits of bread to put in her mouth since she still was not able to bite with her injured front teeth.

Finally the call came to board the plane.

Approaching the plane we noticed this odd signage on the top of the plane.  In case you can't read it in the photo above, there's corners of a square in red, and in the middle it says, "cut here in emergency."  That's reassuring.

We were able to peek into the cockpit with sheepskin lined seats.  Our pilots hadn't arrived yet.

Finally seated on the plane, we sat, and sat.  For a time it was fun to look out the window at the buses driving by, and all the activity on the ground, but soon it grew stifling hot.  It may have been a cloudy day, but it was humid.  The captain eventually came on the overhead PA and explained the problem:  an air traffic controllers strike was causing long delays.  In fact, the airport was going to be shutting down shortly, and there was no guarantee we'd take off.

After more waiting, we pulled back from the gate and headed toward the runway.  We joined a long line up of other planes hoping to take off.  The skies were dark and threatening, and a turbulent ride was likely ahead, so I was starting to think that going back to the airport and spending the night in a hotel might not be so bad.  I hate flying, and turbulence scares me.  

We approached the runway one plane-length at a time, and eventually our turn came to rev up the engines and take off.  It was a relief for all of us.  The flight itself wasn't bad.  After we got up through the cloud cover the turbulence stopped, and it wasn't long before we were descending over Germany and nearing Switzerland.

First view of Switzerland.  It is raining, but still beautiful.

We landed smoothly and disembarked, got our luggage, and headed 2 floors below to the train station.

First stop: ATM for some local currency.

Next stop: Getting our rail pass validated.  I had to stand in line for half an hour.  As it was 21:00 (much later than we were scheduled to arrive due to the delay out of Oslo), only 2 people were left working at the train station ticket window.  At one window an elderly Japanese couple and their middle-aged daughter were talking with the customer service rep the whole time I stood in line.  Perhaps they were telling their life story, I don't know, but it was interesting to watch the daughter and the ticket agent speak in broken English, and then the daughter stopping every few seconds to turn to her parents and translate every-last-word into Japanese.  For goodness sakes, just buy them their tickets and tell them how they work later!  This was our first view of an interesting phenomenon when it comes to Japanese tourists.  They do everything together, with much discussion.  Putting one person in the party in charge of accomplishing something just was not possible, whether it was buying tickets for a group or cooking a meal in a crowded youth hostel kitchen. I love the Japanese, but sometimes, like now, my patience for their way of doing things grew short.

We'd missed several trains while waiting in line, and now instead of running every ten minutes or so, it was late at night so they ran every 20 - 30 minutes. We had to travel from the airplane image in zone 21 to Zurich HB in zone 10, and transfer to a local S4 train which would take us down into zone 50.

When we got to Zurich HB we arrived on gleis (track) 15, and we needed to get to gleis 1 for our next train.  Could we just walk straight from 15 to 1?  No!  We had to walk the length of the station, then at track 3 we had to go down two levels, because gleis 1 & 2 were underground.  Could we find an elevator?  No!  There were signs for showers and ATMs and bicycle storage, but elevators were hidden away, their use discouraged.

When we finally arrived down at Gleis 1 our connecting train had just left, and we had 20 minutes to wait for the next one.  Daddy was near collapse, his knee in excruciating pain, and the girls were tired and cranky.  

Luckily we were heading to my friend Antje's apartment, and she would take good care of us when we arrived.  I called to let her know that we were going to be even later, and she promised to meet us at the train station.

40 minutes later, nearing 23:00, we stumbled off the train and met Antje.  She had a compact car so there was no way the four of us, plus her, plus our luggage, was going to fit.  I sent my suffering husband and Kelsey along with half the bags while Aubrietta and I waited at the train station for Antje to make a second trip to come get us.  Luckily she just lived a few blocks away up the hill, so she was back in a matter of minutes.

We should have arrived hours earlier, so Antje had prepared a lovely dinner for us, which she and her 12 year old daughter Navina stayed up to serve us as it neared midnight.  Antje is a wonderful cook, and her homemade soup and fresh bread, along with cheese, meat, and salad, was absolutely delicous.  We visited over the late-night meal, then all headed to bed.  Antje lives in a 2 bedroom unit, so she was bunking in her daughter's room while my husband and I took her bed, and Aubrietta and Kelsey slept on camp mats on the floor.  It was cozy, and we weary travelers were so happy to be in the care of a dear friend.

NEXT: Day 28 -- Welcome to Switzerland! -- Wednesday, July 11th

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Day 26 -- Last Day in Oslo, Norway -- Monday, July 9th

It rained hard overnight and we were awakened just after 6am to the garbage trucks collecting the trash from our building, followed shortly by the construction workers across the street cutting concrete with loud saws.

Since we'd done the Technical Museum yesterday, this was the day to go back to the Folk Museum, and it looked like the weather would be just as bad as Saturday.  We should have gone yesterday.  In getting ready to leave the house, we realized that one of the cameras was missing, the one that Daddy and Kelsey were sharing.  It then occured to us that Kelsey had left it at the museum, so Daddy called there, and thankfully someone had turned it in to the lost and found.  It would have been tragic to lose all the photos on that camera, since I hadn't uploaded photos from it to the iPad for about a week.  

Daddy headed for the technical museum to retrieve the camera, and I continued getting the girls ready for the day, with plans to meet at the Folk museum at 11:30am.  We caught the bus downtown, then had to stop at the Reuter office (I finally located it) to buy the girls 24 hour transit passes, since they'd been riding free on the weekend and it was now Monday.  We then caught a bus to the Bygdoy peninsula, where the Folk Museum was.

When we arrived at the museum we found Daddy in the Museum's cafe (remember, all museums have a nice cafe), enjoying a waffle with strawberry jam and coffee.  We joined him, then ventured back out in the rain to see more of the museum.

Just like on Saturday, it was raining hard and many of the activities were cancelled.  There would be no horse carriage rides, that was for sure.  We slogged around for awhile then retreated to the large indoor exhibits.

Since we weren't going to see many museum staff in costume today due to the rain, I took pictures of the exhibit about the ethnic dress, or "bunads."  There were some vintage bunads behind glass on mannequins, and then photographs of people wearing modern bunads.

Man with baby = HOT!

Aubrietta's favorite, with an owl, of course.

I prefer older men, but even I had to admit this young man was stunning.

This was another exhibit we found fascinating.  206 color photographs were taken in Norway by Albert Kahn's photographer Auguste Leon, some of the first true color photographs in the world.  He also took stereographic black and white photos, documenting life in Norway in 1910.

There was a slide show of the stereographic images, with 3D glasses provided.

Another exhibit was about the native Sami people.  Like the Native Americans, they've also struggled with forced assimilation, loss of land, and discrimination.

There is now a push to preserve the language and culture of the Sami people, but like in the US, much has been lost forever.  Few young Sami today would choose to live in mud huts, just as few in the US, besides the Amish, wish to live as they did 100 years ago without modern conveniences.

The indoor museum also had a big exhibit with vintage toys.  This doll in the sailor suit had a whole wardrobe of handmade clothes, pictured behind on hangers.

Check out this box of hand-carved, tiny wooden tools.

A board game about cross country skiing through Norway!  I want to play!

Little wooden villages and animals were once a staple of the Norwegian nursery.  Today kids act out similar imaginary scenes with Playmobil.

Look how happy these little girls are with their doll carriages!

Some lucky little girl enjoyed this doll, complete with kitchen, about 100 years ago.

We saw everything there was to see indoors, so we headed back outside.  The rain was starting to lighten up, thankfully.  I spied these three tots playing in the fountain as we came out of the indoor exhibits (big buildings in the background).  The kids were dressed perfectly for the rain, with rain boots and rain suits.

Going from house to house, we stopped in for some Lefse bread as we had on Saturday, although this time we knew Aubrietta couldn't have any due to her allergies, so just Daddy and Kelsey had some.

We went to the 1959 farmhouse to find the "farmer's wife" was a different person today.  On Saturday the girls had enjoyed coloring, making spinning toys with paper and string, and cross stitching.  Today they could try the sewing machine, or learn to knit.  Both girls were very enthusiastic to knit.  

I had taught both girls knitting about 2 years ago, but they'd forgotten.  Teaching Kelsey was a challenge for me since she's a Lefty so everything had to be in reverse.

We spent about an hour there, having nice conversation with the "farmer's wife."  Unlike some living history museums, she was in costume, but she wasn't bound to her historical role.  She told us all about her modern-day life, about her mother and grandmother knitting and how sad it was that more young women of her generation weren't learning to knit, about her travels, and about how she learned English and the Norwegian school system.

It was just this kind of casual, friendly interaction that made museums like this a favorite for our family.  

Leaving the farm house, we stopped to look at the pigs.  They way they root around in the mud with their noses, I'm curious how it is that their nostrils don't get so packed with muck that they can't breathe.

The rain finally stopped and we were able to catch up with the "summer school children."  They have a camp program where 14 or so kids around 8 to 12 years old spend the day at the Folk Museum in costume, doing activities and bringing some youthful enthusiasm to the stoic recreations of life several hundred years ago.  Kelsey and Aubrietta would just LOVE to participate in something like this, as they both are excited about history.  Here the children are awaiting afternoon tea and waffles with strawberry jam.  Inside the house nearby a woman in costume is cooking pancakes over a woodstove for them. 

We walked back through the "Village," and explored the tenement house with 8 apartments furnished from different time periods that we saw on Saturday, then headed over to see if the folk dancers were out, now that it was no longer raining.

Hooray!  We finally got to see folk dancers dancing outside!  Had we come yesterday (Sunday) there would have been many of them, but since it was Monday and raining, only two were at work today.  It was a great show, accompanied by authentic music on a vintage keyed string instrument.

The girls are always good at finding a comfortable perch to sit and watch a show.

Both girls we smitten by the performance, and the personable dancers who took time to talk with them afterward.  It was now 17:00 and the museum staff were going home (though you could continue to walk the grounds, the buildings would be locked).  We decided to head downtown and go to the "Bunad Store," where these traditional costumes were sold.  There was a costume for each region of Norway, and some were more detailed that others with embroidery or design.

On the bus the girls busied themselves with their knitting.

At the Bunad store the girls were in awe, and quickly identified their favorites.  A woman customer was in the process of ordering one, and pieces of embroidered cloth were laid out on the counter for her inspection.  Adult Bunads are custom made to fit, whereas there were children's bunads on racks ready to go.  It would have been nice to get the girls Bunads, since I know they would wear them and appreciate them, but the simplest one cost more than $1,000. USD, so it wasn't going to happen.  Besides, there is no room in the suitcase.  (That's my line now, when the girls want to buy stuff, or I see a sweater I want).

I loved the embroidery on this one.

Aubrietta loved these plaid Bunads.  At several thousand dollars a piece, she'll just have to dream about having one.

We left the Bunad store empty handed, looked at the largest sweater store in Oslo and walked out of there without anything, either.

I was hoping to find a boiled wool hot pad (for the kitchen) that I had seen in Flam and not bought.  Now I wanted one.  They were handmade in Norway by Tula Tov and had interesting patterns and colors.  You can see more of their designs here.

I was sure if I looked around I could find one in Oslo.  Daddy and Aubrietta opted to go home, while Kelsey and I went to a downtown shopping mall.  I went into every kitchen store, design store, home goods store, and gift store, but none of them had it.  I rarely suffer from "non-buyer's remorse," but now I was.  Oh well, maybe I could make something like it when I got home.

We also stopped at a toy store.  It was just a cheap toy store, not a boutique toy store specializing in all wood toys, or just educational toys.   Even so, I was surprised at the small amount of "war toys" and "pink plastic girly crap" that is so prevalent in American toy stores.  There were a lot of basic toys: blocks, construction sets, puppets, playmobil, realistic looking dolls, sand toys, etc.  Of course I loved the buses and trams!  You're not likely to find those on the toy store shelf in America.

 

Back at the apartment we had a simple dinner of soup (tomato, cream of mushroom), polar bread, and sauteed zucchini and mushrooms.  After dinner Daddy took the girls to the Barnehage playgrounds while I cleaned and packed for our departure tomorrow.

Tomorrow we fly to Switzerland!

NEXT: Day 27 -- From Oslo, Norway to Zurich, Switzerland -- Tuesday, July 10th

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Day 25 - Oslo, Norway - Sunday, July 8th

we started the day with the girls knitting and Daddy writing in his journal, and me masterminding transit options for the places we might like to go. The forecast was for contnued rain, today, and tomorrow. The girls both wanted to return to the Folk Museum we'd been at yesterday, and Daddy was up for seeing it, too. After our great experience with the Technical Museum in Stockholm, we thought going to the one in Oslo would be fun, as well. At the last moment we decided to go to the Technical Museum today, and the Folk Museum tomorrow, our last day. This was a mistake, but we didn't know it yet.

We caught the bus downtown and as it wasn't raining yet, the girls wanted to run up the roof of the Oslo Opera House.

It is a strange ultra-modern building with a roof that slants toward the water. Although only a few years old, we noticed the caulking between the tiles was wearing away in places, and we could only imagine the big job it would be to replace it all.

Despite the dreary weather, we were not alone on the roof. It is one of the major tourist attractions now. If you look at Google Earth you can actually see people on the roof from the satellite image.

The view from the top was not so spectacular on this gray day, so we soon headed down. A clear blue sky would have been much more stunning.

Kelsey stopped to play with her spinning toy she made at the folk museum yesterday.

We caught a tram to the Technical Museum and it took us through a neighborhood called "Little Pakistan." In the short time we've been in Oslo I've seen more Muslims than I have cumulatively in my life. Most of the women are in headscarves, but there are also plenty in the full covering, with just a slit for their eyes, or a mesh window for them to look out of. The men dress in jeans and t-shirts, and hang around on street corners.

Arriving at the Technical Museum we had great expectations. There was a huge exhibit about the history of medicine in Norway, the hospital system, and how the country dealt with epidemics of Polio and Tuberculosis.

These illustrated booklets from the 1920's and 1930's were to help educate the public about stopping the spread of disease.

They were illustrated to be shared with children, to remind them to wash their hands and not nibble their nails.

Beware flies and rats!

There was a big section on the growth of hospitals and the changes in medical care, but sadly NONE of the exhibit had English translation! We were spoiled by all the other museums that we have visited, having signage in multiple languages.

This image broke my heart. I can't imagine the old days when children were sent to hospitals and separated from their families when they were sick and suffering.

Here's an old ambulance, with a metal basket for transporting patients.

There were a lot of hands-on parts of the exhibit, like this one showing the stages of development before you are born. There were also jars of pickled body parts and real fetuses and the skeleton of conjoined twins, but I didn't photograph those. Needless to say, squeamish Kelsey was in another part of the museum and skipped this exhibit.

Twins!

This demonstrated lungs, and how the change in pressure from an Iron Lung could help keep a Polio victim alive.

Here a child could sit and aim a mirror at a solar powered airplane overhead, reflecting a bright light to hit the solar array and making the plane fly.

There was a big model train, but you had to insert coins to make it go.

There was good transportation exhibit with some of it having English translations. There was even a full size airplane in the museum! There were also antique cars, helicopters, trains, and bicycles.

There was an exhibit about telephones similar to the one in Stockholm, but this one had make your own "telephones" with cups and string, which the girls enjoyed. During this activity Kelsey put down her camera and forgot it, but we wouldn't realize this until the next morning when we looked for it.

There was an exhibit about home life, and several kitchens from various time periods, showing the introduction of appliances.

I loved this vintage photo of a mother getting milk with her daughter from a supermarket. They are both wearing beautiful Norwegian sweaters!

This exhibit was all about plastics and modern design.

There was lots to push and touch and discover, but our visit was clouded by some difficulty. Like all museums, this one had a huge cafe serving a variety of food. We stood in a long line to order and pay, then were told to "wait 10 minutes." 10 minutes turned into 20, then 30. I kept asking where our food was, and the harried girl behind the register would look at my receipt and say, "just a few more minutes." I was in a crowd of at least 30 people standing around waiting, and it looked like there were just 2 cooks back in the kitchen, and I could see one of them cooking hamburgers in a skillet one at a time, instead of on a big grill. After 40 minutes I was tired of being told "just a few minutes" and turned into the Ugly American, loudly demanding an answer. Turned out our order had been lost, so the girl said she rentered it and it would be another 10 minutes to wait. I demanded my money back then and there, and she was completely flustered by such a request, but complied. By now we'd wasted over an hour trying to get something to eat. The lack of multilingual signage, and the crowds that it being a Sunday brought, then the horrible experience in the cafe made our impression of the museum not so good. The museum had an extensive collection, but could only really be enjoyed if you understood Norwegian.

Waiting for the train that we just missed. We ended up taking a bus instead.

On the bus ride back downtown we kept our eyes open for a grocery store, but EVERYTHING was closed. Turns out all stores are required by law to be closed on Sunday, with the exception of a very few convenience stores. At the train / bus station downtown even all the shops there were closed. Your only options for food were vending machines, or.... McDonalds. I personally hate McDonalds and can't even remember how many years it has been since I've been to one. But here we were, 16:30 on a Sunday in a city where everything was closed, and not having had lunch, so in we went. The two kid meals and two adult small combo meals cost $42.00 USD. But this is the land of $5.00 drip coffee, so I guess it was a bargain.

We took a tram further in downtown looking for an open food store, but all were closed, so we headed back to the apartment. The Joker convenience store was open! This was amazing to us as the whole of downtown which had lots of people passing through (even on a Sunday) seemed not to have a single open store, and here in the middle of nowhere the Joker was open. We bought yogurt and a few things for tomorrow's breakfast.

In the photo above the girls are waving to daddy on our balcony. The apartment complex we are staying in is new, and parts of the development are still under construction, as seen in the left of the photo. It is an old industrial area turned into upscale high-density housing. It's only 5 minutes from downtown, the bus runs every 15 - 20 minutes daily, and close by are two childcare centers/schools.

 

The city of Oslo is trying to go "green," though their system is complicated. In your home you separate food waste, some plastics, and trash into different color-coded bags, available free at any food store. The bags are small and must be double knotted, then all three are tossed in the same large collection bins. At a processing facility, the bags are sorted by color by a robot, then opened and their contents recycled or disposed of. Paper gets put loosely in a large bin in the buiding to be collected for recycling. Metals go to a collection bin outside near the bus stop. Plastic bottles go back to the food store to be put in a machine which gives you a refund on your deposit. I wonder how many people go to the effort, to sort and take their waste to so many different places. Being conscientious, even while traveling, we sure did.

Leaving Daddy to rest, the girls and I went on an evening walk like the night before. Despite the forecast, it hadn't rained at all, and we really should have gone to the Folk museum instead.

The development is an interesting mixture of old and new. Above you can see the apartment complex to the left, low center is an old industrial building, above that, the white building up the hill is a huge, modern childcare center, and to the far right is an old building that has been turned into a smaller childcare center.

The girls cross the pond to the small childcare center.

Peeking inside you can see the large "mud room" where children hang coats. In the center is a boot drying rack, for rain boots and snow boots. It is common for children to wear slippers indoors, even in school and childcare centers. Children play outdoors in all weather, so they are properly equiped with waterproof overalls or one-piece rain suits, and good boots.

A view of the small childcare to the left, and the housing development where we stayed to the right.

We continued up the hill to the large childcare. We suspect this one might also serve school age children. Childcare is provided free by the government in Norway, but parents get a long maternity/paternity leave, so there are no babies at these facilities. Babies are meant to be cared for at home by their family.

The large childcare looked a bit industrial for my taste, almost prison-like, but those Scandinavians to like their modern design.

The back play area, built on top of an underground parking garage.

This triangular building was storage for bicycles and wooden play equipment.

 

Although a bit large for them, the girls enjoyed the tricycles.

Many of the windows were covered with metal shutters, but this room had windows I could look into. It seemed to be a dance/exercise room.

Kids at heart!

Everything in Norway seems substantial, especially locks and doors. This was the latch on one of the childcare gates. Nothing flimsy about it!

Back at our apartment complex, this is the view from the roof terrace. Between every 4 buildings was a green space with play equipment for children and a dining/barbeque area. Below all of this is a massive parking garage, with storage lockers for the residents, and a huge bicycle storage room.

The overview of our neighborhood-away-from-home. Only about half of what you see here was built at the time of this writing.

It finally started raining, so we reluctantly returned to the apartment and headed to bed. One more day in Oslo to go.

NEXT: Day 26 -- Last Day in Oslo, Norway -- Monday, July 9th

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Day 24 -- Oslo in the Rain -- Saturday, July 7th

We woke to dark skies and drizzle, with a forecast of hard rain all day. Our first destination upon leaving the flat was to get Daddy to a doctor. We spoke by phone with the owner of our flat and got his advice. We could go to the municipal hospital for free care, but probably wait for hours on end, or pay to go to a private clinic (which might not be covered by our insurance). Daddy opted to go to the private clinic, so after some internet research and map consultation, we headed to the bus stop.

According to the Reuter website, we should have been able to buy our bus passes there, but the clerk said they no longer sold them, but maybe another Joker store up the hill might. Daddy took off up a long path and about 100 stairs before finally turning around in anger. "Just up the hill" probably meant a mile away to the young immigrant clerk.

Like many European big-city transit systems you were expected to buy your tickets before boarding. If you didn't get them from a kiosk or machine, you could do what most people were now doing: buy one via SMS with your mobile phone. To buy a ticket from the driver there was a service fee added. The kids were free on the weekend, which was great, but tickets for us cost 30 NOK + a 20 NOK service fee, each.

When the bus arrived I pled my case to the driver and he just waved us on. We got off the bus at a major hub with tram and metro connections and I thought for sure we could buy passes there. Finally I located a machine, but it was either for topping up the card you already had, or buying single ride tickets. To get a multi-day card we had to buy one... somewhere else.

I finally found a transit worker who informed me that cards could be purchased at most convenience stores / newstands, and sure enough, the one nearby had just what we needed. New cards in hand, we caught the underground toward the private clinic.

We left daddy at the medical clinic and the girls and I walked through the large cemetery toward Frogner park, which is full of Vigelund statutes.

 

The girls spent a lot of time looking at the tombstones, calculating how old people were when they died, and pondering their names. The oldest person we found, during our 20 minutes walking just a small section of the immense cemetery, was 105 years old.

 

The rain increased as we left the cemetery and headed across the street to the park. The girls noticed a playground associated with a barnehage (childcare) and despite the wetness had to play for a few minutes. I watched dogs in a nearby dog agility park, being led through the jumps and tunnels by the treat-bearing owners. There was a well-tended vegetable garden in the middle of the park - not sure if it was put in by the barnehage or the parks department or volunteers.

 

By the time we got to the sculptures it was around noon and the girls were whining for food. I ignored them and focused on the beauty of the sculptures, some in stone, others in bronze.

All the subjects were completely naked, and some in rather scandalous poses for that era.

There were a lot of mother and child sculptures, some aspects of which felt rather familiar to me.

The rain brought an interesting dimension to the already intense expressions on some of the sculptures.

All body types, ages, and moods were represented. Looking at some of the sculptures you longed to know what Vigeland was saying. What was the relationship supposed to be between these two elderly women? Their expressions are so intense. One could easily jump to conclusions that they were lovers, but remember that ALL the sculptures were nude, so they could have been sisters at a gravesite, or neighbors hiding in a cellar together during a war. I'd like to find out more about each sculpture, and if Vigeland explained any of them.

There was a great labyrinth near the center of the park. Sadly the girls were too hungry to take the time to complete it. We had to get food and move on.

These two boys are staring so intently at the sky. What do they see?

 

I asked the girls to find the sculpture that most reminded them of themselves. Aubrietta chose this one.

This was my choice (of several, actually, since there were a lot of mother and child ones I felt connected to).

We were lucky enough to run into Daddy at the park, having decided earlier when we left him at the clinic to just meet up at the end of the day. We looked around the park a little longer, bought sandwiches from the park's cafe, then hopped a tram. The girls and I got off and picked up a little more food from a grocery (the sandwiches were not enough for them), and then caught a bus to the Bygdoy peninsula to go to the Norwegian Folk Museum. Daddy headed to the Norwegian Resistance Museum and the Maritime Museum, both of which were a disappointment.

The girls and I arrived at the Folk Museum just in time for the rain to turn to a downpour.

Thank goodness I brought our "garbage bag" ponchos along. Even with them, we got soaked.

Because of the rain, most things were cancelled. Kelsey really wanted to do the horse and buggy ride, but it was raining too hard for even the horses to be out.

 

We found a lady in costume making Lefse, a traditional flatbread. We bought some, still hot and smoky from the fire, and slathered it with butter, as is recommended.

All was good until Aubrietta's mouth started swelling. Although there were no nuts or seeds, there were several types of flour used, and we're begining to suspect she has some new grain allergies as well. Thankfully a pill (that I always carry) was all she needed, and no rush to the hospital for breathing assistance this time. We've learned on this trip that there are a lot of foods she is reacting to, even after careful label reading to ensure none of her known allergens are in it.

Kelsey happily finished off Aubrietta's Lefse, and also shared a few crumbs with the birds. We took shelter on the porch of one of the closed houses during a downpour, and Kelsey looked so pathetic in her poncho, totally soaked below the knees.

 

 

One of the homes that was open was a 200+ year old farm house that had been recently redecorated to look as if it might have in 1959, a time of many new modern conveniences, but still far enough away in history for children to be in awe of. I reminded the girls that their daddy was their age in this era, and that put a whole new perspective on it.

Inside the house the "farmer's wife" had the kids do crafts and needlework around the kitchen table. The premise was that with all the new appliances making the farm wife's workload lighter, she now had more time to spend with her children, and the children had more time for leisure instead of endless chores. The girls loved the interaction with the farm wife and spent well over an hour there, while I explored some other old buildings on my own.

The stone foundation and sod roof of this simple building was lovely.

This is the interior of a small 1-room guest cottage built in 1800 in Telemark, Norway. A wealthy farmer had a famous artist paint the entire interior - ceiling, walls, furniture.

It has been at the Norsk Folk Museum since 1910!

A newer installation is an entire tenement building, relocated from central Oslo, and redecorated to depict life in the building at different times in history. Each apartment was from a different era, and descriptions of who might have lived there -- from a multigenerational imigrant family to an old widow -- was explained in detail.

The girls liked this children's bedroom from the Victorian era.

They also could see themselves living in this late 1950's children's room.

Off to another part of the museum that has little shops, they found the weaving and knitting shop, and each girl bought a "knitting nancy," even though Kelsey really wanted that loom you see in the photo. I had to say no, since it wouldn't fit in the luggage.

We caught a little folk dance presentation. Since it was raining, it was just two dancers, and indoors. During nice weather there are many more dancers on hand.

We got to go inside a real "Stave" church. It is as dark inside as you might imagine, and although the architecture was impressive (especially for the era), it wasn't the kind of place I would go to feel closer to God.

We told daddy we'd meet him back at the apartment aby 18:00, so after buying some fruit and veg at a produce stand near the museum, we got on the bus.

Our museum map was in tatters from the rain. I guess this won't make it into the scrapbook.

Back at home we found Daddy had stopped at the conveience store and had dinner underway. Boiled potatoes, peas and carrots, and a whitefish with seasoned crumb topping (baked in the oven from frozen).

It wasn't anything fancy, but it was filling and inexpensive. Daddy took another pill with dinner, that the doctor had prescribed that morning, and said his knee was already feeling remarkably better.

The rain finally stopped and the girls wanted to explore, so I took them out in search of the housing complex playground. We also discovered two playgrounds at nearby childcare / schools, but I didn't have my camera with me to document the fun they found. We'd go back again, though, so more photos tomorrow.

The girls and I returned to the flat close to 10:00pm as it started getting dark, and got ready for bed.

NEXT:  Day 25 - Oslo, Norway - Sunday, July 8th

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Day 23 - Flåm to Myrdal to Oslo by Train - Friday, July 6th

We got up and had breakfast, then finalized our packing. Tromping down the "killer stairs," we checked out and got our luggage to the train station just a few short steps away.

Finally, a blue sky, sunny day -- and now we were leaving. Having this weather would have been nice for yesterday's Fjord cruise, but it would also prove wonderful for a scenic train ride.

Daddy sat with the luggage while the girls and I looked in the train museum for a few minutes, focusing on the things we hadn't seen when we popped in just briefly the first day.

The Flåm - Myrdal railway was a feat of engineering, especially at that time in history. It took 20 years to build, took many lives in the process, and contained 20 tunnels when finihsed.

Just look at that elevation gain! Most of the climbing is done via winding tunnels which gain elevation slowly.

Here is a little model in the museum demonstrating the typical topography at a point along the way, and how before the tunnel the only way to get from one little farm or town to the other was by switchback trail. Signs warning newcomers to the area said: "Be gentle against the horse and walk the hill up."

The girls were fascinated by the motorized rail tricycles used by rail workers to check the line once it was completed and in operation.

The our train on the Flåm railway left at 11:00, and the ride took just less than an hour.

Daddy and Aubrietta sat on one side of the car, while Kelsey and I sat on the other.

Some little towns were still in the shadow of the high mountainsides at 11:15 am.

Tickets, please! I'd ordered and paid for our tickets from Flåm all the way to Oslo months in advance, saving a bit of money by doing it online and getting a family rate. The Flåm-Myrdal train was privately operated and cost a small fortune, but we saved significantly on our Myrdal-Oslo train.

The water in the rivers was the most beautiful blue.

The camera just cannot capture the beauty the way the eye does, at least not without the help of some post-processing with Photoshop, which I am not doing for these photos. In the photo above the right side of the picture is too bright, so you don't see the detail in the moutains.

It was hot on the train, so we were grateful the windows opened.

Part way, we stopped and waited for the train going down to pass us.

Here it comes...

A video screen showed us where we were along the route.

Almost to Myrdal, the train made a 5 minute stop at a waterfall and we were allowed to get out to take photos.

Kjosfossen is a powerful, thundering waterfall, and as soon as you stepped off the train you were sopping wet from the spray.

The girls were jumping up and down, loving the noise, wet spray, and rainbows from the sun shining through the mist.

Suddenly music started and a woman in long robes started gyrating up in the mist alongside the falls. A tourist gimmick for sure, and one we were prepared for, but fun for the girls none the less.

The train stopped at several little "middle of nowhere" towns along the way.

This young man on a quad had just picked up a bundle of mail and newspapers from the train conductor.

I expected Myrdal to be a city, but it was about the size of Flåm, with the train station being the biggest part of it.

As the train headed east toward Oslo we were surprised at how much snow there still was.

The scenery was breathtaking.

Look, people swimming! That guy is wading out to a chunk of floating ice.

Just beautiful!

On the train from Myrdal to Oslo we sat in the "familie" car, which had a play area with TV, as well as roomier seating areas designed to make traveling with children easier. Some seats had baby carriage parking, and there was a big toilet area with diaper changing facilities. I booked one seat for Daddy in the regular car, so he wouldn't have to listen to screaming babies for 4 hours.

 

The train supposedly had free internet, essential for me to be able to update this blog, but of course it wasn't working. Every 20 minutes or so, as we got closer to civilization, I'd try again, to receive the same error message. Oh well, there was plenty to see out the window.

I let the girls go to the dining car and buy themselves lunch, warning Aubrietta to ask about allergens. She was able to order a lasagna and salad for herself, declining the seed-covered roll and salad dressing. Kelsey opted for a cheese filled hot dog, which came on a sesame seed bun, and was dressed with fried onions. Aubrietta was going to give the salad to me, but then dropped the plate as she sat down to begin eating. Luckily her lasagna landed right side up, but the salad greens went everywhere, so no salad for me. I had seedy bread with cheese pilfered from the breakfast buffet to eat, so it wasn't too big a loss.

The family sitting near us on the train broke out a picnic lunch for themselves of cooked crab, pasta, lemon, and cucumber. It was fun to watch them eat and feed their toddler, though I was appalled at the mess they made, especially allowing their daughter to rub handfuls of crabmeat into the upholstered seats. Let's hope no one with a severe shellfish allergy sits there next. I guess sloppy parenting is not just an American problem.

As we lowered in elevation the snow disappeared and we saw many sod-roofed houses hidden along the hillsides.

There were also whole towns where every building was painted the same color.

An hour outside of Oslo we were met at a station by a small fleet of buses. There was rail work going on and we'd have to take the bus the rest of the way. No problem, I thought, assuming we'd be on the freeway and deposited fairly close to the Oslo central train station. Turned out the ride was on very narrow and circuitous roads, the bus was full of hot bodies, and it was really muggy with no air conditioning (or at least the driver didn't turn it on). It was a perfect recipe for someone to get sick, but thankfully everyone kept it in. We did hear some moaning and groaning from other passengers, though, as if they were about to lose it, too.

Arriving in Oslo we were deposited on a side street on the far side of the station, and despite all my research, I was totally disoriented as to where our bus stop to get to the rental apartment was located. I needed by brother Ted (the public transit engineer) to lead the way!

The area near the train station was a jumble of temporary barriers, detours, and relocated bus stops. I left Daddy (who was barely able to walk anymore for the pain in his knee) and Kelsey (who was in a terrible mood after the bus ride) to sit with our bags near where we had been spit out by the "Bus for Tog" train replacement, and I headed with Aubrietta into the train station to look for ticket machines to buy the transit cards we'd need for the bus. We'd asked one of the bus drivers who was shuttling train passengers where the city buses were, and he had no clue. We walked and walked through crowds of people, past closed rail tracks, and lots of signs in a lantuage we could not understand. There were a few places that looked like ticket windows, and a TI, but there were at least 100 people in line for each. We kept walking, following signs that had a bus symbol, and ended up at the regional (not local) bus station. There you could get on a bus for Lillehammer, or Sweden, but there was nothing about local buses. Again, there was a ticket window with about 100 people in line. Being Friday evening rush hour wasn't helping.

 

I kept my eyes open for a ticket machine with the # symbol, which is for the local transit, Rueter, but I could barely find any machines, even for trains. Perhaps they removed them from the train station temporarily since only a few train lines were open and most people had to be redirected out of the train station and to a shuttle bus. I don't know, it was crazy.

 

After half an hour of walking blocks and blocks from the train station to the regional bus station and back again, I spied a cabstand and got a cab. I had no idea where the local bus station was (turned out it was across the street in another direction, which couldn't be seen from the train station or regional bus station, and of course there was NO signage). I directed the Afgani cab driver back to the spot where Daddy and Kelsey were slumped over the luggage, and five minutes and 202 NOK later we were in front of our rental apartment. It was $40.00 USD to go a short distance, but this was the land of $5.00 cheap drip coffee, so it's all relative, I guess.

Our apartment was lovely (more about that tomorrow), but first we needed to get dinner. It was nearing 20:00, when the "Joker" convenience store nearby would be closing. Daddy collapsed while the girls and I sprinted over to the store. The girls found these "hot dog balls" they had to try.

It was nice to have a kitchen to cook in after two days in Flam eating picnic dinners, even though tonight's dinner wasn't exactly made from scratch. Kelsey got her rice (Uncle Ben's!), Daddy and I had a frozen Tikka Masala Indian meal, everyone had hot dog balls, baked beans, and peas, and I had feta cheese and greek olives in herbed olive oil. The mushrooms, canned corn, and tomato soup ended up waiting for another night.

It had been a long day, and we sunk into our cozy beds exhausted.

NEXT: Day 24 -- Oslo in the Rain -- Saturday, July 7th

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Day 6 - Flying from Iceland to Copenhagen, Denmark - Tuesday, June 19

Most of our packing happened the night before (I was up until 1:30am again, couldn't sleep), so all we had to do was dress and clean the apartment. We didn't strip the beds, but we swept and took out all the trash. At 8:30 Tomas arrived and drove Daddy and the luggage to the Grand Hotel in his compact Suzuki car which ran on methane, generated by iceland's trash incinerators. The girls and I made the now familiar 7 minute walk.

 

After a short wait a shuttle bus came to take us to the BSI bus terminal, where we waited about five minutes for the large Flybus to take us to Keflavik airport, 40 minutes away. This time I didn't fall asleep, though the rumble of the bus engine was certainly conducive given my lack of sleep. Aubrietta fell asleep, and Kelsey was catching up in her journal. On the ride to Reykjavik when we arrived I had been too tired to take in the view, but this time I really enjoyed seeing all the lava fields, houses built in impossible locations in the middle of nowhere, and blue lupines in full bloom along the highway.

Delicious airport food does exist! You just have to come to Iceland to get it. Aubrietta is especially excited to have a shrimp sandwich. Daddy is having stewed lamb and rice pilaf with corn. Kelsey is having a pasta chef salad and a pylsa (hot dog). I am having a bite of everything and whatever the kids don't finish.

We had to be at Keflavik 3 hours ahead of departure, so we had plenty of time to eat an early lunch. Going through security we all had to take off our shoes, and we all enjoyed a thorough massage i.e. pat down. Unlike in US airports we'd been in, there were lots of places to sit down before and after you went through security so you could comfortably take off and put on your shoes. There were also long, tall tables for you to repack your electronics and liquids, as opposed to in Seattle where you are frantically repacking on the moving belt as plastic tubs and suitcases pile up behind you.

 

The departures area we were confined to had hardly any shops, and the girls and I were really looking forward to stocking up on salty licorice gum and other unusual candies we'd come to enjoy during our short stay in Iceland. I stood in line for the tax refund of 1200 ISK I was entitled to for the purchase of the 3 "Buffs" and patches I bought, then we combined the money with what we had left and used up the remaining cash for lunch, putting the balance on credit card. We probably should have saved some of the coins for the kids as souvenirs, but we didn't. We might have another chance to get some coins during our layover on our return home.

 

There was no announcement for our flight boarding, people just lined up at the gate. There wasn't enough seating for everyone, anyway. Keflavik is notorious for lack of seating, and people can often be found sitting up against the wall or lying on the floor. I'm glad we didn't have a long wait.

Goodbye Iceland. There are lots of things we'll miss about you, but the sulfur - smelling water is not one of them. When you turn on the cold water tap it is warm, and you have to run it for awhile to get cold water that does not taste of sulfur. All the drinking fountains we found, the water ran continuously.

 

The plane was nearly full, and we were near the back again, sitting two and two, with both girls having a window this time, and Daddy and I in middle seats. It was a 3 hour flight, and again the girls received a children's meal, this time with pasta and meat sauce, orange juice, and pretzel mix. Even though we had just eaten lunch, both girls dug in as if they hadn't seen food in hours. It was a pretty smooth flight, and an easy landing into Copenhagen.

First view of Copenhagen, from the plane

As seen on the baggage carousel in Copenhagen

There was no customs to go through because we were arriving from Iceland, which is part of the Shengen Agreement countries, allowing free movement between member countries. Getting to luggage claim was a bit of a puzzle, and then we found ourselves in an area that connected to trains, light rail (called "Metro"), busses, shuttles, and parking. I wanted to investigate buying either a Copenhagen visitor's card, which provided all transport plus attraction entry, or just transportation. I looked for a TI but couldn't find one. At the machines to buy Metro/Bus tickets, there was not the option to get a Copenhagen card, and the directions on the machine were hard to decipher. There were 24 or 72 hour cards for all zones, or the 4 "city pass" zones, and then there were multi-ride tickets in sets of ten ("klippekort"), which required one or more to be used per ride, depending on how many zones you crossed. I thought I had done my research and knew what I wanted, but suddenly there were more options, and I was stumped. We didn't need a 72 hour card, and 24 wasn't enough.

 

Meanwhile the girls and I needed the bathroom badly since none of us had gone since Iceland. For some odd reason bathrooms were really far away, down another level. Daddy went to find an ATM. I asked at the transportation ticket window which card to get, and they didn't sell Copenhagen cards, and I still thought that was what I wanted. Stupidly, I didn't just buy transit tickets then, and instead went off to find the Copenhagen card agent. I was also looking for a Telia outlet which would sell me a mini SIM card for my iPad, giving me internet everywhere, not just at WiFi hotspots. Meanwhile someone was always having to sit with the bags, and tempers were getting short. It was 19:00, and my online transit plans that I'd printed out were coming to the end of their effectiveness. The ticket window line was long, so I went back to the machines to buy 24 hour transit-only tickets, only to discover that my credit card wouldn't read. In Denmark you can only use credit cards with chips, not magnetic stripes. Back to the ticket line.

 

Finally, 190.00 DK worth of 24 hour "city pass" tickets for us in hand, we made our way to the metro platform. Following the print-out from the online transit planner I'd done at home, we got off at the Femoren Metro station to transfer to a 77 bus. When we got to the bus stop we discovered that we had just missed the last bus of the day. A different bus pulled up and we asked the driver if he was going the same direction, and he took us two stops further in the direction we needed, then suggested we call a cab. We were at a 5 way intersection and totally disoriented. We then got on a different bus, the 2A, but going the wrong direction. The driver told us to sit tight because she was almost at the end of her route and would be turning around and could deliver us within one block of where we ultimately wanted to be.

Walking with our luggage. Packing light pays off again.

It was after 20:00 when we finally arrived at the apartment. Our host had left the key for us, and we let ourselves in. We were the first people to stay in the newly created apartment under the eaves of a single family home. It was light, and bright, and still smelled of fresh-cut tile and wood. The wood floors were bare and unfinished, and would be done after we left -- the apartment renovation had come together just days before our arrival. All the furnishings were IKEA, and all the kitchen utensils still had the white IKEA barcode stickers on them. There was a nice 2-page note from our host with information, including wifi access code, and a stack of tourist brochures. Fresh flowers were on the table, and the refrigerator was stocked for us with cold drinks, including 2 Carlsburg beers, which Daddy gratefully guzzled, as the bus fiasco and walking with all that luggage had really gotten him in a lather. If I was a drinker, I would have had one too, we were that spent.

For a daily drinker who hadn't had a drink in 6 days, he was beyond excited to have a beer.

A short time later our host Peter and his 4 year old son Carl came up to say hello. He'd bought the house in 2007 and was now a divorced single father, and hoped the extra income from the apartment would help him afford to keep the house. I sure hope he gets good tenants and that this new endeavor works well for him, he deserves it.

 

Every window opened onto a magnificent view.

The large back garden was full of fruit trees, berry bushes, flower beds, and a young vineyard.

Across the street was a playground.

Our bed, tucked under the eaves

View from our bedroom window.

We cleaned up, ate some of the snack food we had with us, and went to bed.

NEXT:  Day 7 - first full day in Copenhagen, Wednesday, June 20th

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Costs - Phase One - Prepaid Reservations

Here is what we have prepaid before even departing on our trip.

30.00 International Driver Licenses for 2 adults

5539.04 Airfare for 4 to and from Europe

775.20 Fees to redeem miles for 4 flights for 4 people within Europe (CHP-ARL, ARL-BGO, OSL-ZRH, ZRH-OSL) (Airline mileage programs are a scam)

915.95 Swiss Rail Pass for 15 days travel in Switzerland

359.08 Train Fare for 4 from Flam, Norway - Oslo, Norway

793.00 Accommodation in Reykjavik, Iceland - 4 nights in a rental apartment

441.00 Accommodation in Copenhagen, Denmark - 3 nights in a rental apartment

726.52 Accommodation in Billund, Denmark - 3 nights in a family hostel

632.00 Accommodation in Oslo, Norway - 4 nights in an apartment

162.18  deposit for Accommodation in Kandersteg, Switzerland - 3 nights at a Scout Camp

That's $10,373.97 already!  And it is $6,000.00 more than we thought we'd be spending because we assumed the frequent flier miles we'd been banking for 10 years would be available to us.  (We were promised "no blackout dates," only to have the airline say, "no award seats released for those flights."  Same thing.  Scumbags.)

Thank goodness I've been setting aside money and saving, saving, saving for the last 6 years or so.  It provided the cushion we needed to go forward with the trip, instead of calling it off.  

I didn't count the cost of getting the four of us passports, because I hope we will use them again someday, however it may take awhile for us to recover financially from this trip!

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