Category: Norway

So, what were our final thoughts on Norway? First and foremost, GO! This country of beautiful sights and kind people should absolutely be on your bucket list. Maybe start moving it closer to the top now that Bachelor nation has helped increase the visibility of Norway for us here in the states. 😉

Things we loved:

• TROMSØ!
  • If we went back, I would allocate a couple more days in Tromsø, especially in more moderately temperature months. There is so much to see including whales, birds, and other wildlife that we couldn’t fit into our schedule
• Radisson Blu Hotels
  • These are not the same as Radisson hotels in the states
  • Our rooms were beautiful, comfortable, and that breakfast spread (prayer hands)
• Norwegian Air:
  • While considered a “low-cost” airline, this still puts many US domestic airlines to shame. The flight prices within Norway were reasonable and included great seatback entertainment options as well as food that I could eat even with my lactose and gluten intolerances
• Food menus that listed all allergens in dishes according to a code on the menus – this was at most restaurants and made eating so much easier for me to navigate my lactose and gluten intolerances
• Friendly Norwegians! Basically everyone we encountered spoke English and they were such kind people. It’s definitely a place you can easily navigate without knowing the language and people are happy to help you and answer questions.

This trip was especially meaningful to me as Kristin and I finally were able to match our schedules so I had the chance to travel with my best friend. Most of my travels are solo so it was great to have someone to share this all with.

What we wish we had seen:

• More Fjords!
• Bergen
• Lofoten
• Train rides – Winter was tough to arrange this to fit seeing the actual countryside in daylight hours while not losing an entire day. I wish we had time for a short rides as the views are supposed to be amazing year round.
• Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort – This is one of the hotels where you can sleep in a glass igloo to look out at the night sky. Unfortunately, in our one week trip it was too far away!

This post has been super delayed saying as how I’m recapping December in August, but let’s just ignore that factor. I’ve since taken a few more trips with lots more stories and pictures to come!

 

xx

We wrapped up our Norwegian trip by making our way back to our starting point – Oslo – for our final days. As we our flight approached Oslo we saw our first bits of actual sunlight with the sun setting and I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to see the sun.

In Oslo we switched up our lodging a bit and tried out a funky boutique hotel called the Comfort Hotel Grand Central. As you may have guessed from the name, it was attached the the Oslo train station. This proved to be especially helpful to take the shuttle back to the airport at the end of our trip. The style was definitely more targeted to young travelers and seemed almost like a cross between a hostel and hotel. Again, they killed it with breakfast which proved to be my favorite meal every day of our trip. We lucked out and got a handicap accessible room and while walking through the halls could see how much more space we had than the other rooms – score!

Oslo was definitely the biggest city we visited, with plenty of activities to occupy you for 2-3 days. Being the largest city we visited, they also has a really great above ground tram/bus system (Ruter) that’s super easy to navigate and gets you to pretty much everywhere you want to go. You can walk most places in short amounts of time, but it’s also nice to grab a ride when it’s cold and also to the places further away like the the Holmenkollen Ski Jump (we’ll get to that later.

After filling up at breakfast we left the hotel to see Oslo in the light of day. About 2 minutes after walking outside, I realized that I had overdressed by about 10 degrees so we had to go back in and take layers off. It was nice to have the opposite problem from the staggering cold we faced in Tromsø.

The major goal of the day was to take a boat tour out through the fjords so as we made our way down to the waterfront (known as Aker Brygge Wharf) we checked out the downtown area.

Some other architectural sights that are appealing to folks (but where we didn’t take any pictures) include: the Opera House and Oslo City Hall. On the positive side we did get some great murals!

We then stopped at the Akershus Castle and Fortress or Akershus Festning in Norwegian. Depending on the time of day that you go, you can walk through by yourself and get to see the horses outside (which I believe were actually a part of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence)! You can do a self-guided tour and the views from the fortress over Aker Brygge is a full panorama view out through the Fjords.

The guards would crack a smile, but I guess our… ahem my… antics did not impress him

We were a little nervous about getting to go out on the fjords after the weather had been so cold and dark in Tromsø, but being around 1050 miles south made for great conditions. The tour we took lasted about 2.5 hours, riding out into the fjord where we could see the different places people lived including the little houses along the water that the people used for swimming. Luckily they provided us with blankets and we brought hand warmers, because it got real cold.

The timing was perfect as we were dropped off back at the dock right as the sun was setting. When you haven’t even seen the sun in days any sunset is going to be beautiful. This sunset however was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It’s like it’s the gift to Norway at the end of the day. In my head there’s someone out there who pulls the strings saying “here, have something pretty to look at after this absolutely frigid day you’ve made it through.” It may have been due to the time of year we took the tour, but we were able to easily walk up, purchase tickets, then return about 15 minutes before takeoff to get in line, board, and steal the best seats.

Summer houses on Lidøya Island and Oscarshall Summer Palace where you can take a boat to the castle, but it’s unfortunately only open in the summer.

We pulled back into the dock as the sun just began to set. Warning: Massive number of sunset pictures to follow.

I wish I could say that I edited these pictures but the skies are actually this insane! Some of these pictures were even taken over a few minutes, like 5, and the scenery looked completely different! Here is Akeshus from the marina during the sunset.

I wish I could say I’m amazing at editing photos… but these are true to the term #nofilter.

Caught sneaking to the end of the dock to take more photos.

The Aker Brygge wharf proved to have great options to pop in for food and to warm up before heading back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, the fog started to roll in really heavily so instead of sitting in the cold fog and hoping to see fireworks, we made a gametime decision to watch the fireworks from our hotel room while enjoying some champagne in our pajamas. Before we could head back though, I made Kristin stop so I could get a big fluff of cotton candy. What you don’t see is that within 5 minutes the fog/humidity had shrunk this to about ⅓ of the size and with my sticky fingers I was officially on the “look but don’t touch” policy while stopping into a few last stores.

The tame NYE was much appreciated after a long week of travel – sometimes just opening a bottle of bubbles and laying in your PJs with friends is the best celebration. 🙂

Next to come:  Holmenkollen Ski Museum & Jump and how I don’t understand art.

xx

Nicole

The following morning we enjoyed our last bit of “light” before doing another little walk around the town. 

When there’s only two of you, there are rarely pictures of… the two of you

Adorable Christmas heart lights lining the main street Storgata

Tromsø Cathedral

A final goodbye to the bear in our hotel lobby

Next on our itinerary was Trondheim so we zipped over to the airport. The local airport shuttle (Flybussen.no) stopped right at our hotel so 15 minutes and 63NOK (approx $7.50) later we were back at the airport. After a short flight we were able to check out our new city. The differences in temperature were insane! While in Tromsø, it was often in the 30s with minimal light and snow, but in Trondheim we were treated to warmer temps in the mid 40s, a nearly full day, albeit a late sunrise, of grey skies with a bit of fog, and intermittent rain. I still think it was easier to wake in the morning when it wasn’t pitch black til 11am! 

Yet again, our stay at the Radisson Blu knocked it out of the park with a huge breakfast spread with lots of gluten free options not to mention the fac that it sat right on the water with huge windows to see out (once the sun had risen…). We spent our time in Trondheim over the next two days seeing all the “must see” sights including:

Trondheim Harbor and the colorful wooden houses along the River Nidelv

Crossing over into the East side of the river where there were lots of adorable houses and shops. Unfortunately, with our trip landing right around Christmas, many of them were closed for the holiday.

Archbishop’s Palace and Crown Jewels & Nidaros Cathedral. You should definitely plan to see these on the same day and buy the joint ticket. Inside of both are beautiful, but do not allow pictures. I’ve watched way too many horror movies and definitely got chills walking up to these old buildings in the gloomy weather. Once inside however, they were incredibly beautiful. Per usual, I especially loved seeing the crown jewels and telling Kristin which ones I would or would not wear.

The best travel partners are ones you can zone out for a couple hours reading your own books when you need some downtime or relaxation during the day/night so we often found ourselves warming up in coffee shops or bars to do just that. Amongst the frequent stops to sit inside by a fire with a latte (or glass of wine) and our kindles we found the most delicious gluten and dairy free pizza for me.

Off to our final destination (thankfully unlike the movie), Oslo!

 

xx

Nicole

We ate Rudolph for dinner.

Ok, not Rudolph, but reindeer. Guess what, I regret none of it because the stew was delicious.

Let’s rewind though. After a day of sightseeing we chilled out in our hotel for an hour or so before bundling up and heading out dog sledding. Our tour provided us with full onesie snowsuits to wear as we rode in the sleds. We looked pretty silly, but dang those suits kept us toasty.

Before we got out on the sleds, our tour guide brought us into the special yard to play with the sled dog puppies. Fun fact – most sled dogs are alaskan huskies.

We then went into the main yard and got to see and play with all of the dogs who were off duty. They each had their own dog house and some just lay there and slept while others came out to play.

Next up was the actual dog sledding. Once they were hooked up to the sleds they started wanting to pull right away, you could see the excitement in their eyes.

After riding around with the pups, they brought us into a traditional Norwegian yurt to savor some reindeer stew – again, sorry Rudolph – and warm up by the fire. The stew reminded me of a cross between a chili and short rib ragu, aka heaven.

The night concluded with making s’mores outside (my god, the S’MORES….well, the toasted marshmallows for me, but still… I’m drooling thinking about them) and finally seeing the Northern Lights! They were very faint, but after a couple failed attempts in Iceland, I still call it a win. People are not joking when they talk about how magical they are. Also, even with a nice camera (just a step below a DSLR) it is almost impossible to capture the beauty of the lights. My poor attempt is below, but I’d recommend a quick google search if somehow you’ve been hiding under a rock and have never seen a pic of the Northern Lights. 

We used the Tromsø Villmarkssenter for our tour and I’d highly recommend going with them. They picked us up from our hotel right on time, were efficient while still letting us play with the pups, and got us back right on schedule!

Seeing the lights was a great nightcap before heading back to the hotel. We only had a little more time in Tromsø before heading to destination #2 – Trondheim!

xx

Nicole