Day 13 - We Embark On Our Final Destination - Oslo

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Today we head out to Oslo as the final destination on our 15 day tour of Scandinavia. They call it a 15 day tour, but on the 15^th day, your just flying back home unless you consider a tour of the Oslo Airport the 15^thday tour. Today will be a long, scenic day as were several days on this trip. Maja warned us that this was really a tour about the journey as much as the destinations, and today was destined to be a “journey” day.

We left out of Bergen after a good breakfast at 8:00AM with our first comfort stop at 9:00 to take care of those who had just a little too much morning coffee. We are stopping at a Dale of Norway factory outlet, a first time trial of the restrooms at this place by Maja. Evidently, finding a place along our route that would be interesting, and willing and able to take 35 people on a bus to use the toilets with no guarantee of a sale is not that easy.

But the visit to Dale of Norway was great! Evidently, they have been the official supplier of sweaters for the Winter Olympics since the 1950’s and the have a display of every official Olympic sweater since then. They offer very well made, high end alpine sweaters made typically of wool, along with some very heavy winter coats. Most of the really good sweaters were selling in the $350 to $400 range, but since it was also an outlet store, some were a real bargain at about $200. If Jody and I still lived somewhere cold, we would certainly jumped at the chance, but since we live in Florida, we would never wear a 100% woll sweater, no matter how good it looked, though many of our Canadian fellow passengers snapped up some bargains.

As we returned to the bus, we moved out of the fjords, and began our ascent into the Hardangervidde, or the Hardanger Plateau. The largest of its kind in Europe, the Harbinger Plateau is about 2500 square miles, and at 3600 ft elevation, with peaks as high as 5600 ft, it is entirely above the tree line and looks mostly like a barren wasteland of grass, rocks and snow with a few small lakes. It is evidently a favorite hiking spot of Norwegians, and there are a series of primitive cabins only accessible by hiking available for use. You just need to let the park rangers know that you want to use one, and they either give you the key, or tell you where it is hidden, so that you can use it for free. Hikers leave some canned provisions and wood behind in the cabins in case someone is stuck there for a few days. It’s all on the honor system, and it mostly works, though lately some people have been taking advantage and stealing all the food and leaving the cabins a mess.

The other thing that the Hardanger Plateau is known for is its herds of reindeer. Though there are thousands of reindeer on the plateau, none of them are wild and all are owned by local ranchers. Since all reindeer herds have a lead reindeer, the lead reindeer is fitted with a GPS transponder, and all members are tagged with an ear tag. The rancher can follow along with the leader of the heard by looking for his location on the ranchers website that lots the GPS transponder on the map.

Back in 2016, one of the ranchers noticed that after a terrible lightning storm, his lead reindeer was not changing location. When he went to investigate, he found that 323 reindeer had been killed by a single lightning strike.

In order to facilitate the rise in the road in such a short distance, the engineers built a series of tunnels, some of which had steep inclines and some actually curved over 360 degrees, rising to a level above the entrance below. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like it. In two of the tunnels there were multiple exits, prompting them to install a roundabout inside the tunnel, something else I had never seen before.

By now it was about 11:30 and time for a lunch stop We stopped at a café located in the center of the plateau mostly for servicing hikers during the summer and early fall until it gets snowed under and becomes unreachable until the spring. Maja had arranged for us to try a favorite Norwegian treat of waffles with sour cream and strawberry jam. The waffles are very thin, then covered with jam and cream, then rolled tightly and eaten. We weren’t sure about the sour cream, by we tried them anyway and they were delicious. We also grabbed some Coke Zero and some sandwiches and made a proper lunch out of it.

By now it was 12:30 and time to get back on the road. The ride down from the plateau wasn’t nearly as scenic as the ride up, and eventually the scenery became typical rolling hills of forests. This gave us a chance to sit back and relax while Arpi just kept driving us towards Oslo. Maja went over the details for Sunday morning and getting us to the airport. Insight offers two free shuttles to the airport arriving at 7:15AM and 10:15AM. The hotel also offers a Fly-Bus every half hour for a nominal fee. Since our flight leaves at 9:50AM, the 7:15 arrival should be perfect.

By now it was getting to be about 3:30 and it was getting time for our final comfort stop. This time it was just a local shopping center, with nothing glamorous except for the huge bear out front. There was a little cafeteria and bakery, but Jody and I decided to wait for Oslo to eat and not spoil our dinner. We wandered around a few of the shops, found nothing interesting, and headed back to the bus.

It was getting to about 5:15 when we arrived at our hotel, the Radisson Blue in Oslo, right near the Royal Palace, near the center of town. Rather than wait for our luggage, Jody and I just dropped our stuff in our room, and headed on out to explore. We were initially just going to grab a bite to eat near the hotel, but somehow we got a burst of energy and decided to make the 10 minute walk to downtown Oslo.

We passed by the Royal Palace, took a walk through the garden and found a bunch of sculpture that was done by local artists based on drawings made by children. They were really good! We continued on downtown forging for food, checking the menus of the various restaurants as we passed by. There were certainly lots to pick from. In the end we chose Olivia’s, there had been one in Bergen that we almost went to last night before we chose Egon’s.

Olivia’s is Italian and Jody picked a penne and chicken dish and I picked a spaghetti with meat sauce. Of course we had some focaccia bread and some sparkling water. Both were excellent but when it came time to pay the bill, I had an experience that has never happened to us before. The waiter brought over the card machine so I could pay the bill and told me he had already entered the amount. When I asked him how do I add in the tip, he said “Never mind, it’s expensive enough already” and wouldn’t let me leave a tip. I guess that’s what happens when you pay waiters a living wage!

As we headed back to the hotel, we spotted a couple of souvenir shops and checked out what they had. We found a good magnet, but there weren’t any good Oslo t-shirts. Tomorrow we have a city tour with a local guide and an optional maritime tour. Hopefully the local guide can point us at some better souvenir shops. Tomorrow is our last day and we hope to make the most of it!

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