TRIP TO SCANDANAVIA

A Day in Iceland

After leaving Denver around 5:30 pm on Saturday and arriving at Keflavik airport early around 6:30 am Sunday (the flight was less than 7 hr), I couldn’t find the Thrifty rental car place.  A cup of tea and a wonderful open faced salmon, cheese and veggie sandwich woke me up enough to find the guy holding the sign with my name on it.  Turns out they were a little outside the terminal, but easy to see and also easy to see where my hotel for the night was.  All this is short walking distance from the terminal, which is nice to know for the next time.  So I set off for Grindavik, where I had located one of Iceland's wonderful outdoor pools.  It had an hour to go before opening, so I stopped at a convenience store, where the counterman showed me how to reverse on the rental car (I had inadvertently parked in the drive-through), chatted with a couple from Edmonton (they had gotten lost on their way to Grindavik) and had more tea.  The outdoor pool was a regulation 25 meters with several lanes, heated with underground geothermal hot water like all the ones I went to last summer.  It was a little strange swimming in a light rain under 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but quite pleasant and invigorating. 

I returned to the town of Keflavik and wandered a bit looking for Viking World but found it just in time for opening.  The main attraction is the actual, reconstructed Viking boat sailed as a millennium celebration to Canada, the US, and Brazil!!!  Very impressive.  Since last summer in Iceland, I have studied quite a bit about Vikings and have been surprised at their wide ranging influence for three centuries and later.  The museum displayed only a few artifacts (museums in Reykjavik have many more) but had an interesting circular, dark room with brightly colored art work depicting various large scenes of Nordic mythology in several sections.  The scenes were basically 3-dimensional large, beautifully colored paper figures.

After scouting out restaurants in downtown Keflavik, I decided to check into the hotel and return at 4pm when more would be open.  The Thai seafood one intrigued me and turned out to be an excellent choice.

After an early night and a quite good breakfast at the hotel, I joined the queue walking, pulling their bags to the terminal.  Evidently many, many flights leave Iceland for Europe and the US early, but they were well-staffed and the crowd was soon on its way.  The flight was a little under three hours to Bergen and from there a 35 minute flight to Stavanger.  The plane went up, leveled for a few minutes, and started down—great!  (A note about pictures:  sadly, my camera slipped out of my bag in Naantili.  I have begged some from fellow travelers.)

Norway

A short bus ride from the airport took us through lovely farm country to the first “folk school” where we had most of the meals and lodging.  This one was atop a hill on the outskirts of a small town, Klepp, about thirty miles south of Stavanger, Norway’s western seaport and oil town.  These schools are a Danish invention of the late 1900s, allowing for a “gap” year after high school in a residential facility.  Studies vary from school to school, but largely give students a chance to explore areas and themselves before entering a university or technical school.  Some have short programs for other reasons, like our group, in the summer.  As I hoped, all were located in lovely, country or small town settings.  Our rooms were in small dormitory buildings and quite excellent, except the school in Denmark had old buildings that were just OK.

 

After a couple hours rest, our orientation started by the country leader, Jahnny, the schools assistant principal and music teacher, introducing us to a song we sang before every lecture.  He said this was the normal procedure during morning classes at the school too.  Jahnny led us after supper on a long hike to the top of the hill for a great view of the local town and farms.  This part of Norway is lush, green rolling farmland.  From there we went down, down, down the back of the hill to a beautiful wooded area where a park in a flat area with soccer fields and other facilities rested.  The surrounding woods were reminiscent of southern Indiana.  My theory is this strenuous walk wore everyone out to enjoy a good sleep so we would be adjusted to the time the next day.

The morning lecture was a brief sketch of Norwegian history and present day welfare system.  Some in the group seem offended by their system of high taxes and generous benefits to all, such as free education through university and fully paid parental leave for two years.  It’s hard to argue with the many polls showing the Nordic countries as having the highest living standards and high citizen satisfaction.   Immigration appears to be one of the biggest problems in Nordic countries and adjustments to their system are probable in the future.  

The afternoon field trip was a beautiful drive to a medieval monastery, located on an island, mostly made up of farms.

This southwestern part of Norway is the bread basket, where farming has occurred for over 3,000 years.  Some pasture land still has many, many stones of various sizes from ice age glaciers.  Fields have been cleared of the stones, by building walls from them, very similar to those in Yorkshire.  A stop in Stavanger on the way back to the school, involved a visit to a cathedral, some walking through the downtown and lovely central park, a centuries old restored fire tower, and a very short visit to the oil museum.  I had thought about skipping the latter, but it turned out to be tremendously interesting with too little time before closing.  That evening a choral group, very similar to my former group, Bloomington Chamber Singers, sang beautifully before dessert and time for chatting with the performers.

The second full day was the most spectacular of the entire trip.  We drove into the mountains, where the highest part of the road was similar to Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP.  The snow was just as high in late spring, with long, vertical poles used to mark the road for the plows as in Colorado. 

On the way to the top we had an interesting stop at a huge candle shop that had many other local products, including excellent wool yarn and wool handwork of all kinds.   Another stop at a scenic area with views into more mountains and the valley we had passed through showed how this area has more rainfall than the Rockies.  Lush flat areas with some agriculture, more deciduous trees than conifers, and a profusion of lupines along the roadside illustrate some of the differences.  We lunched at a restaurant perched spectacularly over a cliff.

A few feet from the parking lot, adventurers were hiking to the top to launch off in gliders.

A drive filled with steep switchbacks on the way down took us to a fjord, where a nice long boat ride ended at the bus waiting toward the end of the fjord close to Stavanger.  Along the fjord tiny former farms are commuter homes now. 

We passed an electrical plant powered by waterfalls with an associated small village.  That evening a traditional folk group danced delightfully before dessert and a chance to meet them.

Before visiting his childhood home and summer home in the area, we had a lecture on Arne Garborg.  I had some time to walk through lovely countryside heavily populated by resting cows.  A climb to a high hill revealed lush, green farmland and pasture dotted by villages all the way to the North Sea.  A special farewell supper ended our Norway stay, and we proceeded to Stavanger’s harbor.  The sea was completely calm for the overnight trip to Denmark. 

Denmark

After a generous buffet breakfast shipboard, we embarked for a bus ride to southern Denmark.  We arrived at the small town of Hirtshals and the school just in time for lunch, room assignments, and later an orientation.  This area of Denmark is very close to Germany, and at one time was part of Germany.  I would have mistaken our leader,Ulla, for German, very structured but so nice and helpful.  After dinner, there was group participation in singing and a campus tour.  Campus grounds are spread out and pleasant to walk through.  The raucous birds, mostly crows, supplied plenty of noise, especially at dawn for a four am wakeup.  A walk in woods on the edge of the campus afforded more pleasant bird song coming from high above in the tall trees.  A corner store, a cross between a convenience store and a supermarket, provided us with an outlet for shopping for everyday items, possibly forgotten.  A family group of husband, wife, and teenage son entertained with light jazz music the second night.  She had a lovely, wispy voice with no strain at all evident going to high notes.

The next two days were filled with visits to the historic and thriving towns of Ribe and Odense.   We visited a quite nice small art museum in Ribe, before strolling along the interesting historic area.  For centuries Ribe served as an important trading center and market town close to Germany and the North Sea.  Odense ( a variation on Odin) is a historic Viking city, where Christianity gained a first, tiny foothold in the 9^th century.  We visited the present day cathedral built on the site of the first one and a Viking museum.  On both days bus rides allowed for an appreciation of the countryside, which is basically flat.  An interesting feature of the fields is the continued use of trees to divide fields, unlike in our Midwest where every inch of ground is planted in corn or beans.  Before returning to the school, we drove to a seawall and climbed on top.  Already high seas are a worry for flooding and salt water entering fields.

That evening small groups of us visited local homes within walking distance of the school.  Our family discussed having relatives they visit in Missouri and a fall trip to NYC.  Parents of the wife had spent several years in Iceland, where she attended high school.  The husband is a music teacher and plays in a blues band.  When I first met him, I thought he said he played lute.  So I asked if he played early and baroque music.  After some puzzled exchanges, we finally figured it out and had a good laugh.

 

Before morning lectures we had group singing as in Norway.  Norway and Denmark are kindred spirits for many historical reasons.  Our lecturer, Henning, gave such excellent lectures on Danish history and current issues.  He was probably the best lecturer I’ve had, including those in college.  This gentleman was knowledgeable and passionate about his subject matter and had no difficulty bringing group questions into his talks.  At our farewell dinner, the music teacher who had led morning singing gave a short concert of his own.  He has an excellent baritone voice with much power when appropriate.  He actually resembles Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

After breakfast we packed a picnic lunch which we enjoyed at a scenic rest stop just outside of Copenhagen.  The rest stop here and the one in Finland are much more commercial than ours, including sit down restaurants and gift shops. 

After receiving room keys and unpacking, I asked a desk clerk if there was a close public pool.  She marked my map, which got me to the correct street, but I couldn’t tell which way to turn without knowing E/W/N/S.  So I guessed wrong and walked a couple blocks where a friendly woman on a bike stopped to share my map.  Helped to the right directions, I walked about a mile and a half to the pool.  It was a large rectangle with no lanes.  Everyone swam counterclockwise in the wide area.  The middle of the rectangle was set off and had stairs leading to it.  Water games were being played in that middle rectangle, as swimmers were lapping around..

I was surprised at the amount of bicycle traffic, even though I knew bike commuting was common.  After taking a good look at the complications involved, there was no way I would have tried it at that time--rush hour appeared to be starting.

The walk had taken me right by Tivoli and over train tracks leading to the station we would depart from the next day.  It looked very similar to the old Elitches, which supposedly was modeled on Tivoli.  Much of the group went there for dinner that evening, but I walked along the wide pedestrian area looking for something less expensive.  I settled on a Middle-Eastern restaurant after noticing many Middle-Eastern people eating there.  The vegetarian plate was quite good and interesting with lots of food.  I took about half back to the hotel but never did feel hungry again that night.  Right after breakfast a bus drove us all of three blocks to the train station, where we embarked for Sweden.

 

Sweden

In a short time the train crossed the bridge between Denmark and Sweden.  At first I didn’t realize that bridge was the one across the Baltic Sea, as I was expecting something much longer.  Most of the train journey after Malmo was through countryside with a mix of farms and wood lots.  Evidently these small farms also harvest wood.  This part of Sweden is not especially hilly, but it was not at all totally flat like Denmark.  We had a box lunch on the train and arrived in Stockholm shortly thereafter.  We were met by the Swedish trip leader, Paul, an energetic seventy something of Russian Jewish heritage.  After a long, complicated trip through the train station, a bus took us to another island (Stockholm is on seven islands) where we could settle in.  This school’s dorms are more like two floor American dorms on the outside, but had the same comfortable rooms with private baths as the others.  This campus was the most beautiful of the trip, situated on a former large estate donated to the temperance group sponsoring this school.  The first meeting and later evening coffees were held in the restored 16^th century mansion centrally located on the campus.

Our leader’s story of his family fleeing Austria for Finland early in WWII and being denied entrance into Sweden until 1944 was so interesting, especially after having heard in Denmark about the saving of most Jewish people there by a flotilla into Sweden.  I suspect the acceptance of Jewish refuges happened in 1944 when neutral Sweden saw “the handwriting on the wall”.  However, it is not hard to understand the fine line Sweden and Finland walked during WWII in order to survive.  Norway was invaded and occupied by Germany early on; Sweden was formally neutral but allowed German soldiers and equipment to cross into Finland, which allied with Germany in an attempt to save itself from Russia.  Our knowledgeable leader had a memorable line, “Nobody beats Russia”.  WWII was mentioned several times in every country, which I suspect would not happen in the US if a Scandinavian group visited on a similar trip.

This school also provided the best (of all good) meals.  At lunch a large buffet was open to the general public and very well attended.  After our first dinner, a hike past the dorms into woods and onto a high, rocky hill allowed us views of the Baltic Sea, with homes and boats along the shore line.  Another path through the woods led directly to the sea, and I enjoyed hiking the trails every morning before breakfast while there.  After morning lectures and lunch, the bus travelled through several impressively beautiful neighborhoods in Stockholm.  We had a tour of the building where Nobel Prizes are awarded.  It was so impressive, especially the ballroom surrounded by gold leaf mosaics with a classical theme.  The historic German merchant area is a tourist favorite not too far from a royal palace and gardens.  I was struck by so much greenery and large trees all over Stockholm, wherever there was a little space.  

On our last day a bus tour through another beautiful area of the city took us past several official foreign embassy homes, including ours.  Again large trees and beautiful flowers and foliage permeated the area.  From there we visited the famous Vasa museum, where the actual restored ship sunk in the harbor in 1628 is displayed.  To be able to see such a relic, up close was an amazing experience.  We had a few hours in downtown Stockholm.  It was easy to get disoriented where streets laid out hundreds of years ago do not follow a pattern, but I muddled through and enjoyed seeing every day sights.  Clearly people were enjoying the good weather by spending time outside wherever possible. Before boarding the ship for Finland and an excellent dinner buffet, we toured the Millesberg sculpture gardens and the artist’s home.

Finland

We embarked from the ship in Turku early and had breakfast at our last school after a drive through small suburbs and farms to yet another island estate.  Here the large one-story dormitory had a gym, sauna, and pool (!!!), where I enjoyed swimming every morning. The pool was quite a respectable length for a private facility, maybe about 15 meters.  Again there were trails through woods or along a short dirt road to the Baltic Sea.  Summer cabins and outside saunas dotted all along the coastline.  Our leader (Henrik) remarked that many Finns want to live in the country or at least have a summer place there.  The stay at this school was only two nights.  We had lectures on Finnish history (hugely overshadowed by the Russian bear) and were treated to our leader’s very beautiful singing after a video of a famous Finnish tenor.  Our only full day in the Turku area took us to the lovely island of Naantili,

where the Finnish president has a summer residence.  After strolling along the harbor and park area, we had a bountiful buffet lunch on the way to the president’s summer home.  Even though he was in residence, we were allowed on most of the grounds and formal gardens.

Back in Turku, founded in 1229, we strolled the cobbled streets of restored shops and homes of the Handicrafts Museum.

On the way to Helsinki we stopped at the restored home of famous Finnish architects.  The style of the home and furniture was reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright, not that surprising since it was the same period.  Stories of exchanging marriage partners were equally enjoyed.  We stopped at a rest area for a buffet lunch before arriving in Helsinki.  The tour of the city stopped in a large waterfront park with a famous sculpture dedicated to Sibelius. 

Later the bus drove through the older section of the city with Russian-influenced architecture.  That evening our leader hosted us to the best farewell dinner, complete with wine.

My flight to Keflavik arrived with a comfortable amount of time before the one to Denver.  Already I was regretting not arranging a night in Iceland and may do just that another time, and it will probably be more than one night..