Iceland etc 2015 – Page 2 – Honzee / Oz Tourist

October 14, 2015

Brissago, Switzerland – Day 17

We may or may not have left a lot of time to get to the airport given it was an international flight, but we made it just in time and again seated in premium economy, we were off to Milan! Bit sad to say goodbye to Norway as it had provided heaps of great times and memories, but looking forward to some warmer weather and seeing our friends. The male flight attendant was an old guy and hilarious – made the 2.5hr flight whizz by.

In Milan, we picked up our hire car – a convertible (Peugot 308) given it was going to be nice weather and off we went for about 1.5hrs to Brissago – just over the Swiss border. Now, I’ve driven in Romania where it’s crazy, so I wasn’t too concerned about the Italians and their driving, but still – I was surprised by how bloody fast they go!

On the motorway, the speed limit was 110km/h. After being flown by time and time again, I decided to up my speed to 120 – still they went by super fast. Up to 130 – same thing. I sat on 140km/h for a bit and still had the occasional driver go past (a couple of cars still flew by – have to be doing 180 or more) but ended up dropping back to 130km/h as that seemed the best mix of not going too fast but not creating potential issues by being too slow and in the way.

Once off the motorway, we went down the mountains to follow a rather tight road around Lake Maggiorre which is the lake we’re staying next to. The lake is huuuuuge and various small towns are well set up for holiday makers and so-on. On the other side of the road are enormous mountains where somehow, locals have built houses into. This makes for extreeeemely narrow roads and when you combine tight turns, buses and oncoming traffic, it gets quite hairy!

It was reasonably straight forward though – we found where Biddy & John were staying and were warmly welcomed with a delicious bottle of champagne and a great catch-up over some cheese and deli meats we brought with us. Was great to see them and the house we’re staying in is amazing! On the highside of the road on the top floor of an apartment building, we have an incredible view of the lake right to the other side, the mountains and everything in between. Very lucky!

So last night we ventured down to lake’s edge and found a cool restaurant for dinner. The owner was a top bloke and made us feel very welcome. We ate delicious pasta, one of which was wild boar that he had hunted himself from the forests, then a couple of shared delicious desserts whilst enjoying a couple of bottles of local red wine. Many laughs, many stories told – just a great night and very, very happy to be here!

Another view of Lake Maggiore from our apartment

Very Swiss/Italian – the lift tskes the owners to their house on the water’s edge

October 14, 2015

Alta/Oslo, Norway – Day 16

Our day started with a 7:20am flight to Oslo which was pretty easy and uneventful. This was our 2nd night in Oslo so we knew how to get in to the city and what to expect.

Hate to say it, but Oslo is, well a bit bland. At least it is initially… you really have to search out the good stuff. We couldn’t check into our hotel so we left our suitcases and went for a walk around. Had a coffee, people-watched and grabbed a light lunch at another spot. We were tired from our red eye flight, so this may be unfair, but the city lacks oomph. There’s no vibrant feel to it, the architecture is uninspiring and with almost no cars allowed in the CBD, there’s heaps of roads which kind of do nothing except break up the shops and so-on too much and it’s almost too open.

We went back to our hotel after lunch to see if we could get an early check-in, but no good, so Glen went off to a bar to watch the Formula 1 as Soph stayed at the hotel and had a wine and read a book.

At night, we found a few good spots to try via Yelp and off we went into different parts of the city. The bar we hunted down was super cool – really well set up in an old factory of some sort and had a great selection of drinks. After a couple there, it was time for dinner so we found the pizza bar we’d read about and it was as good as the reviews said. Not overly Norwegian, but it was time for a change of cuisine.

A reasonably early night and the end to a bit of a rest day where not much happened, but still nice to see and do new stuff. Tomorrow – we’re off to Milan, then Brissago in Switzerland and catch up with friends Biddy & John!

October 12, 2015

Alta, Norway – day 15

The lodge had 2 new guests, Jenny and Chris, a couple from Aberdeen who we had a good chat with over breakfast before deciding what we’d do that day.

Michael, our host, told us about a huge canyon, the largest in Europe in fact, that was about an hour’s drive away and then a hike in to see it. So we gave that a go…

The drive was again spectacular, passing over creeks and rivers, huge mountains we snaked our way up lined by pine trees either side. The last 4kms or so was on dirt roads, going up and up and up.

The trail we were to be hiking wasn’t what you’d call well marked… in fact the only hint we were at the right part was another solitary car parked there. The footprints in the snow gave us an idea we were hopefully on the right track so we begun.

Over the next 4hrs or so, we hiked up and down the hills – over rocks, through streams, half of the ground was now snow and the streams were probably 2/3rds iced over. It was absolutely picturesque hiking through the Norwegian wilderness albeit we kind of wished we’d had better footwear. Nikes just don’t cut it, so we had a few slip-and-slides in the snow but for the most part – we did pretty well.
Also wouldn’t have minded if it had been a few degrees warmer. The car said 2 degrees and we hiked a fair bit higher, and combining windchill, both of us had scarves strapped around our faces to keep the wind/cold out.

The two highlights of the hike were a reasonably large stream which had mostly frozen over, which we were supposed to cross, but there was no way of doing that except walking through it. Our footwear didn’t allow for that, so we had to take the even longer way around. But the stream turned into a waterfall which was cascading off a large cliff face with snow & ice all around and then falling into more snow and ice. It looked fantastic how the ice at the bottom slowly was making it’s way up the mountain and soon it’d be all frozen.

The other highlight was of course the canyon itself. It’s enormous! The sun was low in the sky so it cast enormous shadows from one side of the canyon to the other, so the photos don’t do it justice and it’s hard to get a sense of size… but it was pretty incredible.

The hike in all was about 4hrs and 14km all up. A solid day’s walking!

We went back to our cabin, had a couple of drinks before dinner and a bit of a relax. Dinner was a surprise – we had talked about what the locals ate and Michael had prepared us the local delicacy, reindeer stew! And… it was delicious! Quite similar to venison in taste and texture… Felt bad for poor Rudolph, but oh well!
A quick check on the Lights to see if they were out and they were! We quickly go and get rugged up, grab the camera gear and out onto the observation deck again. For the 3rd night in a row, it was an amazing show we saw. Our last night in Alta and the Lights were possibly the brightest we’d seen and lasted for almost 2hrs. It was a fantastic way to finish our time in Alta – highly recommend coming here if you’re searching for the Northern Lights… great town and great opportunities to see them.

We said our goodbyes as we had a very early start as we are off to Oslo for a night…

PS On advice from Michael, I changed my camera to shoot in RAW mode which means the images are better captured, but I can’t get them onto my iPad so for the next few days, there’s not many photos to be shown but will try and fix that later.

The canyon – bit hard to see with the shadows

October 9, 2015October 10, 2015

Alta, Norway – Day 14

Our first full day here at the lodge started off with a delightful breakfast, a farewell to our new Hong Kong friends and a day ahead of not being sure what to do.

Michael, our host, organised for his neighbour to take us on a horse ride through the valley which was for mid-afternoon. In the morning, we had a nap (we were up late with the lights the previous night) and then went into Alta to get some cash and a coffee.

We arrived at the horse stables at 2pm and were greeted by a super nice family who have lived here for all their lives. The owner, Vigor, introduced us to his family and his horses – a mix of Fjord Horses (special breed of horses) and more typical horses we’d see at home. We got a full tour of the farm, where they do grains, sheep and a whole bunch of other stuff – was really, really cool to see true locals doing what they do.

So – horse riding. Imagine the movie City Slickers and that was pretty much us. Had difficulty just getting onto the bloody horses! The people were super nice though and didn’t make us feel silly – we had that covered!

Off we went for about 90 minutes through the valley, crossed a couple of streams and had a great history lesson from Vigor about how things have changed and how some things have stayed the same. He was an American car fanatic (he’s also a mechanic) and he was very interested when he learnt we were from the home town of Holden which he knew all about. We also spoke about the Lights experience from the night before and even Vigor said it was something highly unusual – he said in his 65 years of watching them, he’d only seen them that spectacular once before… so you know it was a good one when you hear something like that!

The horses were very docile, friendly beasts to us. Soph’s was a bit wilful and stopped to eat whatever grass she could get near, but there were zero issues and it was amazing to be out in the wilderness on the back of a horse. On the way back, we got into a canter in the fields which was absolutely hilarious as two city idiots tried to use Norwegian words to bring the horses back under control.

Just an amazing time and a huge highlight of the trip.

Back to the lodge for dinner and hopefully another Northern Lights show. I was out in the cold checking every 15 minutes and not seeing anything. After a great 3hr chat with Michael, we decided we’d just go and take photos of the stars. And what do you know… at 11:45pm out of nowhere we had another, possibly even more full-on spectacle. The great part is – it was just Soph & I and the lights. We tried for photos, but really it’s the memories that matter.

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015

Alta, Norway – day 13

Today started off with the best, and I don’t say this lightly, buffet breakfast we’ve ever had. And for Glen in particular, that’s a big call as i do consider myself a bit of a consissuer of hotel’s buffets. You name it, they had it. Breakfast small meats were there of course, but have you seen not one, but two types of salmon available? Custom smoothies? Soft boiled eggs (as well as scrambled and fried)? You name it, they had it – it was just incredible. Well done The Grand Hotel, Oslo – you made up for your poor attempt at providing wifi.

I’ll skip the boring bit where with the air travel as that was smooth as silk – but this part of the trip is where it gets super interesting, at least to us. This is where we’re hoping above all that mother nature is kind to us and puts on a light show in the form of the Northern Lights. We’ve done everything we can to see them, we’ve come at the right time of year, and to the place where the most lights are seen anywhere in the world – Alta, Norway. A very northern town 1.5hr flight from Oslo.

The place we’re staying is a forest lodge 25 minutes out of Alta. To get to it, you go through 2 tunnels, pass an enormous fjord, go off road for 4km and go over 3 wooden bridges. It truly is in the middle of nowhere. It’s also cute as a button.

Michael, the host, is an ex-Irishman who has spent many years in Sweden and now Norway. He makes dinner and breakfast for the guests – of which at this time of year, there aren’t many. Last night it was just us ana Hong Kong couple. Michael is very obliging so he’s leant me his tripod, head lamp and a map.

After a delicious homecooked dinner, I was super anxious to get outside and check if the lights were out. Ahead of schedule, they were out around 20:40 and we were on the viewing platform in a flash. And what a site it was – like nothing we’d ever seen before or likely to again.

My best explanation is as follows: it starts off with a light glow in the night sky, white which turns a hint of green as time goes on. Then in another part of the sky, a brighter light begins which then starts to move across the sky. Last night, which is very unusual apparently, it swept from one side of the sky to the other in one continuous band of light right over our heads. Similar to a laser light show mixed with a smoke machine, the lights literally dance up and down, fade from one colour into the next and almost wave to you with a “hey down there!”. Also what was unusual was the pinks and reds mixed into the colour wheel – just incredible!

It’s impossible to photograph as the lights move constantly and therefore blur with the 25 second exposure, but with the naked eye, the colours are a lot more separate and well defined.

Anyway, on with the photos that do it no justice whatsoever, but it’s a nice momento if nothing else.

Lots of reindeer in these parts, so of course a sled makes sense

These are apparently put to good use in the coming months

Taken on the way to the viewing platform with the lodge ‘s lights illuminating the trees.

Looking back over the lodge and across the river…

Whites, pinks and greens band across the night sky

It went on for the best part of an hour…

When one fades, another begins in another part of the sky

This time two bands start simultaneously

We’re obviously hoping for more the next two nights, and now with a night of experimentation done with the camera, hopefully we can get some more great shots!

But even if we don’t – it’s seriously a bucket list item checked off. Both of us feel super lucky and fortunate to not only be here for a night when it’s so amazing, but that we can in fact do this kind of thing in general.