May 2014       Itinerary Link

Aarhus

Arhus is the second largest city in Denmark(population: 270,000) located on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula. As the center of culture and trade of the region, it probably deserved at least a full day of our time, but we only had enough time to walk around the old downtown area and have a nice dinner by the port. The picture above is from that visit, but I can’t recall the details.

On the Way

We saw these yellow flowers all over the place in Denmark, Sweden and other parts of Europe. After some internet search, we concluded these are rapeseed flowers, which is the third-largest source of vegetable oil in the world according to Wikipedia.

Aalborg

Aalborg is the fourth largest city in Demark with the population of about 110,000, and 20% of these are students at area universities. It had a nice old downtown core, and it was quite pleasant to walk around this area. After having lunch, we ran into a parade procession & people were just having fun being part of it.

May 2015

We flew into the  Oslo Airport from Berlin, took the airport train to the central station, and walked to our Airbnb apartment not too far from the station. It rained the whole two days we were in Oslo, and we did not get to take too many pictures. We did manage to stand in line, in the rain,  for the Munch Museum. Museum staff did something memorable: they came out with umbrellas for those of us standing in the rain!

We used the public transportation to get around and that worked quite well. We took the ferry from the dock in front of city hall to reach to the Fram Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdoy peninsula. From there, we took the bus to Vigeland Sculpture Park to see the famous sculptures of  Gustav Vigeland.

The next day we took the 6.5-hour train trip(about $100) to Bergen. Even in May, we could see snow on the ground in the mountain areas we were passing through. No wonder Norway wins all those medals in the Winter Olympics!

Bergen is located on the west coast of Norway and is its second largest city (population:270,000.) Most tourists go there to visit nearby fjords, but the city itself has enough to offer to warrant a full day or two of a nice visit.

It turned out we had arrived on National Day and the town center and port area were thronged with people in traditional garb.  There were many nice looking restaurants, all crowded and expensive.  We finally found a restaurant that would take us, a second-floor Chinese restaurant.  As we opened the menus we saw an insert that read, “In honor of National Day all prices are increased 10%.”

Since we cannot locate our pictures, I found some pictures from the internet that resemble what we saw.

The next day we took our “Norway in a Nutshell.” This is one tour that is supposed to showcase the natural beauty of Norway.  It was an all-day affair involving a boat, a bus, and trains.

Some people include Oslo and Bergen in the package, but you can customize the tour any way you want on their official website. Some tour companies sell this product as part of a longer itinerary, but it is cheaper to do-it-yourself on this website. Our all-day tour was about $200 per person.

This is the description of our tour:

Starting from Bergen you first set out on a scenic train journey to Voss on the Bergen Railway. From Voss you travel by bus through charming villages and scenic nature landscapes, towards Gudvangen. From May-September the bus travels down the steep hairpin bends of Stalheimskleiva.

The bus will arrive in Gudvangen, where you continue the tour by taking a fjord cruise on the on the narrow Nærøyfjord and the magnificent Aurlandsfjord. The Aurlandsfjord is a picturesque fjord that offers stunning views, while the Nærøyfjord is a dramatic fjord surrounded by high mountains. Nærøyfjorden is one of the most narrow fjords in Europe and included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

After your fjord cruise you arrive in the small village of Flåm, nestled in the innermost part of the Aurlandsfjord, where your tour continues by taking the legendary Flåm Railway. The Flåm Railway offers spectacular panoramic views to some of the wildest and most magnificent nature in the Norwegian fjord landscape.

The Flåm Railway will arrive in Myrdal, where you change trains to the Bergen Railway. You travel back to Bergen on round trips, or continue through scenic mountain terrain to Oslo on one-way trips.

In Flam, there was enough free time for lunch and some shopping. We were a bit concerned about the tight timing for the train transfer in Myrdal, but it was a pretty smooth transition. It did not look like anyone would be left behind because of a confusion in finding the right train.

The next morning we flew out of Bergen to get back to the U.S.

February 2017

There’s a Chinese saying that the most beautiful women come from the West Lake(Xihu) of Hangzhou. Marco Polo was supposed to have called Hangzhou, “the city of heaven.” Then there is another Chinese saying, “Be born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou, die in Liuzhou,” meaning Suzhou was renowned for its civilized citizens, Hangzhou for its scenery, Guangzhou for its food, and Liuzhou for its wooden coffins which supposedly halted the decay of the body.

Those would be too much of a hype to follow through for any one place. We never really were struck by the beauty of the ladies we ran into on streets of Hangzhou. Nor did we feel that we were in heaven or find the city exceptionally beautiful. But we liked it.

We liked Hangzhou because people seemed to stroll, not run. The air quality seemed ok. We were there only for one day and a night, but we could picture ourselves spending more time there without doing much. For a city of 8.7 million people, it managed to stay low-key.

 

Yes, the Lake! We wanted to see the free light show in the evening, but there were just too many people where it was happening on the eastern shore of the lake. After waiting in the antsy pushy crowd for close to a half an hour, we gave up. We just walked very slowly east toward the Qiantang River(map link) for a mile or two, and that was fine. There were lots of shops and eateries along the way, and we had our dinner at a place packed with locals talking and laughing.

Hangzhou was a stop on our 8-day tour package we found on Travelzoo for $549pp. The next morning we were driven to a park on the north coast of the West Lake. It was in February, but some flowers were blooming. From there we got on a boat to explore the lake for an hour or so. It was raining lightly off and on, but the calm lake seemed to show the romantic appeal under the mist. No wonder so many poets wrote about this lake!

Hangzhou can be a quick 50-minute train ride(78 Yuan) from Shanghai(180 Km) if you use the bullet train, but, our guide boasted that the travel time will be cut in half when the new plan is realized. I am not clear on the dates for this, though.

If we go there again, we will plan to spend at least two nights. We’d stay someplace between the eastern shore of the Lake and the main train station to be able to walk everywhere. We may want to try bicycling around the Lake(around 12Km).

Wiki Travel Guide to Hangzhou

[update: October 2019]

We DID go back to Hangzhou in about two and a half years, and, again, it was an overnight stop during a packaged tour. This time we stayed way outside of the city, and we did not get to walk around the old town. It was raining on and off, thus, it did not matter much.

As we entered the city, we stopped at Liuhe Pagoda on the eastern bank of Qiantang River. We did not have enough energy to walk up to the top, but we walked around the park complex.

The view we saw was pretty much the grey suburban high-rise development area.

We had dinner at this sea food restaurant behind our hotel. You choose what you want to eat from this area.

We picked some seafood and various vegetables, and they were steamed on your table. This high pressure cooking method retained the natural flavor and the freshness of the ingredients. Quite delicious!

The next morning, we had another West Lake boat experience.

From one angle, you could get this kind of view.

From another, you would get the view of a modern city.

Every Hangzhou tour includes a visit to a tea plantation. This area produces Longjing(Dragon Well) tea, and there are some well practiced sales people who are quite good at making you buy this expensive pleasure at what they call tea culture centers.