Off to Norway!

Guest Blogger: Irene Mittlestat

Our Norway plans began when Nate was browsing the REI travel website and jokingly said that we should go to Norway for a kayaking and hiking trip. The pictures looked so great on the website. It wasn’t until we found out that one of the weeks of vacation that I signed up for matched one of the weeks that the Norway trip would be available through REI. We decided to go for it. In March, we booked our spot on the Norway Trip and ordered our airline tickets. I was so excited for this trip! 

On July 26^th, we headed to Norway to celebrate our 7^th anniversary. We had some major airline issues on the way to Norway. Original flight itinerary was flying from Rochester (RST) to Minneapolis (MSP), MSP to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Bergen. I already got an email earlier that day letting me know that the flight going out of Rochester was going to be delayed 15-20 minutes. Our friends, Matt and Lindsay dropped us off at the Rochester Airport an hour before departure time. Once we got there, we were told that the plane was delayed even more so they took us in a taxi cab to Minneapolis so we could make our connecting flight. It was already after 5:00pm and it takes about 1 hour and 15 min to get to the airport. We normally fly out of Minneapolis, but since we both had to work that day, it was much easier to fly out of Rochester than driving to Minneapolis and get caught in construction and weekend traffic. Our flight to Minneapolis was scheduled to leave at 7:25pm and we were on target to arrive around 6:45pm. That was cutting it pretty close, and we would still have to check our bags and go through security. There was another girl with us that had a 7:10pm flight to Louisville KY, which was cutting it even closer than our flight. We arrived at the MSP airport around 6:45pm. We checked our bags, went through the security line, and arrived at our gate as they were boarding. I couldn’t believe that we made it with 20 min to spare. I was extremely stressed the whole ride up there.

The flight to Amsterdam went very smoothly. We arrived in Amsterdam and had about 1.5 hours before our flight to Bergen. The flight to Bergen kept getting delayed as well because of the storm and they also had some mechanical problems with the plane. We finally start boarding only to find out that our boarding passes didn’t work. She set us aside so the rest of the people could board. One of the senior representatives was trying to figure out what happened. I explained to her what happened in Rochester and she told us that our last connecting flight to Bergen was “cancelled” (A few days later, I did find out by checking Nate’s voicemail that Delta was trying to rebook our flight because we missed our Rochester flight when we took the taxi cab to Minneapolis). I was beyond frustrated at that point. After about 20 min, she re-booked our flight, but warned us that there might be issues flying back home. I wasn’t worried about the flight home as much as just getting there at that point. We had a very bumpy flight to Bergen and arrived there around 3:00pm. As we were heading towards baggage claim, I checked my baggage claim stub, and it read “Amsterdam”. What else can go wrong on this trip? I told Nate that I don’t think we were going to get our bags. When we checked our bags at the MSP airport, I didn’t even check the final destination of our bags. I was just happy that we made our flight to Amsterdam. We waited at the baggage claim in Bergen until all the bags went through. I was right. Our bags never showed up. That was the final straw for me and I started breaking down at the airport. We immediately headed to the information desk to file a claim on our lost baggage. They gave us some toiletry items to get us through the next few days until our baggage would arrive. We took the airport bus to the train station, which took about 25 min. Then we took the train station to Voss, which was about 1 ½ hours. Our hotel was about a 5 min walk from the train station. We checked into our hotel around 6:30pm and spent an hour just walking around the hotel until orientation.

During orientation, we met with our tour guides and the rest of our tour group. We had two tour guides, and 12 people in our group, including us. There were two couples from Texas, a couple from Singapore, and a mother/son duo from New Jersey. They showed us a map of the fjords where we would be kayaking and told us what we needed to pack for the 4 days of kayaking. We basically had to pack everything that could fit into 2 large dry bags which would go into our kayak and then our main luggage would meet with us a few days later. I quickly explained to our tour guides how our luggage was stuck in Amsterdam. They said that they will make a list of all the things we would need for now. After orientation, the tour guide contacted KLM Airlines and they said that we would get reimbursed up to 600 NOK per person for basic necessities. All of the stores were closed after 5:00pm except for the Kiwi store, which is a mini grocery store. Basic things like socks and underwear are so expensive in Norway! I was so glad that I wore my hiking boots on the plane so I didn’t have to worry about borrowing someone’s hiking boots. Afterwards, we had a very late dinner with another couple from our tour group. I was amazed how light it still was at 10:00pm. After dinner, we went to bed. I had a hard time sleeping. Part of it was that I was excited to start our trip, and the other part was trying to get used to the 7 hour time change. 

 The next day, we met with our tour guides, who gave us dry bags filled with a long pair of pants, warm jacket, hiking socks, short sleeve and long sleeve shirt. I was so happy! I wasn’t going to let lost baggage ruin our trip. We loaded up our kayaks and started our kayaking tour in the Naeroyfjord.  It was so beautiful. The weather was perfect too. We kayaked for about 8 miles and then set up camp along the fjord. REI actually has a wooden storage cabinet full of camping gear. Once all the tents were set up, the tour guides grilled brats, chicken, pork chops, hot dogs, and bread. We also helped make pasta salad. It was such a great meal! We had a beautiful view of the Fjord, campfire, and great company. Everyone went to bed while Nate and I sat by the fire for about another hour. It was still light out so we wanted to soak in as much of the view as possible. We finally went to bed all warm and cozy in our tent. 

 On Day 2, we woke up to a rainbow along the fjord. It was so pretty. We didn’t have to take down the tents or put away our sleeping bags and mats as REI staff would come and take it down after we leave. We paddled for about 15 min across the fjord to the village of Dyrdal. We parked our kayaks and took our daypacks to the next place we were staying which was a 3 mile hike. We met this wonderful couple that owned this beautiful vacation home surrounded by peaks. We were assigned to our rooms and then headed off to our hike. This was going to be the toughest hike of the week, a 12 mile round trip with 3800 elevation foot gain. The view at the top was absolutely amazing. Once we got back, we took a shower and then had this delicious meal. We talked with the hosts for the rest of the evening.

On Day 3, we hiked back down to our kayaks after breakfast and continued along the Naeroyfjord into the larger Aurlandsfjord. We stopped for lunch and then arrived in the small village of Undredal. This was a cute village. We were also told the great news that our bags had arrived! Everyone was teasing us how we would get nice clean clothes while everyone else would still be wearing the same smelly clothes since the start of the kayaking trip. We got our bags and sorted out what we needed for the next two kayaking days. Then we checked into our hotel. This place had Wi-Fi, so I was excited to upload pictures on Facebook so I could show people what we did on the trip so far. After a nice shower, we walked around the village taking pictures. Then we met up with everyone for dinner. The tour guides said that we could sneak in on a cheese presentation with another group. There was a guy explaining how goat cheese was made. It was pretty interesting. After the presentation, we ate our meal and spent the rest of the time talking with everyone before we went to bed. 

 On Day 4, we paddled north towards the main channel of the Sognefjord. We stopped along the shoreline for a picnic lunch and then headed to the village of Fresvik. We paddled 14 miles in choppy water with a tail wind to our advantage. Once we arrived in Fresvik, the first thing we did was check into our guest house. Then we went hot-tubbing with the great view of the fjord in front of us. It felt so good. Right before dinner, we took a small walk around the town of Fresvik. Then we had this amazing dinner right outside, cooked by our host. We had a fresh salad that was right from the garden along with smoked lamb and potatoes. The salad was so good that I had three full plates! This was by far one of the best meals of the trip so far. After dinner, we sat around the fire and then went to bed. 

On Day 5, we had our last paddle day through the Sognefjord and had the most perfect kayaking conditions. We reached the end point where we met up with the van that had our luggage from day 1. On the picnic table, there were champagne glasses filled with strawberries. We had a toast to celebrate the completion of our kayaking trip. We unpacked all of our stuff from our dry bags and put it back with our main luggage. Then we had a 3 hour drive into the mountains reaching Jotunheimen. We stayed in a very nice lodge close to our hiking destination for the next day.

On Day 6, we hiked to the highest point of Norway called Galdhopiggen Summit, located in Jotunheimen National Park. This hike had amazing views. Part of the hike was walking on a glacier, so they gave us harnesses and had everyone roped together. This was a very nice hike up to the top. We got there just in time to take pictures before the clouds started rolling in and obstructing the view. This was a 9 mile hike total with an elevation gain of 2000 feet. After the hike, we had another 3 hour drive into Jostedalen and spent a night in a hotel. 

On Day 7, we hiked on the Nigaradsbreen Glacier located in Jostedalsbreen National Park. We hiked for about an hour until we hit the bottom of the glacier. We had another tour guide with us and got ice axes and crampons. Like the previous day, we wore harnesses and were all roped together on the glacier. We hiked on the glacier for about an hour and then headed back to the place we stayed at for lunch. We hiked for about 5 miles with an elevation gain of 1000 feet. After lunch, it was another three hour drive back to Voss, where it all started. We stayed at the same hotel when we arrived to Voss on the first day. Once we got back into Voss, we took a shower and walked back to the Kiwi store to return all of the stuff we got last week. Once we found out that our bags were arriving, we decided to just ride it out with the clothes we were given and not use the stuff we bought. We figured with all the problems we dealt with already, we didn’t want to deal with another problem of trying to get reimbursed from the airlines. That could take several weeks or even months. I couldn’t believe that it took 20 min to get everything returned. I guess I can’t really complain. I was just lucky that they let me return it all! We walked around Voss right before dinner. I was hoping to do some souvenir shopping, but all the stores were closed. We had our final farewell dinner with everyone and thanked our tour guides for an awesome trip. 

On the last day, we checked out of our hotel. The majority of our tour group had 10:50am flights so our tour guide drove us to the airport, which was about 1 ½ hours from Voss. We arrived in Bergen around 9am. A few days ago, I contacted REI via email to see if they could confirm our flights for the way home. I got an email back stating that all of our flights for the way home were confirmed. Our flight schedule was Bergen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Detroit, Detroit to MSP, and MSP to RST. Once we got into the airport, I tried to do a self check in, but it said “passenger not found”. I immediately knew we were going to have problems getting checked in. We waited in line for 20 min and then finally got to a representative. I showed him our flight schedule from my phone. He tried to get us checked in but then eventually had to call his supervisor. The supervisor was having problems getting our flights straightened out in the system, so he took Nate over to a different computer where he had to override the system that we made it to Norway in order to get our boarding passes so we could go back to the USA. Once everything was correct in the system, they printed our baggage tags. I made sure that it read “Rochester” for our final destination. The only thing we were waiting for was our boarding passes. They had problems printing our boarding passes, so the representative took us to the express security line, directed us to the gate, and explained to them why we didn’t have boarding passes. We had about 10 min to spare before we had to board. Wow, talk about another stressful issue! It took 1 1/2 hours to get this straightened out (pretty much from the time we arrived at the airport to the time we boarded), but we made the flight from Bergen to Amsterdam. Once we arrived into Amsterdam, we thought we would have an hour to spare, but the screen said “Now boarding” to Detroit. We quickly ran through the airport through customs to get to our gate. The only thing we had to do was get the rest of our boarding passes printed for the remaining connecting flights. This was the only flight I was worried about not making, but we made it and I was able to relax, watch movies, and play crossword puzzles on the flight. The rest of the connecting flights went smoothly and we arrived in Rochester around 8:00 pm with our baggage. What a long day! We were up for about 20 hours, sleeping on and off on the plane. I was just glad we made it back safely with our bags. 

Norway is definitely going to be tough place to beat. We had such an amazing time in despite all the issues we had with delayed/canceled flights and lost luggage. We hiked 31 miles and kayaked 48.5 miles. We will definitely do another REI trip in the future. I was extremely impressed with how organized the trip was. The tour guides took such good care of us and made sure that all of our questions were answered and that we were having a good time. We are definitely hooked on international traveling and are now creating a bucket list of all the places we want to visit!