Day 1 - Oslo Norway early morning arrival from our overnight flight. We flew Norse Airways nonstop from Orlando to Oslo. Norse is an ultra-low-cost carrier which I will outline the pluses and minuses separately but it was a brand new 787 and we were on time. We got a room and a shower before noon at the hotel, so day 1 on the ground is going well. We meet Oivind our tour guide and we are advised it is the weekend for the Oslo Marathon. On an escorted tour, the Tour Director (TD) is a valuable resource for your free time also as we are given lunch restaurant advice, a suggestion to go up to the fort for pictures and notice that this weekend is a Oslo Military Tattoo at 3PM. The restaurant is very authentic and we both have the Norwegian fish soup. The views of Oslo Harbor are great from the fort. Oslo Harbor is very busy as there are many inhabited islands in that fjord and also suburbs where people commute by ferry plus there are day boats that do two hour tours. If you have never seen a military tattoo, it should be done once in your lifetime. We saw 12 military bands including many EU nations and even the US Navy marching in dress whites. Many of the bands go into the parade ground and do a “routine” with the accompanying gun color guard. We are set to meet at 5P for orientation and a 6PM dinner at the hotel so we head back after the tattoo. Dinner was actually quite good with fresh white fish and steamed veggies. Day 2 in Oslo We are up early for the included breakfast. Globus tours includes breakfast daily and our first hotel breakfast is very nice with a lot of choices. This morning we visit the Frognerparken which is also referred to as Vigeland Park featuring the sculptures and architectural work of Gustav Vigeland. This is a huge park with many bronze sculptures depicting the stages of life. This is best explained with pictures below. After the park, we head to the City Hall to see the complex. Oslo is home to the Nobel Prize committee and this city hall is where the peace, literary and other Nobel prizes are awarded. They offer a couple of optional tours which we call “optionals”. In Oslo, they offer a couple of museums as an optional including the Fram Museum with the story of Thor Heyerdahl and the Norse Maritime Museum which I think is a substitute for the Viking Museum which is closed for refurbishing. As we like a day on our own which is offered on most tours so you can be as busy as you want or get some down time. We asked the TD about a food hall we saw on the internet. He suggested a different food hall called Vippa. Food halls started in Europe but are gaining ground in the USA. This one did not disappoint as we shared the best fish and chips we have ever had plus fresh Chinese noodles and a great Moroccan kebob. We stopped to admire an old wooden war ship called the Alta and we started chatting with Edgar who was sitting on the deck. We were invited onboard and given a tour of this wooden war ship that was originally built in Boothe Bay, Maine. The ship originally started life as a US Navy ship in the Korean war. It served for a while in both the Belgian the finally the Norwegian Navy. This can be toured by groups for a fee. They have the idea that they want to get the ship in shape to head one last time to Maine but they have to work on grants from the Norwegian government. We walked the seafront which is a party due to the marathon where 19,000 people are running. We hear many languages so it sounds like groups came from across the EU to run the marathon. The body time clock takes a day or two to reset. It used to be easier when I was 40 as we just stayed up until 9P and but the time clock is taking longer to reset so we are looking for a late night bite. After a shower we walked the neighborhood and found a nice Italian restaurant called Vino al Vino for a salad and pasta. We order the least expensive bottle of wine (as alcohol taxes are high in Norway) which happens to be Sicilian and he mentions “uno vino della casa”. I ask and am told one of the owners is Sicilian so I explain Gina’s family is Sicilian. The food is very good and the service is friendly including the greeting the chef/owner. Day 3 Oslo to Telemark Norway - 193 miles/310KM This morning is bags out at 7A and bus at 8A. When the alarm went off at 6A, I asked Gina “if we are up at 6A and we are 6 hours ahead, is it yesterday?” Breakfast is good, again, and we are soon rolling west across Norway which we soon see has a beautiful countryside. This is a good point to summarize escorted coach tours. The good part of an escorted tour is you get to see a lot. You also do not have to plan a route or drive it yourself so you can sit back and relax. The best part of the tour, I think; is the TD because you are traveling with (in our case) with a guy who has led tours for 30 years. Under the Globus Family of Brands system, the TD has a lot of responsibility. He/she plans the tour and works with local suppliers like hotels and attractions. They are available to help with free days and they frequently have to change the tour according to local conditions. As Oivind said this morning, he always has a plan A, B, C and D and he joked when he ran tours to Russia, he used the whole alphabet as road conditions, attraction times, weather and other factors may change the tour. The downside to escorted coach tours is the bags out at 7, on the bus at 8 part of the tour if you are not a morning person. You have to get on the bus to go see things and you see a lot of things on a 7-14 day bus tour as you can see by the mileage notes above. I am a fly/drive or public transport (trains, long distance busses, etc.) guy most of my life so this is my first experience with escorted tours. The group dynamic is interesting as you get to meet tour participants from multiple countries and multiple age groups. Our group is fairly typical as the average age on an escorted coach tour statistically is 55 years old. You have to be fairly mobile to do an escorted tour even though they are able to bring the bus right into most attractions but once inside you have some walking as we did in the park yesterday. The TDs are aware that they have people with different mobility levels so the local guide indicated when we entered the park that we were walking a ways but had to return on the same path so you could stop and sit on a bench as we are returning and can pick you up on the way to the bus. If you have mobility issues with long distance walking tell the TD at the beginning of the tour as he/she will advise you about issues as you go along. From client feedback, I hear that there can sometimes can be “that guy” on a tour as with the group dynamic you hold up 45 people, if you are ten minutes late. We are conscientious to be on time and luckily the rest of this group seems to be very precise as we are moving out a few minutes early both days so far. The bus has a schedule and attractions have to be hit at precise times for space allocation. The Globus motor coaches are top quality busses so they are very comfortable with reclining seats and very large picture windows. They come with a bathroom but we are told that is mostly for emergencies as we will make regularly scheduled comfort stops along the way. In general, the TD tries to make interesting stops to break up the touring mileage with a lunch or comfort stop with a view. Our first stop was a (wooden) Stave Church at Heddal. These churches used to be all over Norway but many burned down over the years. This one goes back to 1100 AD so it has history including Norse Gods, Catholicism and finally the Protestant religion after the reformation that is predominate in Norway today. When we booked this tour, it was originally for the nature and beauty of the fjords. When you read a tour description, you will see highlights but also in the details, you will see things which you may or may not think you are interested in, but I suggest enjoying the whole tour with an open mind. The local church guide spoke of the stave church went through the history of the church and thus religion in Norway plus the architecture of the church. The congregation has a visitors center with hot coffee and local baked goods so this was a nice first stop even though I originally thought this was the day of the tour that I would be least interested in. The next stop on the map we plotted on Google as the Norwegian Industrial Worker’s Museum. After we left the church the TD began to speak personally of the Norwegian “resistance” which his father was a part of during the Nazi occupation of Norway. I realized this would be the history part of the tour and I always liked history. We were on the way to Vemork in the Telemark region of Norway; so we headed into the mountains and descended into a steep mountain valley which has such high narrow cliffs that they have mirrors on the mountain to get sunlight in the town square during the winter time as the sun never sees the valley floor for a few months in the winter. What if Hitler got a nuclear bomb? We transferred from the motor coach to shuttle busses which took us up to Vemork. This was the first large scale hydro- electric project in Europe from the late 1800s. The plant’s byproduct was “heavy” water. This was a fascinating story as the plant used the heavy water which can be produced from the hydro-electric process for fertilizer but could also be used for an atom bomb. Once Hitler occupied Norway, The Vemork plant became a prize of the Norwegian occupation and the Nazi’s accentuated the process to build a bomb during WW2. The Telemark area complex in Norway was a fascinating piece of history as the British originally tried to mount an operation to destroy the Vemork plant that ended in disaster. After that, the US bombed the plant but that did not destroy it so the Norwegian resistance fighters trained in England and parachuted into Telemark area during the winter and a second operation brought UK trained Norwegian resistance to mount an attack. The operation to destroy the plant was successful but Hitler rebuilt the plant within six months. Knowing the allies would eventually destroy the plant Hitler ordered the remaining heavy water shipped back to Germany so a final operation was successful that sank a local ferry and sent the remaining heavy water down 400 meters along with a few of the family, friends or neighbors of the saboteurs. We toured the plant, viewed a movie about the resistance fighters and had a bowl of soup for lunch. The TD indicated his father was a resistance fighter but did not participate in this particular operation. He did know some of the guys when they were senior citizens and we discussed the men who were pictured on the walls including one that was so disturbed by his war experience that he became a backwoods guide including being a guide for the queen of Norway. We are currently driving through Telemark regional Park on our way to the Rauland Hogfjellshotel which is more like a park lodge in the USA. It is raining a light mist as we get off the bus but clears into a cold bright sunset hour. We got a chance before dinner to take a hike up the hill to see a panoramic view. Tonight, we have an included buffet dinner at the hotel which is very good. Day 4 Telemark to Bergen Norway – 202 miles/325KM Our tour director has been in contact with the road authorities so he has changed bags out to 6:30A and on the bus at 7:30A. This saved us about 45 minutes wait time as there are a couple of construction sites on our morning drive. As my past work life was as a Caribbean tour operator this is my first escorted coach tour with Globus even though I am a Globus expert and having sold a lot of Globus over the past ten years. In the past, we have been doing a lot of European travel but we used a combination of public transport, long haul trains and an Auto Europe car rental only when needed plus we have taken two Avalon River Cruises. My biggest revelation on my first escorted tour is getting there is part of the experience. The first two days out of Oslo, we have covered a couple hundred miles per day. Touring is part of the experience as our coach has huge windows that Lucca apparently cleans every morning before we get on as they are crystal clear. The TD does commentary about the area as we pass through some of the prettiest scenery I have seen in Europe. Early in the morning, we spend an hour or so exiting the National Park on local roads as we climb down out of the mountains. We are learning more about our TD who is a former military man that specialized in survival training. In the winter off- season he takes a 6 day trip each year where he sleeps in snow caves and practices his cold weather skills so this area of Norway is very familiar to him personally. We get a comfort stop at a beautiful lake and end up at the Hardangerfjord for a crossing by ferry boat. It takes about 20 minutes to cross the fjord by car ferry and afterward it is another 45 minutes to the fruit farm where we are due for lunch. The scenery is again stunning along the fjord. The proprietress of the Steinsto Fruit Farm has the group for lunch with a cream of cauliflower soup that is delicious with cheese and bacon on top which is followed by her delicious apple cake. She tells some stories about operating the farm and her family who have worked this 15 acre farm since the middle 1600s. Her brother inherited the farm and when she returned to the farm her father suggested that she make apple cakes as they sell all the produce from the farm at a roadside fruit stand. At this point, she makes about 27,000 apple cakes per month. This is called a Local Favorite with Globus and it was certainly a Local Favorite for me as we got to taste the homemade apple juice and apple cider which is about 10% alcohol content. On the way to the ferry and farm we are driving about a half an hour along a finger of the fjord and once we cross the fjord on a bridge, we are working our way towards Bergen on the South side of the main fjord. Touring is the movement from place to place but the coach does not use the main roads in most instances it takes the scenic side roads so you are constantly seeing something interesting along the way. Our driver Lucca is Polish but has driven in Norway for many years so he is very skillful on the mountain roads. As I indicated yesterday, Globus Family of Brands only uses the best equipment so the motor coaches are very new and the seats are comfortable. We have limited satellite wi-fi on the bus depending on your topography and the temperature is always comfortable. I have always focused on the sightseeing attractions when describing escorted coach tours but having a Norwegian born expert on board with a microphone is interesting as he is providing color commentary and answering questions. As I have done many fly/drive vacations in my life, it is nice not to be the driver so you can just sit back in the comfortable seat and enjoy the scenery. We drive another 45 minutes on local roads along the fjord with beautiful scenery and then the last hour on the main road into Bergen. We arrive in Bergen around 4:30 PM and take an orientation drive through town. We have skipped the optional dinner on the mountain above Bergen in favor of an evening for two. I have Googled some restaurants but again the TD suggests something not on our list called Bryggeloftet & Stuene and it was again excellent. Gina had the lamb shank and I opted for the wolf fish. Both meals were excellent and the service was very attentive. We started with some really, fresh Norwegian mussels in a thick cream/butter sauce. Bergen was very quiet as we walked on a cold, clear night back to the Scandic Ornen hotel. Scandic was a very nice hotel that had a very good breakfast buffet. Day 5 Bergen via Voss & Flam to Stalheim Hotel – 87 miles/140KM Bags out was 7:40A and on the bus was 8:40A. Our first stop was the UNESCO Heritage site in Bergen, Norway called Bryggen which was a medieval wharf run by the Hanseatic League from 1360 to 1754. These were old wooden trading houses that bought fish for Southern Europe and traded grain (and other necessities) to the fisherman in payment. The docks and the fish market was right in front of this area. We got about an hour and twenty minutes free time to walk around and do some shopping before we are back on the coach to Voss which is about an hour and forty minutes. It is an enjoyable ride as we are touring again and looking at side fjords from the large glass windows. As we head out from Bergen, we follow the same road for a while that we came in on yesterday and later we pick up another road along the fjord heading towards Voss. I have now been riding along looking at fjords and lakes for two whole days. When I am not looking at fjords, I am seeing beautiful mountain streams that are running down to the fjord that will eventually end up in the North Sea. I want to emphasize that I have never really thought about the touring aspect of an escorted tour, as it is not just a bus ride from place to place but a journey along some of the prettiest roads in Norway on this particular trip. We are heading towards the Stalheim Hotel which is one of the eye candy hotels on the trip. TDs balance the cost of the tour so they have highlight hotels and tonight is one of our highlight hotels. The TD indicated that there are multiple pictures in the National Gallery that were actually painted at this hotel as it is at the top of the valley leading to the headwater of the Naeroyfjord. The TD does running commentary including updates on today and tomorrow’s schedule and interesting info on the history, culture and highlights of the country you are touring. Our TD is very good as he has a wealth of info about Norway’s culture, history and topography but all of Globus’ TDs are good as they are the backbone of the Globus tour program. They plan the tours, scout the hotels, attractions and local favorite stops. At each stop a “billboard” is hung at the hotel with times for tomorrow. Our lunch stop was a town called Voss, Norway that had mostly hotels, skiing in the winter and outdoor sports like kayaking and parasailing in the summertime. We stopped at a self-serve café that had a wonderful mushroom soup for lunch. I opted for the chocolate Boston crème cake with a thick layer of milk chocolate on top. It was a beautiful small town with a lakefront surrounded by rivers. We are touring a mountain road on the way to Flam where we are going to pick up a day cruise boat ride for two hours touring Aurlandfjord and Naeroyfjord which are side fjords of the huge Sognefjord. We are really lucky as Bergen and the surrounding areas can get up to 292 days of rain per year. We have had 5 days of warm sunny weather so we are told over and over again by the local Norwegians that this nice weather is not a usual occurrence this time of year. Aurlandfjord and Naeroyfjord was the most spectacular day that I have had in 35 years of tourism! I do not say that lightly as I have been many beautiful places in the world. The fjord in itself would be a spectacular 2 hour cruise through a UNESCO World Heritage Site but we were taking this cruise on a cloudless blue sky day. Our TD said he kayaks this fjord gorge from time to time and he has never seen the water glasslike flat with zero wave chop and wind. We depart Flam on a fully electric ferry that has two 600 watt electric engines. It can travel approximately 40 miles without recharge. Norway seems to be ahead of us with electrification of transport and they are desperately trying to protect the fjords from pollution and fight climate change as they are already being affected worse than many places in the world as they rely so heavily on hydro-electric power generation which does not work when the mountain lakes go dry. Fjords are supposed to be about as deep as the surrounding mountains are high so this must be a very deep fjord. A fjord is a brackish water inlet from the North Sea in this particular instance so we see people fishing along the way and also quite a few kayaks as there are outfitters in Flam and other places. We are sailing from Flam and arriving at Gudvangen which is the other end of this particular fjord arm where Lucca is waiting with the bus. We see small towns and settlements along the way and the ferry stops a few times to pick up or drop off passengers who are staying or living in places without car access. The TD tells a story about an American who fell in love with a Norwegian girl 20 years ago so he came back and they eventually married. He needed work and started a craft brewery that makes AEgir, which is one of the best craft beer brands in Norway and they have hot dogs cooking so we only split a dog as we already stopped for soup at the comfort stop but like Iceland hot dogs are one of the must haves on a Norway trip and they smell so good on the boat. We have always liked amber (red) beers and AEgir did not disappoint. It had a creamy texture but not too heavy with a beautiful balance of hops and flavor. The boat was very comfortable and our tour director made sure we had the best seats in the house by getting us there a little earlier than the rest of the groups, so we were first group in line to board so we are nearest the panoramic windows plus they have decks outside. After many years of experience they have learned how you need to sacrifice a little with departure times to make sure you get priority on the attractions which are the highlights of the tour plus they plan very full days as you are on-tour to see the country. About an hour into the 21 mile boat ride we make a left turn into a branch of the Naeroyfjord which puts us into the UNESCO World Heritage area of the fjord. I have spoken of this term before in my blogs as the United Nations has designated areas of the world that need to be protected because they are special areas of the world. These fjords are part of the longest and deepest fjords in Norway. We even see a pod of small whales that are the size of small dolphins. The walls above this fjord rise 1400 meters (about 4500 feet) above the gorge and the walls go underwater 500 meters (1600 feet) deep. The Norwegians have already said that no vessel with bunker oil or even LNG can travel though this particular part of the fjord to keep it protected and we are counseled not to let any trash go overboard. Again, I have to say this is one of the most spectacular days of travel because of the fjord and also because of the beautiful weather we are lucky enough to have in my 36 years of traveling the world. The temperature is dropping as we started the cruise at about 48f degrees and finish at about 40f. Lucca has met us with the coach so we are right onboard and off. As we are traveling by motorcoach with older people we get advice about last toilet for 40 minutes on the bus before the hotel. There is a bathroom on the coach, but we are asked at the beginning of the trip to only use the onboard bathroom at your own risk in emergencies because of the danger of being inside while we are driving on mountain roads. We arrive at the Stalheim Hotel just in time for pictures before sunset at about 5:45. Stalheim is where one of the Kings of Norway proposed to his bride and I am sure it was a grand hotel in its day. The lobby and lounge are filled with antiques in cases and also on the walls but the hotel has seen a better day even though the view is one of the highlights of the tour. The TD indicated the owner is older and sick so we expect this will change hands at some point and become a grand hotel again someday as the location and view are one of the best in the world. We see a Conde Naste Traveler poster on the wall of the 12 best hotel views in the world and Stalheim is one of those views. We get our quick pictures and head upstairs to freshen up. We are suggested since it is a grand hotel to change out of our hiking boots and travel clothes and we enjoy a nice buffet dinner with a chilled seafood bar including huge boiled shrimp, mussels and the ever present Norwegian herring and salmon prepared multiple ways. This tour is unusual as it has more meals than normal including breakfast daily, 7 dinners and lunch at the apple farm. All other meals are our responsibility but the TD has been spot on with restaurant suggestions on our free nights. We turn in early and get a great night sleep at Stalheim as it is a silent environment with dark night and millions of stars. We are both early in the calendar and south of the Arctic Circle for the northern lights (Aurora Borealis) which are more reliably seen in the North of Norway in the winter. Day 6 Stalheim to Loen Norway – 146 miles/235KM We have another early call with bags out at 7A and bus at 8:10. Stalheim has a smaller more Norwegian breakfast buffet with simple boiled eggs instead of scrambled or an egg station but lots of choices including pancakes, a fruit bar, homemade breads and antipasto. We head back to Flam (the same starting point as the fjord cruise) for the Flamsbama mountain railroad. Flam Railroad is a 2 hour tour with one hour in each direction up and down the mountain. The train takes you from Flam at sea level to Myrdal mountain station 867 meters (2700 feet) above sea level where people can make connections to Norwegian Rail to Oslo. This is a very scenic ride and we are only a third full this time of year so we can move around to get empty seats were we can easily view from the windows. The Flam Railway makes a stop for five minutes to view a beautiful waterfall Kjosfossen where they have built a viewing platform and all the mountain valleys have pretty views. Small waterfalls are everywhere in Norway so we estimate we have seen 50 or so today. We are advised to use the rest rooms on the train as we are boarding immediately as we have an appointed time to meet the ferry to cross the fjord. We make a 20 minute ferry crossing on the main part of Sognefjord and continue to head north across Norway. We make a lunch stop at the mall in Sogningen Norway where the TD has called ahead to place called Café Prego to alert of a bus arrival so they make enough minestrone soup for a whole bus full. The one and one half hour stop allows for some shopping, the grocery or replace a gadget cord. We hit the Wine Monopoly store for a couple of French Gran Crus for our hotel days off. Every day the touring is beautiful and today is no exception. We are beginning to see the glaciers on the top of the mountain and even some fresh snow on the mountaintops even now at the end of September. The second attraction of the day is the Glacier Museum which has an excellent movie. The TD is in communication by phone with his attractions so he announces that the movie will start in about 5 minutes, so let’s do that first. The glacier movie was filmed by drone and was an excellent description of the 4 seasons up on the glacier and glacial exploration. After that we tour the climate change exhibition which was also very well done and then there is another exhibition where you can go inside the glacier. We have a very nice day still so we are taking a beautiful ride through the mountains along the Nord Fjord on the way to Loen. Loen is an adventure sports town with kayaks and paddleboards plus with the mountain and The Loen Sky Lift, they even do hang gliding, wing suits and even base jumping off the mountain. We are taking a walk and see a hang glider land right near us. The TD announces on the bus that these will be the two best buffets of the trip and he is right again. Tonight we have a huge buffet dinner including a cold bar with shrimp, stone crabs, cheese bar and then a great selection of hot foods including a carving station, Italian food and a delicious venison stew. Day 7 Loen at leisure We have a much needed day off as we have had quite a few early calls with 8 am or earlier bus call. This is a big country this tour has a very fast pace. Some days we have covered approximately 200 miles per day on the scenic secondary highways. We are given a ticket to the sky lift as the only activity for the day so we are up late and head to the sky lift about 11A. The sky lift is a quick 6 minute ride to the top of the mountain that overlooks Loen, Norway. On top of the mountain is a beautiful visitor’s center, café and restaurant plus hiking trails and even a zipline. From the Hoven arrival point, we take a 2.2 Kilometer hike to the top of the ridge so the round trip on top of the mountain is about 2.75 miles. The 360 degree views are fantastic and we are able to clearly see the 3 glaciers that surround Loen. After a couple of hours on the hiking trail on top of the mountain, we head to the restaurant to kill the middle of the day. Hansa the Norwegian national beer is a very good beer so we had a couple with a wood fired pizza topped with cheese, chopped tomato garlic salad and black olives. It was supposed to rain the morning, but luckily the rain is running late so we have a very nice day and sit atop the mountain with the panoramic views over Nord Fjord and the surrounding glacial/snow-capped mountains. As I wrote this blog on the bus, I spend a few hours in the room organizing pictures and movies as you have to get everything backed up to the laptop in case of a camera memory failure and even double backup the laptop to a memory stick as you only get one chance at the pictures and movies I show you in this blog. Dinner is again a great experience and you always get a glass of wine with Globus so even the house wine is good as the hotel has a 30 page wine list and does wine tasting sessions at the hotel. The hotel is full with 3 busses and a trade show that starts Friday, so it is a busy night and we head upstairs after dinner as our alarm call is 5:50A. Day 8 Loen to Lillehammer Norway – 211 Miles/340KM Our weather luck ran out this morning but the TD said we have been richly rewarded weather-wise already at this point for this time of year. It is foggy, colder with a light misty rain falling as we get on the bus at 7:50A. The mountain valleys I am riding through have pretty heavy fog this morning and the coach windshield wipers are running as we head for the ferry/fjord. Today is not as beautiful weather as our last fjord cruise but we actually get a break during the day where it is overcast but not raining. Geirangerfjord is the second fjord listed as a UNESCO Heritage site in Norway so we are seeing both on this tour. This one has more waterfalls than the previous UNESCO site but a light rain is falling as I photograph the fjord and Gina is inside with her coffee but the ferry has large windows. On the last ferry, Lucca met us with the bus at the other end. This fjord is a car/bus ferry going one way so Lucca and bus come along as we cruise up the fjord. As we end the fjord cruise a light rain is falling but the typography of the fjord is still pretty spectacular as the walls go straight up from the water. The captain says the Geirangefjord is about 200 feet deep as he points out waterfalls and former settlements above the fjord. We have skipped the panoramic view from the Geiranger Skywalk in Dalsnibba as the attraction has closed due to the first snowfall of the year and the chance for black ice on the road even though it is only September 23. We do stop at a different overlook to see the valley and fjord we are leaving. This is the last tour of the year so we are rewarded with good weather and smaller crowds but hotels are closing after our departure, times are changing for establishment opening and we missed one attraction on top of the mountain because of weather. It is about an hour and a half to our lunch stop in Lom, Norway. Our bus driver is carefully negotiating a bunch of switch-backs as we climb to the top of the mountain pass from the valley of the fjord. This days touring is very beautiful as we go over the mountain pass and we see the glacial lakes beginning to fill with fast moving streams as it has been raining overnight so they are running faster than the beginning of the week. As the TD picks up the mic to tell us that this area could have Moose, we hear him excitedly shout “Moose, Moose, Moose!” instead of making the announcement that they might be in the area. At that point everybody on the bus can see a large moose cross right in front of the bus. Luckily it was not a few seconds later or it could have been a collision as the driver gears down quickly and we see the moose climb up into a field near the road bed. He is a large moose and once across the road, he stops and looks back as if he wants to greet the bus that is passing by so everybody gets pictures. Our lunch stop is the tourist town of Lom where Gina and I split a cheddar burger and fries plus a chicken Caesar salad. I see bottles of beer lined up behind the cashier and ask is that a local micro-brew? She helps us translate so Gina can have a red and she says the winterfest beer is actually a prize winner in the local micro-brew competition so I take advantage of traveling Europe in the fall to have a taste of winterfest. She really likes the amber and I see why the winterfest was a prize winner as these are actually better than the great beer we had on the Flam ferry. We only have an hour and 10 minutes for lunch so we all scurry back to the bus in a light rain. As I have done fly/drive vacations for most of my life where I am usually the driver, I am pleased with the concept of touring from a comfortable seat where I don’t have to keep my eyes on the road. It is nice to move through the countryside and be able to concentrate on the scenery instead of the highway. Many days we have purposely taken the slow scenic route instead of the highway. The tour director is responsible for route planning and has vast experience with each of the stops so he points out the good restaurants, bakeries and cafes when we stop and are on our own for lunch. As it is a bus of middle aged and older people, there is always a discussion of bathrooms including warning that this is the last one for two hours and other suggestions. As I write this blog, we have made the last stop for the day and with the 6A alarms everybody has set there are a lot of people taking afternoon naps on the bus, Right now I am in a beautiful valley punctuated by large farms and a huge river with class 2 or 3 rapids and smooth areas that looks very fun to run by kayak The farms are very pretty as they all have huge stacks of wood and everybody already has their hay rolls under plastic with sheep and cows grazing everywhere and the leaves are changing so this looks like a fall foilage tour in New England in this valley with yellows and reds mixed into the green tree canopy. Day 9 Lillehammer to Oslo – 124 Miles/200KM Today we are a little more relaxed as it is a shorter drive to Oslo. Bags are out at 8A and departure is 9:10A for the Lillehammer Olympic Park. Our first stop is the ski jumping platform for an Olympic story but this morning, there is a road rally starting at the Olympic ski jump. With some negotiation on the TDs part, we are able to get the bus up the hill for a drop off. The TDs try to get the busses as close as they can so they are drop us off. We have an easy walk down the hill as the officials eject the bus immediately upon drop off. The TD has been a skier his whole life and ski jumped as a kid plus he had volunteered in the past with the para-Olympic organization in Norway. The road race of the morning is a vintage car race so we get a bonus as we are held for the start of the race to see up close when the cars peel out. After that, we head to the Mailhaugen Open Air Museum which was more interesting than I expected. A Dentist in the 1800s collected old buildings and began to turn them over to the municipality in Lillehammer. Our local guide is very interesting and takes you through the history of Scandinavia via the buildings in the open air museum. She talks about life during the stages of history as we envision how people live and she does an amusing imitation of the school teacher when we “go to school” at the schoolhouse. The museum also has a permanent exhibition about how the Norwegians tamed the earth since the ice age. We are back on the bus and the TD is going through departure procedures. This guy is very thorough and people are departing as early as 3:30A. If you buy your air from Globus it will include an airport transfer automatically. If you buy air separately, you can purchase airport transfers at a cost of about $45 per person. We will arrive Oslo about 3PM so those departing directly in the AM will get a few hours to walk Oslo before the farewell dinner that is included at the hotel. We head out, do some shopping and hit an Irish pub before dinner. We enjoy the farewell dinner at the hotel and we say goodbye to our traveling companions who were all very nice people. Day 10 Oslo to the Oslo airport - 22 miles/36KM Because we are flying a low-cost airline, they do not depart daily so we have done an extra night at the Radisson Blu at the airport to get the nonstop flight to Orlando. That is a great trick to stay at the airport hotel if you have an early morning flight as the Oslo airport is about an hour from downtown. We plan to check out at the appropriate time and have the hotel store our luggage so we can walk the Palace Gardens and eat an early dinner before returning to the hotel to fetch our luggage about six or seven PM. After that, we will roll two blocks to the train station and take the direct train to the airport so we can walk next door to the hotel. Day 10 Hurrican Ian in Tampa - Change of Plans and off to Fort Lauderdale - 22 miles/36KM As Hurricane Ian is still churning south of Cuba I check email and sure enough our flight for Monday is cancelled to Orlando because of hurricane warnings. Norse Air has surprisingly good customer service even though they do not have a phone number we are quickly rebooked for Sunday on the last plane to Florida as we have to get home to rebook clients and board up the houses. We land at FLL late Sunday afternoon, but my phone is still on Norway time and it says 9:30P and as usual US customs/immigration is 1.5 hour mess even though air ticket taxes are high they are understaffed on a Sunday evening when everybody is coming home. I suggest a hotel and we head down to the Marriott on Hollywood Beach where I went to high school. Joe’s Stone Crab has a location at Hollywood Beach now but they were closed for renovation. We ended up at GGs for some awesome seafood and a walk on the Hollywood Boardwalk back to the hotel. Drop the rental Monday afternoon and pick up our car in Orlando for an evening arrival in Tampa. As I plot the hurricane it calls for it to be in Tampa Bay on Wednesday so we’ll run the hurricane drill on Tuesday to board up our and Mom’s house. Luckily, we got missed again but much damage across Southwest Florida. Ok John, it is your first bus tour so what is your conclusion? Touring across a country on an escorted motor coach was very enjoyable. It is a more active vacation as bags go outside of your room each day before 8A but rather more about exploration of a country you want to see. This tour was faster paced than many others as we only had 2 nights in Oslo and again in Loen. All the other cities we only had one night with arrival late afternoon and departure first thing in the morning or in the case of Bergen later in the morning so we had some free time before boarding the bus. On most tour packages they already include porterage, so somebody from the hotel comes around and picks up all the tagged bags to get them on the bus. The TD says they have a triple check system with the hotel, the TD and the driver to make sure they do not leave any bags behind at the hotel. The companies ask you to travel with only one bag less than 50 pounds and a knapsack but many people have larger carry-on bags than fit on the bus so the driver collects those and puts them in the belly of the bus for people each day. At the next hotel, they reverse the process so everybody has bags outside their rooms usually within 1 hour of arriving at that night’s hotel. You do get free time in the evening in the big cities if you don’t opt for the optional dinner offered on some nights where dinner is not included. As this is a Globus Tour (which is their higher-end product) we are staying at better hotels so the meals have been quite good and the city locations centrally located. We are doing buffets in most places but we also have plated meals with one or two entrée choices in some cities. Lucca (our driver) and Oivind (our tour director) are pictured above. The big point of an escorted coach tour is to see the best of a country or multiple countries. This is a one country tour but Norway is a very big country. I imagine that panorama tours where you visit five countries and ten cities in 2 weeks are about this fast pace. Other tours have two nights in each place so they are slower paced so you get a day off between coach movements but regardless the point of an escorted motor coach tour is to see attractions and scenery of a particular place with a local guide who is native to the destination. The TD does running commentary about the area including background and points out sights along the way. You have to learn how to live out of a suitcase so each night we laid out clothes and are traveling with our toothbrushes in our carry-on bag so we could brush after breakfast since the bags go out about the time you leave for the dining room. Overall, this was a great vacation and we got to see most of the highlights of Southern Norway and the western Norwegian fjord area. Oivind was a great tour guide but the whole Globus system is based on great tour guides, so we are not surprised. The TD had a great knowledge of his country and a military background so he has become very refined at handling group movements. There is always a discussion of what is coming next and what we need to plan for plus a detailed description of wherever we are going when we step off the bus (enter here, bathrooms there, etc.). As he said, he always has a plan A and a plan B so when you get minor time changes or factors like our road race in Lillehammer, you have somebody to negotiate the changes. Check in at the hotel was always easy as we had keys out at a table and we are told room numbers before we step off the coach. Sometimes you might have liked a little more time is some places but you have to get to the next city, attraction or hotel on time. You can always go back and spend independent travel time in that city sometime in the future, if you really liked a particular city. On this particular tour, I thought that they could have included one extra night in Bergen but when we got to Loen I saw why he wisely put the two night stay in that particular town as it was a spectacular environment to rest with the sky lift where you can walk the mountain on a good trail system overlooking the fjord. When we were on top of the mountain, we talked with Oivind about why don’t you just add an extra day in Bergen to this tour? As a travel professional and tour operator for 36 years, I am still learning at 62 years of age as his answer was “weekend to weekend” meaning that working people only have so many days. Plus Bergen is the rainiest city in Norway which is no fun for shopping as it has precipitation 292 days a year. The average age on escorted motor coach tours is 55 years old and sure enough, one night a 40 year old dinner companion said “I only needed to take six days off work since we started and ended on a weekend”. As I put together independent travel itineraries, I already know there is always a compromise with what you see versus extra days and extra expense, so that all makes sense. Overall, it was a great experience being on tour with Globus Tours. I am more confident than ever that our agency has chosen the right supplier (along with a stable of other brands) as one of our preferred tour companies. My clients have expressed satisfaction with Globus Tours and many have taken multiple tours after their first one that I sent them on which is the ultimate reward for any vendor. Clients always compliment the logistics, the Tour Directors, the motor coaches/drivers, the choice/location of hotels and the culture offered through the local favorites and local guides chosen by the company. Norse Air did a great job both directions. If they continue with the nonstop Orlando service, it is an opportunity for clients from this area to go and see Norway with a nonstop flight from Florida. Norway was a wonderful country with friendly people and we saw it with a “local” (our TD Oivind). We were lucky enough to get good weather on almost all days even though we had a few that were overcast but while we can make sure all your logistics work out, we sadly cannot guarantee everybody stellar weather, like we experienced. After our experience on the Globus Best of Norway (tour code ZQ) I will continue to sell Globus Family of Brands (Globus, Globus Escapes, Cosmos and Avalon Waterways River Cruises). What about covid breakthroughs? (Editor’s note this blog is being written at the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic) I am heartened that we are heading into our second week on the bus but, so far; nobody has had a covid breakthrough and we are past the one-week point. Earlier in the season we have seen multiple breakthroughs, so maybe we are settling down with covid problems now that everybody has shots and also have caught covid by now so we are all building up natural immunity in addition to vaccinations. A few people chose to wear masks in tight situations but it seems that we have are ending the pandemic as we seem to have stabilized from our experience that we had no problems on a 9 night tour even through many of us did not use masks. We used masks coming through the airport and getting to Oslo as it was the beginning of a well anticipated trip and we wanted to start healthy. Once onboard the coach we did not wear masks as we were on a bus with this same group all week so if we had break through infections on the bus, it would be up to your individual immunity to protect us. We are traveling in September and both experienced a covid-19 breakthrough in July; so our belief is we had extra immunity from the Omicron variant. We are expecting for 6 months or so we have a “covid get out of jail free card” and thus our late booking of this fall tour to Norway which was spectacular overall. It is so great to get back to travel after the pandemic, so call our agency if you want to get on the road again. I feel lucky to have had two great European trips in two years but we are making up for lost time.