My Norway in a Nutshell

I used the promise to support a group of scholars in Norway starting an academic organization for health humanities and social medicine as an excuse to extend my stay in the country into a vacation using two weekends. Dear Husband had a work trip the same week, but luckily a friend from grad school who now lives in Germany was able to organize her time so that she could travel with me. While you could take the train from Oslo to Bergen in one day and either tack on the side trip to Flåm (pronounced "floam") the same day or backtrack to do it the next day (like the people on our train), we thought that was too much time sitting. We decided to break up the stereotypical "Norway in a Nutshell" train trip from Oslo to Bergen with intermediary stops for hiking and sightseeing--see our itinerary at the bottom of the post. This meant I had to pack for summer in Oslo (70 degrees and sunny + 60s at night), rain in the mountains (50-60 degrees during the day, except in the 40s at Myrdal and at night), and an academic conference (but more relaxed than most).

Packing while toggling between 2025 Eurovision music videos and the Norwegian weather site, I decided to bring my hiking boots and a pair of flats, 2 long-sleeved t-shirts + jeans for hiking, a selection of short-sleeved t-shirts + 2 pairs of slacks for the city, 1 bathing suit for the sauna, 2 pairs pajamas, an assortment of socks/underthings, and the minimum of toiletries. By the way, if you haven't yet enjoyed the 4th-place Eurovision video from Swedish group KAJ about going to the sauna, it's worth a listen: Bara bada bastu.

This is all of my gear for the weather: an umbrella, a kerchief, a knit cap, an Orioles baseball cap, a woven scarf, a fleece jacket, unlined rain/ski pants, and a water-proof windbreaker that can be folded and zipped into its own pocket to make a fanny pack (if you're really skinny!). I ended up leaving the umbrella in Oslo during our train trip and was a little sorry about it, but the combo rain pants (which I already owned) and rain jacket (new investment) plus the baseball cap turned out to be clutch in the mountainous west of Norway, where it rained off-and-on continuously.

 

I was pretty darn impressed with my packing job! I also brought some travel gear: a neck pillow, a smaller day bag, 2 soft knee braces, a pair of arch supports, a sleep sack in case the hotel sheets were suspect, and a dirty clothes bag. I should have left the sleep sack but brought flip flops and a travel bottle of shampoo for the couple of times we had communal showers without supplies. For the saunas we either used the hotel towels or rented some. I also brought my old European converter plug for my phone and laptop as well as 3 books for work: American Disgust: Racism, Microbial Medicine, and the Colony Within by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer (he and I share some theoretical frameworks);  Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High (for my leadership seminar), and Making Disability Modern: Design Histories edited by Bess Williamson and Elizabeth Guffey (for my conference presentation on structural ableism).

I went straight from work on Friday to dinner with Dear Husband on the way to the airport. The 6-hour flight from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik didn't allow for much sleeping. Airplane breakfast: 12 Euro oatmeal, hot tea, and OJ.

On my second trip to Europe, in June 2005, I flew through Reykjavik Airport. Leaning against this angled wall in a jetlagged haze while my companions purchased something in the food court is one of my distinct memories of that trip.

Oslo to Bergen Itinerary

Saturday ~ arrive in Oslo, get sunshine to adjust internal clock, consider partaking of Oslo's fancy food and/or drink scene

Sunday ~ morning train from Oslo to Geilo (pronounce the G as a Y), hike around the lake, hotel has a sauna

Monday ~ mid-morning train from Geilo to Myrdal [we could have taken an earlier one and missed some of the other tourists], hike 1.5 hours down into valley (there's also a zipline option!), rent bicycles for a 45-minute ride the rest of the way to Flåm, then catch the last Naeroyfjord fjord ferry because there was nowhere to stay Flåm that was in our budget. Due to inclement weather, large backpacks with food, and seats opening up on the touristy Flåmsbana, we scrapped the bikes at the last minute and took the train.

Tuesday ~ wake up in Gudvangen and either take a hike or visit the Viking Village, then take the bus to Voss to ride the gondola up for a hike and/or see the (mostly outdoor) folk museum [we skipped this]

Wednesday ~ take the train to Bergen for a walking tour, check out the museums, ride the Fløibanen funicular up for a hike. E.R. discovered a sauna on the harbor that we booked for after dinner

Thursday ~ early morning flights back to Oslo / Germany

1920s garden party at Wilpen Hall

I found out that a lovely elderly couple at church had gifted us a membership to the Sewickley Valley Historical Society when an invitation to a "speakeasy" garden party landed on Dear Husband's desk. We weren't sure if we would know anyone there, but we like a fancy dress-up occasion and can usually entertain ourselves, so we RSVP'd with the "white rose" group and collaborated on our best 1920s-imitation outfits. The lower entrance fee and later arrival time meant we would miss the champagne toast and guided tour of the house but still gave us access to the buffet, gardens, and carriage house. Even though we ran into a few church folk, we still felt like we were crashing someone else' party--maybe that's what made it like a speakeasy? That, and the open bar. A pianist played period-appropriate popular music on a keyboard, and the food was good (especially the desserts). You can see that the evening was overcast, but the rain stayed away long enough for us to wander around the grounds and check out the collection of historical carriages and cars.

Wilpen Hall home was built for William Penn Snyder and his wife between 1897 and 1900 as a summer home in the tony Sewickley Hills area. Snyder was the founder of the Shenango Furnace Company. Designed by George Orth and Brothers in the style of an English Manor house, the residence was subsequently named "Wilpen," using a contraction of Snyder's first and middle names. Today it is the home of a couple of doctors, who got it listed as a historic site in 2021.

This is some of the original sculpture on the property;

there are many more modern pieces, almost all of them animals.

It was a little late for the roses, which must have been stunning at their peak.

The current owners clearly have a sense of humor and wimsy!

There were at least four terraces from the main back yard, to this lawn, a lower level with an abandoned swimming pool, and then a further grassy expanse below that.

Off in one corner was another abandoned swimming pool (to the right, not pictured), and behind me here, a duck pond in which a concrete goose had drowned (not shown out of respect).

To DH's disappointment, there were no fish in the pond. There was however lots of frog statuary.

All manner of antique conveyances

Also 118-year-old horse show ribbons plus old tack. No horses, though.