Norway Trip
Please enjoy the trip highlights below!
All the Terrain
We flew into Oslo and took off across the country. Our first night was in Nesbyen. Our adventure brought us up the mountain to an fun ski-lodge style inn. They wined and dined us, and even turned on the sauna. The next day was a long drive to Bergen. We found our first Stave church: churches dating back to the vikings. The highway took us above the treeline, with snow poles on the side of the road 10 feet tall! We drove through tiny tunnels and even one tunnel that spiraled down the mountain causing our ears to pop. Then we arrived in the fjordland just beginning to bloom for the spring.
Bergen & Stavanger
We lucked out with three gorgeous days in what is typically a rainy Bergen. As we walked from our hotel to the historical and tourist fishing house street, it felt like we were going back in time. We stayed in a fairly new building, saw buildings from 1800, then the fishing houses called Brygge, a UNESCO site from 1500, ending up at the Bergenhus Fortress from 1200. We walked north to Sandviskirken to see the area that Julia's ancestors are from. We traveled to Stavanger on Norway's "Labour Day" to meet the other American competitors. Our hotel even had a microbrewery on the lowest level. We took a Fjord boat tour in the morning over to see Pulpit Rock. The rock is 2,000 feet up and 1,000 feet underwater! Julia climbed up to the top the next day while Ted had a stellar first day of shooting up in the mountains.