Meeting cousin Hans

It was quite an endeavor to get from Oslo, Norway to Eindhoven, Holland.  It put our luggage to a test, without a doubt!!  First we lugged our suitcases from the hotel to the Oslo train station, which wasn't too far but it definitely wasn't on smooth surfaces.  Then it was a matter of getting our luggage on the train and taking it all off again at the airport.   Then, for a while, we were free of our luggage after we checked them in at the airport.  After checking our luggage we went to the lost and found to see if my umbrella was there and much to our shock, IT WAS!!!!  So, now we have two umbrellas but I'm so happy I got my umbrella back.

Our flight to Amsterdam was good.  We picked up our luggage and then had to figure out how to get to the train station.  Once we got that figured out, we caught the first available train which again, was a matter of getting our luggage on quickly.  This train was not easy because all seats were either up some stairs or down some stairs.  And there was no place that we saw where you could store the luggage.  Finally someone told us that they could be placed between the seats.  But then, all too quickly we were at our next stop so then we had to lug all our stuff back up the stairs and off the train.  Since train tracks were being repaired in this section of our route, we had to get on a bus for a while.  That was a long walk going from the train station to where the buses were parked with all our luggage.

When we got off of the bus, we were dismayed to see that the train tracks were a slight distance away bur thankfully there were elevators where we could take our luggage up and then cross over the tracks on a bridge.  This time, when we caught the train, we didn't even bother with dealing with the up or down stairs on the train.  We just stayed in the small section by the door.  The trains were very crowded now and we ended up having to stand after our next stop, but that was preferable to us than going up or down stairs to find seats.

Our train stops were Amsterdam, Utrecht, Geldermalsen (which is where we caught the bus), then Geldermalsen to Hertogenbosch and then final stop in Eindhoven.  Doesn;t seem bad and it wasn't really.  The hard part was lifting our luggage up to and off off the trains.

Once we got to Eindhoven, we went out to where the taxis were to get a taxi to our hotel.  The taxi driver in the first car at first started to put our luggage in the trunk of her taxi but when we told her we were going to the Crown Inn Hotel, she said that it was only a 5 minute walk away and she couldn't see us paying for a taxi when we could just walk there.  We thanked her for being so kind to let us know that, but then the taxi driver behind her started arguing with her - yelling at her why she didn't just take us and telling us that it WASN'T  just a 5 minute walk,.  We told him that we appreciated the first taxi driver's honesty, gave her a few euros for saving us from LOTS of euros and then left them.  It WAS just a short walk to the hotel and since the weather was so nice, it was definitely worth walking.

We checked in and first thing I did was call Hans to let him know we had arrived.  We agreed to meet in one hour.  We met him an hour later down in front of the hotel and we sat at one of the outdoor tables and had a drink while we got to know each other a little bit.  It was so easy talking with him and we really enjoyed his company.

After a while, we walked around the pedestrian area, saw a nice church, and he took us to a marijuana shop because we had said we wanted to see one.  That was so strange - to see a place where they had menus with all the different kinds of marijuana combinations that you could order!!

Then we got in his car and drove to the restaurant we were going to eat at that evening, where we had an absolutely delicious meal in an old warehouse that had been converted into an interesting restaurant.  This is what it looked like across the road from the restaurant - it was an interesting area.

After dinner, Hans drove us around the city along the trail of lights that had something to do with Holland's liberation from Germany.  The trail ended at this lake where there were all these beautiful lit scenes.  Here is one of them.

Then Hans drove us back to the area of our hotel and walked with us to the front of the hotel.  We said goodbye to him there and as he left, we felt it was definitely worth taking the time to meet with him.  We had such a good time with him.

Museum Day

Today we took a boat out to a peninsula called Bygdoy.  There are many museums on this peninsula and we visited the Viking Ship Museum, the Polar Ship Fram Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum.   All three of them were very interesting.

We're on our way to the peninsula!

Quite a nice boat we passed.

A couple of scenes from the Fram museum.  We got to go inside the Fram which was very interesting.

A scene we saw while waiting for the boat to take us back to Oslo.

We had dinner in an Italian restaurant that evening, which wasn't that great.  Afterwards we bought a few souvenirs.

Last stop in Norway - Oslo

This is the whole gang waiting at the train station in Bergen.  It's quite early in the morning and it was raining and cold outside.

The Bergen to Oslo train ride was spectacular!!!  We climbed through beautiful fjords to a high plateau where things looked mighty rough, especially in the weather we were having.  These pictures are the best that could be done through train windows.

Wow, you talk about isolated, in the middle of nowhere.  We just couldn't imagine, it only being September, how it must look around here in mid January.

Now we're off of the plateau, having gone through a pass.  Trees came back and the weather got better.

But the whole train ride, really, had intervals of rain.  We'd think, Oh, it's clearing up now.  But always up ahead, past the clearing, we could see a new line of clouds and pretty soon, it'd be raining again.  It was great!

Once in Oslo, we made our way from the train station to our hotel.  After checking in, we walked to an area called Aker Brygge, which was by the water and had lots of nice ships and many nice restaurants.  Most of them were quite expensive, but we ended up in one that seemed a little less expensive than the others.  We had a good meal there with a nice view to the water.  These are some views around the area.

Walking back to our hotel, we took another route and found a nice pedestrian street with souvenir shops that we plan on visiting before we leave.

Next stop is Bergen

 So, last night went better than I thought it would.  I tried sleeping up on the top bunk because all our suitcases were on the 3rd bed but in the end, moved all those suitcases and slept down by the port hole.  It was a better place anyway, because whenever I wanted to, I could just move the curtain and look outside.  We docked in Alesund around 12:30am and it was nice to be able to look out and check.

We had to be out of our cabins by 10am, so after breakfast we had to pack up and place our larger suitcases by an elevator so that someone could gather them.  The rest of the time on our boat, (until 2:30pm) we had to have all of our stuff with us.  We tried getting good seats to hang around in but people had grabbed those quickly after breakfast.  But that was ok, because we grabbed those seats when everyone got up to go for lunch.

It was another cold and very rainy day.   Last scenes from the boat.

Disembarking from the boat went very smoothly.  We had to wait a little while for our luggage but at least it was all there.  Then we had arranged, while on the boat, to take a bus tour of Bergen after getting off the boat.  So, that's what we did next.  It was about a 2 hour bus tour and at then end, they deliver everyone to their hotels.  It rained the whole time - from arriving in Bergen to arriving at our hotel.

 This is the view out the window of our hotel room.

That evening, we looked for a restaurant that was in the Lonely Planet book of Norway that Fernando had given us.  That restaurant didn't seem to be in business anymore, there was a different one in its place.  So, instead, we walked across the street to Bergen's Fish Market (which Lonely Planet also suggested was a great place to eat).   This place will fix you anything they have in their cases.  Here is dried and salted cod hanging from poles in the Fish Market.

Guillermo and I shared a plate of Monk Fish (the fish in the middle) and Hake.  It was very very good.

The view we had from our table in the Fish Market.

There's Guillermo and John at our table.

How Bergen looked after dinner when it had gotten a lot darker.

We are on a boat until tomorrow!

We checked out of our hotel and took a cab to the pier of Trondheim where our boat with Hurtigruten cruises was docked.  This is the closest we have come to doing a cruise and I guess this could be classified as a cruise ship.

The weather is not on our side today though, it is gray and cloudy and rainy so there aren't going to be too many good opportunities for beautiful pictures.  6 hours into the cruise the waters became a little rough and you could really feel the boat swaying as it went over those waves.

We had a hamburger for lunch in the cafeteria and didn't opt for the reserved seating for dinner so we all ate in the cafeteria again.  The food was ok, nothing special.  It was nice pulling into the port of Kristiansund since we had spent a night there and the port of Molde, from where we had caught a ferry twice.  It was nice to be able to recognize a few places along this route!

It was pretty much cloudy, rainy and cold all day, although the sun peeked out when we were in Kristiansund.  When we were out over open waters, the boat felt rougher.  We always knew when we were pulling into a port by how calm everything was.

Scenery along the way.

 Approaching Kristiansund

We had driven over that bridge to get to our hotel a few days ago in Kristiansund.  

We had a fairly long stop in Kristiansund so we took plenty of pictures.  It would rain, then the sun would come out, then rain again.

Now we're on our way out of Kristiansund and heading out to somewhat open waters.

There's the hotel we stayed in - with a nice rainbow behind it!

Looks like the weather is about to clear up!  But that's not how it goes around here at this time of year.  Next thing we knew, it was raining again.

Our room on the ship had a little port hole to see out which was nice (it's behind that curtain).  It also had 3 beds - one a bunk bed.

Here's our somewhat messy room!

Not tourist time here

Well, the summer tourist season is definitely over here in Norway.   Seems like all the major tourist attractions are either closed or close early.  Guillermo and I visited the Nidaros Cathedral (it was a nice walk to there from our hotel) and we paid a decent price to get into the cathedral but the towers were closed off to visitors and so was the crypt.    That was disappointing.

 So next we caught a bus to take us to the Folklife Museum.  The ride out there was a little long but that was a good thing because we got to see some of Trondheim.  BUT, when we got to the Museum grounds, everything was closed.  So, all we could do was get on a bus and head back into town.  We had planned on eating lunch on the museum grounds but instead we ate lunch in a nice little cafe downtown.  Then we walked around a little and headed back to the hotel.

Before dinner, Guillermo and I walked to the grocery store and then a little bit more around the area.  We had dinner at a Turkish Kebab place which was just ok.

Slowly adding pictures from the trip

Nice buffet breakfast here in the hotel in Kristiansund.  After breakfast we all just hung around in our rooms - it seems to rain like every 30 minutes or so and it's cold out there!!!  Which gives us time to do things like add pictures to the blog!  So, starting with the  post back from Sept. 18, I've changed some things and added some pictures.

So, today we are driving back to Trondheim.  We took a different route this time and this route was just gorgeous!  Such beautiful scenery everywhere.  And as usual, we got into rain periodically.  And it is still quite cold - winter has begun here already for sure.  We saw lots of snow capped mountains, also.  Unfortunately, the prettiest views were always in areas where there was no possibility of stopping, so those scenes are just committed to our memories.

I just love all the structures, small and large, that have sod roofs - some have actual trees growing on the roof!

These kinds of roofs were all over the place in this town called Oppdal.

These next pictures are taken in Trondheim when I went on a walk while the guys took the rental car back to the airport, and picked up John's suitcase.  It was probably around 41 degrees, but it felt good.

We ate at a Thai restaurant that evening, and the food was very very good.