Norway has always been the place that we wanted to visit and we finally went there this year. Traveling to Norway required a lot of planning ahead since there were so many places that we wanted to visit. We had to book car rentals, hotels, and flights to multiple places in Norway. Also since there wasn't a direct flight from Portland to Oslo, we had to fly to London first. Since we had to fly to London, we decided to stay there for few days and visit different places that we had not been to before.
There was only 1 direct flight to London everyday offered by Delta Airline. This direct flight was seasonal as well and was only offered during the summer. The flight was at 6PM in the evening and flew to London directly. From there, we would fly to Oslo by taking Scandinavian Airline and then take Norwegian Airline to other places in Norway.
On the day of flight to London, we got in some troubles before we even got to the airport. The ramp to I84 was closed off due to someone trying to commit suicide. The traffic was horrible due to the highway close off. We had to make detours and take local routes to the airport. At the end, it took us 2.5 hours to get to the airport. Luckily, we left 5 hours early this time as we anticipated some sort of traffic jam, but not like this. We were able to catch the flight on time since we have TSA pre-check to get through security check quickly. Once we get on the flight, Delta offered the meal within 2 hours after take off and this meal included a small tub of Ben & Jerry ice cream.
The flight arrived at London on the next day and it actually arrived an hour early. This was good news for us since it was always good to have more time to make the transfer to another flight. We had to go to terminal 4 of LHR airport. This required us to take bus there, but eventually we got there. We were surprised that we did not have to head out and re-do the security check. There were actually airline counters where we could acquire airline tickets without going through security check again. One bizarre thing was that the LHR did not display departure gate number until an hour before boarding. So we had to sit at a random place and wait till the departure gate was shown. Once we got to departure gate, the SAS crew members were very nice to tag our bags so that they could place the baggage in the cargo space of the plane. Then the baggage would be taken out and placed on the side of the plane when we get off.
At 6:30PM, we finally arrived at Oslo. We first purchased the train ticket to get to Oslo Central Station from the airport. The train was new and clean, but a bit small compared to the Japanese trains. The leg room was quite tight. At Oslo, we were staying 3 nights here at Scandic Byporten Hotel. The hotel was right outside of Oslo Central Station. As we checked in to the hotel and went to our room, it was very small but it was expected. However, one thing was that it was so hot in the room due to the room facing South. Then we found out that there was no air conditioning in Norway. So we had to open the window to let fresh air to come in to cool off the temperature.
On the third day, we woke up early and walked around the central station area. We went to the Oslo Opera House. It was not as famous as Sydney Opera House, but it had an unique architecture as well. Then we went to visitor centre to acquire Oslo Pass. This Oslo Pass allowed us to ride any public transit for free! We could also go to museums for free as well! Some restaurants even offered discount to Oslo Pass holders.
Once we got our Oslo Pass, we went to Oslo Bygdoy to visit the Scandinavian museums, Viking museums, and many other museums there. Then we had lunch at Fiskeriet to try out some of Norway's fresh seafood. After lunch, we visited Ekeberg Park at Southeast of Oslo. This was a park recommended by the server at Fiskeriet. From the top of the park, we had an amazing view of the city of Oslo!
On the fourth day, we decided to head to a small town of Baerums Verk on the out skirt of Oslo. We had to take underground subways first and then take bus to there. The journey was long and took about a bit over an hour. When we got there, it was so quiet. Although the village was quite pretty and quiet, there was no one other than ourselves. So we did not find much to do and headed by to Oslo. We went to check out all the cool sculptures at Vigeland Park. Afterwards, we went to one of the local burger joint called Tommis Burger Joints to try out some local burger. We then went to visit Much museum to see the famous painting "Scream", and also visit an ancient Akershus Fortress since this was covered by Oslo Pass as well.
We arrived at Alesund early at 9AM. We got a RAV4 Hybrid from AVIS and was ready to have more fun here. We were very excited to drive in Norway. Our first stop was Trollstigen. It was about 2.5 hours away and after bridges and tunnels, we got there around noon. There was so many people there already and we could not find a parking space. We had to park on the side. However, this was an amazing place to visit. We then checked in to Scandic Alesund Hotel at around 4PM. One thing that bothered us was that the hotel did not really have a dedicated parking space. We had to find street parking that was free from 4PM to 8AM. In the evening, we had dinner at a rather nice sushi place called Zuuma.
On day 7, we went to visit the world famous Atlantic Ocean Road. This highway was known to be the most dangerous road in the world due to how close it was due the ocean. There were pictures of waves smashing on the bridge. It was quite an experience to visit this place especially we had to take a ferry to cross fjord. This was our last day at Alesund, and we decided to have some lamb shank at Anno.
On day 8, we left Alesund by flight to head to Bergen. We also rented a car from AVIS and this time we got Skoda Cactus. We parked our car at Bergen Central Station and checked in to Scandic Ornen Hotel. We were lucky that we could check in early. We went to visit the wharf and the heritage site here. It was quite an unique experience. We then had food at Bergen Fish Market for lunch and dinner. It was quite good, but a bit pricy.
On day 9, we went to Flam. It was another place that we need to go early to avoid tour bus, especially at the view point. Luckily we got there quite early and the tour bus was only coming up to the mountain as we were heading back down. After visiting Flam, we went to visit Gudvangen Viking Valley. It was only 30 minutes away. Gudvangen Viking Valley was so cool. There were real Vikings living here! We were able to experience Viking's living style and check out all the handcrafted items. It was a very fun day.
On day 10, we were planning to go to Trolltunga, but it was raining. We had no choice but stay at Bergen to wait for the weather to get better. It was also the first day of Tall Ship Festival at Bergen on this day. Thus we were able to visit a lot of cool sail boats. Some were very large like a real pirate ship. For dinner, we had Norwegian style pizza at Peppes Pizza.
On day 11, which was our last day in Bergen, we had to take this last chance to go to Trolltunga. Since it might rain in the afternoon, we went very early and started hiking before the sunrise. The hike was very long, but it was such as good experience and it was a must do for us.
On day 12, we took the flight and flew to London. This marked the end of our vacation at Norway and started the next vacation in England. We had some troubles trying to understand how public transit work here, and we got Oyster card at the end. Oyster card was a prepaid card that was used for entering and exiting the train stations in London. After checking in to hotel at Park Plaza Westminster Hotel, we walked around Westminster to see Big Ben and London Eye, and then went to check out the famous Covent Garden and had some food there.
On day 13, we took the train the Salisbury and then headed to Stonehenge. It was good to understand the idea and culture behind these stones. Then we continued to take train to the town of Bath. This town had a lot of cool thing to check out such as Roman bath and Cathedrals. We also got the famous fluffy bun from Sally Lunn. After we got back to London, we had dinner at Shoryu Ramen.
On day 14, we had reservation to enjoy afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. It was not a very good experience and we were disappointed. After the afternoon tea, we went to Her Majesty's Theatre and watched Phantom Of Opera there. The theatre was small and there was no air conditioning. It was extremely hot in there. We were sweating like crazy.
On day 15, we took the train to Windsor Castle and this was when we found out that we should visit Warner Brother Harry Potter Studio. While we were on the train, we kept on refreshing the ticket purchasing page and finally acquired 2 tickets for tomorrow! We were so very happy and enjoyed our time at Windsor Castle. Afterwards, we visited the famous Tower Bridge and then went to St. Paul Cathedral, it was huge! Then we went to the famous British Museum to check out all the cool stuff that it had there. We actually thought that things at British Museum were not really from Great Britain, but from many other countries in the world. In the evening, we had this crazy messy ice cream at Milk Train.
On day 16, which was our last day in London, we went to Warner Brother Harry Potter Studio. We took the train to Watford Junction, and from there we took the shuttle bus to the studio. This was the best experience we had in London. It was definitely worth the effort to acquire the tickets! In the afternoon, we went to Borough Market and had fish and chips at Fish! Kitchen and ice cream at Gelateria 3BIS.
This was a great 2 week vacation. We really loved Norway. The food was so fresh and people were very nice there. The visit to England would have been a better experience if the weather wasn't so hot. The tube subway was like a steamer. We didn't like it much. The stores at England could make use of more air conditioning as well. Next time, we will probably want to visit Northern Norway and Scotland if possible.
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