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Scandinavia trip
  • Dan Bowen

Scandinavia trip

A 15-day adventure by Dan Read more
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  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Study part II

    April 16, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    After a late brunch of overnight oats, it's was time to press on with the study. We applied a third and final coat of paint, then tidied up and secured the desk wrap with our old and dear friend duct tape.

    Since everything needed time to dry, we headed down to the basement to help sort Nina's storage unit; a timewarp of nostalgia and final resting place of most Christmas gifts I have sent to Nina. It's an interesting development where each flat is provided a self-storage style unit on the lowest basement level. It also includes some communal facilities like the bookable guest rooms, where Ross and I are staying; it strikes me as a neat way to provide for visitors whilst keeping the development compact and economical with resources.

    We had an early (and delicious) dinner with Nina's parents. Fom their dinner table we saw a small parade of Bodø Glimpt fans (the local football team) marching to the stadium for the Sunday match.

    Nina's dad had kindly used the lathe in his workshop create plugs for the holes left by Nina's old lights. Having collected them, we headed back to fit them via copious sanding and just a dab of frustrated brute strength.

    Ross and I have both worked on the wiring in this flat before, but it was only now coming back to us how wacky it is (even before we got to it). The 'special features' left by the original electrician include sockets that are only powered up when the lights are on (Norwegians not sharing the British convention of lights and sockets on separate circuits). When I went to the breaker panel (upgraded since I was last here) I thought my Norwegian was much worse than I had believed - the breakers didn't control what I understood the labels to say. A quick check with my host though reassured me that my Norwegian isn't absent (just awful) and it's the labels that are wrong. We cracked jokes about 'how many lights do you see?' over the echoes of the electricians' spurs and managed to get the new lighting unit fitted.

    The now mustard and dark blue study was mostly back together in time for the evening. Only the carpet and a few finishing bits left now.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Nyholms fort

    April 16, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    With work done for the day we headed out on a walk to Nyholmen Skandse (Nylholms fort) - an approximately 200 year old structure that houses a battery of cannon intended to protect the harbour against raids during the Napoleonic wars. Norway at the time fell under Danish rule, which had in turn become a satellite of Napoleon.

    The fort is on the end of the spur of land that encloses Bodø harbour. The walk is about an hour each way and provides some decent (sea level) views back at the city of Bodø.

    On our way we spotted a railway turn table (which added to the sense that railways in Norway could be taken directly from a Thomas the Tank Engine story). We also spotted a yacht called 'Marverick' with a home port of Newport, Rhoad Island (not clear how it came to be on the shores of Norway). On the seaward side, we could also see Landegode - the island's peaks lost in dense, but highly localised clouds.

    The walk was also a great chance to chat about things other than measurements, repairs and logistics. A moderate rain shower came in on the walk back, but it failed to dampen the occasion.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Balcony part I

    April 17, 2023 in Norway

    Today had a slow start, we ambled around town had some coffee and generally relaxed before getting down to business. First task was to drop the things from yesterday's storage clean out at the recycling centre. The centre in Bodø has a neat design with vehicles on a elevated causeway so it's easy to drop waste into the relevant bins; recyclables are free, but general waste is charged by weight which I also approve of.

    Then I got cracking on removing rust and flaking paint from the balcony rails, whilst Ross touched up some paint details in the apartment. It was about 5 or 6 Celsius out on the balcony and scraping off paint and rust with a screwdriver and wire brush was tedious, time consuming job so it was tricky to stay warm. Once I got to respraying it started out pretty well, until I finished with the first can and found the nozzle on the second can to be defective.

    Spraying completed as far as possible, tonight was lasagne night, so it was time to don my cooking gear. It was only when when Ross and Nina came back from finding more paint that I found out that my face was streaked with paint. Worryingly it had gathered around the nostrils, so I dread to think how much I might have breathed in despite the well ventilated balcony.

    It was difficult to get some of my usual ingredients up here, so the lasagne was a bit of an improv. I made a conventional roux based white sauce, with mushrooms, paprika and some vegetable stock in lieu of more typical flavourings like nutritional yeast and miso. The red sauce was a medley of vegetables with chopped tomatoes - probably a contender for the most nutritious meal my friends will have all year. Topped with sesame seeds and hot from the oven it was really yummy, and I was very pleased with it for a hack.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Saltfjord

    April 17, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    After dinner, Ross and I headed out on a walk to the Saltfjord, which bounds Bodø and it's suburbs to the south. We passed the Norwegian national aviation museum on the way there and back, so we paused to look at some of the outside exhibits.

    When we got close to the shore we found our way from the city tarmac onto a costal footpath. In the late evening the light levels were low, but still sufficient to keep our footing. Across the fjord we could pick out the collision lights on the bridges at Saltstramen (the maelstrom) and the tall peaks on the opposite side of the fjord.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Balcony Part II

    April 18, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    With our second spray can of metal paint broken and no more to be had in town we had to resort to old school brushing. In the colder temperatures at these latitudes and with time running out it was vital to get the next coat on as soon as possible as the paint would dry slowly in the cold evening and night time temperatures. We got the balcony covered and feet masked and after an hour or so in the cold we had a decent coat of paint on the railings and a partial coat of paint on ourselves.

    A second coat of interior spray paint on the plant stand, left me a with a new set of 'war paint' streaks on my face lined up with the gaps on the mask I used. With those cleaned off we headed back to 'Espresso House' for more blueberry pie and coffee. The chain operate across Scandinavia and Germany and make a lovely brew.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Study part III: the carpeting

    April 18, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    With the arrival of some more tools it was time to head back and replace the carpet tiles in the study with a more insulating rolled carpet. We had ripped out the old carpet tiles earlier leaving a still quite sticky grid of carpet tape that made getting the carpet into position quite tricky (but will help keep it in place long-term). Some delicate maneuvering and indelicate cursing got the carpet into position; now just the ticklish business of cutting.

    First there was discussing, agonising, denying, dissuading, persuading and eventually steeling to be done over whether or not to remove the skirting boards. With the matter settled - they were coming off - we pulled them out and got cutting. Between the carpet and the final coat of paint on the balcony, before we knew it, it has gotten too late for the noisy job of finishing the carpet.

    We settled down for pizza and a film: Ironclad, it's gore and violence offering a slight contrast to the previous choice of happy feet. As ever my companions somehow continue to exist whilst eating a fraction of what I do. They managed 3/4 of a pizza between them, whilst I finished one on my own.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    The final reckoning

    April 19, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    A few finishing off jobs for our last afternoon in Bodø. I did a final coat on the plant stand (and in Norway am now also known as 'El Barto'). Then it was preparing the skirting boards by carefully removing (or otherwise just destroying) the old nails, before reattaching them with a borrowed nail gun.

    Before getting to clean up, we stopped for the finale of the Mandalorian, which helped justify my having packed a wireless keyboard and mouse. Then I couldn't keep myself from performing some light cosplay as Megatron with the carpet tube I had chopped up for disposal: "'Starscream! You have failed for the last time."    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Farewell dinner - Omah

    April 19, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

    We headed out for the evening. First stop was the local post office to send a souvenir to another Norwegian friend of ours who lives even further north. Posten were super helpful, we were able to buy the envelope and postage all in a single transaction and get it sent off. Then it was back to haunt the local Espresso House again before heading to the restaurant.

    Omah is a long established restaurant in Bodø's harbour specialising in East Asian cuisine, especially sea food. Not much on the menu is vegan, but they're very accomodating and the chef was very creative. The plate of vegan sushi they came up with substituted pineapple for the traditional omelette and tapioca pearls for roe. Also included were a sushi roll made with tender asparagus, and another with a light teriyaki sauce, a few featured a creamy guacamole. It was all delicious.

    With the redecoration and repairs no longer hanging over us we settled in for a lively chat about culture, gaming, history, language as well as friends far and absent. Any passerby overhearing the conversation may have mistaken us for a civilized or even cultured group. We wandered back through town past various sculptures, including a striking one of the sea eagles that are indigenous to this coast.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    The journey south

    April 20, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    We strolled down to the railway station in plenty of time, despite its being less than five minutes walk away in this compact city. It has a fairly conventional station building with a ticket hall and clock tower reminisant of the Victorian terminals at home, but much younger due to the original station having been destroyed (along with most of the city) by allied bombs during the Nazi occupation. Our five car train, with a burly diesel locomotive at the head was sat at one of the two modest platforms, set among the freight sidings.

    The train set off precisely on time; the line winds first around the northern edge of town, before cutting south to pass through the narrow strip of suburban villages that line the Saltfjord. Brightly clothed hikers could be seen walking through the forest, to the east of Bodø, one of whom seemed to have fallen and gone turtle with their large pack. The sky was a heavy blanket of grey cloud, but occasional gaps threw spotlight-like beams of light onto one of the pointed, snowy peaks across the fjord causing to shine like a diamond in the otherwise softly lit landscape.

    After Saltfjord, the railway tracks the north shore of the Skjerstad fjord before turning south. The railways weaves through the contours of the difficult landscape at a stately pace - no high-speed rail here. Steeply falling streams, lone wood-clad Norwegian houses and partly frozen lakes are scattered over the dramatic, forested landscape.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Onward to Trondheim

    April 20, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Our journey continued along the Luonosjåhkå valley; the peaks that topped the steeps sides frequently blurred seamlessly into the clouds, giving the place the feel of a cavernous tunnel rather than an open space. The valley opened out onto a flatter, snow covered plateau with rounded hill tops; when the sun came out the landscape became almost painfully bright to look at.

    We crossed the Arctic circle and dropped down to the costal town of Mo i Rana. From there the line ran along the Ranfjorden, giving us a glimpse of some shipping before taking a more inland route.

    In this region our longitude seems to dictate climate as much as latitude - the warming effect of the sea diminishing rapidly as we drew away from the coast and toward the Swedish border. We followed a series of deep valleys, mostly snow covered with frozen or partially frozen rivers running down them. These valleys seems as wild and remote as any national park or Highland glen on the British isles - what is striking is their vastness. Hour after hour of southward travel treated us to seemingly unending forests rivers and peaks, with the only occasional oases of human habitation.

    After about six hours of traveling south and beginning to veer back towards the coast, the snow gave way to straw brown and mossy green fields (more pastel hues than the Welsh countryside). A couple of hours from Trondheim, we were treated to beautiful reflections on Snåsavatnet - a huge lake. The setting sun throwing glorious light across the scene.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Trondheim again

    April 20, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    A couple more hours in the long and glorious Scandinavian twilight brought us into Trondheim. The last hour or so of the journey was along the Trondheimfjord which was stunning in the evening light.

    We checked in for the sleeper to Oslo then took a short walk around the marina. We found a sculpture with serious 'Yellow Submarine' energy titled 'What Does the Fjord Say' an apparent reference to Norwegian global pop hit 'What Does the Fox Say'. Mainly though we just took in the gorgeous red an orange hues of the now departed sun.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    The Oslo sleeper

    April 20, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    After some swift work by a little shunting engine the five carriages that brought us from Bodø were taken away; a much longer train composed of roughly equal numbers of sleeper and seating cars replaced it. At the head an electric locomotive ready to pull us along the electrified route to Oslo.

    The sleeper compartment didn't seem noticeably more cramped with two, once I got myself out of the way onto the top bunk. As Ross had a suitcase and wanting to keep the gangway clear we made good use of the luggage area above the door.

    Natta, nos da and goodnight.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    A quiet stroll around Oslo

    April 21, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    We woke up a few minutes away from Oslo Central, and I quickly squared myself away and dropped from the top bunk to begin another day's adventure. First coffee at the Starbucks overlooking the station concourse then a walk in the beautiful morning sunshine.

    We headed to the roof of the opera house, then along the harbour to the cruise terminal where Holland America's Rotterdam was in dock. We watched Crown Seaways and the Colour line ferry from Keil arrive in port - gliding over still water under an azure blue sky. The city had a quiet feel - the soundscape of echoing seabird calls was more Cornish fishing village than major European capital.

    We wandered the battlements of Akershus fortress listening to the goings on aboard the nearby Rotterdam.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum

    April 21, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum is situated in one of the outlying parts of the Akershus fortress. Outside it are rows of muzzle loading cannon and a few light tanks. Inside is a neatly curated set of exhibits, with particularly excellent model and diorama displays. The models are supplemented by written exposition and artefacts, mainly of particularly fine craftsmanship.

    The flow of exhibits isn't particularly chronological (or any sort of logical). The pathway begins with late 20th century peace keeping, before heading to the 16 and 1700s, and continuing through the Napoleonic era and then onto the early 20th century.

    One thing I learned was that Norway was significantly ahead of the curve on adopting camouflage - moving away from brightly coloured line infantry uniforms decades before their peers elsewhere in Europe. The star of the museum is the World War II segment. It begins with the battle of Norway, then continues through the activities of the Free Norwegian Forces and Norway's merchant marine (the latter particularly instrumental in allied victory). The activities of the Norwegian resistance are the subject of their own museum elsewhere in the fortress complex.

    The sinking of Blucher is the topic of an excellent model, and Stord - the plucky Norwegian destroyer made famous at the battle of the North Cape is present in model form (although it's participation in that action isn't mentioned). The English language content is largely good, but a few amusing mistranslations can be found - I especially enjoyed the cannon stamped with "the King's monogamous [SIC]" rather than monogram. As a poor scholar of Norwegian though, I am in no position to criticise.    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Heading home

    April 21, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    When we emerged from the museum, found another cruise ship had come into port and was docked near the opera house. When we headed toward the marina, we found a huge community event underway for Eid al-Ftir. It was great to see the vibrant array of traditional islamic and middle eastern attire, as Oslo's substantial Muslim community ended their Ramadan fast in the late April sunshine.

    Between the extra people from the cruise ships and the large community gathering, the quiet feel from the early morning had given way to a sense of big-city bustle. We lunched at the branch of Espresso House by the Oslo marina. I had a 'veggie bao bagle' and 'half baked chocho caramel muffin' - both delicious; we enjoyed the shade, the cool breeze and a little distance from the crowds

    We completed our walk around Oslo's notable sights by heading to the palace, where the guard was being changed (although how the Norwegians manage to achieve this without bearskin hats is a mystery). We continued back to the central station via the cathedral. The sun was pleasant and the piles of snow that had littered this area only 11 days ago when I first arrived in Olso were long gone; it might have been better if it were still a little cooler, as we were still in walking boots suitable for the north.

    We took a regional express train, rather than the dedicated airport express to the airport and moved swiftly through security and departures. My solitary flight this trip, accounts for about half the CO2e emissions, but it did at least provide a scenic exit into the bargain; we took off from runway 1 right, then turned to a south easterly heading giving us a good view of Oslo and the Oslofjord. Rotterdam appeared to have gotten underway, whilst the Viking cruise ship remained - the last sight I could identify in Norway was the Oscarsborg fortress, which I had sailed past on my arrival to Norway.

    The day remained clear; vast container ships appeared tiny on the surface of the North Sea and offshore wind farms looked like tiny scilia. This continued until, like a bad joke, the clouds appeared right at the British coastline (the mouths of rivers just poking out from the fluffy looking troposphere).    Read more

  • Dan BowenScandinavia tripTraveler

    Counting the (Carbon) Cost

    April 21, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    One of the most fascinating and exasperating aspects of trying to take this trip in a 'green' way is how difficult it is to guage the environmental impact of different modes of travel. Chief among these are the wildly different values that different sources offer for things like the CO2e per passenger kilometer of travel for various modes and routes.

    Rarely are these aggregate values accompanied by vital context about their methodology, source or currency. For example, railways across Europe have undergone substantial electrification in recent years, so data from even a few years ago may be misleadingly high. Airlines have decarbonise to a lesser degree, but the lack of consensus over the potency of 'radiative forcing' seems to be behind most of the variety in CO2e figures for air travel.

    Simple comparisons between modes are in any case not so simple. The international ICE train that I took from Brussels to Cologne claims to produce less than 1g of CO2e per passenger Km; the diesel hauled Nordland line with its 80s vintage locomotives may emit over 100g CO2e/passenger-Km - close to value for short haul flying (there are no published data for the specific route, but that is towards the high end for similar trains). Do these differences between lines even matter? As Dr Beeching infamously failed to grasp railways function as networks: cherry picking just the greenest routes may not be reasonable since they must be fed passengers from less efficient local and regional trains. Unsatisfyingly, there are wide variations in estimates for the 'average' train journey, and operators each claiming to use 100% green electricity to power their trains have large, counter intuitive differences in their emissions figures.

    Estimates for RoPas ferries are even wider with nearly 300g separating the highest and lowest I found (the high, frequently cited estimate appears to originate with a carparking company - I'm unsure why they have an opinion on the matter and think EU data are probably more reliable). CO2e per passenger-Km data are in any case harder to come by for shipping, which tends to work in tonnes shipped (as ships mostly move things rather than people). CO2e itself has significant challenges, since it struggles to meaningfully reflect the differing persistence of various greenhouse gases or things like radiative forcing.

    All in all, I am frustrated at the quality of consumer information on this point - every operator who provided a figure gave insufficient context (what scope of emissions, what methodology etc); many - DFDS especially - gave vague intentions about becoming green. Authorities, like various European Union bodies, were equally poor at contextualising their figures. On balance of probability, this trip is likely significantly greener than four flights; I am left with an uncomfortable element of doubt as the available data indicate my investment of extra travel time and treasure falls on a continuum from having prevented about a half a tonne of CO2e emissions on the one hand, to being slightly worse than just flying on the other. I have at least chosen modes and routes that have a path to almost complete decarbonisation - the move to battery locos on the Nordland line is already planned and new propulsion for the ferries is plausible in the near term.

    Environmentalism is hard.    Read more

    Trip end
    April 21, 2023
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