7/7 I wake up at 4 am with only four hours of sleep, but it's light out and I have a long drive ahead, so I just get on the road. The destination is Bergen, but I take the longer route via Geilo because it is more scenic. I will basically spend the entire day driving, which I'm used to.

The scenery is indeed amazing, and it still doesn't rain! I contemplate paddling at several spots, but it's chilly (as low as 6C/43F in places), with a breeze. And I'm a bit sore from the last two days. So I basically wimp out. Below are the pix between Son and Bergen. There are lots of tunnels, some many kilometers long.

There is a coherent aesthetic to everything here. Almost like the whole country follows a style guide. There are only a few predominant colors for buildings - the dark red you see above, an earthy yellow, white, dark grey, and dark brown. Very few exceptions to that. Lines are clean, geometric, with minimal fuss and decoration. This is consistent across things old and new. They even manage to make a McDonalds look good somehow.

Going over the mountain pass the scenery changes dramatically and temperatures drop. If I were a hardier soul, paddling up here would be quite an experience. Another time perhaps.

The tall posts along the road indicate that it snows here a lot....

Descending the other side of the pass there are many dramatic views and mountain lakes. And more tunnels. I'm starting to get low on fuel but make it to a gas station with no issues. Car takes 29 liters of gas for around NOK75,000 which is $75 in USD. About $10/gal but fortunately the car's fuel economy is quite good. I haven't kept track of miles traveled but it's been many hours of driving.

There are many roundabouts on Norwegian roads, and there are many tunnels. And there are even roundabouts in tunnels.

I've been warned about speeding here because the fines are very heavy. So generally I'm careful to stay at or under the limits, which change frequently. Google warns of camera locations with a chime. Still, I may have missed a transition from 80km/h to 60. I guess if I got fined it'll show up on rental car bill. As will the electronic tolls which happen at many spots along the way. It will be what it will be.

I didn't know what to expect in Bergen, and was very impressed on arrival. The place is cool and beautiful, staying within the apparent style guide but with a unique character. The blue house is an exception of sorts, but isn't really. Certainly stands out.

I've posted a quick video clip panning around the harbor on Instagram.

The hotel (Comfort Hotel Bergen) is nice and only a 5-minute walk from where the fjord cruise leaves tomorrow morning. It has a nice rooftop deck area, which I use to write this update. The room follows the style guide too.

I actually pass out at about 5 pm, then wake up again at 9 and finish the update. There is so much to process that if I don't do it as I go, it would be overwhelming on return and basically wouldn't get done.

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7/8 Today I'm taking a fjord and glacier tour. It departs at 8 am from a dock that is a five minute walk from the hotel. On the map you can see the fjord path from Bergen. There is a change of boats in Balestrand, then a bus up to the glacier.

I get another four hours of sleep - seems enough. It'll have to do. The view out of the hotel window shows evidence of rain, but none is happening at the moment.

Breakfast is included and while I normally live on Zone bars when I travel (brought 80 of them on the trip), figured at least would get coffee. But everything looked so good I had to have some. And I don't normally even eat bread.

I didn't actually have room for the eggs but they looked picture-worthy for whatever reason.

Then a short walk to the dock and onboard the boat.

It'll be a 4-hour ride outbound but there is free wifi so an opportunity to make a partial update while experience is fresh. The harbor looks spectacular on departure.

I posted an Instagram video clip leaving the harbor.

This portion of the trip is on a regularly scheduled catamaran, it's basically a water bus that makes several stops in the fjord. And it goes fast! About 30 knots. An impressive machine, built by Oma in Norway.

In Balestrand I disembark the big scheduled boat and board the smaller cruise vessel that takes us the rest of the way to Fjærland, where a bus will take us to the glacier.

After about an hour and a half, we arrive in Fjærland where a bus takes us to a museum first. The building is really cool and somehow fits the landscape by contrasting with it, if that makes sense.

The exhibits are cool, as is a movie with lots of drone and other footage of the glacier, shown on a wrap-around screen.

Then on to the glacier itself. This is the third one I've visited in my life, after New Zealand (page 3 of this blog) and Alaska (page 6). OK, fourth, as was pointed out to me - Mt. Hood has a glacier too but not much of it remains and for some reason I did't think of the climb as a glacier visit. The deep blue color of the ice is always fascinating to me. Like anti-lava flowing down the mountain.

After the glacier, the small boat and then the big boat. Using the free wifi to upload the update. It's finally raining.

I don't know where I'm going or where I'm staying tonight. I'll figure it out when I get back to the car and on the road. General idea is to head back towards Oslo.

It starts raining when we get close to Bergen.

It's been a long day so I ask Grete to help me book a hotel, which she kindly does - thank you! So I have everything set well before the boat docks. It's a short walk to the parking garage, then about a 20 minute drive to the hotel.

The hotel (Quality Hotel Edvard Grieg) is a newer property outside the city center, not far from the airport. The room still follows the style guide with the obligatory dark red, earthy yellow, grey, brown and white all present and accounted for, presnted in clean geometric shapes. I like it.

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7/9 Today a drive to Odda and then on to Larvik, where I intend to finally do some camping. It's warmer there. We'll see. All in all about 8 hours on the road give or take.

Also meeting up with another car enthusiast whom I only know virtually so far. This is a recurring thing in my travels, and will continue in Australia in the fall. Common interests transcend borders.

I only got four hours of sleep again but seems to be enough. This is normally the time one transitions to REM sleep, so transition just kicks me out instead. Dreams are crazy and elaborate as always, but that is normal for me. I go to sleep like going to a bizzare movie, never knowing what I'll see. When I woke up today it was still dark-ish and I clearly saw a palm-sized spider crawling on the ceiling. WTF? I actually asked that out loud and turned on the light. Spider went away. Light off, still there, continuing on same path. I watched it for a bit until it faded. This is why I don't do drugs of any kind (wine doesn't count because I say so, and I didn't have any last night anyway). The mind is entertaining enough as it is.

The breakfast is again very good. I had forgotten that I like herring - here by itself and in a tomato sauce, both delicious on a piece of bread. That replaces probably three of the Zone bars for the day. Works for me. Onward.

The drive to Odda involves two ferry crossings and a 11 km long tunnel. It is now raining. As soon as I get out of the city, the scenery becomes virtually identical to the Oregon coast between Newport and Astoria. If it weren't for the road signs and markings, there'd be no telling the difference. Had to wait for about 20 minutes at the first ferry crossing for the boat to show up. It doesn't seem to be a busy route, there was only one other car onboard with me.

On the other side the road gets quite narrow. No centerline marking, mostly one and a half lanes wide, sometimes narrowing to one. Very much two-way traffic though. A lot like some of the New Zealand roads I drove on years ago.

The second ferry is larger and busier.

The sign in the toilet is humorous :) Because hopes and dreams can really clog up the works.

Starting the car to drive off the boat, a tire pressure warning dominates the dash. I find a gas station and fill the tires, two of which were below 30 psi. Hope that's all it is and not a puncture, which would be a pain to deal with.

The next road is quite interesting. Narrower still, with several construction zones, and culminating in the 11 km long tunnel at the other end of which is Odda.

The first thing at the exit of the tunnel is an industrial plant of some kind. Yep, it still follows the color code.

The town itself is very cool and scenic, with many shops and historic industrial buildings. I again contemplate kayaking here but it's still only 12C with a hefty breeze, and I have a long drive ahead. So basically I'm a fair-weather kayaker as it turns out. I'm ok with that.

Below are some random pix of Odda, I have about a hundred more. When I first get here, a light rain is falling but it soon stops.

My next destination is Larvik where I'm meeting Bart for dinner, and then hopefully finding a campground to stay the night. It's about a 5 hour drive from here over a mountain pass. A tunnel along the way is closed for maintenance so there may be delays... and there are. Turns out they are routing the traffic from a 2-lane highway through a 7 kilometer, one lane winding bypass. So they do it in alternating groups from each direction. Takes a while.

It's cold, about 5C, with what feels like 15-20 mph wind. Nope, not kayaking here either.

After the pass the scenery becomes less dramatic, the rain stops, and by the time I pull into Larvik it's 22C and sunny. The final stretch of road is divided highway and after many hours of 60-80 kph limits, 110 kph (68 mph) feels 'fast'. We get used to things.

From Bart's house we walk one kilometer through forested area to a nice restaurant for dinner and talk. The walk back feels satisfying somehow. Walking to and from dinner is good. When we return it's well after 9 pm and I borrow Bart's wifi to find a campground. It's on a lake, about half hour away. Fortunately the sun doesn't set until almost 10:30, so I find the place and set up with plenty of daylight left.

It's the first time I've used this particular tent and it works well. Better than the one I used on the Hawaii trip - this one is 7' long and I fit comfortably. I watch a mosquito try to get in through the netting. It failed.

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7/10 In the morning, about an hour long paddle on the lake. The water is supposedly drinkable, but looks almost black from cetain angles and especially with polarized glasses.

Now having sampled all available lodging options - Vegard's camper, hotels and tent camping, the former makes the most sense for the rest of the trip (except the last night I'm staying in a hotel by the airport since the flight out is at 7 am).

It's a 1.5 hour drive back to Son, involving yet another ferry crossing. This is a busy route and the electric ferries are filled with cars. They are also quite nice inside.

This ferry's version of bathroom humor is fun :)

There are large dockside chargers on both terminals. Wonder what the specs are. The boat does seem to have a diesel generator onboard, as evidenced by a large exhaust stack, but it wasn't running during the trip. Most likely there for backup and some longer routes. EDIT - looked up some info, the system is pretty cool.

Arriving at Vegard's I take a much needed nap, and then he, Grete and I walk about a kilometer to dinner. Seems to be a thing. The walk is very scenic, and the meal of monkfish is great.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the moon peeking out behind the trees.

Sitting on the deck with a glass of wine and taking in the view is a good way to end the day. Tomorrow I'm going to go check out Oslo.

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7/11 After the first full 8 hours of sleep, a slow relaxed start to the day, then a 2-hour boat ride to Oslo. The plan is to come back by train. It's a short walk down to the city center where the boat docks.

It's low tide, but I've noticed that the tides don't do much here, and everything is designed and built with that assumption. Maybe 2' tops. That said, the low tide does expose a bit more ground and wildlife - in this case, starfish. These are about 3" diameter - much smaller than what we have in Oregon (those are 12" plus). So these are quarter scale by my standard :)

The boat is part of regularly scheduled service, another 'water bus'. It takes two hours to reach Oslo and makes about a dozen stops along the way. Some are towns like Son, some are tiny islands with a handful of houses on them.

Arriving in Oslo harbor, I'm eager to explore. It seems there is a 'new' side and an 'old' side. Seeing how my way back is via train and the train station is on the old side, I start with the new. The architecture is impressive. Every corner you turn is something new. There are lots of restaurants, cafes, and just beaches that people hang out at. Of course my pictures have few people in them, but that's just how I see the world. It's a thing. Just take my word for it, the people are there. I just avoid seeing them, and so you get a glimpse of the world as I see it.

There are also sculptures everywhere, of all kinds. I have literally hundreds of pictures but only a few are presented here.

Moving on to the center and then the old side. There is a castle. And a massive cruise ship parked next to it which obviously isn't old. But makes good contrast.

The castle is cool.

The castle kind of exits into the military museum, if you take the righ path.

Exiting all that, I proceed to the Opera House. Interesting bit of architecture, reminds me of a similar structure in Amsterdam. There are floating saunas you can rent. Makes perfect sense.

The train station is the goal at the end of all that. When I get there, I discover that the train to where I'm going is canceled, and they're doing busses instead. Takes a bit to figure out where I board the bus, but I make it with full three minutes to spare. Easy.

The bus takes half the time that the boat did, with a tenth of the adventure value. But by now I'm adventured out anyway.

Except that I take another bus to the Son harbor, then walk all sweaty and gross by the beach. A swim would feel so good... And so I go up to the trailer, change, and walk the two minutes back to the beach for a swim. Perfect! I literally couldn't ask for a better experience. I strive to be able to say that every day.

We shall see what tomorrow brings.

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7/12 Main thing I did today was a 3+ hour paddle on the fjord about 45 minutes south of Son. Paddled all the way around a fairly large island. It got a bit choppy on the fjord side, to the point that I started wondering whether I should be doing this. But ended up not a big deal and all is well that ends well. The scenery is different but also similar to what I've posted before, so only a few pix.

In the meantime, Vegard and Grete are making great progress on their house. Poured concrete today. It was interesting to watch.

Only a couple days left in the trip, time to slow down and get ready for the return. Probably won't go paddling again - did two lakes and two fjord outings, over 10 hours on the water in all, so that's plenty. Glad I brought the kayak on the trip. Need to pack the stuff down to luggage size now.

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7/13 An automotive-related part of the trip - a quick visit to Zyrus engineering. A very impressive facility, first rate workmanship, and a pragmatic approach to problem solving. Kindred spirits. I learned a lot and perhaps there may be ways to work together in the future.

Coming back it is now pouring rain, but it clears eventually. We celebrate the newly poured and cured concrete with a barbeque and some wine.

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7/14 Final full day here. There are so many memories and experiences to process. It's been quite a trip. So today I'm just taking it easy. Started with a walk into town, to get some last views of the fjord and harbor.

The final night I'm staying in a hotel by the airport, so I take the long way there doing a couple touristy things. First is a visit to the ski jump and ski museum. It's pretty cool, though the line for the elevator takes a while - but I got all day. The elevator goes up the incline, not vertically. The views from the top are cool. There is a zip line at extra cost but I decide to skip it.

The ski museum is neat. Even has a stuffed moose. There are many moose crossing signs along the roads, but I didn't see a live one. Guess will have to settle for stuffed.

Next touristy thing is Vigeland park, which has a lot of interesting sculptures. You can't tell from my pictures but it was actually quite crowded. I just see the world unpopulated. Would be fun to come here at 2 am on a foggy day - the photos on the official site show the possibilites.

Driving back through some older parts of Oslo, it looks similar to parts of Paris in a way.

Now rentacar returned, checked into hotel, early flight out tomorrow. Whew.

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7/15 A few random final notes while I'm waiting for the delayed flight in Chicago:

- The trip was made SO much better by Vegard and Grete, with great company, guidance and hospitality. Can't say thank you enough.

- Food at the hotel on last night stay was surprisingly good. Marinaded salmon, cooked just right.

- Security/customs is most efficient in Oslo, not too terrible in Chicago, absolutely sucks in Brussels.

- We 'raced' another flight, and were faster. Totally random, just don't often see airliners cruising side by side for any length of time.

- While the actual passport control in Chicago is done pretty well, the fact that you have to wait to get your checked luggage just to check it right back in again after carrying it 50 feet is ridiculous. What's the point? Didn't have to do it on the way out.

- Airport layout is annoying. There are several United Club lounges, not all of which accept one-time passes. Not to be confused (except by me) with Polaris lounge which is a whole other thing. At least I got some exercise walking. And I have a 3-hour layover which became 5. The food in the Chicago club lounges is way worse than London. The only thing it's got going for it is that it's 'free' (with lounge access). The lights in tunnels between terminnals are colorful, so there's that.

All in all though, the fact that you can go halfway around the world in a few hours never ceases to amaze me. Especially being cognizant of every little bit that makes it possible, right down to 787 wing aerodynamics and structural loads. It's a great time to be alive.

And one more edit - as much fun as it is to travel, coming home is not too bad either. Looking forward to exploring more of Oregon this summer.

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