Solvorn to Ålesund

Fortunately I am at another hotel that has breakfast included and I don’t have to leave so early to miss it. I am heading to Ålesund (west coast of Norway) to return the rental car today and I am relieved because I am tired of driving. First I want to visit a stave church at the nearby village of Ornes (Urnes Stave church). The church doesn’t open until 10:30 AM and there is a ferry ride to get there. The ferry leaves from the small town of Solvorn. While waiting for the 10 AM ferry I walk around town along the water. Also during this time I have a chance to evaluate the ferry situation and realize that it is loads of trouble to take your car on this kind of ferry since you have to back it in. The walk once you get off the ferry is only 15-20 minutes to the church (says the nearby sign). The best idea seems to be to leave the car at the port and walk onto the ferry instead; most of the people here decide to do the same. Backing in the car seems too complicated and a perfect scenario to go wrong.

The ferry ride is relatively short but pretty. Once we get to the other side it is apparent that the walk to the church is entirely uphill. I guess I need a cardiovascular workout anyway since most of my day will be spent driving.

Once at the top they are about to open the Urnes Stave church (a UNESCO protected church) in a few minutes for a tour. It is one of the oldest preserved stave churches in Norway with a piece of the building going back to 1100’s. Many of such churches were destroyed or fell apart due to neglect for various reasons over time. The name stave represents the columns used to construct this style of church. Due to many additions over the years additional supporting beams had to be added because basically people building the additions had no construction or engineering experience. The church is a nice mix of old medieval styles. You can see the distinct animal scenes on the outside. There used to be over a thousand of such churches around the country but now only 28 remain. Norway takes good care to protect the churches that are left.

After a visit to the church I swiftly walk down the hill because the ferry is to return in 20 minutes and I dont want to wait another hour for the next one. Fortunately I make it. The drive ahead is long and there are more delays. I eventually make it to the airport around 6:00 PM. The rental counter is already closed for the day so I drop the keys in the drop area and head out to the bus to take me to Alesund city.

Alesund is an old fishing town that is know for its Art Noveau architecture. I admire the architecture and get an early dinner. Yes it is pizza again. I try to get Mexican tonight but the Mexican restaurant is full with no seats available. I don’t have the patience to wait.

Many of these pics are taken after 9 pm. Lots of light here.

I fully expect to get a good night’s sleep and let my body wake up whenever it wants but the universe has another plan. It seems like someone has set some dumb alarm clock on the TV and it turns on loudly at 6 am. When I wake up I am rarely able to go back to sleep. I enjoy the full breakfast downstairs and then take my time to head out to enjoy town. I could have planned hiking up a hill or taking a cruise to an island to look at some birds but I do none of that; instead I leisurely walk around a normally quiet city that is alive today with people running a marathon and daily cruise ship visitors. I spend some time watching a charming band playing music as they ride a boat in the canal.

I catch lunch at a tapas place because the fish and chips line is taking too long.

I stop in some shops and then pick up some snacks for my travels tomorrow.

I spend the rest of the afternoon trip plannning because I am behind and I meet with my friends tomorrow. I doubt I’ll get any “work” done once I join my friends so I have to take my planning time whenever I can get it. Eventually I’ll get to the point where the rest of my travels are planned and I just enjoy. I am sure it will come soon enough.

Plethora of Trolls from last couple days

I am happy to meet up with friends tomorrow but sad to leave this region so soon. I cut my time here short to save money since it is expensive to travel around Norway compared to other countries I am visiting. If I were to plan this trip again I would double the time here, take the drives slower and maybe do some hikes along the way. Another place to add back to the list.

Norway: Beautiful Views and Long drives

After breakfast I head out early to my longest day of driving. I first have to take a ferry and then I am on my way to Trollstigen, a scenic driving road in Norway.

Some last pictures of the fjord at Ørnevegen (scenic spot) before I head on the ferry.

Lots of ferries involved in a Norway road trip

The road is already starting to get scenic before I even get to the real curvy part. We are obviously on some sort of peak. It is white and beautiful. I enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures before I move on to the Trollstigen viewpoint.

Not too far away is an observation area of the famous pass. I admire all the curves and try to get up the courage to start my journey. The land in the distance is so green and vast. It is very beautiful to see.

I start the ride down. Interestingly enough Cheap Trick’s Surrender plays while I am driving down Trollistigan. I am surrendering to the road one can say. Luckily I am in a smaller car and I am patient with the buses who need to stop frequently and take turns navigating through narrow spots. These drivers are skilled to do this all the time. I stop at the bottom and stand in line to take a photo with the troll sign that marks the journey – unfortunately I arrive at the parking lot just after a tour bus arrives so I have to wait forever patiently for my turn.

Now I am on my way to Lom and then Sognefjellet, a historic pass road. I make a pit stop to take some roadside troll pictures. I love these trolls!

Then I get my first gas station hotdog and find a real diet Coke. Apparently gas station hot dogs are a popular route for road trippers because you don’t really see many restaurants or fast food options available in this part of Norway. My hotdog isn’t impressive but keeps the hunger away for now. Also this is the first real Diet Coke I’ve seen in months (or coke light the equivalent). It seems like parts of Europe I’ve visited lately only carry regular coke or Coke Zero and I dislike Splenda and Stevia equally. When I want something other than coffee or water I’ve been splurging on regular cokes and I really don’t like consuming that much sugar on the regular.

I am starting to regret that stop for the hotdog because between that and a 30 minute road closure I miss the Lom Stave church visit by 5 minutes. I am too late to enter but smell the wood and smokey smell from the outside. It would have been cool to see the inside but this is over two hours from my hotel tonight so it won’t be feasible tomorrow.

I go in the direction of my hotel tonight taking another historic route: Sognefjellsvegen – The National Tourist Route. Beautiful vistas, snow topped mountains. I see old grave sights and cross country skiers. So many lovely vistas I have seen in one day alone.

But alas I am exhausted and happy when I get to my hotel for the night in the town of Laegrid. It is still bright as can be but after such a long day I just want to rest after a lackluster pizza. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to visit another stave church nearby plus I have a another long day of driving.

Norway: Geirangerfjorden

The next couple days are essentially spent in the car. I have planned a couple stops in the middle of the fjords in central Norway and everything is a long drive to get there.

I fly from Stavanger to Oslo then I am suppposed to catch a flight to Alesund. There are two alesund flights at the same time but I don’t realize it and see the gate number for the first one that catches my eye; the gate is across the airport a couple terminals over from where I land. The flight in question starts boarding and I realize it must be the wrong flight because the flight number doesn’t match ; but really what alerts me is the star alliance announcement because I didn’t think I was on a star alliance flight. I am waiting at the wrong flight. I have to run back across the airport and I’m sure I’ve missed my flight. While I am running my metal water bottle crashes on the tile floor and it seems like the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. Luckily the previous flight is still exiting the plane. I feel like in most cases the gate would already be closed and I’d have to book another flight. Sure got my cardio in this morning. Way to elevate that heart rate.

I fly into Alesund. My flight is very empty so I move to the window seat in my row to get the great view.

The airport is small and it takes no time at all to get my bag and get out the door. I pick up my rental car which of course is another brand new vehicle I am going to worry about hurting. It is bigger than I like but hopefully it takes the mountain pass roads well. As far as driving I am finding Norwegian drivers (or tourists here) to be polite and conscientious drivers. Despite the tight roads it seems safe enough. I do see one camper van take out part of another camper van’s mirror in a tight spot.

There are lots of tunnels at the beginning of my drive and one ferry before I reach the ferry I have planned in advance, the Geirangerfjord ferry ride – a must do if you are in the region.

My ticket is for the 3:30 PM Geirangerford ferry in Hellyst which is a good thing because I arrive just as the 12:30 PM ferry is leaving. I want to make sure my ticket is accurate and I can leave my car to get lunch but the one younger man working the car line seems flustered and overwhelmed. It seems there is confusion over tickets and quite a few ended up missing their 12:30 PM ferry so he is bombarded with those people as well as those who have arrived for the next ferry without tickets yet. I patiently wait and finally get his attention to find out my ticket is accurate and where to place my car to wait. I head off to look for food. It seems like there is only one open restaurant in this town and seems to be pizza only. I visit the local supermarket instead and get some berries and ingredients for a do it yourself sandwich. Picnic tables along the water are perfect to watch boats and birds while I eat my lunch. I take a short walk around the town to visit the water fall and a historic bathing house. There is still more time to wait so I go back to my car to read and try to nap.

Eventually the ferry arrives and we drive onboard. This ride is over an hour so after you park below it is essential to go upstairs and get a view of the fjords. It is supposed to be one of the most scenic ferry rides and it is. Some sights are pointed out on the way and one of them is the seven sisters waterfall.

I drive off the ferry in Geiranger and there is a cute tourist town by the water. My only concern at this point is checking into my hotel though so I drive up the hill in that direction. There are many steep switchbacks to get to the hotel and with each one it is becoming more apparent that my plan of heading into town for dinner is not going to happen because I will not have the energy to walk back up tonight. You need to be in fantastic shape to even be a tourist in Norway it seems. Luckily the hotel has a restaurant. The menu is limited but I decide to treat myself to a steak. Before dinner I admire the views of the town from above.

I wish I had planned two nights in Geiranger so I could have had a day to relax in town. I am too tired tonight to make the trip down to town and I have too much driving to do tomorrow to add on a visit to town in the morning, Maybe I will return sometime in the future.

Part 3 : Heading back to Ljubljana

I wake up way earlier than expected disappointed because I actually want to sleep in this morning. I pack up early for my drive back to Ljubljana. I have my last two climbs up that very long uphill path to get the car out of the tight garage. I am pleased to find no dings on my door. People in Slovenia must just be very considerate and careful. I see that there are parking spaces I can park for 30 minutes closer to apartment (but still a steep walk uphill). I try to parallel park along the stone walls but it is proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. I am backing up into a steep and curvy parallel spot. While I try to straighten the car out it seems impossible because of the uneven stone road. I think the car has some automatic no collision feature on because I feel it trying to stop me from doing things. The alarms are also screaming at me if I get too close to a wall. However the screaming is warranted because even though I don’t hit a wall I am seconds from getting one of my back tires caught in this deep moat like thing along the stone wall. Things could have been bad. I will be so glad when I get rid of this car.

I finally get my backpack and return the garage key card and say goodbye to my host. And one more steep walk uphill. You should see my legs. They haven’t looked this good in like ten years. It is amazing what 4 days of intense hills and stairs will get you.

I decide to stop at the Technical Museum of Slovenia (Tehniški muzej Slovenije) on the way back to Ljubljana. The museum is basically building after building of items related to technical advancements.

The collection is large and vast but the museum is very popular for its extensive collection of cars, some that once owned to the beloved leader of Yugoslavia Josep Tito. How many cars does a communist leader need?

There is an old monastery on site and weird rooms of taxidermy animals. They must have put lots of time into this museum in the past; now much of it is outdated.

Finally make it to the car rental place. They dont do an inspection right away but I inspected and I think there is absolutely no damage. I take the bus back to town. Luckily the walk to my hotel is much shorter this time. I am staying in a proper hotel the next two nights. I like that is closer to the bus station since I have a bus scheduled in 2 days.

I still think Ljubljana is charming. I could make time in town to visit a museum or two but I am happy just walking around. I finally eat at a restaurant I had been eyeing last time called Julija. I order the special ravioli they have on the menu and a side of grilled vegetables.

After dinner I walk back towards my hotel contemplating stopping at a cafe when I come across another festival in the area by the church. This time it is a burger and beer festival. I am sad I already ate since the burgers smell good. I stroll along the water and pick up some pistachio ice cream. The pistachio ice cream I get in the Balkans is different. The nuts are put into the ice cream in more of a nut butter format like you would expect in a jar of peanut butter. The pistachio I’ve eaten elsewhere is always an overly processed thing thoroughly blended into the cream.

The next day I only leave the room to eat and run some errands. I need some warm weather shirts because it is starting to get warm everywhere I go and my wardrobe is heavy on the long sleeve shirts.

I finally try Kodila meat market and take a chance by ordering the Bujta repa (fermented turnip stew) and I am rewarded. I normally avoid anything related to sauerkraut but the sour turnip plus pork plus paprika really works for me. The waiter calls it hangover food. I am not hungover but I guess I might be working on one today with my two glasses of wine with lunch. I also try again the Prekmurska gibanica cake. It is like before, it is a semi sweet cake. It’s something in theory I should love because I don’t love sweet things but its not my favorite Slovenian dessert; I very much prefer Bled cake.

For this evening I have a fancy Michelin dinner scheduled. It’s up at Ljubljana castle. I take the funicular up the hill. Even though it is a long wait today for the funicular I am early. I walk along the free parts of the castle while I wait for my reservation. I am eventually seated on the terrace. I am used to dining alone but I always feel awkward when I do the fine dining because normally I read a book while eating to pass the time and it somehow doesn’t feel appropriate at the fancier meals. The food is good but it isn’t the best Michelin food I’ve had. Maybe I’ve had enough of the fancy foam dishes for a while. Give me some local favorite comfort foods instead.

The heavy meal and wine exhausts me for the evening. I head back to the hotel to pack since tomorrow I travel on to the next country, Hungary.

Caves of Slovenia

In the region of caves I booked a ticket to see the Postojna Cave and the nearby Predjama castle. From what I researched Postojna seemed like the lesser of the big caves in the region so I did not prioritize it, instead booking the Skocjan Cave ahead of time (scheduled tomorrow). After driving an hour away to the Postojna cave I am now thinking I have that reversed. Getting there early to not miss my start time I stop in for coffee and a strudel since I left before breakfast this morning.

I line up for my cave entrance time and they start scanning tickets about 15 minutes before start. All those that have requested audio guides go off into a separate room to pick up the guide. We also all enter the train together. Train? Yes there is a train to take us 3.5 km to the walking portion of the tour. This cave is the second longest cave system in the country made famous by its karst or limestone landscape. Formed by an underground river, the stalagmites and stalactites are quite impressive to look at. As I walk through the cave drops of water fall periodically from above proving the cave is still a work in progress. We walk 1.5 miles through the cave, get a look at a “dragon”-like cave creature and then we take the train back out.

During the tour of Postonja we end up in a cavern like area where there is good acoustics. It is common to have Christmas concerts here. Toward the end is a river running along the cave.

After my visit to the cave I hop in the car and drive about 10 km to Predjama Castle, a castle built into the rocks and around another cave system. It is pretty impressive how it is built, security being its top priority. Apparently it is too damp to be a permanent residence but it provided great protection to attackers for it being high up and its vast cave system that could be used for escape routes. I was able to visit a bit of the upper cave but I am too early in season to visit the caves below because bats use it for hibernation during many months of the year. The audio guide there talked about a couple of the past residents and uses but the most interesting is the Robin Hood like character that lived there for a while. He had quite the reputation for robbing the rich.

Tomorrow I go see another cave so we will see how it stands up to the one today.

I head back to Piran for some food and drink. I am craving some ćevapi and luckily they have a Bosnian restaurant in town. It is very good but some rude guy next to me felt the need to interrupt my meal and tell me I am eating my ćevapi wrong. I tell him I’ve been to Bosnia and know how they eat cevapi and can eat it how I please. He seems very proud of him self for “correcting” me. I basically tell him to mind his own business since he isn’t even Bosnian.

After eating I find a place at a cafe and have myself a happy hour and do some reading. It is a nice and relaxing way to end my day.

Škocjan Cave

In the morning they are setting up for a market. I hope it will still be active when I return to town later.

My tour for the caves starts at 10 am. I am early and I wait for the guide to gather us to walk us the kilometer or so down to the cave entrance. A group of men arrive as what seems like a stag party. There is a bar at the cave entrance. They start doing rounds of shots and cheering “OPA!”. It seems to be a lively group. They separate all of us by what language we understand for the tour. Each group enters a few minutes after the other.

I am visiting Skocjan caves and the first thing that comes into mind touring this cave is that this is some goonies sh*t. What I mean by that is that the high cave paths and views down below make me think of the movie Goonies, a favorite from my childhood. The cave was first discovered BC but was majorly explored in the 1900’s. It is culturally significant and added to the UNESCO list in 1986 (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/390/). We explore via a modern made path but as we walk along thee cave you can see the old path the explorers made, a pretty impressive feat. Unfortunately they have a very strict no photo policy inside (though ignored by the woman in front of me who made me stop constantly so she could take her illicit photos). I have borrowed a photo from the unesco site so you can get an idea of how impressive it is inside.

Photo of inside Škocjan Cave (credit to Borut Lozej from unesco site)

After our inside tour there are a couple different exit options. Don’t take exit 2 unless you just like stairs. Take elevator or long cave exit. Nothing to gain by exit 2 which I took. I felt I’d be too lazy to take the elevator and I didn’t have it in me to take the longer cave exit; although I regret it later. I do catch a little waterfall on my way out.

Afternoon in Piran

I return to Piran for the afternoon. There is a band playing with an accordion and tuba and I’m eating pizza at an outdoor cafe. I’m confused if I am in Slovenia, Italy or Germany right now, there seems to be a mix of cultures here. There is a flea market going on. People are selling various things like antiques, light fixtures, baskets, and jarred foods. Along with the band people are singing in the courtyard.

I take some time to do my laundry since I’ve been sweating through everything here near the sea. While I wait for my laundry I watch the singing groups perform at the square outside. It must be some sort of informal music festival, or do they do this every week.

I finally eat at the recommended restaurant in that very same courtyard. There is very strange way of getting a table compared to the rest of town. I wait in the unmarked line like I am told and watch at least two couples “steal” tables anyway, even after learning the rules. Once you have a table you can go order from the window. There is a waiter but that is for drinks only. You must pay attention for your number to be called. I eat one of the best plates of fried calamari I think I’ve ever had. If I had more time I’d come back and order the grilled ones.