Norway...the Seattle of Europe?

View from the ferry that runs from Downtown Trondheim
through numerous beautiful fiords to a number of Norwegian islands 

Norway…like Switzerland with water.

For the past three weeks, I've been in Norway much to the chagrin of all of us.  We prefer to travel all together to where ever works takes me.  However, this time the cost was just so expensive that it was not possible to bring everyone.  The flights alone would have cost over 3200 Euros ($4268.80).  Hotels, food and ferry were all quite pricey for one person.  I can just imagine the cost for seven…$10,000!

Thanks to today’s technology, you can see why I was there for work (BAW 13 or here).  It was a cool experience to get to work with and meet fellow military members from 11 other countries. 

So I had one interesting outing I wanted to share.  Flying over Norway and into Trondheim, I was impressed by the beautiful landscape and the incredible amount of lakes big and small.  Luckily, I had the chance to go on a fishing outing during the three weeks.  It was rainy and fairly cool (not cold).  We were bussed out of town some 45 minutes or so.  **Before I proceed, I must admit I had very American expectations for the outing.  Since Brekstadt was surrounded by water I figured we’d go to the pier, hop on a boat and in 20 minutes be fishing** Back to reality, we turned onto a small mountain road and after a brief stop continued for 20 minutes travelling into what was later explained by our guide as the Norwegian forest.  So we’re out in the middle of nowhere, I don’t  have a fishing pole, its raining and I can’t see any body of water anywhere (which is hard to do on the coast).  The guide explains that we have a small walk, less than a kilometer, to get to the cabin where his friend has food and fishing poles.  We begin to walk and start trekking downhill, the soppy ground is getting my boots wet and there is no trail.  We proceed, with no trail in the Norwegian forest, for 15 minutes and my feet are wet.  I finally see some water and the views are stunning.

Pristine, unadulterated Norwegian forest...amazingly beautiful

As proof that animals live and die here, we found a possible
deer skull and his bones a few meters away

Along the way, the guide points out hunting spots and techniques they use to bring down moose (by the way, we ate moose/elk stew for lunch that day).  We continue uphill a ways and over a ridge where the guide pulls out a map and stops to contemplate our current position.  I’m thinking “does this guy know where we are?”  Turns out he does.  We continue fighting through the small trees, bushes, tree branches whacking us in the face and finally emerge to a bridge this hunting group built to get to the cabin.  The area was beautiful and pristine.  The boats were small and unimpressive based on what I had expected (1 canoe, 2 small metal boats with oars/an engine).  I fished for two to three hours, got one bite and lost two lures.  I also learned later that for the nine of us that made up the group there were only 4 fishing poles.  I had grabbed a pole and gone to the lake while everyone else stood around drinking coffee.  The small number of poles explains why only one of the dudes in the boat was fishing.  After lunch, I took some nice pictures of the area since I didn't have a fishing pole.  We finally had to leave and hiked back to the road to get back on the minibus that left us there 5 hours or so before.  

One view from our Norwegian fishing spot.

I couldn't resist taking this shot...it took about four photos to finally get it right!

I must admit the hike back didn't seem as long as the hike there.  So that was my Norway fishing experience.  I arrived back to my room and found a number of guys heading out fishing.  They asked if I wanted to go (wet feet,  no fish and tired) and I said no thanks.  Turns out they caught tons and tons of fish.  Oh well!  I have a reason to go back to Norway now. 

I had a chance to tour through downtown Trondheim before leaving town.  I visited the oldest church in Norway, an Army museum that had Viking swords, and just walked around town. 

I'd love to be able to sit in a lazy boy and
hang my fishing pole out the back window!

Cool army museum that recounts Norwegian history
from Vikings to modern day...and it was free.

Cool 16th/17th century swords...not Viking relics 

Lovely view of Trondheim's church, Nidaros Cathedral,
the world's most northerly medieval church and
built over King Olaf's grave (Norway's patron saint) .

I really liked the detail in the windows and the dude sticking
out his tongue at me.

There has to be a great story here...the man on the right looks
very severely at the man in the center holding 3 heads in a basket.
There are others here also missing all or some of their head.

I also walked through downtown Brekstad but there wasn’t too much to see there.  I did get to tour around the local church/cemetery which had a few 18^th century graves. The pier area was neat because of the water.  You could actually see jellyfish blobbing around.  Not something I expected.  The weather the whole time was beautiful, around 55-70 degrees and sunny mostly.  

Riding the ferry was impressive...60 knots is fast.

Local church & cemetery in Brekstadt.

Lovely view for the man fishing in the boat or from the shore.

How many jelly fish can you see?

Lots of lovely water!

The fishing guide described it best: “Norway is like the Seattle of Europe….lots of rain, some clouds and some sun.”