Posted by Seth on April 12, 2011 under Flying, News | 
Every now and then a good story comes across the wire of an airline doing something particularly heartfelt and unexpected. A couple months back there was a story making the rounds about a pilot form Southwest that held a flight to allow a man to get to his grandson’s funeral at the last minute. Today’s story comes from Norway, where SAS made some special arrangements to save a woman’s vision.
The flight in question is a milk run up the west coast of Norway (and one that I’ve actually been on), shuttling folks between Trondheim, Alesund, Bergen and Stavanger. This particular aircraft suffered a mechanical failure after the first segment and the operations folks were content to cancel the rest of the flights and book all the passengers on the next plane, 6 hours later.
For one passenger on board, however, that flight was 3 hours too late. She was on her way to Bergen for emergency eye surgery that was necessary to save her vision and the new flight would land three hours later. A couple hours later a replacement aircraft, ferried in from Oslo, was on the ground in Alesund and made a quick turn to get the passengers loaded and on the way to Bergen. The plane arrived in Bergen approximately 25 minutes prior to the surgery and the patient made it to the hospital in time.
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Posted by Seth on August 27, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
There is really only one restaurant in Ålesund, Norway that gets much of any sense of reviews on the Internet, at least in English. Sjøbua is a seafood shop located at the end of a small street, and it is THE seafood restaurant in Ålesund. The windows of the dining room open up onto the harbor with some pretty phenomenal views and the food is absolutely top notch. The fact that we actually managed to have a meal there was actually quite a surprise. And it was completely worth it – maybe even worth going out of your way to find.
We tried to dine there on our first night in Ålesund but we were led astray by the review from Frommer’s that suggests they are open on Saturday nights. They are not. And we spent the next five nights camping out in the fjords. It turns out that there was cell phone coverage out there but I didn’t bring mine and I certainly had no desire to interrupt the kayaking with trying to get dinner reservations. So we gambled and simply asked at the front desk of the hotel when we returned to civilization on Friday evening. “I’m very sorry sir, they do not have any tables available. Perhaps you would enjoy dining at the Indian restaurant just up on the corner.” That is the same Indian place that we had dined at the previous Saturday when we found Sjøbua to be closed so that wasn’t going to happen.
We gambled, and we won. We walked in to the restaurant shortly after 7pm and announced ourselves as a walk-in couple and pretty much begged for a table. There was a nice bar area that I would have attempted to dine in had things not worked out but that proved unnecessary in the end. It turns out that there was a 6:30pm reservation for two that never showed. And it was now ours!
The food was delicious. Simply off the charts phenomenal. I can attribute some of that to the fact that we’d been dining off of camping stoves the previous five nights, but those meals were actually pretty good (we have made one of them a regular staple at home now) so it can’t have just been that. The food was actually really that good.
We shared an appetizer and had an entree each. We shied away from the (crazy expensive even for Scandinavia) lobster appetizer and had something a bit more pedestrian, though quite delicious and quite local. It was mussels in a relatively traditional preparation and they were delicious, though not necessarily unique.
The coup de grace of the evening, however, came when the entrees were served. Getting the right amount of sauce to cover an entree is always a challenge. It always seems that you get not enough or the meat is swimming in sauce. Neither is a good way to dine. Sjøbua had quite the appropriate solution to that problem. Our meals were served and then, about 30 seconds later, the waiter showed back up at the table with a small bowl containing extra of the sauce. For one of us that meant more actual sauce, and for the other, a small bowl brimming with perfectly prepared thick cut bacon diced into quarter inch cubes, crispy and delicious.
Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t just the bacon that made the dish. The Salt Cod Gratinee (it sounds better in the native Norwegian) was phenomenal all on its own. But the addition of a side of bacon to top it off served as the proverbial icing on the cake. Except it was bacon on fish smothered in a creamy sauce. And extra bacon at that. Truly top notch at every turn.
Posted by Seth on August 5, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Often in my travels I discover that being lucky is just as good, if not better, than being prepared. Ålesund was one such experience on a broad scale, from dining to hotels to things to see and do. As we wandered about town on our first night there we still needed to make a hotel reservation for our last night – a week later. We checked out a few “name brand” properties like the Scandic and the Clarion and the prices were fair but nothing special. We also happened upon a slightly greenish building that had the word hotel on the outside and a bar facing the street. Given that two of my main requirements for a place of lodging were met we gave it a chance. The price matched that of the others and it was definitely something different, so we gave it a shot. Dumb luck won BIG.
The Hotel Brosundet is a small property – only 46 rooms plus one in the lighthouse around the corner – but it is big on style, comfort, quality and service. The room in the lighthouse gets written up a lot as a search for Mojja Fyr will show, but it isn’t the only nice part of the offering available. The room we had was not large by any stretch but there was space to move around, a desk and a large window near the bed (very similar to the photo). And it had the exposed beams, wood hues and smooth lines that reeked of Scandinavian design (a scent I happen to love). The property was formerly a warehouse, now converted into a hotel, making it the second former warehouse we stayed in during the trip (71 Nyhavn was the other). I have to give it to the folks in Scandinavia: They know how to convert a warehouse quite well.
In many ways it felt like someone had simply extracted the essence of a W Hotel and miniaturized it into a small building along the harbor. The halls were dark, the bar had a bit of a bass line pumping out and the people working there were mostly beautiful. Then again, most of the folks in Norway were so maybe that last one isn’t a great metric. So the aesthetic and the vibe were slightly W-ish (in a good way), but there was also something else, something better. The staff was actually wonderfully pleasant and helpful. They went out of their way to help us with just about everything we needed. It was a wonderful change from my typical experience at a W.
Oh, and the restaurant there is actually one of the better options in town. Not as good as Sjøbua, but I don’t know that anything really is. We only managed to have breakfast as they were fully booked for dinner, but the food was good and it looked like folks were enjoying their dinner, too.
Add on to all of that the top-notch location in town and the history of the building and it is hard for me to even consider staying in one of the other chain properties in town at the same price-point.
Posted by Seth on August 4, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
I tend to go a bit overboard when planning for trips to new destinations. I’m prone to obsession over the nuance and detail of the hotels and the restaurants, hoping to find the best (that I can reasonably afford) and ensure that I get to experience them. When the average trip duration is only about 2 days it is rather important to know where the good stuff is before arrival. Otherwise there is way too much potential to miss the essence of a city.
On our most recent Scandinavian adventure I put a fair amount of planning into the Copenhagen aspect of the journey. That was where we were spending the most time and where there seemed to be the best options available to choose from. That meant our arrival into Ålesund was completely unplanned. From the minor details of how to get from the airport to our hotel to where we should eat, I had nothing. There weren’t even taxis at the airport (my fallback plan) to take us into town had we needed one. It was rather unsettling actually. The good news is that we managed to not suffer for it.
Transfer from the airport turned out to be easy – there is a bus that handles that. Sure, it is on the edge of reasonably priced (NOK100/person, ~$15) but that’s WAY cheaper than the taxi option and it did take us right to where we were going which was a nice bonus. We even figured out the bus back into town for dinner the first night. That was only ~$5/person and it gave me a much needed 15 minutes of research time on my Blackberry, time I used to search desperately for a restaurant in town. All the search results pointed in one direction. Sadly those same results misrepresented the operating hours of Sjøbua, falsely indicating that it was open on the Saturday night that we arrived. Strike one for the internet, but we did manage to make up for that a week later.
So instead of seafood we wandered into an Indian place, Agra that proved to be quite passable. Yes, it was expensive ($6 for an order of naan?!?), but not really all that out of line with what any other restaurant in Scandinavia seemed to be running us for dinner. And since it was our last meal before heading out into the kayaks for our fjord paddling we decided to make sure it was a good one. We also passed by the same restaurant on our return a week later. Apparently while we were gone they changed their name to Zangra and divorced themselves from the chain of restaurants on the west coast of Norway under the same name. That was somewhat confusing but the food still looked just fine, even after the change.
The small downtown area was rather pleasant to wander through, with some cute shops and hotels scattered about along the waterfront. We meandered for a bit and took a look at several of the hotels scattered about the harbor area. We ended up booking in at one of them – Hotel Brosundet – for the following week and then got ridiculously lucky. We spotted the guide from our tour, the same guide who was staying in the same campground as us 15 minutes out of town – driving along the road. A loud shout form me, an illegal u-turn from him and a sprint through traffic found us happily ensconced in the company van, headed back to bed down at the campground rather than trying to figure out the return bus schedule.
Thus ended our first experience in Ålesund. Not bad at all and an excellent precursor of the great experiences to come a week later.
Posted by Seth on July 16, 2009 under Uncategorized |
The grand plans for our summer vacation this year had one main focus: kayaking on the fjords of Norway. A good friend of ours had done a similar trip a few years back and both the photos and stories she’s shared were unbelievably amazing. I say unbelievable because they really seemed that way. And then we went over to Norway and did it ourselves. Now I absolutely believe her and know that she wasn’t exaggerating even the tiniest bit in describing just how amazing the trip was. I believe, and I now get to try to make others believers, too.
The trip we booked was a 6 day, 5 night kayaking and camping adventure. We covered about 100 kilometers across the 6 days – some days as many as 25 and some days as few as 5 – setting up camp along the way on some pretty amazing patches of grass in what certainly qualifies as Top 5 in the most beautiful surroundings I’ve spent time. Even better, we got to do it with 10 other folks with whom we quickly became friends. It was an amazing journey and not without a bit of extra sweat and exertion to make it so.
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| Out into the water on day 1 |
The western fjords of Norway run pretty much the entire coast. Our trip with Coastal Odyssey focused on the Geiranger fjord and the Sunnmøre Alps. The trip began in Ålesund – quite a nice town, really; more on that in a future post – with a bit of drama. Sure, we had read the packing list. We planned, purchased and planned some more. And then we packed everything into a bag and schlepped it through Denmark on the way to Ålesund. And then we met Brian and Jimmy, our guides for the trip. They handed us each two dry bags and simply said, “Make it fit.” Easier said than done, to be certain. We rather quickly determined which items absolutely needed to be dry through the trip and which we could risk a bit of splashing with. And we learned that with two people squeezing and pushing a dry bag can be made smaller than it seemed possible. We left things behind at the starting point and otherwise manipulated our packing but we eventually managed to make it all fit. We even managed to jam it all into the kayak somehow, along with some of the food and other “common” supplies that we’d be using through the week. And with a shove from behind we were off onto the water. Yippeeee!
The skies were blue and the water was crystal clear. The wind was at our back. Everything was simply great. Being out on the water with nothing but the sound of the paddle pulling through the water was incredibly calming and wonderful.
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| One of the goats we met on the island where we lunched day one. |
Day one was a pretty long paddle – about 20 kilometers – and we spent a long time out on the water. It felt good to be out moving and we made great time on the water, no doubt thanks to the wind. Before we knew it we had made it to our lunch stop and then, after a few more hours of paddling, to our campsite for the first night.
The meals were certainly camping food but the veggies were fresh (hard not to be on the first day) and the we settled in to share some stories and otherwise chat as the evening rolled on. And then the bad news came. Brian had been reviewing the weather forecast and the tide charts and our routing for day two. There is one stretch of water where the currents get tricky and if we don’t time it right we’d never make the pass. Unfortunately, to time it right meant leaving the campground no later than 5:30am. That put us up for a 3:30am wake-up call. On vacation. Ouch.
The good news about the 3:30am wake-up was that it was bright daylinght out when we woke up so I didn’t really notice just how early it was and we were pretty much done paddling by noon. We had arrived at our day two campsite and had a ton of time to spare, exploring the grounds of Ytste Skotet, an historic farmhouse that is now operated as a museum. The site has been inhabited since the turn of the last milennium (yup – over 1000 years) and the oldest current building dates back to the 1700s. They do real farming there (though they also have to import some goods because of the number of folks passing through) and they have kids come out to play and live on the farm as part of a summer camp experience. The kids learn all about life on the farm, from chopping wood (yes, they give 7-year olds axes to play with) to where their meat comes from (at the end of the summer the kids are around when the pigs are slaughtered for the following year’s meat supplies). They also cook up some pretty delicious local foods and were incredibly hospitable to us. There was a small stream running through the farm and a pool just off the edge of the farm house where we were able to rinse off in fresh water. The water was cold but certainly refreshing.
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| One of the kids hanging out at the farmhouse the night we were there |
The farmland surrounding the house covers about 750 acres, with fields and trails to go along with the historical buildings. We certainly had no trouble finding ways to spend our time. And we had plenty of time. Thanks once again to the tides we weren’t actually leaving until the following afternoon. We had a full 24 hours off from paddling to explore.
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| One of many fields of flowers on the farm |
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| This is about as close as it got to sunset while we were in Norway. It was light out non-stop! |
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| The view from the outhouse. Not too shabby. |
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| Looking back down at the fjord across the field of flowers |
That’s all for the first couple days of the trip. There are a ton more pictures here, part 2 of the tale is here, and part 3 is here.
