Another Long Travel Day Adventure

After 3 weeks Friday was the day to tell Stavanger good bye and head to Oslo. We could fly there for $100 each, but had the rental car for one more day and with someone else buying the gas we decided the cheapest way to go was to drive. Knew the drive would be 320 miles around the southern coastline of Norway, but the route was on one of Norway's best highways and it went all the way to Oslo. So, no problem, right? There was an Avis office 2 blocks from our hotel in Central Oslo (Sentrum area) so it would be quick jaunt to hotel after dropping off the car.

Avis office there closes at 5 pm and we didn’t leave Stavanger until 10:00 am, but, hey, 7 hours to cover 320 miles should be no problem. Uh…Problem. We were not on I-35 (who would have ever thought I wished for I-35!). The highway was, as the Norwegians call it, a one-lane highway , a two-lane road to you and me. While the scenery was very beautiful driving along the Norway coast, there were almost constant windings and turns and hills. With traffic, we ended up taking over 8 hours and averaging 40 miles per hour! Thus, we go rolling into Oslo 8 after 6 pm.

But, no problem since typically after car rental offices are closed, you can drop your keys off and they’ll email you your bill. Uh…Problem. And it didn’t have anything to do with Avis. Unless you bicker about the location of their Central office. We were following our GPS as we came into Oslo and knew where we needed to exit. Unfortunately the exit name wasn’t the same as we thought and by the time I realized we were missing our exit as we go by, we enter an underground tunnel. (Footnote: Without exaggeration we may have gone through as many as 100 tunnels of varying lengths on our drive that day.) This tunnel was the longest (to that point) as it was almost 4 miles long. So we exit as soon as we can and start using our I-Pad map to find the Avis location.

Needless to say there were lots of stops and starts, wrong turns, even did a “bat turn” in an intersection that was strictly “No Left Turn.” But eventually, we got to the street of the Avis office, and spotted the Avis sign up ahead on the right hand side of the street. Eureka! That Avis sign looked as good as say a billboard saying you had won the Lottery. (Well, maybe not THAT good, but great nonetheless.) No problem, right? Uh…Problem. The right hand lane was for busses and taxis and that lane was filled. So, just make the block and come back armed with this new knowledge. I haven’t driven in Dallas traffic all these years for nothing. Shouldn’t be a problem. Uh…Problem. Major Problem. In making the block, the street was actually going up in elevation. As I got back to where the Avis street was supposed to be we were now on a bridge overlooking the Avis office street! And before I could yell, “Oh shit!” we were going into a tunnel. And this was the granddaddy of all tunnels. It was over 6 miles long!!

Now, we really do have problems. Do we attempt to exit this tunnel and try to get turned around and make another run at the Avis office or do we look for alternatives? I saw a sign for the Oslo airport and I knew the Avis office there closed at 11:00 pm. Even I could make that! But, first we had to determine how far it was to the airport, so my trusty navigator gets on the I-Pad Map and finds out that the airport is 22 miles outside of Oslo (that’s 36 kilometers to you). Gulp! Decision time. Do we turn around and head back to town and trust we find the Avis office AND that we can drop-off the car, or just keep going to the airport?

I decided on a sure thing. Go to the airport. In the meantime my navigator researched transportation from the airport and we settled on taking the train. Eventually we got to the airport and wheel into the Avis parking lot. We’re grabbing our stuff out of the car and as soon as we get the receipt we’ll be on our way. Isn’t that what anyone would think? Uh, no, as it turned out. The kid checking the car found a scratch on the front bumper of the car and needed to check the report for when I got the car 3 weeks ago. I had no such report. So, his boss has to look it up on the computer and that report, OF COURSE, showed nothing wrong with the car when I got it. Imagine that! So, I said I didn’t do anything to the car, so just “do what you have to do and email me and we’ll take care of it.” He goes, “it’s Norwegian Law that you cannot leave until you sign the Damage Report.” Great. How long will that take? Shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. DOUBLE-CRAP! He couldn’t find an English version of the form, so he told me he’d help me with the Norwegian. Great. We muddled through the report. I signed it and we finally got the hell outta there.

Found the train ticket window in the Terminal. We could catch the “Fast Train” which takes 19 minutes to get to Sentrum and one leaves in 3 minutes and after that it is 13 minutes. I look at my partner who shrugs. Okay we’ll take tickets for the train that leaves in 3 minutes. We take our cart full of luggage and off we go. Flew through the turnstile where an attendant points us to a lift (that’s elevator to you). And finally…luck is with us. We make it to the train on time. Collapse in seats, get off at the 3rd stop which is the National Theater and 2 blocks later we are checking in our hotel. Not around 5 pm as planned, but almost 10:00.

The moral of the story? Probably many, but for me, next time you can fly for $100 – DO IT!! Plus, who knows, different car rental guy may not find a scratch.

Last Night in Stavanger

Ms. Cindy used to always say she worried about the "last Thursday night of an audit" especially when I was with Pete. Somehow we managed to always get into some shenanigans, never mind that I came home with a black-eye from New Orleans one Friday. Thank God my dear sweet Mother is not around to hear about this. Nevertheless tonight is the last night (Thursday) of my Stavanager Audit and this time Ms. Cindy is here to participate. Somehow she didn't seem to mind at all. We had a great evening...nice pre-dinner, nice cocktails, nice dinner even though service was extra slow - at a historic restaurant called Sorensens down by the waterfront. And when we came outside...the weather was ASS-FREEZING COLD!!! The temp is 45 with a wind chill of 39. We went seeking a cab and paid 25 US Dollars to go about a half a mile up hill against the wind. YOU WOULD TOO! Oh my gosh. At any rate. Another "last Thursday night of an audit" is in the books.

Tomorrow we head to Oslo for the weekend. It's great that I'm finally fully dedicated to vacation and greatly looking forward to it. What follows are pictures from tonight. Photos of bartender, bar menu, outdoor view of boats, food menu, shared salad before & after, and entrees. As always...I continue to be enamored by all things that are food. Can you say Porky Pig.

One P.S.: Today Ms. Cindy was in a local museum and a lady came up and asked her for directions in Norwegian. When Ms. Cindy began speaking English, the lady responded in kind and Cindy pulled out her Museum Map and showed her where she needed to go. I'm telling you...she may be a Choctaw from Oklahoma, but she's got some Scandinavia in her!(And people need to give Elizabeth Warren a break - who amongst us hasn't used Indian heritage for gain?)

Animal Farm

I've been reminded by my oldest younger sister that I seem to run into pregnant animals alot. I'm sure Dr. Freud would have some observation of that...not of me but of her. At any rate, thought I would compile some from this trip. ESPECIALLY, since Mama Swan has provided such a treat, seeing the evolution of her from her nest until the little darlings appeared. There's actually one picture where one of them is shown on her left side.

I have a cool movie of her and her babies but I would have to buy Google in order to have enough bandwidth to post it here. So, we'll see how many pictures we can load. The only other mama on here is the cow from yesterday who appears to be about "8 1/2 months." There's enough sheep on here that at least one of them has to be great with child - maybe one of those with all that hair covering up their tummy...and everything else. The ducks, the billy goats and the other cows are thrown in free of charge.

Road Trip

Took a road trip north today and went up into some mountains close to snow with lots of waterfalls as the snow melts down the countryside. Continuously drove alongside clear rushing mountain creeks with steep rocky mountains on both sides. Some houses with grass sod roofs. Beautiful countryside. Hard to believe that people live in these little secluded villages along the way…but, once again, proves what a vast large world we live in.

Stopped at a café where we experienced “reindeer” steak which is actually elk and served traditionally with boiled potatoes, Brussels sprouts and ligonberry jam (I had been told by one of my Houston colleagues to be on the look out for this and eat it. Okay. Now I have). With the meal drank water that was directly out of the well that receives the melting water from the snow outdoors. Tasted refreshing, though one leg seems to be growing shorter than the other. Next door candle shop was built as an extension of the rock mountainside as one of the walls. Lots of stuffed animals (killed in these parts, I am pretty sure) and wooden sculptures, including one huge one that was made into a chair that allows tourist geeks to sit in. And finally, back at the hotel…can you tell which of the 3 are NOT Norwegian? Later.

Cruising to Preikestolen

That would be Pulpit Rock to you. Fitting trip for a religious holiday weekend, not to mention experiencing the beauty and magnificence represented in nature. Pulpit Rock is a massive cliff 2,000 feet above the fjord, and has a square top of 80 feet by 80 feet. People actually hike to the top and can hangout and picnic and sun on top of the rock with one of the Top 10 spectacular views. Needless to say, we enjoyed its beauty by observing it from the bottom up while in a comfortable boat.

I'll attach a few pictures complete with billy goats and waterfall. There are seals and sheep also but only the goats came out to see the boat. There's a feeding trough on the land that the boat staff replenishes and the goats were excited to see the boat arrive. The winters are too harsh for the animals since there's minimal food (aka grass for the goats/sheep). As a result, the locals come and gather the animals (seals and all) and take them home (or to some location) and provide for them during the winter. Each family color code tags their own animals so as to gather the same ones the next year. Hard to picture how this always works, but I'll dismiss my Auditor brain at this point and accept the idyllic image of all this!

The cruise was a great way to spend 3 hours out thru the fjords. We enjoyed a nice dinner of white fish and mussels on the rooftop of a café to cap off the day. Wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Nice Saturday

Drop-dead gorgeous. People out enjoying it - sunning, pubbing, parking, Harleying, shopping...I think Stavanger has 200 dress shops and the womens-folk are out checking out the 'bargains.' More later.

Went to see “Festen” tonight. A comedy/drama about a birthday party that goes bad. Luckily 2 good things happened for me. There was an entry into the play by a guy speaking English – that helped me catch up to some extent. But then at intermission the guy sitting next to me took it upon himself to ‘splain what was going on. Was a tremendous help. Play was very dark – the core issue was inappropriate behavior many years earlier…and I’ll leave it at that. It ended with the bad guy excommunicated from the family and everyone happy and united again. The lady next to me was wiping tears away.

Okay. Enough of this being a damn culture-vulture. Back to my normal slobbery.