NordicSaga

NORDIC SAGA

A Trip to Stockholm and mostly Norway, through Iceland

ICELAND

Three times I've used Icelandair's seven hour nonstop from Denver to Keflavik and continue to feel that is the best way to Europe from Denver.  Last year I stopped for one day due to airline scheduling and found that a good night's sleep before going on was worth the $200+.  This year I left Denver at 5:30 pm on June 6 and arrived in Iceland on June 7 at 6:30 am and had a few hours not so great sleep on the plane.  After renting a car, I drove along the southern coast for about 50 miles before turning north.  Very few and very small farm operations were to be seen, along with a couple of small fishing villages.  But the landscape was interestingly stark, with lots of black, sharp lava covered with pale yellow-green lichen or moss.  The highway also went through some impressive steep hills before running closer to the ocean.

I stopped at the picturesque village of Selfoss for a welcome cup of tea and croissant.  Happily the weather.com forecast of steady rain all day was wrong--only a few intermittent sprinkles to contend with.

After another 50 miles or so, I arrived at Thingvellir, place of the first parliament in the 900s AD.  Of course, it was not all that democratic with landowners having the power.  (Are we really that well off now with Koch brothers,et. al. running the show?)

Flag is some distance from the huge black granite wall.

From there it is a short drive to two other Icelandic major attractions--Geysir and Gullfoss.  Having seen the Yellowstone namesakes, which are much more spectacular than the original Icelandic ones, I went on to the series of huge waterfalls after a meager, overpriced lunch across the road from Geysir.  (Major tourist attractions outside of towns are the same everywhere, no food selection, high prices.) Two years ago it was exceedingly windy at Gullfoss, so that visit was short.  This year I was able to walk to the very top edge.

STOCKHOLM

After a 4:45 am wake up call, a delicious Scandinavian breakfast, a short walk to the airport, and a three hour flight, I was at Arlanda airport outside Stockholm.  Finding the ticket counter to the metro and the train itself went smoothly and soon I was at Central Station within walking distance of my hotel.  Better yet, the hotel was short walking distance of City Hall, home of the Nobel Prize dinner and dance.  My hotel and City Hall are on Kungsholmen (king's island), across a canal between it and the mainland.  A tree shaded walk along the canal is just a few short blocks from the hotel and leads right to City Hall.

I didn't have time this year or the will to fight the crowds of Chinese tourists to visit the interior of City Hall, which is incredible.  The upper level with massive gold leaf mosaics representing Roman mythology lining the walls of the dance area is amazing.  After determining that the boat trip I had reserved for Wednesday did not leave from City Hall itself but from just across a bridge, I had time to take a shorter water tour around Kungsholmen.  Stockholm is so beautiful not just because of the architecture but also because of the trees growing everywhere possible and of course, water just a short distance from almost everywhere, either Lake Mylatin or the Baltic Sea.  Stockholm itself is on eight islands, but the archipelago has over 40.

The next morning I met our tour leader and the other five (!!!!!) members of the group.  I had chosen the first date of this tour, early in June, on the theory that later ones would be more popular.  It worked beyond my wildest dreams.  A couple from Delhi, two men friends in their early 40s from Sri Lanka, a young woman teacher from Ireland, and myself comprised the congenial group.  Our guide, Marianne, is a Danish woman, who speaks several languages, lives in Switzerland, and has been an independent guide for many year.  She was completely knowledgeable about all aspects of the trip and went to great lengths to help with any places we might wish to visit during unscheduled times.  

A local guide took us on a tour which was much more interesting and extensive than the drop off for shopping in the tourist area of last year's trip of the old town section on Gamla Stan, another island,.  Gamla Stan, like the harbor area of Bergen in Norway, is an historic district.  Many of the tall, old buildings housed German traders of the Hanseatic League.  After that I walked across a bridge back to the mainland and along the water to the museum area where I took in the Historic Museum which houses Viking relics.  I spent most of the time in the Gold Room looking at incredible amounts of treasure from that era.  The Swedish Vikings were traders as well as plunderers, which is proven by piles of coins found from all over the known world of the time.

The boat trip to Birka, a Viking trading town on an island in Lake Mylatin took about two hours.  After a short walk from the dock, we were met by an archaeologist dressed as a Viking very handsomely, with long flowing hair.  He lectured on the Vikings and this area as we hiked around it.  He must have said that Viking helmets did not have horns at least three times. Birka is an active archeological site, but many of the burial mounds are left untouched after some had been excavated.  The outlines of the town can still be seen, but of course, no wooden buildings would be left after 1000 years.  The island is inland from the Baltic Sea on the largest lake in Sweden and has many islands between it and the sea.  This site had great defensive value.  Most people of this time did not live in towns but lived and worked on farms.  Birka, however, served as the base for Viking trading along the Baltic, down Russian rivers, all the way to Byzantium.

Burial mound

Outline of the town

The next day our little group boarded a the huge tour bus--no conflict over seating this trip.  The drive through Swedish countryside passed through mostly farming area.  We stopped at a shopping mall in the small city of Karlstad for a break and lunch.  Swedish students were celebrating graduation by riding around in the open back of large trucks rented for the purpose, waving tree branches and shouting at people along the streets.  Some had music and dancing going.

The Swedish landscape above shows farms here are much larger and more prosperous than those in Norway, where only a little land between the fjords and mountains is arable.  The farms in southern Norway are better, but I remember lots of rocky fields from glacier debris used only for grazing.  Some theories propose that after some excellent weather in the 800s with good food production and resulting population growth, return to the usual climate resulted in little opportunity for young men and a lot of population pressure.  The Swedish Vikings were traders (although they raided along the Baltic) and settlers in what became Russia, named after the Viking name of "Rus". Some also became Varangian guards for the eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. The Norwegian Vikings plundered England, France, and Ireland.  They were even given Normandy as a bribe by the king of France to leave Paris in peace.  At one time Vikings ruled half of England.  Of course, in 1066 Normans took England entirely over.  They also went on to found colonies in the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland and discovered North America.

Norway

Once in Norway, it was trees, trees, trees and winding roads over hill and dale.  After hours of driving on some possibly ill thought-out roads taken, we finally reached Hamar for a night's rest.

The next day we continued to the west coast.  After awhile we could see snow covered mountains in the distance.  Eventually we drove over a mountain pass and had a welcome break outside.

Later that day after driving through more forests and mountains, we stopped at a famous stave church for a lunch break in beautiful surroundings.

Very early Christian church has crosses and pagan dragons

That afternoon the bus boarded ferries to cross Sogne Fjord (the largest in Norway and third in the world) twice, the second time to cross an arm of the fjord allowing a road to go around to our historic hotel.

It was great to stay in this hotel two nights.  The next day we drove to view a glacier, which like many glaciers is a shadow of its former self.  We all agreed that the two hours there and back were not really worth it.  The guide is going to suggest other trips for this day.  On the way back we changed the route to take a just reopened mountain pass road, which was the highlight of the day.

The next day we had a cruise on the main fjord, a train ride to the top of a mountain and on to meet the bus for the drive to Bergen.

In Bergen  our hotel was right in the center of the harbor and the historic German trader area.  The next day the morning was free to wander this lovely small city, where it rains about 85% of the time.  It was quite pleasant in spite of a few early sprinkles.

After driving half way to Oslo, we stopped at the famous Dr. Holms hotel in a ski area.  This hotel was once a TB sanitorium but has been very well converted and maintained.  

In Oslo all hotels in the city center were booked, so our suburban hotel prevented as much city wandering as before.  But we visited the incredible sculpture garden of Gustav Vigeland and the next day I stopped at the Viking Ship Museum before heading to the airport.

I booked this trip because I wanted to see more of Stockholm and Norway, and we certainly did.  The only downside was long hours on the bus, which was really necessary for the itinerary.  Basically I was very pleased and so glad that I did it.