Norway – MegaPost 2of2

Here’s the second of two sets of photos!

Unfortunately, time has gotten away from me again, and after a blog update every other day, I’m seeing that I haven’t updated in about a month (I had the others queued up and posted automatically).

After Turkey, MS and I flew to Norway.  Unfortunately our close friend was moving out of the country that week, but we met plenty of helpful hosts through AirBNB, and had a wonderful time.

Our basic itinerary was: Take the high alpine train from Oslo towards Bergen, stopping at Myrdal to take a fenicular rail down to the city of Flam, on an inland fjord.  We took a quick boat ride on the fjord before returning to Voss (mmmm, fresh water!) to catch the remainder of the trip to Bergen (this itinerary thus far is called “Norway In A Nutshell” and is part of a package deal).

After a few days in the charming city of Bergen, we flew to Bodø (north of the arctic circle!), caught a quick ferry across to the Lofoten Islands, where we hiked to the village of Å, and stayed in a rorboer (fisherman’s hut, on the water).  We did an excellent scuba dive in Ballstad, and then hopped up to Stamsund where we were able to board the Kong Harald ship – on the Hurtigruten line.  Due to high costs (though using our student discounts!) we cruised up to Tromsø and had a nice few days in this northern university town.

Feel free to ask questions of the photos below, in the comments section, or by email!  Here’s the second of two sets of photos:

Unfortunately, we missed the Viking festival.  :-(

But we did get to snorkel above the arctic circle!  7 mm wetsuit, 5mm shortie, socks, booties, hood, gloves.  About 12 degrees celsius. 

We saw an AMAZING jellyfish.  Picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s about as tall as MS standing on my shoulders.  Scary!
 

We met locals along the way!

They dine on varied meats:

Our Hurtigruten ship – learn more; it’s fascinating: http://wikitravel.org/en/Hurtigruten
(we stayed on for about 22 hours, overnight.  The entire 11 day journey in the summer (when we were there) currently costs roughly $3200 per person, in the lowest season in a cabin with shared bathroom and without window; want a bathroom and window?  Double the price.  Want standard meals?  Add $200 per day per person.  So yeah, we didn’t spend long on the boat, but it was beautiful, amazing, enchanting.)

As we got off in Tromso we saw these climbers with their crash pads:
 

Tromso’s sewer covers show the city symbol, a reindeer:

Daily ritual of afternoon waffles!  (Brown stuff is awesomely delicious, slightly sweet semi-soft cheese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunost )

Midnight in Tromso, from the bridge, after listening to a musical performance in the Arctic chapel:

Signs.  Can’t get enough:
 

Tromso has an awesome childrens science museum!  Here, you can lift a weight illustrating the weight of carbon emissions on average, for people in their respective countries!

And a Wave Pendulum!  Woo!  Remember my pendulum?  http://www.whereisholden.com/search?q=wave+pendulum
 

Yay for space!
 
And yay for faces!

And apparently they have a slug problem in Norway, because there’s tons of snail-killing kits; this one uses beer!

Where we traveled on the Hurtigruten (2/3rds of the way up the country; note that we scuba dived right where we started on the cruise; well above the arctic circle):
 

Handsome guy
 

We went for a short day hike on horseback!

Sign!

Polar bear, stuffed, in our hotel lobby in Tromso:

Tesla Model S in Tromso, the week they came out there, with a muddy mountain bike (wheels attached) in the back of it.  That car is amazing.
 

In Oslo.  I still think this is an ad for Fanta soda.
 

Norway – MegaPost 1of2

Unfortunately, time has gotten away from me again, and after a blog update every other day, I’m seeing that I haven’t updated in about a month (I had the others queued up and posted automatically).

After Turkey, MS and I flew to Norway.  Unfortunately our close friend was moving out of the country that week, but we met plenty of helpful hosts through AirBNB, and had a wonderful time.

Our basic itinerary was: Take the high alpine train from Oslo towards Bergen, stopping at Myrdal to take a fenicular rail down to the city of Flam, on an inland fjord.  We took a quick boat ride on the fjord before returning to Voss (mmmm, fresh water!) to catch the remainder of the trip to Bergen (this itinerary thus far is called “Norway In A Nutshell” and is part of a package deal).

After a few days in the charming city of Bergen, we flew to Bodø (north of the arctic circle!), caught a quick ferry across to the Lofoten Islands, where we hiked to the village of Å, and stayed in a rorboer (fisherman’s hut, on the water).  We did an excellent scuba dive in Ballstad, and then hopped up to Stamsund where we were able to board the Kong Harald ship – on the Hurtigruten line.  Due to high costs (though using our student discounts!) we cruised up to Tromsø and had a nice few days in this northern university town.

Feel free to ask questions of the photos below, in the comments section, or by email!  Here’s the first of two sets of photos:

Trains that cut through snow / ice in the winter to clear the tracks:

Oldentimes manual train track traverse method!
 
Intriguing wheel design, not totally different than we came up with at Energy Cache!

This South Korean was riding around the world on his motorcycle.  Sweet!  (BMW)
 

Fjord with sheepses:
 

 

Fjords.  Easy to travel straight down, not so easy to traverse.
 

MS with Knute Rockne’s memorial in his hometown of Voss, Norway!

MS with other locals in Voss:
 

Love me some signs.

Please, DO NOT touch the swords (which are for sale)!
 
In-flight airline menu item:

Beautiful islands on the flight north from Bergen!

Come to think of it, yes, it would be cold to drive a wheelchair in Norway in the winter.

Loverly town sign pose.

About midnight at the middle of August:
 

Sign!  Easy enough: Live Cable, Anchoring (your boat) forbidden!

As dark as it ever got for us:

Cod liver oil factory in the village of Å:
 

And fish drying racks EVERYWHERE.  Thank goodness we didn’t visit between January and April when the racks ALLL around town are ALL full of hanging fish.
 

So serene! (Click for lager; email me for full size, or similar ones)

HB's Birthday - Explore LA!

I've really been enjoying a bit more free time lately to enjoy all the great happenings that LA has to offer.  Last week I enjoyed sunset at the Griffith Observatory, including seeing the Tesla Coil fire, camera obscura 360, and their awesome foucault's pendulum.

Photo: http://www.nytimes.com/

View of historic "Hollywood" sign from the Griffith

Telsa coils are awesome.  So was Tesla, himself.

Photo: http://discoverlosangeles.com/

Then a few days later we watched the sunset from the top of Mount Wilson, while eating a snack and taking in the great views of the greater LA basin.  Super beautiful.

Photo: http://www.khurramhashmi.org/

For my birthday, I explored LA's new Metro EXPO line which transports passengers from downtown (7th St. Metro Center) towards (but not quite yet to) Culver City.  We took our bikes and explored all over, though our main attractions were right next to the Expo line itself.

First stop was the California Science Center.  We had a superb afternoon with all of the hands-on science, though some 'hands-on' stuff didn't really teach WHY or HOW things were happening (no cause-and-effect).  Maybe the folks at Iridescent Learning have some lessons that the Science Center could use?

Super simple physics game to motivate balls into a goal, with mechanical claws, controllable ramps, and bursts of air.

Far-Infrared camera showing cold-blooded animals crawling around (tortoises, lizards, etc.)

We also went into the Butterfly Pavilion - a spring/summer exhibit outdoors in a netted area where many, many (hundreds?) of butterflies hang out, get fat and happy on flowers and fruit, and also some caterpillars and cocoons, etc.

Sorry for the lack of focus on these -- there were tons (okay, not literally), everywhere!

Then we went to the LA County Museum of Natural History Museum and saw and touched real dinosaur bones, as well as learned more California history.  Super awesome.

We came on the last "First Friday" of their season to host speakers and musicians.  It was an excellent use of space, and we'll be back next year!

The music was provided by KCRW DJs (Thanks Garth, and Anthony!) as well as Cut Chemist and Superhumanoids.  We danced out a bundle of energy, and then returned home via the Expo Line, Red Line, and Gold Line, followed by a mini-bike ride.  Long, awesome birthday!

The speaker was Jonah Lehrer, who is an excellent writer and speaker, and had some fun insights into how humans find solutions to problems, based on academic research.  Reminded me a bit of Malcolm Gladwell - just as engaging, and applicable.