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September 5, 2006-Shop ‘til…

I think I have contributed to illegal activities. I bought a purse in Chinatown from the back room of one of those stores like I described in my first emails. I have a feeling the people working there are the illegals who we hear about in the news. They have to work to pay off their debt to the people who lied to them and told them they’d take them to real jobs in the U.S. The one thing I learned this time was that some of the back rooms are interconnected by hallways and doors leading to other “lairs.” Maybe one person owns the whole operation. My cousin helped at first. She’s a pro at this kind of shopping and some of the people recognized her. It was when I tried it solo I ran into problems. Some shopkeepers were reluctant to let on they had back rooms. I wonder if there was a crackdown recently. Some denied they had “extra stock” in the back and one lady freaked when I pulled out a cell phone to call our granddaughter Alex to confirm I had the purse she wanted. The son of a friend is very involved in trying to shut down the “knock-off” business in NYC. After we made the purchase I realized they don’t charge sales tax. Now that would really get the state of New York in a snit.

The shopping we did in Iceland was legal shopping. I forgot to tell you about what we found in the flea market in Reykjavik. I told David that if we looked long enough we’d find something Jewish. We did. There were identical brass menorahs. I asked the stall operator where she got them and she said she bought them in Denmark. I wonder what their story was? She wanted $160 each for them. At that price they stayed un-rescued.

The streets of NYC never fail to present interesting sights. We watched the taping of the TLC show Cover Story. It’s a makeover show. The problem was that we couldn’t tell if the woman getting out of the limo was the before or after. Someone should have told her not to chew gum.

Being in NYC at the end of a holiday weekend can be a challenge. Garbage piles on the curbs were as high as I am tall and as wide as the length of a car. The smell was memorable.

We’re glad to be home and had dinner with the clan. Rylee has filled out and is full of smiles. Talia is as effusive as ever and Alex was full of school news. Having one more child in the mix does change the dynamic and we were all busier cutting food and holding the baby. It was great to be back.

Toby

New York City

September 3, 2006-Homecoming

Happy Labor Day weekend to you all. Yeah! We’re in NYC! It was only a 5-½ hour flight but it was good to be on terra firma again. We had to get to the airport three hours ahead of flight time since we were flying to the U.S. There were all sorts of announcements about extra security for flights to the States. We expected to go through airport security then a separate check for liquids, gels, etc for U.S. bound passengers. Nothing! We did the regular check with shoes on and that was it. No one opened a thing to check for the “new contraband.” Maybe it will be different flying within the States from NYC to Akron.

The best part of the flight other than landing safely was that we flew over Greenland. It definitely was not green. The sky was cloud-free and even from 35,000 feet we could see the mountains and glaciers below clear as a bell. I even picked out a bright blue river with floating chunks of ice. They looked like dollops of marshmallows in a sea of Jell-O.

Our group of eight flew together and we’re all spending the night at the Hilton Garden Hotel near JFK. We had a snack and said our good-byes. Two couples fly to California tomorrow and one couple heads for Boston. We head for the Washington-Jefferson Hotel in Manhattan. My cousins will pick us up for lunch and take us to Chinatown. I told them we’d eat anything but fish.

This hotel won me over right away. They had a platter of warm chocolate chip cookies at the check-in desk. When we got to our room I found what looked like miniature towels in the bathroom. Then I remembered. They’re washcloths. We haven’t seen one in three weeks.

Now that we’re in the U.S. I can dare to tell you about my tooth issue. I had a check-up at the dentist before we left and there was a tooth that was bothering me. She smoothed out the bite and told me to call if it was hitting wrong. It started acting up in New York before we left for Scandinavia. By the time I got to Copenhagen it was unbearable. I spoke to Yves who asked if I could hold out until Oslo. There was a dentist he knew in the hotel there. I thought I could bear it for a few days but there was no way I would make it for three weeks. I started taking ibuprofen for the inflammation and hoped the pain was from grinding at night and not a dying nerve. I consciously started using my tongue as a bite guard between my teeth when I slept. It worked. I still need to see the dentist when I get home but the pain was from grinding. The ibuprofen did the trick. Yes, I have tried bite guards before with no success. This might motivate me to try again.

I don’t know what time it is for us. Our bodies think it is 2 AM. The clock here says 10:30 PM. We’re going to sleep.

Toby

Last Day in Reykjavik

September 2, 2006-Gods & Mythos
(photos:horse meat,
puffin meat,
whale meat,
Icelandic riding costume)

Today we did it all. We saw every last bloody museum there was. We stared with the National Culture Museum built in 1906 as the National Library and Archives. The entryway was a dramatic white double marble staircase. The exhibits were bi-lingual but much of the reading was down low. Most of the written history of the Viking Age (800-1,050) is contained in the Codex Regius. The Edda, poems about religious and everyday life, dates from 1200 and details the mythos of their gods: Odin, Thor, Loki, et al. They were composed by court poets and were sagas of written and oral history. The written Edda was illustrated by cartoon-like characters helping to illuminate the tales. The object and goal at the end of life was to reach Valhalla. It was the Great Hall of Odin where warriors who died in battle would spend the rest of time fighting by day and drinking mead and feasting at night. Men were buried with their swords, horses, dogs, and household goods to sustain them in the next life. If a man died in his bed he spent eternity with Hel the goddess of death. Canterbury Tales were written in the 14th century but Beowulf, written in 1100 in Old English tells about a 6th century Scandinavian adventurer.

There is evidence that Leif the Lucky was in Vineland (North America) in the late 1300’s. The original manuscripts housed in this museum were held by Denmark until 1971 when they slowly began to return to Iceland. This includes sections of The Book of Settlement followed by The Book of Icelanders written in the earl 12th century. They’re like a list of begats with pertinent details of who was who along with events that occurred at the time. Remember the guy who threw his carved throne posts into the sea? He was Ingolfur and is mentioned in the Books as the first settler of Reykjavik.

And now the biggest surprise of all. It blew my image of Scandinavians. I never knew that between 1855-1914 there was a large wave of immigrants to Salt Lake City, Utah from Iceland. An Icelander heard a Mormon missionary speak in Copenhagen in 1850 and converted on the spot. He convinced a friend to join him and they spearheaded conversions in Iceland starting in 1851. A huge statue of Jesus sits in the section of the Cultural Museum called “On To Zion.” It’s a copy of one near the visitor’s center in Salt Lake City.

Contrasting the previously described historical artifacts The Museum had a section for contemporary Icelandic fashion. I can tell you that big pants, tight pants under dresses, and raw hemlines are in here. I guess this was the part about modern Iceland.

I was still recovering from the Mormon connection when we left the building. We wanted to buy more of the steamed bread and were directed to a flea market. It was where we love to be in a foreign place. It was for locals not tourists. They were selling clothing, records, toys, and yes, socks. They also had a food section where we found not only the bread but also whale meat, puffin breasts, and horse steaks.

Plus or Minus

On to the next museum! The 871 + or – 2 Exhibit featured the remains of the oldest manmade settlement in Reykjavik. I loved the humor of the date (plus or minus 2 years). It sat where it was found and the museum was built around it. It was a great hall and was presented in a high tech way. Panels of screens came to life illustrating day-to-day events using ghost-like digitized people. Several interactive stations helped clarify the time the great hall was built. There was no doubt that other and older ruins lay under other areas of Iceland from earlier inhabitants. Vikings were slave-owning traders and raiders who probably left Norway for adventure and a better life not religious freedom. They ruled part of the British Isles, the Hebrides, and Normandy. Recent DNA testing determined that most Icelandic men came from Norwegian stock but most women were Celtic. Their ancestors came across from Asia on that same old land bridge in the Bering Straits. They migrated across the Americas leaving traces of Native American genes mixed with Celtic We walked on over to the National Museum. Our directions were to pass a large cemetery and keep going. I was reading dates on tombstones when I saw a Star of David. I guess there were Jews here. I don’t know if there are any now. There’s no synagogue listed.

We were pooped when we got there but the massive gray modern poured concrete building was impressive. The exhibits covered a lot of the territory we had already been over so we zipped through from pre-Vikings to Enlightenment to modern culture. There was a lot on the Reformation. It makes me sad when I see cultures disappear into the morass of conformity of a monolithic creed. There is so much energy to the differences.

Fishy Ending

Our final banquet was a cold fish buffet. David is doing quite well with that as long as it doesn’t look like fish. It cannot have vestiges of scales or any fishy pieces/parts. Tonight even I got fished out and ended up concentrating on my new love, curried herring. Dessert was new to us. It’s a curd made from skim milk cooked into a pudding. It tastes a bit like yogurt and is served with berries. It was quite nice but not chocolate. Ellert joined us but had a luscious looking lamb dinner. David was sitting next to him and had to restrain himself from sticking his fork into a piece of meat and stealing it.

I asked Ellert what happened in Iceland during WWII. He said that they were neutral but were occupied by Britain when it was thought the Nazis wanted to invade. So much for their neutrality. He didn’t seem thrilled that Britain was here. He thought neutrality was important. How can a country be neutral? That means they don’t care enough who wins to take sides. That means they’d have been as happy with a Nazi win as an Allied win. Well, they were all Aryans (including Sweden and Switzerland) so no worries there.

At dinner we also talked about lighter things like how the TVs work. Ellert didn’t see anything unusual in our struggle to figure out how to adjust the volume. It seemed normal to him. The remote doesn’t work at all even if the gizmo on the set is pointed at the hand held remote device. To turn the power on you have to push a button on the TV. To turn the TV on you have to push the unmarked button between the buttons marked with up and down arrows. You can now change channels with the up and down buttons. To adjust volume you must once again push the middle button. You may now use the arrow buttons to adjust volume. If you now want to change the channel you must push the unmarked middle button again. Then the up and down arrow buttons will once again change the channel.

Planning Ahead

I asked the people in our group what they thought of group travel versus independent. One woman said she liked the security of having the medical and evacuation coverage and assistance of a guide who knew their way around the health care system since they had health issues. That is comforting to us too. We seesaw back and forth. Maybe there’s a way to combine group and independent travel. We could stay on and rent a car and take off on our own after two weeks of organized travel. That sounds like a plan but our next trip will likely be to Ireland and Wales and that we’ll do all on our own.

We leave for the airport at 1 PM tomorrow and arrive at JFK around 7 PM. It’s a relatively short flight at 5 ½ hours. In anticipation of coming home we’ve begun to verbalize how our return to the U.S. is different this time. In the past we’ve traveled mainly in underdeveloped countries or in places less developed than ours. Then it was a relief to return to a better way of life. This time we are left with a sense that we’re returning to a place where the quality of life is slipping away. We’re becoming a second rate country. In contrast to Scandinavia our standard of living leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, their taxes are higher but when you factor in what we pay for health care and education the cost may be on par. And we get so much less for our money. It’s not only about the money and services. It’s about equal rights. They get it here. When they offer equality to all they mean it. All includes gays, lesbians, transgender, and bi-sexual people. All of our citizens aren’t even afforded basic human dignities.

But then we’re excited to come home because that’s where our grandchildren are. It’s where we know that if it’s Tuesday we’ll be having dinner with our family. It’s where on this Rosh Hashanah we’ll be with Wendy and Julian in Minneapolis and with Daniel and the kids in Akron for Yom Kippur. It’s where our hearts are. And that’s home.

Reykjavik and Beyond

September 1, 2006-Hi Hi!
(photos:City Hall,
Typical houses
Hallgrimskirke,
Fault line,
Blue Lagoon)

Hi-hi! That is the greeting around here. It sets a friendly tone for a people that out-Norwegian the Norwegians as far as being taciturn. But when they party they take it seriously. Of course they do. They’re a serious people. In summer the revelry starts near midnight and goes until 5 AM. Somehow it doesn’t bother David and my earplugs have been great. Our fellow travelers aren’t so lucky.

My emails are more interesting when things are a bit off. Let me tell you about this hotel. I called it Spartan. Fodor’s calls it “basic.” When I woke up this morning before I opened my eyes I thought, “How nice. It is a sunny day.” David was up and I heard him chuckling. The “sun light” was really from the overhead light. One control switch is low on the headboard right where the pillow hits. I’d inadvertently turned it on. I had another rude awakening when I did the math and figured out that the sandwich David had at the Grill House restaurant last night cost $20.

The engineer in our group had to have someone from the desk help him close his window. It wasn’t obvious. Others needed assistance using the remote on their T.V. There’s an external receiver attached to the bottom of the set that needs to be pointed in the direction of the remote. Theirs was rotated a bit to the side. Our toilet paper holder fell of the wall and our spigot and faucets rotate when turning the water on or off. They fixed that but now the floor drain the sink water goes into overflows. Breakfast was an augmented Red Roof Inn affair but all I eat is cereal and yogurt so I was happy. But there is something wonderful at this hotel that we didn’t have anyplace else. They have a broadband Internet connection in each room. It’s pure luxury to be able to access it without having to wait in line and hope there’s a place to use the jump drive to upload my journal.

We all did laundry last night for the last time on the trip. We all hated it. I was wondering if Grand Circle could contract with a laundry to do our stuff at the midway point in a trip. I know our clothes aren’t clean after 3-4 washings and inadequate rinsing. No matter how much I tried there was still soap left behind. My ankles are breaking out from the residue. It’s so gross!

Out In The Town

Ellert picked us up at 9 AM, a civilized time. I started our walking tour of the city wearing three jackets and gloves. I could see my breath. By the end of the day I was walking around in just a long-sleeved shirt. The high today was 68. The Gulf Stream moderates the climate so it usually doesn’t reach above the mid-70’s or below the high 20’s. The Blue Mts. is their main ski area but snow has been scarce the last few winters. Most of Iceland is below the Arctic Circle so there’s no tundra or permafrost.

At first I thought Ellert was dour and humorless but he has a dry sense of humor that can catch me off guard. He rolls his “R’s” as most Icelanders do making them sound Scottish when they speak English. He’s about our age and 6’7” tall at least. His mother just retired two years ago. She’s 101. He kept us busy all day and into the evening. We don’t see him again until the farewell dinner tonight. Then he picks us up for the airport on Sunday.

Reykjavik means steam bay. It’s no wonder that’s its name. Steam vents are all over the place wafting sulfrous aromas into the atmosphere, homes, water, and hotel rooms. Ancient history tells about a Norwegian who sailed off to find new territory. He threw two throne poles that were carved like our totem poles into the sea. He decided to settle where they landed. Guess where? He didn’t stay long. Irish monks followed in 537 and a colony of hermits developed. Leif Ericsson discovered Iceland and the Americas but conveniently forgot about the latter. Ellert asked us when Columbus Day was and we knew that. When he asked when Leif Ericsson Day was we didn’t even know there was one. It’s Oct. 9. The Greeks spoke of such an island and Roman coins were found here. In 1750 the town as we know it today was settled. In 1783 there was a huge volcanic eruption causing a global change in weather. Forty per cent of the people in Iceland died. Compared to that eruption Ellert said that Mt. St. Helen was a burp. While under the Danes the capital of Iceland was Copenhagen, but they managed to achieve a peaceful separation and remain friends today.

We reached City Hall by walking over a footbridge. The building is a modern structure erected in 1981. There’s a relief map of Iceland in the lobby and we looked at our route for the day. It was ambitious. We wouldn’t return until 5 PM.

Our next stop was Hallgrimskirke, a monochromatic poured concrete cathedral. It was stark and sterile inside but there was elegance to the soaring 100+ foot high vaults. The overall effect made me feel I was inside a glacier. The stainless steel and blond wood organ rose to fill two-thirds of the space from the ceiling down. But it seems that Icelanders are as religiously observant as most Scandinavians…not.

What to do with ugly storage tanks that are part of the central city heating system? The hot water tanks that marred the landscape bothered one architect enough so that he designed a dome to cover them. It’s now called The Pearl. That was our next destination. The view from the top is the best in town and the interior of the building now housing the tanks is a work of art worthy of a concert hall. In fact they were setting up for a concert. This month there’s an international film and jazz festival. We were told that Matt Dillon and Marisa Tome are in town for the festival and to film their next movie.

When the water heating the buildings is discharged, it’s run underground in pipes that heat sidewalks and parking lots in winter. No need to shovel. The average heating and electric bill here is $110/month. Read it and weep.

Outward Bound

We left town and entered the highlands. It was barren rocky terrain dotted with the occasional summerhouse. What we did not expect was a greenhouse. The industry is diminishing and most of that is going to Spain. But there was one left for tourists to visit. Ellert had just told us about a bread that’s very dense and made by steaming it for 24-hours. We bought some there and shared it with the others. It was very good. It tasted a bit like honey cake. As for the greenhouse, it was a yawn. Iceland is noticeably devoid of trees. Maybe that’s why a greenhouse is so exciting to them. Iceland was denuded early in its history and there are mostly shrubs left. There’s an effort at reforestation. Ellert amused us by saying that if you’rre lost in the forest in Iceland just stand up.

The Hekla glacier was more impressive. The volcanic mountain of the same name was thought to be the entrance to hell. The phrase, “Go to Hekla” has evolved to “Go to heck.” Volcanoes form craters and craters sometimes sink into the earth. The Kerid Crater was one such example. The water that filled the sinkhole was teal blue and bottomless. We took photos and I managed to get some rock climbing in so David could get a picture of me near the water.

As we drove on clouds were gathering and formed a low ceiling as we climbed higher. They looked as if they were within reach. We stopped at a geyser field and waited while the biggest one sprayed. It looked like an underground giant was chewing gum as the water receded and pushed up a bit. Then he started to form a big blue bubble and blow. That’s when it spouted. It was hard to catch the bubble on film. We waited through four eruptions and never succeeded. When we left we all shrugged our shoulders and said that if you’ve seen Yellowstone this was cute.

The waterfall stop was not Niagara but it was spectacular. Wind whipped down from the glacier but wasn’t frigid. It was however strong enough to push me off course as I walked up the steps to the viewing area. One hundred gallons of water crashed over the precipice every second. At the top there was quite a lovely scene with Icelandic horses (not ponies) against the backdrop of the glacier. We later stopped where we could see horses close up. A young girl was anxious to show us which one was hers and got him out of the herd. Icelandic horses are five-gaited and have a running walk as smooth as or smoother than a Tennessee Walking Horse. It’s a purebred import descended from the Viking age. There are no other breeds on the island. They cannot eat oats because they have a very small stomach and oats swell. They don’t like carrots or apples but prefer salted fish. They crave salt. They’re used for pleasure riding, herding sheep, and as meat.

A most impressive experience was being able to see Pingvalla where the fault line is between the Eurasian and North American plates. That’s where the ancient Icelandic Parliament met 1000 years ago. They met in the open for two weeks every summer and were led by a Law Speaker who’d memorized the laws. It’s now a UNESCO site. It was so lovely and emotionally charged. It was easy to imagine the colorful tents and temporary stone and sod houses they erected. Then I joked that they could set up bleachers and present a Light and Sound show like they do at the Sphinx in Egypt. Ellert said that Icelanders wouldn’t pay admission to attractions. They tried to charge a fee once and people stopped coming.

I slept on and off in the van. There was a lot of driving. Sometimes I awoke to glean some interesting information. Married women keep their maiden names. Their obligatory fire occurred in 1915 and most buildings date from then. Education in a state university is free. It costs $2-3,000 in a private university. Iceland has the second highest birth rate in Europe. It’s probably not a direct cause and effect but the shortest day in winter is only four hours and eleven minutes. When we passed a golf course I learned that there are ninety in Iceland and there’s an Arctic Open that tees off at midnight in the summer.

Blue Lagoon

On our return to the city I got a different perspective. From this angle it looked like a big place. We did a quick jump off and shot a photo of the house where Reagan and Gorbachev met and headed for the hotel. We had half an hour to get ready for the Blue Lagoon.

David kept referring to the Blue Lagoon as a place where people swim in industrial waste and he’s right. It’s the accidental by-product of an energy plant. It was the first geo-thermal plant in the world. Sea and fresh water were mixed and superheated. The steam that resulted was run through a heat exchanger and the condensation was used to pump into home heating systems. Surplus steam was used to make electricity. An unanticipated by-product of the steam was that when the condensation cooled and was let out into an area designated for run-off the chemicals in the condensed water settled to the bottom making it waterproof. The water had nowhere to go and kept collecting. A blue color resulted. There’s a small outlet today since the water keeps coming but the inventive Icelanders turned it into a spectacular tourist venue. We changed in locker rooms and the women compared bruised legs. We all had badges of honor from wrangling suitcases. We plunged into the refreshingly milky blue warm waters. Once underwater our bodies disappeared in the murk. The bottom was sand and silica. I was surprised that when I dug some up with my toes that it was black. It wasn’t very deep and we stood up and held our arms in the air from time to time to cool off. We stayed in about forty minutes then showered and ate in the cafeteria. We all re-showered when we got to the hotel. The sulfrous water wreaks havoc on hair. It also just plain reeks. It’s supposed to have curative powers but we were all doubting Thomases. This is a tiny country trying to build a tourism industry. The mountains are like the ones in our Southwest. They’re bare. This isn’t the Rockies. There’s little to show off that’s not surpassed by other countries. But they do have an interesting ancient history.

Tomorrow we’ll try to get a handle on the Viking past. I cannot believe there’s been no lecture or tour that included their history and legends. It’s one of the major reasons we came here. I’ll mention it as a criticism when I fill out the Grand Circle review form.

Toby

Reykyavik, Iceland

August 31, 2006-Smelly
(photos: Downtown view from hotel)

Our group of eight assembled for a 11:30AM departure to the Stockholm airport. We went in style on a forty-eight passenger bus all to ourselves. In the group are an engineer with a literal turn of mind. We let him do the worrying for the group. His wife is a sweet person who always has a smile. They’re from California. Also along were friends of theirs who frequently travel with them and are pretty much fun. A couple from the Boston area are with us too but are used to a more physical kind of travel. They usually go with Overseas Adventure Travel a subsidiary of Grand Circle and are feeling very pampered.

We flew Iceland Air to Reykjavik. When lunch was served the smell was unpleasant. This was a precursor to the smell of this island-country. They use geothermal and hydroelectric power for heating and electricity and there’s a sulphury smell that’s more fishy than the usual smell of rotten eggs. Even the hot tap water smells since it comes directly from underground. It’s a mild Rotorua, New Zealand aroma.

Looking down from the plane as we landed all I saw was a bleak brown blob in a blue sea. It was only a three-hour flight and I spent some of it trying to figure out how the flight attendants got their chignons to stay put. They had intricately twisted buns that took on fanciful spiral shapes and never moved.

Rocky

Our guide, Ellert, met us for the forty-five minute drive into the city. The landscape was all lava fields but he promised it was different where we were going tomorrow. We passed Keflavik where a U.S. naval base is about to close. Jobs will be lost but there are plenty of opportunities for new employment. The place is booming and three hundred construction cranes dot the area. Housing is so American looking that it feels like we’re back in the 1950’s-60’s. It could be Levittown. The cost of housing has doubled in the last four years. Eighty per cent of Icelanders own their own homes. They build with reinforced concrete since the’re in a seismically active zone. They get the lime for the cement from crushing seashells.

In 2000 they had an earthquake that reached 6.1 on the Richter Scale. The volcanoes are still active although the last eruption was seven hundred years ago. They expect lots more activity in the next year. Of course they do. We visited. They also expect the first major storm of the winter on Tuesday. We leave Sunday.

Reality

Iceland is 40,000 square miles, about the size of Kentucky. It’s distorted on maps and globes so looks much larger. The population as of July is 304,256. Fifty per cent of the people live in Reykjavik and southern towns. It was settled in 874 by Norwegians. In 930 they formed one of the first republican governments. Classic Icelandic Sagas describe the Old Commonwealth Age of Independence but in 1262 it lost its autonomy to Denmark. Freedom was regained in 1944 and the present republic established. There’s a president but power is executed by the government who answers to parliament. School is compulsory until age sixteen and English is introduced in grade five. Danish is started in grade seven. Healthcare is covered by the government except for 15%, which is the responsibility of the patient. Icelanders speak a language very close to that of ancient Vikings. Iceland was Catholic in the 15th to mid-16 centuries but became Lutheran around 1550. Freedom of religion was introduced in 1874 and 90% of the population belong to the State Lutheran church.

As we approached our hotel, the Plaza, we passed a small park and lake. City Hall is built out into the water and looks intriguing. We visit there tomorrow. The Plaza is in the center of town on the oldest street. It’s modern, Spartan and looked comfortable, but there are many idiosyncrasies. The water is naturally soft and my hands feel slimy when they’re wet. Every time I turn the spigot on my hand slips. If I get traction it turns too far and I get sprayed. When my hand slips I use a towel to turn it. It’s a pain. The shower took two of us to figure out. The controls are unlike any we’ve seen. For a while I thought it didn’t work and we’d have to change rooms. Our room has three “settling” cracks that I’m sure come from the last earthquake. The four Californians in the group were unimpressed. We overlook a small concrete park where skateboarders gather. Sunset is very late so they stay until 10PM. When they leave the bikers arrive. One is revving his engine now. I may need my earplugs again.

We hope to go to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow night but it looks like the trip to the glacier might be impossible. It’s still in melting mode and the access roads are muddy. We wouldn’t have gone anyway since we walked on the Athabasca glacier in British Columbia and flew over several in Alaska. We also will take a pass on whale watching. Did that in Hawaii and Alaska. That leaves us a free day. I hope the museum that tells about the Norse mythology and Viking history is detailed. There’s not a lot else to do in this town. We went to a restaurant nearby that Ellert recommended. It was a family place like a Denny’s only smaller. I had great fish and chips and David had “the best steak sandwich in town.” He hasn’t tasted others but was sure it would live up to its reputation. After dinner we walked over to the pier to watch the hills in the distance turn pink in the waning sun. We stopped in a couple of wool shops and I decided I liked acrylic better. Scandinavian wool is too scratchy.

Downtown Reykjavik reminds me of an Alaskan town. There’s a sense of being built in a hurry and a feeling of impermanence. It has a small town old West feel to it. That might be appropriate since it was settled by renegades and outlaws.

Toby

Last Night in Stockholm

August 30, 2006- Twenty Minute Wonder
(photos:Vassa,
Skansen,
Yves)

The water level rose eight feet in Southern Norway and there’s a flood. Disaster still follows in our wake.

The candy man started our day by passing around a bag of sweets. A member of our group has taken on that job and we look forward to it. He doesn’t eat the stuff himself. Some of us have taken turns buying and distributing candy. It’s a great way to start the day.

Marie, our city guide, joined us at the Vasa Museum. It houses a ship that sank 300 years ago after a brief and tragic launch. It didn’t quite outdo the Korean missile that only lasted a few minutes but in 1628 the Vasa (the last name of the royal family at the time) capsized and gave up the ghost after struggling for less than twenty-minutes to stay afloat.

An excellent orientation movie told the sad tale of the thirty to fifty people who died and the four hundred who escaped. The wreck was found and raised in 1961 and the film showed the elaborate and ingenious contraption devised to make a sling going under the hull to hoist the monster to the surface. The ship was floated to dry dock for restoration. The technology used was as wondrous as that employed to set up the offshore oil platforms near Bergen but the salvaging of the Vasa stirred me more. It was on a more human scale. It was about history, people, and preservation.

The Vasa was remarkably intact. We watched as hoses using water under pressure removed the mud and muck and scientists unearthed artifacts and human remains by hand. In all, 14,000 pieces were put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle and the re-assembled ship was sealed by spraying it with polyethylene glycol. Ninety-five per cent of the ship is original. Replacement parts were made using methods available in the 1600’s. The entire thing is now housed in a museum along with many of the objects found on board. Human remains were studied and are on display with analyses of what the life of the person had been nutritionally and the status of their health at time of death. Officer’s families had been allowed on board for the first leg of the launch and bodies of women were found. In 1990 the finished product was towed to the museum.

After the catastrophe in 1628, an investigation was conducted to assess why the boat capsized and to assign blame. By then the shipbuilder was dead. The workers had followed a plan approved by the king but there was a catch. The admiral had approved the original plans but the king changed them. Denmark had just built a ship with two battery deck levels where cannon were placed. The Swedish king wasn’t to be outdone and ordered another level built on the Vasa. Unfortunately that made it top heavy and there was no room for sufficient ballast as a counterweight. Three days before it sailed there was a trial run. The ship listed badly. The admiral wanted to cancel the launch but the king was in Poland. The admiral didn’t want to send riders to notify the king and upset him about a delay so he went with what he had. In the end, the fault was probably the king’s but he couldn’t be blamed or punished.

The oak woodwork of the original ship had been elaborately carved and painted in bright colors. The restoration wasn’t. Men serving on board didn’t have good prospects even if the ship had not sunk so early. Sailors died from close quarters, poor nutrition, and poor ventilation. Their diets consisted of pea soup, bread, and a gallon of beer a day. Maybe they died happy. Dying in battle was almost the least of their worries.

Skansen

We literally took a walk in the park going to Skansen. It was lovely to be out in the sunshine (we’ve had it for the last three days) but Yves hadn’t told us we ‘d be trekking from one site to the other so several of us lugged backpacks. We’d expected to be able to leave them on the bus but after lunch we had a different bus taking us back to the hotel. A minor oversight on his part. We rode a funicular up to Skansen a model village of old days in Sweden. Yves insisted we could all get onto the funicular at once. When we arrived at the top he said he’d set a new record. The maximum he had on it in the past was forty-two. We were forty-six. Marie chose to walk up. Yves had asked the operator what would happen if it was overloaded and was told it just wouldn’t move. He figured that was safe enough.

Skansen is complete with a zoo featuring indigenous animals, or so we were told. When we went to find moose and reindeer we came upon huge bison. Hmmm! We think we got a photo of a sleeping reindeer but it may have been an elk. Hopefully we’ll see reindeer in Iceland. Marie took us on a walking tour of several of the one hundred fifty buildings that had been moved piece-by-piece from all over Sweden and reassembled at Skansen. It’s kind of like a larger Hale Farm but in a hilly wooded setting interspersed with ponds and overlooking the harbor.

The first set of buildings was a farmstead from Northern Sweden dating from the 1700’s. They had plenty of forests so buildings were made of logs and the roof was wood. The farmstead from Southern Sweden had a thatched roof and was decorated with original paintings the family probably bought at a market. That showed a bit of affluence. As we continued on we came upon a Viking rune stone from the 13th century. Vikings had a sixteen-letter alphabet and rune stones were memorials to those who’d died, not gravestones. They often had crosses on them even though Christianity came to the region late. Missionaries were about and would ask men on their deathbeds if they wanted to be baptized and go to heaven. The help of one more god sounded good so the dying agreed to the extra insurance. Crosses were part of the story of their lives that was retold on the stone.

We stepped into an 18th century wooden church that was freshly painted the traditional red on the outside. The stench was awful. Our eyes began to tear. They used the original formula for the paint, which was a mixture of paint and tar. The interior was charming with decorative painted beams and ceilings. The church warden (assistant to the minister) asked if anyone was Jewish. He pointed out the “Yahweh” on the ceiling and explained that people of that age began to realize the Bible wasn’t written in Swedish and wanted to study the original Hebrew text. They liked the idea of being able to write the name of God and incorporated it into their churches. In the old days men sat on the sunny side of the aisle and women on the colder side. The balcony was reserved for the poor. The church is still in use although the seating arrangement is more flexible. There’s also more flexibility in church attendance. Until the mid-1800’s attendance at church was compulsory.

Sweden was Catholic until the Middle Ages. The King of Sweden wanted the wealth of the Church to repay a debt owed to Germany. He supported the Reformation that established the Lutheran Church as Sweden’s state church then felt free to loot the treasures of the Catholic Church.

After lunch those of us who wanted to walked over to the Iris. It features gifts made by the blind. It was a lovely place with lots of pretty items none of which we wanted to buy. We hightailed it down to the Old City to buy just one more item we’d seen last night when stores were closed. We did find the store we wanted then realized it was available in at least fifty others. At least it gave David another shot at eating a lamb hot dog.

Farewelling Yves

Our farewell banquet took place in the public restaurant of City Hall. Yves was surprised that all three of his bosses turned out for the affair. He was further surprised when they honored him with toasts and accolades from a compilation of former travelers he’d guided. It was the occasion of his retirement. He hadn’t shared it with us but now the cat was out of the bag. He was so touched that he cried. They gave him a plaque that read, “Thank you for your passion.” He was philosopher and guide, shepherd and teacher. He went out in style. Champagne and wine flowed. The meal started with a seafood gratinee and for us they made reindeer mousse. At last we had a taste of Rudolph. He was yummy and seemed to be reminiscent of fish. Perhaps it was the smell of the gratinee? The main course was roast veal with a tomato base sauce accompanied by roasted potatoes. David benefited from my long time avoidance of veal. Dessert was a buffet of delectables including a divine chocolate concoction. I was in the ladies room when dessert was served and David nabbed a piece of it for me. I ate the whole thing.

The eight of us who are going to Iceland will be packing tonight and get to sleep late. There was a lot of teasing from the rest of the group since they have to wake up at 5:45AM. There were also threats of knocking on our doors as they left. Our flight doesn’t leave until 2:30pm. Yves is going to the airport with the earlier group and catching a flight to Nice to visit his mother. We’ll have separate transportation. It will be up to us to remember to start the day on the right foot. We’ll have to be sure to be aware and pay attention to everything we do. We'll know that the past is behind us and the future is yet to be. All we will have is the present. It will be the only day for us so it will be the best day.

Toby

Still Stockholm, Sweden

August 29, 2006-Still Greek to Me
(photos:Royal Family,
City Hall,
Ice Bar)

Could I be getting lulled by being a follower for so long? Perhaps I’m turning into a willing sheep. I’ve become passive. Sitting on the bus has become my cocoon. I doze and look out at the world and doze again. At times I’m sorry I have to move myself out of my seat. Eighteen days and counting has made me lazy.

We had to be in the lecture hall at 8:30AM. The doors were to be locked and they wouldn’t be opened until 9:30AM. Why all the drama? I thought I’d figured it out when I saw the “Blodbussen” parked in front of the hotel. I guessed there was a blood drive on and we were captives to the vampires in the bloodmobile. Yves assured me that wasn’t the case. Our room was part of the secure office suites for the hotel and admittance was by code. It was too hard to keep opening the locked door for latecomers.

We were introduced to Marie, our city guide for the next two days. She had a British accent when she spoke English as many have but is a natural born Swede. All children here learn English from grade 1-9. Since Swedish universities draw from the whole of Europe and there aren’t many books in Swedish lots of the classes are taught in English. Lucky us! She said she spoke English precisely as Swedes spoke their language. Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish belong to the same Gothic language base as German and Dutch. To Swedes, Norwegians speak quickly with a musical cadence and Danes speak as if they have a hot potato in their mouth.

She was high on education here. It starts late by our standards. At age six children go to what we consider kindergarten. They start first grade at age seven. Class sizes vary from 18-25 students with two teachers per class. Eat your hearts out! After the first nine grades a child has to choose whether to follow a technical or academic track for the next three years. University education is free and each student gets $1,000/month subsidy for living expenses. A portion of that is a repayable loan. If you finish a major and decide to change fields it’s free with the same stipend.

Q & A

Sweden is the third largest country in Europe. It’s the size of California. Its population is proportionately small since 50% of the land is forested and there are 97,000 lakes. Almost 30% is above the Arctic Circle. To make matters worse, between the late1800’s and early 1900’s twenty-five per cent of the population (1 million) left for the U.S.

Marie seemed to enjoy the back and forth of Q and A. One person asked what she considered to be the biggest success and worst failure in Sweden. She immediately said that education was the best. But when she explained the new private schools that were cropping up and getting state money we cringed. They sounded like our charter schools and we know what that’s doing to our public schools. The worst was their inability to integrate recent immigrants. Immigrants are paid to learn Swedish but the most recent Muslim immigrants don’t go to language school. They’re covered by all social services and while 80% of Swedes are Lutheran, Islam is now the second largest religion in Sweden.

Swedes are liberal in some areas and rigid in others. There’s a heavy sin tax: 88% on liquor, 70% on gas and tobacco. Abortion up to twelve weeks is the woman’s choice. Sweden was the second country in Europe after Denmark to allow gay marriage yet they just recently allowed gays to adopt. As for joining the EU in 1995, she thought it was a good move. They have low unemployment and still need to import workers. She was pleased with how the economy was going. Still there have been rumblings of dissatisfaction with EU interference. Sweden’s very strict environmental laws had to be loosened but their neutrality is acceptable. She was very proud of their neutrality and cited how they came through WWII intact. Several of us felt their position during that war was immoral, not neutral.

They love their monarchs, King Karl XVI Gustav and Queen Sylvia. Swedes think she’s the most beautiful and exotic woman. She’s part German and part Brazilian. They adore her brown hair and eyes. When we drove by the palace Marie was sure to brag that it has one more room than Buckingham Palace in England.

Nobelity

That brings me to the drive-by bus tour. A 180-mile long lake and the Baltic Sea border Stockholm. A lock separates the bodies of water. Not too shabby! The traditional older houses are painted peculiarly. The facades are ochre or gray but the sides are red. As it turns out 200 years ago the king took a trip to Rome. He so loved the colors of the buildings there he ordered all people in Sweden to paint their homes like the Romans. Swedes were a lot poorer than Romans and red was the cheapest color paint. They only painted the fronts to please the king.

We did get off the bus for City Hall and despite what I said at the beginning of this email it was something I’d been looking forward to. Built in 1923 the building looks much older architecturally. I’ve never seen a public building kept so lovingly pristine. We entered a great hall where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. Nobel was born in Sweden so the Dec. 10 festivities take place here. To say the hall is cavernous is to diminish it. It’s brick and colonnaded and the staircase was built so the royals could glide down the marble steps. The wife of the architect put on a gown and walked up and down until the correct height of the risers and depth of the steps was achieved. Nothing was too good for the monarchs.

The council chambers were built to resemble a Viking hall with painted beamed ceiling. The mayor of Stockholm is a woman and over 50% of the representatives are women. There are 100 stone vaults detailing the ceiling and dome of the tower in which the famous clock of St. George fighting the dragon is housed. A small anteroom is draped with a complete set of French tapestries dating from the 1700’s. The colors are brilliant with the gold background offsetting lustrous reds and blues of garlands of flowers and graceful figures inhabiting the work. Each stitch is intact. It’s the most perfect set of tapestries I’ve ever seen.

The golden hall was smaller than the great hall and was used for the ball following the Nobel banquet. The walls were encrusted with eight million mosaic tiles. Each tile was a sandwich of glass-gold leaf-glass: a triple-decker. The mosaic designs were modern in style and depicted modern themes. The entire project was so expensive that the city went bankrupt and had to ask for donations.

Marie left us with a joke showing how polite and boring Swedes could be. Two Finns, two Danes, two Norwegians, and two Swedes were stranded on an island. On the first day the Finns built a shelter; the second day the Danes gathered firewood; the third day the Norwegians went fishing; on the fourth day the Swedes did nothing because they hadn’t been introduced.

Brrr!

Lunch was preceded by a taste of Matjes herring, a toast that was sung, a nip of aquavit, and a demo of making Swedish meatballs. The ingredients for the meatballs are usually ground pork and beef but today it was only beef courtesy of Grand Circle. We don’t know if that was due to our personal food restrictions.

Yves had a surprise for us. This too made me want to get off the bus. He was able to get us into the Ice Bar. Seventeen years ago some daffy Swedes built an Ice Hotel. Everyone said it was a folly but it’s been full every year since. They have to re-build it yearly. The idea for the Ice Bar in a regular hotel came from the Ice Hotel. The bar doesn’t have to be re-built yearly but there are rules to be followed when in use. Not more than thirty people can be in it at a time or the collective body heat and breath will melt it. The bartenders can only work one hour before taking a break. Patrons cannot stay longer than forty-five minutes. That might be for their own safety. Drinking and being cold aren’t always a good thing. Ninety percent of the room is ice. I thought it would be much colder but it was twenty-three degrees. We had to put on silver parkas with faux-fur lined hoods and thick thermal mittens before entering. Our mittens were fastened to our sleeves like kindergarteners do. We looked like the cast from the Star Wars movie bar scene. I thought the floor would be ice and was anticipating a slippery time but it was textured metal. The walls were carved ice as were the bar and tables. There was a bench covered in reindeer pelts. We had to be careful how we put our square ice glasses down on the ice tables since they slid off easily. Several of us danced to the piped in music to keep warm. There was no rule about taking the glasses as souvenirs. They wouldn’t get far. Visiting the Ice Bar was something we just had to do. It was like flying over the Nazca Lines in Peru. We were here and it was a must. For those of you who remember our experience in Peru, the bar was a lot more pleasant than the flight.

Pay or Pray

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering. The retired Lutheran Bishop and his wife wanted to see St. Nicholas Church (aka the Big Church). We trailed along. We could either pay to go in if we were going to visit it as a museum or go in free and still be able to take pictures if we were going to pray. We opted for prayer. It had the Hebrew for “Yahweh” over the door as we’d seen on other Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and a seven-branched menorah in front of the altar. The building was simple with soaring brick pillars but some appointments like the pulpit and chandeliers were gilt and grand.

We left them, went to a 7-11 (believe it or not), bought diet Cokes, and sat at the counter in the window and people-watched until dinner. There was quite a parade. We could identify the day-trippers from cruise ships and the locals. There were people wearing tank tops and some wrapped in sweaters. There were a large number of extremely tall people, blonds predominated, and some people watched us watching them. Our main focus was a small tan dirty poodle-mix dog tied up across the lane. The dog’s person worked at the millinery store and every time he walked out of the store it was like a reunion of long lost friends. When the store closed for the evening we left to find a restaurant. People eat early here (6-7pm) and we were on the late side. We found a nice Greek place for a change of pace. We followed it with an ice cream chaser and were set for the night.

Tomorrow is our last day in Scandinavia.

Toby

Stockholm, Sweden

August 28, 2006- Catching Up
(photos:Stockholm,
City Gate,
Bloody Square)

I’ve been remiss. I keep meaning to report that in my mind Minnesota is no longer the moose capital of the world. I’ve seen more “moosemobilia” on this trip than ever before. You name it and it has a moose on it.

We’ve flown an airline we’d never heard of. Fly Nordic is like Southwest Air. It’s no frills, open seating, and they charge for food. They charge for bottled water, tea, coffee, and soft drinks & don’t even offer tap water. They also don’t take U.S. dollars, only Norwegian, Swedish, or Euros. Credit cards are good if you are buying more than $17 worth. I packed a sandwich at breakfast at the hotel in Bergen but David didn’t. We had no Norwegian currency left and one sandwich and two drinks didn’t add up to $17 so he went hungry and we were both thirsty. As luck would have it he was able to find a lamb hot dog on the street soon after we arrived in Stockholm. It was grilled to perfection and quite juicy. The Diet Coke he got with it was only $2.50. That is an improvement from the high of $6 he paid in Norway.

People who claimed the VAT tax back at the airport had plenty of Norwegian currency. The VAT people are no dummies. They paid only in coins even if the refund was the equivalent of $75. Coins aren’t usable in other countries. Paper money is the only kind they want. That forced people to try to get rid of the money in the Duty Free shop.

Beauties & Blood

Yves had to admit that Stockholm was the most beautiful city in Scandinavia, but he qualified it by saying that they took a lot of it from Norway. It does have its share of famous people: Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Isabella Rosselini, Tiger Woods wife, the woman golfer Anicka Sorenstan, Bjorn Borg of tennis fame, Ingmar Johannson, Anita Eckberg, Max Von Sydow, and Pipi Longstocking. Volvo and Saab are world renown and it’s the home of Absolut Vodka.

There are nine million people in Sweden and 1.5 million in Stockholm. The city is comprised of fourteen islands. The archipelago that comprises greater Stockholm is made up of 28,000 islands. It’s a constitutional democracy with a socialist government and monarchs that are mere figureheads. It imported its king from France in the 1800’s at which point the people became Francophiles. It’s reflected in the language where French words are de riguer. It was the most powerful country in Europe for four centuries and has been neutral since 1814. It stayed ten years ahead of the rest of Scandinavia until the ‘80’s. It now has a worse economy than Norway.

There’s total separation of church and state and that has left churches in the lurch. They’re going out of business with no one to support them. Several have been sold as houses or for businesses. We’ve come down in the world of hotels but this one does supply us with bathmats. The location is right on the central square on Queen St. and within walking distance of everything we want to see. It’s the Scandic Sergel Plaza. There are 40+ Scandic hotels in Stockholm so we have to be specific if we get lost and need directions back.

Yves took us on a walking tour of Old Town and cautioned us that even though Sweden is famous for crystal (Costa Brava and Orrefors) due to the taxes here it’s cheaper to buy it in the U.S. We crossed two bridges and walked under the double arch marking the entrance to the old city. It was like walking into the 1600’s. Stockholm has done the best job of all the cities we visited at keeping its old buildings intact. Maybe they haven’t had as many fires here. Except for four skyscrapers they have managed to keep the skyline low.

Our walk led us to the Baltic at which point we turned around and headed through the narrowest street in Stockholm to Bloody Square. It seems that the Swedish king invited the King of Denmark to his wedding. When the king and entourage arrived, the King of Sweden had them locked in a room then taken to the square and beheaded. Yves thought that was a good note on which to leave us and let us wander on our own. We ended up having dinner with two couples we’ve spent time with over the weeks and whose company we enjoy. We try not to touch on politics although they do seem disenchanted with the present administration. Tonight David and I showed restraint. We were speculating about candidates for the Republican presidential nomination when one of them suggested that Newt Gingrich would be a good choice since he was so intelligent. David and I didn’t respond. I think we were dumbstruck and then the opportunity passed. Besides we didn’t want to ruin a good meal.

Tomorrow Yves is going to try to get us into the Ice Bar. Should be fun.

Toby

Beyond Bergen, Norway

August 27, 2006-Getting Acquainted
(photos:Cozy castle,
Oygarden)

David has been following our hotel ratings in Fodor’s and we’re doing quite nicely. They’ve all been well rated. The most recent one, simply called First, is a jewel.

Our city guide, Kay, had no discernable Norwegian accent. That was because she was from Detroit. Her parents were from Norway and she moved here with them as a teen. Her husband is a firefighter. He has lots of job security. Bergen has had a major fire each generation. There are seven fire departments in this small city.

This was more of a drive-by tour than we’ve had in other places. Bergen is small and scenic but many historic buildings are just not there. What fire didn’t destroy the German ship that exploded did. We saw the cutest little castle from the outside. It’s still used when the king visits. If you can call a castle cozy this one would be. Most houses are smaller than a castle and smaller than we’re used to. A three bedroom one-bath house would sell for about $350,000, which seems a bargain compared to Oslo. They also have larger families here, from three to four children. It’s a peaceful place averaging one murder a year.

Kay maintained that people here are different than other Norwegians. She said that going to a funeral in Bergen was more fun than a wedding in Oslo. People from Bergen are more gregarious and fun loving. She attributes the differences to their heritage. Most are leftovers from Dutch and German traders who settled here in 1250. This has always been a trading town and the Hanseatic League was established to protect trading interests of those early settlers who came from Holland and Germany. In 1750 the League closed and members became Norwegian citizens. It was the first time I’ve heard Germans called fun loving. One of those citizens was Hansen, the man who found the cure for leprosy. There’s a Leprosy Museum that sounded kind of interesting but I doubt we’ll get there.

As we returned to our hotel and pulled back into the city center the bus driver had to pay a toll. It’s a vestige of tolls early farmers paid when they came to town to sell their goods.

Getting Out Of Town

We all just grabbed lunch at 7-11 or McDonald’s in order to make the afternoon tour. Yves started out speaking like a representative of the bureau of tourism talking up the benefits of summering here. He became even more enthusiastic as we approached an island off the coast of Bergen. He said we could buy a small cottage there for $30,000.

The coastal area on the island was very rugged. Lilac colored heather grew out of the granite and trees were sparse. One person said that every time he looked at granite he saw countertops. Those lovely red, green, white, and yellow houses were in abundance and we learned that the government controls what colors you can use. They have to be muted tones. The sea was at our side and the next landfall was America. This is where the Vikings set sail.

Studies are being done using tides for electric power instead of waves. Tides are predictable: waves are capricious. The original settlers burned wood until the trees were gone. Then they cut peat for fuel leaving holes in the earth that are now small lakes. The people of this harsh area are always looking for better fuel sources.

This optional tour was about Norway past and present. Today the area has fish farms, supplies ships for the off shore oil industry, and houses a gas refinery. Oil companies gave money for a museum to preserve the past culture of the west coast of Norway and as a vehicle of propaganda for their industry. The museum in Oygarden (meaning row of islands) was our destination. The introductory film showed how hard it was in the past. Fishermen and families had to contend with weather and row their catches to market in Bergen. Today 300 new millionaires exist in the area. They are fish farmers who export 3.5 million dollars worth of salmon a year to the U.S. alone.

We took a break to eat pancakes then walked through the very small and basic museum giving a pocket size overview of the area from Stone Age to industrial and oil age. The earliest settlers followed reindeer north as the glaciers receded after the Ice Age. The main feature was a “feel good” movie made by the oil company in residence, Statoil, the state oil company.

The oil field at sea is the Troll Field. You email readers are lucky in that it was too dark to take notes. It was a sophisticated film boasting that Norway had oil reserves for fifty years. That didn’t sound long to me. It showed the construction of a gas pipeline and platform. I was impressed by the feat of engineering, as was the man from Texas sitting behind me.

We boarded the bus again to look from a distance at the Kollsness Refinery where the gas ends up after it’s extracted. The Star Wars style buildings are sunken below ground so as not to be visible from sea or land. It’s a huge complex including buildings to entertain the many male “guest workers” in an effort to keep them away from the local girls. If there were a major accident and explosion it would be five times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

On the way back to the hotel Yves let us in on extraneous information that we’ll probably never need. He said that if we landed at the airport in Trondheim the announcement would be, “Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Hell.” Hell is the name of the airport or town near Trondheim and means “luck” in Norwegian. He then put a CD on by a Norwegian group called Secret Garden and tried to lull us to sleep. It didn’t work. Besides, it sounded like Irish music.

Now that we know a few words of Norwegian we leave for Stockholm tomorrow. “Ost” is cheese, “killing” is chicken, “skinke” is ham and “fart” is motion. Along the roads there are lots of farts. On a highway sign it means exit.

Toby

To Bergen, Norway

August 26, 2006- Boats & Trains & Sex
(photos:View from train to Flam,
Fjord,
Road to Stahlheim,
Bergen)

We awoke at 4:45AM and opened the drapes to see puffy cotton ball clouds floating not twenty feet over the water in the fjord. Grand Circle likes to get an early start to the day so we can beat the crowds and traffic. It works.

Today was a seat belt kind of day except for a short ferry ride where we stayed seated with our seat belts off. If you remember the movie “Planes and Boats and Trains,” this was it minus the planes. We went from bus to ferry to commuter train to scenic train to bus to scenic boat ride to bus. But there was a miracle that happened. We had sun.

We floated across the fjord near our hotel on a ferry and drove to the town of Voss, birthplace of Knute Rockne. On the drive Yves told us about a part of his life in Bangkok. He volunteers at a monastery a few days a week. His job is to play with children ages 0-6 years old. One of the games he plays is “who climbs into the coffin next.” The children are all eager to be “next.” They all have AIDS and the monks teach them that death is the path to a new life. None of the children live past age six and there’s nothing but over the counter medication to ease the pain of their dying. They usually choke to death due to severe throat fungus. The monks do all they can for the children. They provide their food and shelter and ease their way.

Scandinavia is a non-Catholic group of countries so they’ve always approached sex ed directly. AIDS and sex education in Norway starts in 5th grade. It’s blunt and direct and they deal with birth control and prevention of STD’s. There’s a free needle exchange program and only 800 of the population are HIV positive. Prostitutes are mostly foreigners. The state tries to discourage the customers by spray painting a message on their cars while they’re with the hooker. It announces that the man driving the car has visited a prostitute. Abortions are free and the rate is decreasing. There are no Norwegian children available for adoption and foreign adoptions are popular. Norwegians say it’s easier to live your own life rather than live the lives of others. Norway has had gay marriage for sixteen years and is able to gather some statistics. It seems gay marriages are more stable and are an example for hetero ones. Heterosexual marriages run a 48% divorce rate and gay marriages 27%. There’s no alimony but there is child support paid by the one who leaves. If it goes unpaid the state takes it from the paycheck.

Yoicks!

I bemoaned the fact that we hadn’t seen moose. Yves said we didn’t want to see one. It usually meant we’d hit it. Each year 40,000 are hunted. The railroad kills 4,000 a year and RR engineers carry rifles to put the injured moose out of their misery.

As we approached Voss we were looking down through the clouds. Yves said the closer we got the less attractive it would be. Architecture in Norway isn’t appealing because most of it was constructed when the country was very poor.

The train from Voss to Myrdal was a red electric commuter train. Myrdal was at the high point of a scenic train ride to Flam down in the valley. The clear clean green river ran next to the tracks and seemed to be racing us down. Yves told us not to bother sitting since we’d soon be on our feet going from one side of the car to the other oohing and aahing. There was no shortage of tunnels. One was a 180-degree turn. When we came from dark into light it was as if a curtain had gone up and a new show was being presented.

We stopped at a waterfall and were promised a surprise. As we gawked at nature a recording of an ancient Sambic chant began. It sounded Native American to me and Yves agreed there was a similarity. The Sambic people are Laplanders, indigenous Norwegians. As we looked and listened a woman appeared from behind a ruin. She had long blond hair (what else?) and wore a long blue dress with flowing sleeves. She was lip-syncing. I asked Yves if that was yoiking but it wasn’t. Yoiking is more the Norwegian form of yodeling. He couldn’t demonstrate.

When does the human eye adjust to the beauty around and raise the standard? When does the wonder end? Today it didn’t. Sun glinted on the grass reflecting an apple green color that seemed unnatural. Waterfalls were so numerous as to become unremarkable until the next one. They cascaded over the terrain like roller coasters veering over humps of land being re-directed by the topography. They were in free-fall creating narrow ribbons of white along the granite. The kicker was when we realized that one was pouring down the mountain and running under the tracks. It was like traveling through the pages of a pictorial calendar.

Fjordim & Nazis?

Our bus met the train and took us through a six-mile long tunnel on the way to our boat. Yves doesn’t like tunnels and several jokes were made about watching for the light at the end. We cautioned him that seeing a “bright white light” wasn’t always a good thing. We ended up in the Gudvangen Valley for a ride on the fjords. They’re deep enough so that the QE2 and Queen Mary have sailed them. David has an irresistible urge to use the Hebrew plural “fjordim.” Grand Circle Tours didn’t like its people to have to travel on the larger tourist boats so it hired one all our own. It was run by a husband and wife who’d created a homey atmosphere with fresh flowers, cloths on the tables, and stuffed animals strewn about. We were served waffles with whipped cream and strawberry jam with coffee or tea to drink. Yves was at the stern with two bottles of aquavit, which were empty after our two-hour cruise. Some started putting it in the coffee and adding whipped cream creating an Irish Norwegian.

The red, yellow, and white wooden houses begged for their pictures to be taken. David wasn’t photographing waterfalls anymore. One small farm had a pile of rocks in the yard the size of a tank. It was a 1000-year old Viking grave. Surrounding us, enfolding us were the giant granite hills and mountains. Hovering over us were the clouds. The scenery was better than any model train village I’d ever seen.

The boat had taken us in a semi-circle and we were back in Flam where our trusty bus waited. We took an unscheduled side-trip to Stahlheim. That’s where the Leibestram program of the Nazis in Norway was implemented. It was a baby factory where blond Norwegian women were forced to bear the children of Nazi soldiers to create a perfect race. The babies were shipped to Germany and raised in orphanages.

To get to Stahlheim we had to climb a 150-year old road built to carry two horses pulling a wagon. It was the steepest, curviest, hairiest switchback road I’ve ever been on. Since the wheelbase of a bus is forward there were times the rear of the bus was suspended over nothing. When we got to the top I asked the driver if it was the first time he’d driven on that road. His astonishing answer was, “Yes.” At least there was another way down. What was up there? a hotel, toilets, and a spectacular view.

Yves seemed antsy all day and when we boarded the bus again he called his son Krit. Evidently Krit had left an urgent message that he call ASAP. Krit had bought a condo and needed advice. Yves was relieved that was all it was.

Another Miracle

As we approached Bergen Yves told us that another miracle had occurred. It was sunny in Bergen. Bergen had 275 days of rain a year. They consider Seattle to be their sister city. They’re the only city that has vending machines selling umbrellas. It was settled 1000 years ago, was the first capital of Norway, and has a population of 225,000. It’s surrounded by nine mountains and connected by lots of bridges. In 1940, on the birthday of Hitler, a German ship blew itself out of the water destroying most of the city.

Bergen had a large German community that formed the Hanseatic League. I‘ll learn more about it tomorrow. There’s a strong German influence to this day and the dialect here more closely resembles German. The old buildings at German Wharf are a UNESCO site although they’ve been turned into shops. This is the home of Edvard Greig and music is honored here. There’s a new concert hall shaped like a grand piano. Bergen is also the home of the Norwegian navy and has an active oil industry. It’s the last stop before the Farrow Islands.

Our hotel is a converted printing factory. The rooms are each unique and we have a corner one. It’s large and well appointed. Tonight is Saturday night and Bergen is a party town. The desk supplies earplugs. Most of us chose the pizza buffet for dinner although one couple ventured out for Norwegian fare. I hope they didn’t get stuck eating traditional sheep head. Yves tried to give us the recipe but we got grossed out. He said that first you cut off the head and take a torch to it to burn off the wool. You cook it on the “barbie” and go for the most succulent parts first: the eyes, tongue and lips.

We rode the funicular up the hill after dinner and opted not to walk down. We’ve had a long day and tomorrow there’s more to see, more tunnels to drive through, more bridges to cross.

Toby

Norway In a Nutshell

August 25, 2006-Eidfjord
(photos:Laplander home,
Troll pal,
Eidfjord)

I knew this would be a hairy ride when Yves asked us to fasten our seatbelts. We were heading up the mountains, across a plateau, and down the other side. Our destination was Eidfjord, our entry point to fjordland. It would be a six-hour ride up and a thirty-five minute descent. That piqued my curiosity.

To fill the time Yves gave us a talk on Norway in a Nutshell. We couldn’t sleep because we were going around hairpin curves and were trying to stay in our seats. Nothing heavier than a jacket could be put in overhead storage.

I’ll put his “nutshell” in a nutshell for you. After becoming a free country in 1865 Norway was mostly rural and uneducated. Every time they had a chance to get on their feet a war or depression came along. After WWII they took advantage of the Marshall Plan and created a socialist government where all people were equal. Pay scales for teachers and doctors were the same. In the spirit of Norway everyone had to chip in. Today some are more equal but all are entitled to the same free services: education through university, health, pension. Even the state religion is paid for by the state. Theoretically there’s no feeling of superiority. The country was poor since the 1300’s. They don’t want anyone here to be poor and pay they taxes to make that so. By the 1960’s parents wanted their children to take advantage of free university education. Technical school was free as well, but being a professional was the ideal. It takes three years to be trained as a waiter or hairdresser, so why not go longer and be a doctor? The reason became apparent. Skilled workers died out. A plan was hatched to hire Pakistanis to fill the labor gap. As with Old Norwegians these New Norwegians had all the advantages of the native born after working here three months. This was no longer a blond heterogeneous society. Some people still remember the first time they saw an African or Pakistani. Young girls loved the exotic looking men and many marriages took place. Norwegians thought it was wonderful at first.

Slowly the cultural divide emerged. Norwegians live behind closed doors while Pakistanis literally leave theirs open. The cooking aromas were the first things to cause tension. Norwegians realized they could live with everyone being equal if everyone looked and acted alike. Eventually a mixed race boy was shot. They never thought something like that would happen here. It happened in other countries. Parents began pulling their children out of schools that were heavily integrated and new ways had to be found to blend the New and Old Norwegians. There’s still a long way to go. Third generation Pakistanis are heavily into owning convenience stores. Vietnamese are focused on educating their children. Now the New Norwegians are Swedes. Salaries are higher here and they get a tax break the first three years.

Oil was found in the 1970’s. They had a woman prime minister who drove a hard bargain. She insisted that Norway gets to keep 75% of the profits. Norway is flush with money now and has funds in its state pension plan for generations to come. They have not reduced taxes for fear of creating inflation. They’ve paid back all foreign debt.

Most Norwegians don’t save. Everything is taken care of. If they lose their job or are injured they’ll be retrained. Even families of prisoners are paid $19,000 a year for the labor the prisoners do. When Norwegians retire they may take out what we call a reverse mortgage on their house to augment the pension, which is 70% of their last salary. They most likely use the money to travel.

They’ve found a way to economize on medical care. They don’t have hospitals specializing in everything. They’ll pay to send citizens abroad accompanied by a family member for treatment. Bergen has one of the best burn treatments centers in Europe and people travel there for care.

Yves said that people on our tour asked him about WWII. He said that his 94-year-old mother has never spoken about it to her seven children. It’s something that belongs in the past. There were so many losses that no one really won that war. His father was in the family business in France when he took his wife and children to S. Africa. The extended family thought he was overreacting but they were all killed at Auschwitz. When the Nazis invaded Cape Town his parents hid in Dutch wine cellars. When his parents returned to France they found that the Nazis had sold the family company and properties. His mother spent years in court trying to get it back. She only retrieved 33% of it.

There are jokes back and forth between Norwegians and Swedes but there’s an underlying tone of bitterness on the part of Norwegians. When the Nazis invaded and the royal family of Norway needed to leave, Sweden refused to let them use their airfields. Swedes tried to remain neutral but they let the Nazis use Sweden as a corridor to Norway.

There are now seven million Norwegians in the U.S. and 4.2 million in Norway. Norwegians have 1.5 children. Muslims have 5.5. In twenty-five years Islam will be the majority religion in Oslo. Back To Nature We wove up mountains, back and forth over lakes, and around islands to reach the top of Norway. We were above the tree line. Graceful birch and variegated green gave way to granite and stumpy bushes. It’s the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. Because it’s touched by the Gulf Stream it’s habitable. Tall poles marked the edge-lines of the roads since snow can be as high as thirty feet in winter. When we got off the bus to drink “Skoll Norway” with aquavit, a potato liquor, the wind was whipping and rain falling. I thought we could drink as well inside the bus. Most tossed it down but I only dipped my tongue in. We might as well have been drinking Purell.

Norwegians, like Minnesotans, like their summer homes. In this area summer cottages and some all season homes have sod roofs. Grass and some trees grow from them and give the landscape a fairy tale quality. I’s not hard to imagine trolls living inside. We stopped at a cluster of Laplander houses. Laps are to Norway as our Native Americans are to us. They are 6,000 strong and still live in wood huts with sod roofs. They herd reindeer but now some rent out the huts to tourists. We were on the lookout for fjords and were told that the water is as deep as the mountain looming over it is high. A fjord is an inlet from the ocean. Green water is from fresh melt and silver means algae. Hydroelectric plants and fisheries are common now. Seals and even dolphin live in their waters. Twenty years ago Greenpeace convinced Norway to stop hunting the seals in the fjords. It resulted in a seal plague. Norway resumed hunting seals and all is back to normal.

Tunnels were everywhere and have made travel through the rugged terrain easier. The walls are left natural and the lighting was basically the headlights of our bus. We even traveled in one that made a 360 turn. It was eerie. There’s one tunnel, which we will not pass through, that’s eight miles long.

We arrived at Hotel Voringfoss, a Quality Hotel and were pleased to see how lovely it is. We thought it would be basic. We’re at the bottom of a fjord looking up. Our room overlooks the water and it’s serene. Clouds climbing up the mountains look like angel hair on a Christmas tree.

Eagle’s Eye Views

We ate a snack of waffle with sour cream and berry jam, dropped our bags in our room, and re-boarded the bus. We had to be punctual since the very narrow road we had to climb carried traffic uphill only on the hour and downhill only on the half-hour. We drove on switchback roads and through a long tunnel to emerge into clouds. We walked down a dirt path to the 500-year-old isolated homestead called Kjeaasen. An 80-something retired midwife from Oslo lives there alone year round. She still considers it a working farm and raises sheep. The house is right on the precipice overlooking the fjord and is surrounded by flowers in various cast-off containers and backed by a vegetable garden. Great stones suspended on wires transverse the roof and hold it in place against winter storms. It is at about 1600 feet elevation.

Our orientation was by way of a narrative tape played from a boom box sitting on a windowsill above us as we gazed at the mesmerizing scene below. The hillside and valley was inhabited since the 1300’s. In 1349 the black plague swept the area and left no survivors. It took 100 years for people to move back. As we listened we watched clouds rise obscuring the valley and mountain then drift off to reveal what they’d just hidden.

Riding back through the tunnel was a hoot. We tried to scare each other with imagined troll sightings. I began a story about an ax murderer who lived in the tunnel and Yves made spooky sounds into the mike. At one point someone hit the “stop” button at his seat. The only way the driver could make it go out was to stop and open the back door. Some would swear that’s where the troll got on the bus. After the tunnel the jokes flew about how many busses went over the edge. We began looking for shiny new portions of the guardrail. At least there were guardrails here.

We overheard Yves making a phone call to his son Krit in Bangkok. He was wishing him happy birthday. It seems that Yves is going home by way of Cuba and Brazil. What a life!

Tomorrow we travel on many vehicles and go through forty-three tunnels. That’s really seeing Norway from the inside.

Toby