How to destroy a plan – A Project Manager’s confession :-)

J and I had made a plan before the trip to Norway, as some of you might have seen in an earlier blog. Of course we both agreed that it was just preliminary, but I don’t think anyone of us had understood how much we needed to change it. ;-)

The original plan looked like this:

Day 1 (24): Way Gothenburg – Oslo, Drive 3,23

Day 2 (25): Visit of Museum Island (Bygdóy: Wiking Ship Museum, Kon-Tiki_Museum);

Day 3 (26): Oslo – Nærøyfjord, Drive 4, 52, Kayaking

Day 4 (27): Kayaking, Nærøyfjord – Bergen, Drive 2,07

Day 5 (28): Bergen - Hardanger fjorden, Drive 2,48, Folgeganna Nationalpark Kayaking

Day 6 (29): Hardanger fjorden Hike to Trolltunga, 10 hour

Day 7 (30): Hardanger fjorden to Sognefjord, Drive 4,28, Hike Molden, Lustrafjorden 4h

Day 8 (01): Sognefjord, Hike Vettisfossen 5h , to Geiranger Fjord, Drive 4,0

Day 9 (02): Geiranger Fjord with Hike Storseterfossen

Day 10 (03): Geiranger Fjord Kayaking to Lighthouse, Drive 3,02

Day 11 (04): Lighthouse to Ålesund, Drive 3,31 Hike

Day 12 (05): Ålesund-Trollstigen-Trondheim, Drive 4,55-5,52

Day 13 (06): Drive Stockholm, Drive 10,49

The first thing that happened is that we had to start the trip one day later than planned due to the traffic jam in Germany that made J miss the ferry.

But then we started to follow the plan quite good. Yes, the drive to Oslo took a bit longer, since we first had to take care of some errands in Sweden, but it just meant that we arrived later than expected to Oslo. No harm in that.

We spent the next day in the museums according to plan. But then the plan started to be messed up. It took us far more than 4, 52 to drive to Nærøyfjord, so we arrived 15 min after the camping closed and had to set up the tent outside. This meant, of course, that we had to spend some hours the next day to pack, check-in and come to order on the camping site. But we also discovered that we really liked the area and the camping PLUS the weather was absolutely great. So we decided to stay an additional night in Nærøyfjord/Flåm. It was a lovely stay and we got to try the kayak.

At this point we were, in other words, 3 days after our original plan, but it was a delay that we enjoyed. Nærøyfjord/Flåm was one of our favorite places on the trip.

The drive to Bergen took of course much more than 2 hours (nearly 5 hours). This was not only because of the winding narrow roads, but also due to the fact that we hit a traffic jam caused by an accident (looked bad :-( ) and that we took it easy and stopped many times to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. We arrived in Bergen late in the evening and had to go for dinner even before we looked for a camping. But what a great evening it was and we made some new friends. :-)

In Bergen we decided to skip Hardanger fjorden and all the activities planned there. It was a hard decision since we both really wanted to go there. But we made a promise to ourselves to come back later and then spend longer time in Hardangerfjorden and do all the activities that we planned and some more.

We continued instead up north to Sognefjorden. Now we decided to change our hiking plans and to go for Norway’s highest situated hut, see more the blog Hiking in the snow storm Whatever I thought before the hike, I now think it was a great decision. It was a fantastic challenge that I’m proud that we managed.

But the hike also meant that we arrived to Geirangerfiorden one day later than expected and we had no time for kayaking. The funny thing is that when we came down to the fjord we noticed that it was NOT a nice place to kayak. There were too many tourist boats in the water. Instead we had a great relaxing day, that you can read about in the blog A Great Day and the Night in the Lighthouse

Since we liked the place for the lighthouse so much we decided to skip to go to Ålesund and instead look for the Puffin/Sea parrot. Both of us are more interested in nature than cities so it felt like a much better decision. The only bad thing with that was that we didn’t realize how much time we would spend driving. But considering the rest of it – it was still a great decision.

At this point we felt that we had enough of the driving in Norway and decided NOT to drive back to Stockholm in one day, but in two. That was a very wise decision and gave us a nice relaxing drive and yet another beautiful camping site, just by a lake, to spend the night.

So what is the conclusion? If you want to have vacation in Norway – focus on a few areas, stay there and enjoy all activities close by. Then just go with the flow, the weather and enjoy. Plans are sometimes made to be broken. I think we had a GREAT vacation and I’m looking forward to go back and see the parts we didn’t have the time to visit this time.

Thanks J for making the trip to Norway so memorable!

The view from the storm house

Company on the road on the way back to Sweden

A view from the car on the way home

The last night in Norway

Puffin/Sea parrot and the impossible task to drive in Norway

Since the evening and night in the lighthouse was such a lovely experience for us, we wanted to stay another night there. Unfortunately the lighthouse itself was already booked, but the owner of the lighthouse, Bettina, told us that we could stay the night in the storm house, next to the lighthouse. With the beautiful surrounding – how could say no?

Bettina also told us that there was a possibility to see Puffins/Sea parrots close by the lighthouse, only 53 km away according to the GPS. 53 km shouldn’t take us more than 2 hours to drive in Norway, right?! I mean in Sweden we would calculate 1 hour. So 2 hours’ drive there, 1 hour to watch the birds and 2 hours back would mean that we would be back in the storm house for dinner around 8 pm. Perfect – we thought.

So off we went. Of course we noticed that the road was narrow and winding. We also managed to just miss a ferry and had to wait more than 30 minutes for the next one. But still – we didn’t think that it would be 7 o’clock when we arrived to the national park with the Puffins/Sea Parrots. Never mind, we thought. We will take a different way back that should be much straighter, with more frequent traffic ferries and therefor faster.

The walk up to the bird watching place was extremely steep, but after our hike to the hut some days before – we thought it was quite easy. :-)

We arrived at the place for bird watching and found ourselves a good spot between all the amateur photographers with 800-1000 mm lenses. We didn’t sit there for more than 10 minutes when a puffin/sea parrot landed just in front of us with his (?) mouth full with fish. We couldn’t believe our luck. None of us had a really long lens on our cameras (mine is 300 mm), but the bird sat so close to us so we could take GOOD close up pictures with our cameras.

We sat there for another 20 minutes and watched the birds fly by. It was beautiful and amazing, but no other bird came so close. So we decided to leave and drive back. On the way back to the car another bird landed just next to us and we could -  again - take some nice close up pictures. It was truly magical.

When we came down to the car again it was nearly 8.30 pm. We realized that it would be late before we would be back, but we hoped it would not take another 4 hours.

The drive back started really good. It was a new built road with new wide tunnels. But then we came down to the ferry. We were now driving the E39, a MAIN road, and thought it would mean that the ferries would have regular traffic also during the night. But NO! We missed the ferry with 4 minutes and had to wait another ONE!!! hour for the next. The only thing we could do was to have dinner. And the only place we could eat dinner at was a junk food place. *sigh* But what else can you do than to accept the facts. Of course we also had miscalculated the quality of the rest of the road, so we arrived back at the storm house at 1 am. In other words – it was not a perfect day, but the view of the Puffin/Sea parrot made up for it. We were still happy!

A Great Day and the Night in the Lighthouse

It was a great vacation in Norway, but one day was just a little bit better than the rest….

We started the day by having breakfast in the sun looking at the beautiful waterfall just next to the camping. J made his famous müsli filled with fresh fruit. My favorite breakfast!

We spent the rest of the morning at Geiranger fiorden, chilling; having a beer in the sun and relaxing next to the water, looking at all the boats.

Then we bought a nice picnic lunch, with salmon, shrimps and fresh bread and ate it next to a frozen lake. It is a bit special to sit outside in the sun and eat - looking at snow and ice. That can’t be denied.

In the afternoon we drove to the lighthouse which we had booked for one night. As always the drive in Norway was an experience of its own. We had beautiful views the whole way.

The lighthouse is called Kråkenes and is almost the most western point of Norway. You can read more about it here: http://www.krakenesfyr.no/. We stayed in the bridal suite, which is the whole third floor of the lighthouse. We had a living room, a diner room, a small kitchenette, bathroom and a bedroom with a round bed. :-)

It was a fantastic place with a sea view from each window in the lighthouse. Outside the diner room and the bathroom you could see the actual light of the light house. So cool! It started to shine at sun set (and what a beautiful sunset it was) around 11.30 pm, about the same time as we started to eat our dinner (yes - that is late for a dinner, but with all the light it feels totally natural). About the same time our dinner guest arrived – Mr Seagull. He was just sitting there posing in the light from the lighthouse.

The dinner was equally amazing, consisting of fresh shrimps, lamb fillet and chocolate brownie as dessert. Of course all served with good wine. We ended up eating dinner until 02.00 am. It was a fantastic way of spending the night. The view kept changing with the light and we just sat there and enjoyed the scenery.

So if you combine great weather, fantastic food and amazing views – you end up with GREAT day and Night.

Driving in Norway

After a couple of weeks of travelling in Norway we finally got the hang of it. First - it is a very nice experience. The drives between the different points are not only a drive – they are pure sightseeing.

The view from the car window is constantly changing. We can see (and you can see below):

·         Water of different kinds – plenty of waterfalls (sometimes we see 5-6 waterfalls at one place), rivers, fiords and lakes. One more amazing and the other. Some of them even with ice (at the higher altitudes). We have passed several rivers that are good for games like rafting and others that fit for just normal kayaking. But all very, very beautiful.

·         Mountains, mountains and mountains. Some with green trees or grass, some pure rocks and some with snow. Great places for both skiing and hiking.

·         Tunnels, tunnels and tunnels (they must be one of the best nations in the world to build tunnels) – maybe not so interesting to see, but it is part of the charm. They can be quite exciting since some of them are pitch black.

·         Beautiful green fields and forests.

·         Plenty of really, really cutes houses.

BUT…….

Driving 50 km in Norway can take anything between 1-4 hours. Not only are all the roads curvy and narrow, so it is hard to double if you end up behind slow moving vehicles. It is also hard to keep a “Swedish” average speed of 80-90 km/hour; you drive more an average of 50 km/hour. But it doesn’t stop there. Norwegians know how to build tunnels, that is for sure, but not bridges. So for many of the MAIN roads you have to use ferries. All is well if you drive in the middle of the day, since they ran quite frequently, but already around 6 pm they start to run evening traffic, which means one ferry every 30 min or hour. So if you miss one ferry you might end up waiting for whole hour. We made that mistake a few times and ended up spending most of the evening on the road instead of enjoying ourselves on some nice place.

So we have decided that for our next trip to Norway we will choose 2-4 places we want to visit and then stay in that surround for some days. Then we will enjoy our trip even more.

Hiking in the snow storm

One morning J had the idea that we should hike to Norway’s highest situated hut, at 2038 m. This is a GREAT idea in most situations. But at that moment I didn’t feel that it was the world’s best idea. The reasons for this being:

·         We would start the hike in the late afternoon (4.30) and not like I prefer – start in the morning. Normally it would not even be possible, due to the lack of light, to start so late. But that is of no concern so far up in Norway since it is light almost around the clock. But still – it is a bit late to start a hike. The hike was expected to take 4 hours in “normal” conditions.  

·         It is 1200 altitude meters hike, which is in most cases regarded to be a VERY tough hike. To start a TOUGH hike in the late afternoon is NOT my favorite thing to do.

·         We were informed that it was a lot of snow on the top which would make it hard to walk – you sink through the snow to your thighs.

·         We were not fully prepared. We hadn’t bought any snacks and/or light food to bring along to the hut.

·         The weather didn’t look the best.

·         We weren’t sure that the hut was open. It was supposed to be, but when we called the phone number, the phone was turned off. There was a risk that we had to hike directly back down.

But J can be pretty convincing and seldom takes NO for an answer. I know this after 17 years as friends. So off we went.

It started out quite OK, but after only 1,5 hours hike we realized that is was not going to be an easy hike - It was sometime very hard to find the track, since it was hidden in the snow.

J on the way up, before the bad weather

View on the way up

Then it became misty and started to rain. As a hiker that is what you are prepared for, but when you already have things working against you it is not so easy to take. To not see where you are, not see where you are going and hike in wet rain clothes all adds up to a rather tough hike.

But it didn’t end there - after a while it started to be really windy and as soon as you stopped walking you started to freeze, since all the clothes at this time were soaking wet from rain and sweat. It was time for more clothes, which makes it even harder to move.

You would think that all this would be enough, but NO. The next thing was SNOW. The combination of snowy tracks, mist and “snowstorm” didn’t improve my already quite bad mood. I mean, who enjoys not see where you are or where you are going, freeze like he.., sink through deep snow and have no idea if you were close to the hut or not. The hike was supposed to take 4 hours, but after 4 hours I realized that we were not even close. My altitude meter stated that we should have at least 400 altitude meters left (which is a big difference compared to the distance 400 m). At this point I started to scream several times “Where the h… is the fu…. hut???” and “I hate this”. So it is safe to say that I was in a bad mood.

Then suddenly, after 5 hours if hiking (9.30 in the evening) the hut appeared. It was just a few meters ahead of us. When we finally reached the door I fell into to the hallway stating “that was the worst thing I ever done”. Of course it is not totally true, but in that moment it felt like it.

As you understand by now – the hut was open. And it was serving food. Lucky for us – according to my pulse meter I had burned 2800 kcal on my way up, so my body screamed for energy. I started with a bag of chips (your body craves salt when you have been sweating a lot) and then we continued with Lapskojs (a traditional dish in Scandinavia). It is NOT my favorite, but by now anything would be good to eat.

After the late dinner and some drinks., they told us that we were NOT supposed to sleep in the hut were we were eating. We needed to walk another 200 m in the snowstorm to get to the dormitory hut. I was not too happy with that information, but you just have to face the fact and get out in the snowstorm again. *sigh* Of course the toilets were not in neither of the huts, but in a hut in between. So the toilet visit required yet ANOTHER tour in the snowstorm. You couldn’t see one hut from the other, since it was so misty and snowy. But you adapt and accept the situation and do what you have to do. And as soon as we crawled to bed we feel asleep like babies.

I looked happy in the morning in the hut.

View from dormitory hut, the toilet is the small one to the left and the "eating hut" the big one on the top.

The hike down the next day felt like a piece of cake after the hike up. The weather was not perfect in any way, but at least it was not snowing and we had only mist around the top of the mountain.  It took us less than 4 hours down, even though we stopped and talked to a lot of the people going up the next day.  So in comparison it was a very, very easy hike.

On my way down

 

 

View on the way down

But still – it felt like we have had a real adventure, that we had challenged ourselves. So the food and the beer that we got when we came back to the starting point tasted extremely good and in the middle of it all - I felt quite proud that we, the office rats, had managed a "winter" hike to Norway’s highest situated hut.