Naples and the Amalfi Coast

The first trip EDP and I ever took together was to Italy - we covered Rome, Florence, Verona & Venice. It was incredible. Italy had always been on the top of my list for places to go and the trip only made me want to go back for more. Two years ago, when my sister & I went to the Open Book in Wigtown, we added on a weekend in Rome. My sister had never been and I wanted to go back. Her love of really good art and really good wine made it a no-brainer.

Around the same time, EDP relocated to the US for a new job for two years. He got a little apartment and has been coming home about once a month. It’s been a long two years and when he left, I told him that when he got back, I wanted to go back to Italy. Well, he’s about to come back - and he either didn’t remember me telling him that or he thought I was kidding. So it came as a surprise to him the other day when I asked when we were going back to Italy. We knew we couldn’t go this fall - because we’re going to Belgium, in part to meet some of my mother’s family. We knew we couldn’t go this winter - because the snowboarding isn’t great in Southern Italy in the winter months and EDP requires mountains for all winter travels. We knew we couldn’t go this summer - because I don’t do peak tourist season no matter where you’re taking me. So that left this spring - and this spring is already here. With other things already happening, there wasn’t much room to fit a trip in. But we figured we’d try.

Could we plan a trip in a week? I normally take weeks (okay, months…) to fully plan out our trips. And I have a standard that must be upheld (if anyone ever needs my itinerary template, just ask!) For me, the planning is a good chunk of the fun but if we wanted to make this work, we needed to figure everything out fast. So we did. Within 48 hours, we had flights and hotels booked along with a rough itinerary - which was tough because it would seem there are going to be a LOT of people in Naples and the Amalfi Coast in June. We’ve been ironing out the details of the itinerary over the last few days and it’s in pretty good shape. Which is good, because we leave in just a few weeks.

So what’s the plan? Well…

• We start with a few days in Naples, taking in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Museo di Capodimonte, a number of churches and some fine Italian beverages in various piazzas (recommended church to beverage ratio is 1:1)

• A day in Pompeii and Herculaneum, exploring the ruins, one of the things I was most sad about not being able to do on our first Italy trip

• A day in Sorrento, meandering around Centro Storica, Marina Grande and Il Vallone dei Mulino

• A private gastronomic tour where we’ll visit an olive oil factory, a winery, & a limoncello factory and learn to make mozzarella and Neopolitan pizza

• A day on Capri, visiting the grottos, Villa Jovis, Villa San Michele and renowned limoncello shop (and maybe Passeggiata del Pizzolunga and Giardini di Augusto, if there’s time)

• A day on the Sentiero Degli Dei, hiking from either Bomerano or Praiano all the way to Positano (sounds impressive but it’s only 6km)

• A day in Amalfi to see Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea and spend some time on the beach

• A day in Ravello, visiting Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone and maybe sneaking out to Paestum, if we can make it work

There are still a few details to iron out but it’s gonna come pretty quickly now. I’d better go make sure the sunscreen is in my suitcase.

Oslo (reprise)

Another day in Oslo!

Originally when planning the trip, we had another big hike that we wanted to do. But when it came time to figure out the detailed itinerary, I couldn’t figure out how to make everything work. So something had to go. And it was the hike. But that then left us with an extra day, which we ended up deciding to spend in Oslo.

It worked out well. There were a couple of things that hadn’t really fit in on our first few days in the city. Particularly, the Opera House. I had heard amazing things about it and we wanted to try to take a tour of it but they just weren’t offering them when we were there at the beginning of our trip. But there was one scheduled for our last day in Oslo. Also, we hadn’t really been able to fit the sculpture park in, so this extra day was perfect for that.

We started with the sculpture park, Vigeland Park. It’s the largest sculpture park created by one artist, with about 200 sculptures and took about 10 years to build. It was quite impressive, especially since there was both stone & metal statues. We had a nice sunny morning for our visit so walking through the park was quite enjoyable.

Then, we headed off to the Opera House. It was built about 10 years ago and it is an impressive building. First, you can walk on the roof. And I don’t mean there’s a balcony that you can go out on. Each side of the roof slopes right down to the ground, essentially creating a ramp to get up to a flatter area at the top of the building. It was so neat to walk up and look out over the water - though it was a bit windy. After we toured the outside, we went inside to wait for our tour. Our guide was a wealth of information about the building, telling us all sorts of interesting facts like how the inside is built in a way that dampens sound in the theatre, itself, and how the roof actually also doubles as an outdoor theatre (current record for the largest crowd - Justin Bieber.) We also got to see a little bit of a rehearsal for an upcoming production plus tour through the back-of-house. The building is absolutely incredible, I’m so glad we were able to fit it in.

We still had some time left in the afternoon and I was ready for a hot drink but we had trouble finding something. EDP was sure he had seen a nice place not too far from the Opera House but we couldn’t find it and ended up walking in a pretty big circle before we settled on something. I’d say it was a good way to see the neighbourhood but we had already seen it fairly thoroughly. It worked out in the end, though. The place we finally ended up at had lovely hot chocolate and I had the largest and tastiest Boston Cream donut I’d ever had. Then it was back to the hotel to get properly packed for the flights home before one last dinner in the city.

Just as with our flights in, EDP and I were flying back to different cities. My flight was the earlier flight, leaving Oslo at 7am for Copenhagen before going on to Toronto. EDP had more time with a 10am flight for Frankfurt but figured if I was getting up at 4 to leave for my flight, he might as well just go with me. We made it to the airport with no trouble although I did have trouble getting checked in. Neither of us were able to check in online but I also wasn’t able to check in at the kiosk at the airport. But, I did end up getting my boarding passes and security was relatively easy to get through. Then, it was just a matter of flying. My flights went well, aside from having the woman in the seat in front of me constantly ramming her seat into my knees (PSA: You don’t need to recline your seat on a plane. It seriously cuts down on the space the person behind you has. Don’t be a jerk - only recline when you’re sleeping and for the love of all that’s holy, if you are reclined, put your seat upright when people are eating. This ends my PSA.) EDP’s flight to SFO had a bit more exciting with someone being arrested when they landed.

So now we’re home - I have about 4 loads of laundry to do and 1300 photos to sort through (and major confession - I’m still not done with the photos from when my sister & I went to Scotland & Rome last spring nor have I even looked at the photos from when EDP & I went to Côte d'Azur last fall. Oops!) It was a wonderful trip; our time in Bergen & Oslo was delightful and the hiking was incredible, even if my knees didn’t really appreciate it.

Norway in a Nutshell

It didn’t pour all day!

It was only a little bit drizzly when we left the hotel for our first train. After having our bags picked up by the porter service, we had breakfast and then headed up to the train station to catch the train to Voss. This first leg was just over an hour and I hadn’t been able to figure out which was the best side of the train to sit on. I think we picked the wrong side - we saw a lot of mountains but the other side got the views of the fjords, which were lovely. And there was only a little bit of rain!

Soon we arrived in Voss, where we (and the hundreds of other people doing the tour) had a short walk over to the Voss bus station where there were literally six buses all lined up, waiting for us. Okay, so confession time - Norway in a Nutshell is a really popular tour that gets you from Bergen to Oslo or from Oslo to Bergen or round trip from either city. It’s a series of tickets for a couple of trains, a ferry & a bus. And all of these are public routes. So you can buy your Norway in a Nutshell ticket from the NIAN people or you can buy all the pieces yourself and save a couple hundred dollars. Seriously, by booking it ourselves, I think we saved over $200 - and we were able to upgrade the longest train leg to first class. The only component we couldn’t book ahead of time - so the one that made me the most nervous - was the bus to Gudvangen. But, we just migrated over to the buses with everyone else, bought tickets as we got on and had no problems.

The bus was about an hour and took us through a couple of little towns, including Voss, which is a centre of adventure sports and is the home of the world’s most important extreme sports festival. The bus driver gave us all sorts of fun facts as he was driving us, which was an unexpected delight. We also took Norway’s steepest road to get into Gudvangen, which was only a little bit terrifying. How those buses navigated the hairpin turns is beyond me. The bus ride was fairly short and it dropped us off at the ferry dock for our luxury ferry cruise into Flåm. By this time, it was pretty clear we had left the rain behind but it was a bit cloudy so we found seats inside. The fjord was really lovely so after a bit, I head outside to get some photos and it was so nice, I dragged EDP out with me. It was quite nice to be outside, enjoying the scenery, until it got a bit too windy and then it was back inside until we docked at Flåm.

Originally, we had thought we would break our travel up and stay in Flåm overnight but ended up deciding it was best to get into Oslo in one day and have one extra day there in case something happened to delay us - with early morning flights, it didn’t seem wise to risk some sort of delay. so we scrapped the idea of staying in Flåm. I was a bit disappointed, everything I read said it was a really lovely little town. But I think maybe what tourists consider a lovely little town differs from what EDP and I consider a lovely little town. Because it was nothing more than a tourist trap. It was very pretty but every shop was tourist souvenirs and there really was not much to see or do there at all. We ended up mostly people watching until it came time for our train to Myrdal on the historic Flåm railway. We had about two hours in Flåm and it wasn’t until just before we were scheduled to leave that it started to rain again - pretty much ideal timing for getting onto a train.

The leg from Flåm to Myrdal was rumoured to be one of the best parts of the trip. I had read ahead of time about which was the best side to be on so we made sure we got on the right side for the trip. The train was surprisingly empty, which may be where our DIY version of the tour came in handy. Half of the train was for people on tours and half was for people who weren’t. There were definitely more people on tours than not so our half of the train was much less populated than the other side. It worked out well. While the views on our side were lovely, there were some pretty pleasing views on the other side, as well, and we were able to see both sides quite well. At one point, the train stopped and we were able to get off at a really beautiful waterfall where there was also some sort of dance performance to watch. A bit strange but a lovely touch? Soon enough, we were at the Myrdal train station where we had about an hour before our final leg into Oslo. Unfortunately, the Myrdal train station isn’t really suitable for several hundred people to wait for an hour. I can’t imagine how crazy it would be in the summer.

The train for the final leg into Oslo was a bit late but we were on it soon enough. When getting the tickets for the final leg, I booked us into comfort class - there was more leg room and with the long ride, the complimentary tea & coffee seemed worth it for the surprisingly low additional cost. And yep, it was worth it. The comfort car was at the end of the train and had far fewer seats than standard class so was much quieter and more comfortable. And for the five long hours we were on that leg coupled with the long day of travel, we were happy we had made the choice. We were late getting into Oslo but our final hotel was very close to the station so it wasn’t long before we were there and checked in. And our bags were waiting for us, as expected!

All in all, it was a really great way to get from Bergen back to Oslo. I’m glad we went the DIY route - we still came out ahead even with the comfort class upgrade and the porter service. It would have been completely feasible to do the tour with big suitcases (lots of luggage space on the trains, there was a luggage room on the cruise, luggage storage in Flåm, etc.) but man, was it ever nice not having to deal with bags. And it was a long day but we were really happy we didn’t book an overnight stay in Flåm. There’s only so much shopping one can do at the Mall of Norway - although, their magnet selection was unparalleled.

Bergen

When we left Odda, we were expecting it to rain the entire time we were in Bergen. That wasn’t a surprise, Bergen gets a lot of rain every year. More rain than London. The England one, specifically. But we had rain jackets and umbrellas and extra shoes and were prepared.

On Friday, we woke up to no rain in the forecast. Which was fantastic because we had a walking tour scheduled for the morning. We headed down to the Tourist Information place, the starting spot for our tour, walking through the outdoor part of the fish market on our way. Soon enough, our guide, Maritn, had arrived and our tour got started. He took us into the indoor part of the fish market, first, showing us several of the different vendors and what they had in their cases, explaining about some of the products we could find there, including the king crabs that are taking over everything and the mink whale that’s a popular traditional meat in Norway. He also explained how some of the largest fishing companies in the world are based in Bergen and it’s becoming a larger industry than oil. From there, Martin took us around the city, showing us the main shopping square, the first theatre building, and the original city hall, just to name a couple of our stops, before leading us into the historic Bryggen area (where we’re staying.)

Brygeen is a UNESCO site consisting of a series of buildings that date back to the 1700s. Each of the historic buildings had warehouses & living quarters for up to 100 (mostly) German men, who were there as part of the Hanseatic League. The buildings are in use today but only for shops and offices - and still only have one bathroom per building. The League had established itself in the 1300s but in the early 1700s, there was a fire and the buildings were damaged. They were rebuilt and those are the buildings that still remain. Bergen has had a lot of fires, as everything is made of wood, but the fire in the early 1700s was one of the worst and destroyed almost the entire city. They rebuilt on top of the original foundations, though, so even though the buildings are only 300 years old, the foundations date back for hundreds of years more. From there, we went past St. Marys church on our way to the Bergenhus fortress. The tour packed a LOT into the two and a half hours we had with Martin and it was such a good tour. Martin shared so much about the city with us (like the best time to catch the funicular to avoid the cruise ship crowds and where to get the best coffee in the city) and it was such a great morning for a walk, with the sun shining down on us.

Once we were done, we re-evaluated our plans for our remaining time in Bergen. The original plan was to do a couple of museums after the tour and do the funicular & fortress tomorrow. But with the beautiful weather and rain being called for tomorrow, we shifted things around and decided to try to do the fortress and funicular today, leaving the indoor activities for tomorrow. Also, we had planned on doing the church on Saturday but Martin told us it wasn’t open on Saturdays and Sundays. So, when the tour wrapped up, we headed straight to the church - which we actually have a view of from our hotel room, which is a lovely view. St. Marys is the oldest building in Bergen, dating back to the 12th century and has been continuous use since the early medieval period. From there, we stopped for lunch at a Martin-approved restaurant (where EDP got a bowl of traditional Norwegian stew that seemed to be about 75% mussels.)

Then, it was on to the Bergenhus fortress to see the Rosenkrantz tower and the Hakon’s Hall. The tower was built by some Scottish masons and was in the style of fortified houses in Scotland (I suspect this is when my Scottish ancestors started their love affair with Norway.) It joined together two existing structures, one of which was the royal residence from the 13th century. It was a very confusing building to tour through, I’m not convinced we actually saw all of it. From there, it was on to Hakon’s Hall. Except it was closed for an event. So we scrapped that idea. It was still a bit early to head to the funicular, given the cruise crowds so we went to the Hanseatic Museum, which shows what the Bryggen buildings would have been like when they were in use for exporting fish and importing grain by the Hanseatic League. The building and it’s furnishings were really quite lovely, though the uneven floors made one feel a little bit drunk, even though one only had juice at lunch.

Then, it was on to the funicular. We got there at a great time, there was no line - whereas there had been quite a long one when we passed earlier in the day with our tour. The funicular takes you up to the top of Fløyen, one of the mountains in Bergen, which has incredible views of the city. It doesn’t take long to get up to the top and we were soon overlooking the city and the harbours. The day was sunny & warm so I tottered off to get some ice cream while EDP stayed at the edge of the viewing platform to take in the views. There’s lots of hiking up on the mountain, but as you may recall, we had recently taken a few long walks so we didn’t feel compelled to do any more. We did take a short walk around the immediate area, meeting several very lovely goats. Luckily, we got there just before feeding time so I was able to give a few of them some pets before they started acting exactly as you would expect goats to act when someone had a bag of feed in their hands. Then, it was back to the hotel for a bit of downtime before dinner, another outdoor-with-blankets affair that is quickly becoming my favourite way to dine.

We woke up this morning with most of what we had planned already done - only Hakon’s Hall was on our list. I had really wanted to see Bryggen Museum but it’s closed for renovations. That meant we could fit in a couple of the Kode museums, which we didn’t think we’d have time for. We figured that all out after breakfast, during which time I was snacking on a delicious, fresh warm bolle that EDP picked up for me when he went out to grab coffee. I do always enjoy a snack right after breakfast. Once the snack was taken care of, we headed to Hakon’s Hall, which was open! It dates back to the 13th century and was built by King Hakon Hakonsson. Cool name, right? It was part of the royal residence when the political centre of Norway was in Bergen but the monarch left for a while around the Middle Ages so it turned into a storage facility. Then, it kinda fell to disrepair but was restored as a storehouse in the 17th century and then they figured out what it had originally been used for so they restored it again. But then a munitions ship exploded in 1944 and pretty much destroyed everything but the external walls. The pictures of it after the explosion were crazy, it was essentially a roofless shell. But they restored it and now it’s used for important occasions again. The main hall is incredible, with these gorgeous wooden beams stretching across the ceiling. It was definitely worth the wait to see it.

Then, it was on to the Kode museums - specifically, Kode 3 & 4. Kode 3 was our first stop, which had some odd modern art on the main floor (I never understand modern art…) but had a Munsch exhibit along with some other Norwegian painters on the second floor. I enjoyed that part much more - and it was good to be introduced to some other Norwegian painters. Then it was on to Kode 4 where we accidentally started in the children’s museum, something we could have done without. We recovered from that experience with a drink in the bar. Then it was upstairs to the grown up art, where they had a fairly extensive Picasso exhibition that included artists influenced by him, along with a really lovely exhibition on Nikolai Astrup, which I really enjoyed. It was a pleasant surprise to be able to fit the museums in. Once we were through the two museums, it was time for a late lunch (hotdogs) and then back to the hotel for some downtime. That turned out really well because it started raining. And it poured. But we were snug inside, with our books and our view of the church and a light supper in the hotel, sparing us from having to go out in the downpour - and it was really coming down.

Now we’re all packed up and ready for a long day of travel tomorrow. We’re doing the Norway in a Nutshell tour to get back to Oslo, a full day of trains, ferries & buses, which promise stunning views of the countryside. Hopefully the rain isn’t too heavy and we can enjoy those views.

And Then It Rained

We have had three days of perfect hiking weather. We could have done with a few degrees cooler for Kjeragbolten but Preikestolen and Trolltunga were perfect. Things have been a bit foggy in the mornings but it’s burned off fairly quickly and we’ve had blue skies with fluffy white clouds and the sun shining down on us. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Today, it’s raining. We woke up to the sound of rain, we packed up to the sound of rain, and we got the car loaded during a short break in the rain. If it had been like this yesterday, we couldn’t have even thought about hiking Trolltunga, it would have been far too slippery on the rocks.

We took a roundabout way to get to Bergen, stopping at Eidfjord, Ulvik, and Utne along the way. Eidfjord was lovely, a very picturesque little village where we indulged in a hot beverage and then wandered along the water for a little bit (the rain was quite light.) From there, we went to Ulvik, another little town, where I was able to pick up some apple cider from the famous Norwegian orchards. Then, it was on to Utne, which wasn’t much of a town but was on a really lovely lake that we crossed in the ferry, though we stayed in the car because of the rain.

Until we got to Utne, the roads were much wider than what we had been driving on since not long after leaving Oslo. I think EDP enjoyed the easier driving, especially after our days of hiking. After Utne, we were back on winding, narrow road but were also driving through orchard country, which were beautiful up against the backdrops of the lakes & mountains. The rain stayed with us all day, keeping us inside the car on the ferries and from stopping to enjoy the scenery.

After a couple of hours, we were in Bergen and heaving towards Fantoft, one of the stave churches. It’s a fair distance from the main tourist area of Bergen where we’re staying so we took advantage of still having the car and drove there on our way into the city. It was raining while we were there so we didn’t stay long, just long enough to take a peak at the inside and then take a quick tour around the outside. Fantoft isn’t actually original - it had been built around 1150 but it was burned down in the early 90s (arson, sadly.) They were able to restore the altar crucifix but most of the rest of the church was lost and had to be rebuilt.

Then, it was on to Bryggen, the old historic quarter of Bergen, where we’re staying for the next few days. After getting checked in to the hotel & returning the car, we had dinner out on a patio, something you wouldn’t expect given how much it rained today but Bergen patios tend to be covered and come with blankets and heaters so we were warm & dry, even outside in the chilly evening. Bergen is known to be a rainy city, averaging something like 240 days of rain a year, so we plan to keep our umbrellas and rain jackets handy as we explore the next few days.

Trolltunga

Well, we’re still alive but barely.  

We did get breakfast at 5:45 and we did get to the parking lot around 6:30. There are actually two lots - a small one at the trailhead and a large one where there used to be a funicular to take you to the trailhead. The funicular is no longer there so now, you have to walk up the switchback road to the trailhead, adding about 6km and 4 hours to the round trip. Everything I had read said the top lot fills up very quickly so I did our planning based on the lower lot. But we got the second-to-last parking spot in the trailhead lot. And oh man, am I glad we did.  

The first two km was fairly flat, easy going terrain. Then we hit stairs. Stairs that never seemed to end. But they eventually did and we got to climb a rock face. Nothing as bad as Kjeragbolten but we were happy to have the hiking poles. Things leveled off for a bit after that and we started a fairly regular pattern of climbing then descending, passing (and filling up our water bottles in) waterfalls, overlooking lakes and mountains - it was a gorgeous hike. And the trail wasn’t very busy, either. We were often the only people around, which was lovely. After just over 3 hours, we reached the tongue. And it was totally worth it. The tongue is really neat but the view over the lake was stunning. We queued up for photos before settling down for a rest and snacks, enjoying the warmth of the sun in the cool air. Surprisingly, there was not only cell coverage but a couple of wifi networks, too. But, every year, there are several rescue excursions for hikers who have gone off track so it may be they were put in to help with rescue efforts?

Then, it was time to head back. We passed a lot of people on their way up to the tongue - people who started much later than us or who had to do the first 3km up the road. Lots of them had tents - camping near the tongue and watching the sunrise is very common, plus it breaks the long hike up. Some of them had dogs, including one very tiny dog that was very excited to be out for a walk. We did the hike back in about the same about of time as it took to go up. You’d think it’d be much faster since there is more descending than climbing but it turns out we’re old and when your knees hurt, it takes forever to descend. This was when we really started feeling grateful for the trailhead lot - I’m not sure we would have been able to handle the additional walking, even if it was on asphalt, given the steep angle. We ended up stopping on the road down and picking up a young Australian fellow who had been quite far ahead of us when we started the hike back but steadily slowed his pace and seemed to really be struggling. He was looking pretty rough when we stopped and didn’t even think twice about jumping in. We also picked up a Norwegian couple - she was eager to take the ride, he thought it was fine to walk. She overruled him. It takes about 10 minutes to drive the 3km because it’s all just switchbacks so the five of us had a nice chat on the way down. All 3 seemed pretty happy about not having to do the last few km of the hike - and really, it’s just an asphalt road that leads to the trailhead, it’s not like there are spectacular views to take in, you’re just on a road.

In all, it was an amazing hike. We were really lucky with weather, it was about 11° when we started and peaked around 20°.  I don’t think I could have handled it if it was much warmer. And we were really very, very lucky to get that trailhead parking spot. Hot showers and some Thai food has made us feel mostly human again but things are pretty sore - knees, in particular. We’re incredibly grateful that we had our hiking poles and had upgrade to ankle boots, I don’t think this would have been doable without them. But, it’s pretty fun to know that we were capable of doing an hike that’s considered expert level by the Norwegians and the views & sense of accomplishment we have were worth every twinge of pain.

We head off to Bergen tomorrow, spending most of our day in the car. I think our weary bodies will appreciate the rest.