It is a little bit of a tourist trap and most visited city in Norway, but there are ways to have more fun than just visiting via a cruise ship…
Ourselves, we first took a train from Voss to Mrydal. It is so easy to take trains in Norway and nobody even checks your tickets…unless they determine there are more people on the train that actually bought tickets.
From Mrydak, we took the famous and popular historic Flam train. It is full of people from around the world to say the least…
It is only 20 KM long and about an hour journey.
But it has some amazing views and scenic valleys.
So many waterfalls, you give up counting…just like the nmber of whales you see in the Arctic Circle.
It even stops by a giant waterfall that is right next to the tracks and you can get off the train.
When you walk out of the train and towards the waterfall, you get soaking wet in about 10 seconds!
and then when you disorientated with all the water, the siren appears to indicate the Seattle Seahawks won a touchdown in the pre-season game against the Las Vegas Raiders!
When you get to Flam, you can hang out with all the cruise ship people, or you can walk and enjoy the quiet village away from all the tourist shops.
We took a walk along thre fjord and found a nice local marina hotel and restaurant and sat out the afternoon rain while everyone ran back to the ship 😉
We had a very special opportunity to visit and enjoy a meal on a very unusual spacecraft that did not likely originate from Norway or this planet.
It was not very easy to find or get to. Just like the Squid Game, you need to show up at a certain place at a certain time almost in the middle of nowhere in the Fjords of Norway.
You have to drive through 10+ kilometer tunnels through many mountain passes.
And navigate torrents of waterfalls that would sweep a car away if they just swelled over the road by just a few inches of divergence.
But if you follow all instructions, someone in uniform will take you to the spaceship and escort you inside without explanation.
You climb down some very dark and steep stairs as the spaceship is much larger than it appears and only the very top of the craft was peaking out of the ocean.
Then you must carefully navigate the confusing lights and sounds until you are introduced to some explanation from the darkness
We are now being introduced to a sustainable future from the sea that has been brought to us from very far away…
So what do they serve guests who join them? It is a long story, so I hope you are patient (and hungry)!
Cone Of Plenty Aromatic herbs, fermented gooseberry and jasmin blossom.
Tidemark Scallop, oyster emulsion, salads from Astrid & lemon butter sauce
ToppTur Crispy onion, langoustine tartare and smoked fresh cheese
Snowcrab Circut Toasted blinis, poached snow crab, crispy seaweed, black currant leaf, raindeer mosse & preserved pine cones
We caught an early morning flight and checked into a hotel in the harbor area which was very convenient.
We stayed at the Thief Hotel and had a great early lunch at the Salmon House restaurant which surprisingly had better salmon than you get in Seattle!
It is only a 10 minute walk to the main square where the is the old fort and the Nobel Peace Center – yes, I am referring to the Nobel Peace Prize.
To explain, you first need to check out the famous city hall building that is uniquely architected and near the harbor square.
Inside you will find numerous historical story telling murals discussing things like the Nazi occupation during WWII.
But what is cool is the actual podium and spot where they hand out the annual Nobel Peace Price is open to everyone and in the same room as all the historical paintings.
Of course everyone likes walking up main street where there is all the shopping, pubs and great line of sight to the Royal Palace at the end.
My understanding is this statue was of the original French born king that ruled for a while and had this palace built…
But what is more interesting is watching all the tourists that do not pay attention and mess with all the rules the solitary Royal Guard tries to enforce with his old M4 rifle that does not have any ammunition in the clip.
Ok – let’s go pack to probably one of the most popular hang out spots with the locals and tourists is the Opera House which is designed to look like an iceberg floating in the ocean.
P.S. I have visited a few other times, so if you would like to see or learn more, check out some of the other postings:
It was kind of cool to have to hotel on Hans Christan Anderson avenue, and we visted on the 150th anniversay of his passing. What history to achieve on tihs trip!
On tihs street, this statue is right at the corner of the avenue, city hall and the shopping district (see below)
It is quite a historic building and very popular and free to visit
Notice the top of the building are polar bears to represent Greenland. Yes, I have been to Greenland in this posting 🙂
even more scary were these guys, maybe they are trying to warn guys about getting married???
City Hall is VERY popular in Copenhagen as it is like Las Vegas. Anyone can come in, sign a paper and get married in the town hall. We walked in just as one was starting…
You can even rent flowers for a few minutes for a wedding!
The one thing I could not figure out is hot dogs are very popular to eat in Copenhagen and the stands are everywhere.
Shopping District
Of course there is the shopping district that most people start with the Hard Rock Cafe
From there get ready for the crowds! It is actually not too bad as it is both tourists and locals shopping.
For some reason, Gasoline Grill is the most popular hamburger place and they sell out of beef patties every day…I am not sure I see what is special compared to Burger King down the street…
Sprinkled thoughout the area are numerous historical landmarks and I believe this one used to be public phone booth!
and of course, the most popular store with the longest line is the Lego store! Don’t ask me why…
The Popular Canals
One of the recommended things to do is to explore the canals and sites best viewed from the water starting with the opera house which has a few levels actually below the water!
Next is some of the intersting and intruguing architecture styles you see in Northern Copenhagen.
as well as the naval base museum which has some great cold war artifacts.
and if you like military history, you should check out the very old WWII fort that is an island in the harbor.
You can only reach it by boat and it has some of intersting views of both the famous windmill farm as well as the very long bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden.
The most interesting are inside the fort and see many of the original equipment and how 750 soldiers survived and were based on this tiny island.
It feels like a tiny prison with very thick walls and concrete hardenned faciliites everywhere.
The Famous Mermaid
Now, if you go on a boat in Copenhagen, you must see only friendly local – The Little Mermaid
Now, you should also visit her controversial younger sister which was supposedly genetically modified, and accoridngly less popular.
and of course, nearby, is the scary Madonna. This reminds me of a horror movie for some reason.
Tivoli
Last, but not least is Tivoli which is apparantly the oldest amusement park in the world
It actually has a ton of different cuisine restaurants which makes it a fun place to have lunch or dinner.
It has a lot of shows, concerts, etc. and I think we found it looks best at night when all the lights come on.
We decided to do a little different vacation exploration this year, so we decided to visit Scandavia.
We had to make a connection through Minneapolis and enjoyed the spacious and friendly Delta lounge on the way.
The cool thing is the pilot gave me the latest pilot cards for the A330 as the very rare Delta 100th anniversary cards when I boarded 🙂
The bad thing is the passport control and baggage claim in Copenhagen were total chaos. If you had a connection in Copenhagen less than 1.5 hours, forget it. There was no way to you could make a connection,
Now, despite the unusually rainy season, it is a very nice city explore and walk around. Parks, paths, and castles everywhere.
The crown jewels were stored here, but they would not let me in for some reason.
That is the new (controversial design) Opera house in the distance. This is also the historical WWII landing where the German Nazis arrived and occupied the city.
Not far away is a memorial in the city which was well known for all the people who helped the Jews escape the Nazis through Denmark which was one of the rare safety spots during the Holocaust.
Of course, we had to check out the fmaous colored houses along the canals
This is the equivalent of Venice tourism in Denmaej I would say…
There are lots of churches and royal palaces for sure.
Sometimes, it makes you feel like you are touring Rome based on the designs and architetcure.
OK – that is enough for Day 1 – stay tuned for more adventures!
If you want to find all the trolls in Seattle area, you must go hunting and expend some additional effort in some cases. Sometimes they are very far away from civilized areas and you need to take ferries to reach the islands they are hiding on to avoid the zombies populating the major cities.
The ferries take a lot of careful planning and timing. You will feel the pain when you are tardy and you miss the current ferry by less than 5 cars…
Vashon Island has great waterfront parks to explore and even check out the historic lighthouse.
You can even see Mt Rainier in the background of you look beyond the sailboats
Downtown Vashon is a fun set of shops and farmers market. Bookstore too!
And of course the popular Hardware Store restaurant which was great for brunch.
and I am not sure if the downtown ice cream shop was the most popular or all the traditional arcade games. Who can resist playing MS PacMan or Street Fighter 2?
Now, what were we REALLY looking for?
We found the Bird King troll Oscar meeting people in the Point Robinson Park and not being too shy.
Let’s share all the other trolls we found!
This one was hanging out in Lincoln Park in West Seattle
We found this guy in Ballard
and this one was the first one we found hiding in the trees in Issaquah!
I recently had a business trip and conference to attend…and it was not in the traditional big conference cites, but instead, it was in the Florida Keys. Let’s talk about the good, the bad and the ugly!
First and foremost, you need to fly into Miami and for those of us on the west coast, that is a full day trip. But as soon as you arrive and head to the hotels on Miami beach, you can see why it is a popular town.
There are tons of great rooms that practically right on the beach.
with a lot of great scenery for runs and walks along the canals or the beach boardwalks.
and who knows, you might even run into a dinosaur!
some of the rooms are huge, but I am not sure that is a great benefit when the bed and stairs are 30 feet above the main room…
I found that all the hotels and resorts in the keys all seem to have evening entertainment, that is for sure. Why is that?
Maybe in the Keys, you are long distance from almost everything unless it is another resort.
The greatest benefit – gorgeous sunsets
and bright moons over the sky for dinner
but when you share a resort with a lot of unknown people, you need to be diligent and have secuirty around every corner. Otherwise everyone will sneak into your crowded rooms or confidental meetings,
but that was not a big problem for us as most of the guests like hanging out with the dolphins more than trying to sneak into our meetings…
These isolated conferences are much better at being able to focus and have dedicated time than being in a big city with hotels and lots of distractions.
How does it compare to a massive conference like RSA in San Francisco (blog)?
or the Multiversity in California (blog)? I think I would still prefer the more isolated camps that you have more space and not crowded with all the vactioners in the resort.
Oh yes, on a different trip, I did explore the Florida Keys (blog), so there is a lot of fun if you can leave the resort and conference, but I was not able to this time,
I did go running (of course!) With some of the other running enthusiasts at the conference!
Believe it or not, there are not as many traditional breakfast locations or restaurants in the mornings in Waikiki. So let’s review a few !
The Sheraton Waikiki has a nice outside seating
And a bar for getting morning drinks and has the best Virgin/mockktail Pina colada.
The Monkeypod restaurant has tables right next to the ocean and a fantastic local custom breakfast menu…but their fake Pina colada is horrible.
The historic Westin Ala Moana has a great atmosphere in its exterior and garden and the buffet is decent, but is definitely overpriced.
The absolute best buffet is in the 100 Sails restaurant that is in the Prince Waikiki hotel. It overlooks the harbor and is very popular dinner buffet as well. The only downside is the waiter service is quite slow and limited.
Summary: eveywhere is a good breakfast spot, just enjoy vacation with the fireworks every Friday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village!
It has been many years since the park has been shut down and all the dinosaurs disappeared, but we decided to explore what the park looked like many years ago in its hidden location.
We found the original gate which was quite worn and wide open
and command center that is quite hot in the summer given no electricy or air conditioning any more.
and since there was no electricity, you did not have to worry about touching the high voltage cages which are still peppered throughout the valley,
Speaking of the valley, it is quite majestic and see why many creatures love to soar through here.
But you better be ready to run if any dinoaurs appear unexpectedly!
I am not sure where you can run and escape to though!
Some people dive into the bunkers in the area that some of the people in the Lost TV show found for safety!
but you never know when there may be something else hiding in a bunker!
In that case, maybe it would be a better choice to hiding camping out in some of the WWII bunkers nearby that are still open for people to use when the next attack occurs 🙂
David Cross Travel Blog 