That’s the best Norwegian taco I’ve ever had!

The last 36 hours have been a whirlwind, the the hectic pace of our vacation travel is merely one of the reasons. On Tuesday we wrapped up our last full day in Oslo before boarding an early morning train to Bergen to catch our cruise.

First, on that last day in Oslo. Christine and I added yet another 20k steps to our fitbits seeing all the big sites around town - the revitalized Oslo harbor front, the new national museum featuring yet another version of Edvard Munch’s iconic painting “The Scream”, the oldest fort in Norway, and Oslo’s city hall. All fascinating, all definitely recommended sightseeing, but the biggest surprise was dinner.

Tacos. Yes, Norwegian Tacos. Well, actually good old Mexican tacos like queso birria by way of Norway, but still, tacos nonetheless. Norwegians are crazy about tacos, stands litter almost every street corner and Taco Friday is a well known pastime. So I had to try the tacos while in Oslo, considering they are quickly becoming the national food. I can’t make any claims toward authenticity, but four tacos I sampled were all pretty tasty..

(For more info on Norway Taco Friday, check out this link: https://theworld.org/stories/2016-09-23/be-norway-do-taco-friday)

Earlier today Christine and I boarded the train for Bergen, a six and half hour journey commonly referred to as the most beautiful train trip in all of Europe. Believe me, the scenery was stunning - bucolic villages, lush mountains, crystalline lakes - it was out of.a romantic Norwegian landscape painting.

What was less than stunning were the seats on the train. You think for 6 ½ hours we would get accorded some decent seats, but we sat on fairly firm benches hat basically made my rump go numb sever 45 minutes. It was the rough equivalent of sitting on the benches in the Pavilion section of Dodger stadium. OK I do exaggerate a touch, but it was uncomfortable.

We did finally make it to our ship, though! The ship was first afloat this year and this is only it’s 4th passenger voyage. It still has the new ship smell… ah…

We will take a much needed snooze tonight after 50k+ steps over the last 2 ½ days. Hopefully, I can keep those steps up - if I eat the same way I did tonight, I will have to be rolled off this ship.

- Joe

Hei fra Oslo!

Hello from Oslo! Well, I’m quite happy to report that we have had a lovely start to our journey. We arrived in the early evening on Sunday to a very quiet Oslo. Apparently, all of the locals are “summering” and working remotely in their summer cabins this time of year, so the city is inhabited only by those who don’t have a summer cabin and, of course, tourists. We are staying at the Revier in the city center with access to everything quintessentially Oslo. Our first meal in Oslo was not in fact Scandinavian in nature, but pizza. It was very tasty pizza and almost everyone in the restaurant was practically American, but we went for open and easily accessible for our first night in town after a long travel day.

After sleeping 11 hours (whew, jet lag got me hard!), the morning, despite a forecast of rain, was absolutely beautiful with a sun brightly shining high in the sky and temperature of a balmy 65 degrees — yes, I was still very warm and ran around the city in a t-shirt and jeans. We started our day at the famed Oslo Opera House, a stark white marble structure in the harbor that very convincingly represents an iceberg breaking through the water. With few people venturing out at 10:00 AM, we practically had the place to ourselves and had the opportunity to take some great photos of the structure itself, the harbor, and the city of Oslo from atop the Opera House. I am still not a fan of opera, but opera houses are extraordinary places and this one caters also to ballet performances and pop acts (Elvis Costello is coming in September).

The second stop of the day was to Vigelandsparken via Oslo tram. The tram was very easy to navigate and quickly transported us to our destination in quick succession — though for God’s sake crack a window! Europeans like their indoor temperatures a bit on the warm side which just makes me sweaty! On our tram was a group of retired Americans led by a woman who I could totally tell was a teacher prior to her retirement. “Carol, is this our next stop?” (said in what I believe was an east coast accent, probably Boston) was heralded through the car, “Carol, do we need our ticket to get off?” and “Carol is getting off, this must be where we go!” Carol was very patient and exacting with her instructions, she must have been an elementary school teacher in her former life, LoL. I also have a feeling we’ll probably see Carol and company on our cruise. Vigelandsparken is the world’s largest sculpture park made by a single artist, Gustav Vigeland. His work is everywhere, more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite, and wrought iron. The sculptures are art but also intended to be touched. Children and adults climbed atop many of them, interacting with the pieces and enjoying the summer sunshine.

Our final tourist stop of the day was the Eduard Munch Museum. Now, all I know about Munch is The Scream for which there is a version in this museum. Everyone was crowded in the small room, including a large group of Norwegian children on a field trip of some kind running about and getting much too close to the art work — thank goodness there will be no children on my cruise! I didn’t realize, however, how prolific an artist Munch was and though I do find The Scream to be intriguing, I discovered that I liked a lot of his other work. His works put into visual context a lot of emotional states and his pieces on jealousy, envy, and isolation were very moving. Now, that sounds like I took a lot of time really delving into the work, but Sophia (the art teacher at my school) would be very disappointed to learn that I just read the captions on the wall and was really just drawn to the pretty colors . . . very pretty colors.

We ended our evening with dinner at a nouveau Norwegian restaurant, I mean we should try Norwegian food, right? We enjoyed our meal at The Grand Cafe, situated near the Norwegian Parliament, where I had a tame meal of a delish fish soup with mussels (yay, bivalves!) and shrimp, grilled halibut, and a raspberry mousse. Joe on the other hand, per his usual, was a bit more daring and had the chef’s menu which was raw crab with horseradish, whitefish with potatoes, cabbage, and caviar, and a pina colada pavlova. After 19,000 steps today, it’s time to rest my feet. Tomorrow still has lots of walking involved and we plan to hit up some of the sites that are closed on Mondays so still lots to see! God natt from Oslo!

4th of July in the UK – now isn’t that ironic…

Oslo, here we come, slowly but surely.

Christine and I are currently taking a brief respite in London’s Heathrow Terminal 3 before taking our onward flight to Oslo, Just two more hours, so I thought, heck, what a great opportunity to start a blog post.

I will try to keep it brief, I know I can be very long winded. But a few lessons learned from our travels so far:

The check-in line at Hertz on a holiday weekend should be considered penance for a lifetime of sins. Christine earned her penance standing in line to pick up a rental car and then dealing with a nosy Hertz employee interrogating her with a variety of totally outrageous questions…

- "Should I add your husband to your rental?”

- “Shouldn’t your husband be driving?”

- “Don’t you have a husband?”

- “Don’t you want a husband?”

On the flip side, the shuttle driver for Hertz was amazing! She took no prisoners, cutting across lanes at LAX, blasting her horn at slow cars, and putting the pedal to the medal. If I was in her path, I would be totally appalled, but since she was on our side, I was totally enthralled.

Europeans tourists believe that the ultimate vehicle for a picture perfect SoCal vacation is a convertible. Driving down an open PCH taking in the sea air is one thing, the reality is being stuck in crawling traffic on the 405 in 90+ summer heat.

Last but not least, I do want to get to the title of my post. Our flight from LA to UK was absolutely packed, with the majority of our fellow Americans traveling directly to the UK to spend their 4th of July holiday. 

Just how does an American celebrate Independence Day in the UK? Going to Buckingham Palace to flip King Charles II the bird? I just find that just a tad bit ironic…

Next post hope to be writing from Norway, until then!

Joe

On the Road and No Time To Write

We've been very, very bad about updating the blog this time around...there's just so much to see and do in Ireland that we've been too tired to post anything. It's day 7 of our 9 day trip and we've had a lovely time. The weather has been in the upper 80's our entire stay!!! Now this would be fine except that I didn't bring much warm weather clothing. The Irish have even said this is unusual for Ireland...we can thank global warming :/ Regardless, the cloudless, blue, sunshine skies have allowed us to really see the beauty of this country. The rolling green hills, the green valleys, the green woodlands...they weren't kidding when they nicknamed this place the Emerald Isle!  We've driven from Dublin to Donegal (in the north) to Galway (in the west) and currently, we are in Killarney (farther south). Driving has been easy, except for the times that our Garmin sent us on tiny country roads in an attempt "make better time"....personally, I think she's trying to kill us! Whatever the case, we were given the opportunity to see some authentic Irish villages and farms. Everyone has been quite friendly and despite having a reputation for bland food, I've had some amazing meals whilst here. Yes, I've had my fair share of fish and chips but I've also relished in having mussels alnd seafood chowder almost every night! Joe tried a Boxty (a traditional Irish potato pancake stuffed with chicken and veggies in a tarragon cream sauce) last night at Bricin in Killarney which he enjoyed but the Irish menu has developed quite extensively to include more international influences. I haven't yet had my Guinness but I promise to tip a pint before I leave

--Christine

Irish Eyes are Smiling

Obviously I'm not Irish, but my eyes are smiling as in less than 24 hours we will be jetting off to the Emerald Isle.  This year's summer vacation has us taking advantage of the unfortunate  economic crisis that Ireland is currently suffering (bad for Ireland, YAY for us).  I'm sure that the downturn in their economy will not taint the lovely country that is Ireland, its lovely people, or our experience. We will be flying Aer Lingus to Dublin and driving through the Northern portion of the country. I can't wait to see the rolling hills of green, run my fingers through yarn made of some real Irish wool, drink Guinness and Jameson at their birthplace, walk the streets of James Joyce and the grounds of Trinity College, rest my head in some old castles and abbeys, and maybe, just maybe, I'll be lucky enough to see me a leprechaun, lol...as per our usual, please check in here to see what we are up to and feel free to leave a comment...Éirinn go Brách!!!!

--Christine

So Very, Very, Very Cold

Understandably, it is Winter in the Southern Hemisphere and it's bound to be chilly but it's actually been rather pleasant at 8,000 feet. Yesterday, we took the first of two excursions that would take us above 14,000 feet. Salar Tara was a full day excursion that took us to the remote salt flats of Tara, close to the Bolivian and Argentine borders. It was an hour drive on a wonderfully paved highway then a very bumpy off-road adventure (in a Chevy 9 passenger van, no less) for another half hour. The landscape was incredible with huge orange monoliths of compressed clay, stone, and volcanic ash towering in wide open plains. Los Monkas (monks), as they are referred for they resemble large monks in habits, are like guardians at the gate to the structures referred to as las Catederals (cathedrals), radiant orange sheered-off rocky shelves which open to the Tara Salt Flats. Joe and I ventured to walk the kilometer road to the stone hut that would serve as our lunch area that day. The driver dropped us and our guide Charly (the accompanying passengers on the excursion who hailed from Santiago and Southern Chile chose to stay in the vehicle for a warm cozy ride) off to see and experience the landscape first hand. DAMN it was cold...not only was the temperature low because of the high elevation but the wind also howled through us, I believe it was a brisk 10 degrees centigrade (with wind chill). Now had I been at a lower elevation, I would have walked quickly to our destination. But because the air was so thin and there was a lack of oxygen, a walk which would have taken me 10 minutes, took twice that long. Oh, but we got to marvel at the beauty of the landscape which was spectacular. We learned about the flora and the fauna and even got some great pictures of the flamingos, yes Andean flamingos, feasting on the shrimpy brine of the almost frozen over salt flats. Today's adventure took us, again, above 14,000 feet. We rose at 4:45 AM to make the dark trek to los geysers. Joe had read on many a blog and travel forum that the temperature at the geysers went below 0 C. So We doned many layers of clothes, put on hats, scarves, two pairs of socks, in preparation for the low temperature. It was a dark and cold drive, but those blogs were not kidding when they mentioned the low temperatures. Even the German family, who are accustomed to the cold, complained how cold it was!!! It was -10 C!!! Thankfully, I had bundled my core body nicely and my ears were warm because of the new hat I had knit but I literally froze my ASS OFF! My ass has never been so cold! I've lived in Nebraska, it gets cold there in the winter, but I cannot recall freezing my ass off! Now, you may ask, what is the point of being at the geysers so early in the morning, even before the sun rises? It is to see the steam from the geysers juxtaposed against the beauty of the rising sun. Yes, it was beautiful and once again we took some great pictures...it was worth it, even at the cost of freezing my ass off. By 9 AM, I was peeling off my fleece and scarf for the sun was warm and cheery. We even had the chance to see wild fox and vicuña up close, so the morning was not misspent, though I did go back to bed when we returned to the hotel...4:45 AM is way too early to be up while on vacation. --Christine

Oh no! There's sand in my shoe!

So Christine is now officially recovered from her bout with acute altitude sickness. Well, recoved may still be a strong word, I think she's more like 80% of the way toward acclimatization. However it was still good enough to complete two very nice excursions into the Atacama today. The first, out to see the famed Valle de la Luna, and the other to take a hike along the cornisas of Valle de la Muerte.

And the was sand. Lots and lots of sand. And that is to be well expected, because Christine and I did travel to the desert. However just the sheer volume of the stuff was amazing. And the formations were simply incredible as well. I could describe oodles abut the spectacular and strange formations of the Atacama desert, but I think I will let the picture do the demonstrations.

However we had two very good, and very different, guides providing equally entertaining experiences.  First up I'm the morning was Alex, our guide from the previous evening. Nice guy, used to work for Princess Cruises and provided me the quote of the day: "I really like Americans as long as they are not on a cruise ship..."  Alex had us hiking all over the place and even took us past the red "peligro" tape to give us a better view of the salt canyons.

Salvador, our guide in the afternoon, was a more quintesentially Chilean outdoorsman.  Sal was very polite and somewhat reserved for most of our 3+ mile hike.  But upon walking down a sand dune and passing a dog who followed some sandboarders (think snowboarding, but on sand dunes - and imagine throngs of young Brits with names like Seamus on their gap year doing the activity...) I decided to tell the dog in Spanish (after all it was Chilean and probably didn't understand English - Juneau doesn't understand a lick of Tagalog) "Lo siento, perrito. No hay nada para tí", Sal immediately burst out laughing and engaged me in Spanish conversation. It's amazing how a few simple words can loosen people up.

Now Christine and I are waiting to head to dinner. Hopefully there are no misbehaved monster children from Brazil running around interrupting an otherwise sedate meal. If Christine has not yet mentioned, this place is crawling with throngs of misbehaved South American devil children intent on wreaking the maximum amount of havoc possible. Of course I armed myself with a Portuguese translation, using Google translate no less, of "Your children are very misbehaved and should be put in a zoo." Christine is hesitant to use it, but I am locked and loaded...

Atentamente,

El Señor Joe