Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Photos from Oslo-Dalen-Utne-Rjukan-Oslo trip

As promised in my recent post (A New Yorker in Oslo: Oslo-Dalen-Utne-Rjukan-Oslo (paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com), I'm posting some photos from our recent trip around Norway, with overnight stays at Dalen Hotel (one night), Utne Hotel (two nights), and Rjukan Admini Hotel (one night), with a one-day trip to Rosendal. 

Unfortunately, since Freya the walrus was killed by Norwegian authorities, I am ambivalent about promoting tourism in Norway. It's a beautiful country, yes, but not one that is friendly to visiting wildlife. 


Dalen Hotel

The grounds of the Dalen Hotel, facing the Telemark Canal

The Haukelifjell mountain area

Haukelifjell mountain area

Utne Hotel from 1722

The picturesque town of Utne 

Hardangerfjord

Hardangerfjord

Baroniet Rosendal Manor House and Gardens 

The grounds of the Baroniet Rosendal

Leaving Utne by car ferry

Rjukan Admini Hotel

The lovely town of Rjukan 


Monday, July 25, 2022

Oslo-Dalen-Utne-Rjukan-Oslo

We decided to visit several of the historic hotels in Norway this summer, and settled on Dalen Hotel, Utne Hotel, and Rjukan Admini Hotel. If you'd like more information about the historic hotels in Norway generally, you can visit this informative site: Historic Hotels & Restaurants in Norway (dehistoriske.com). We drove from place to place as we normally do; my husband maps out the routes he wants to take beforehand and some of them are roads we've never driven before that take us through parts of Norway that we have not seen before. Our route this year is mapped out here: 


















We started from Oslo, drove southwest to Skien, and then westward along the Telemark Canal to Dalen where we stayed one night at the Dalen Hotel. We've been there before and it's always nice to come back to this hotel with its unique architecture and lovely grounds. 

The following day we drove northward on our way to Utne, passing through Haukeli and over the Haukelifjell mountain area and mountain pass. Haukelifjell partially overlaps the Hardangervidda mountain plateau and is located in the Vinje municipality in the county of Telemark and Odda municipality in the county of Hordaland. Utne is located at the tip of the Folgefonn Peninsula where the Sørfjorden and Hardangerfjorden meet. We passed through Odda and Tyssedal on our way to Utne, where we stayed for two nights at the charming Utne Hotel, which is the oldest hotel in Norway (built in 1722: it was celebrating 300 years of operation this year). The hotel offered a five-course dinner each night, which we barely managed the first night; the second night we opted to eat three of the five courses before we gave up. Utne is located in the apple and cherry region of Hardanger; we were offered an apple cider package with dinner that we enjoyed, with different types of cider that accompanied the different courses, instead of wine. 

While we were in Utne, we managed a day trip to Rosendal (home to the Baroniet Rosendal), making our way there along a very narrow winding scenic road that I have no wish to drive on again--too narrow and too winding. There are spots where it would be impossible to pass an oncoming car or truck. But it was a scenic route, I'll attest to that. The visit to the Baroniet Rosendal was well-worth it; it is a  manor house from 1665 with beautiful gardens and landscapes (Baroniet Rosendal Manor House & Gardens). On the day of our departure, we took the car ferry from Utne to Kinsarvik (a half hour trip) and then drove eastward along the north end of Hardangervidda to Geilo where we ate lunch at the Hallingstuene restaurant that serves very good traditional Norwegian food. We then drove south to Rjukan and stayed overnight at the Rjukan Admini Hotel. We've been to Rjukan before, in 2015, at which time I wrote a blog post about this historic town (A New Yorker in Oslo: Oslo-Rjukan-Heddal-Notodden-Oslo (paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com). This time we stayed at the charming Admini Hotel, which we did not do the first time we were in Rjukan. This hotel offered a three-course dinner as part of the package, which we enjoyed. 

Overall, definitely an enjoyable vacation, although I will say that as I get older I have less and less desire to drive on narrow mountain roads. There can be sturdy guardrails, speed limits, mirrors and the like on those roads, it doesn't matter. I no longer enjoy winding our way high up into the mountain areas or descending from them, although the latter is preferable because I know we'll soon be back on flat ground. I prefer plateaus, farmland, and valleys. But of course you don't get the gorgeous views if you never go into the mountains, that I understand. So I compromise, but there will come a day very soon when I will simply not do it anymore. It makes me too nervous. 

In my next post I'll include some photos of this trip. 



Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Biking along the Danube River in Austria

This year's summer vacation took us to Passau, Germany, which was the starting (and return) point for an eight-day boat/bike trip along the Danube River. The trip, which is called The Danube By Bike & Boat, is offered by UTracks. We biked along the Danube River mainly in Austria, but also part of one day in Slovakia. Our 'hotel' was the boat Theodor Korner, which took us to the different towns where each daily biking trip would start. We biked from Mauthausen to Grein (a beautiful village with a castle and old theater--the Stadttheater), from Devin to Schloss Hof (impressive palace with lovely gardens) to Bratislava in Slovakia, around the city of Vienna, through the beautiful Wachau Valley (wine country) from Krems to Melk, from Melk back to Grein, and then from Obermuhl to Engelhartszell (total biking distance including Vienna was around 210 km/130 miles). From Engelharszell, the boat sailed back to Passau and we disembarked.

The trip included three meals per day, a cabin on the boat with private bathroom, and bicycle rental. It was extremely well-organized and went off without a hitch. A big thank-you to UTracks for the professional organization of the trip and the support at all points along the way. We didn't lack for anything.

Austria is a beautiful country, and the Austrian Danube bike path is impressive. If you'd like to read more about it, you can find more information at these links: https://www.donau-oesterreich.at/en/danube-cycle-path/  and  https://www.danube-cycle-path.com/austrian-danube.html.
Here are some photos of a memorable fantastic vacation; I'd do something like this again in a heartbeat.....

bike path along the Danube River

one of many small cafes along the bike path 

one of many wheat fields along the bike path

an idyllic small brook 


approaching the lovely village of Grein

Greinburg castle

Sala Terrena at Greinburg Castle--mosaics made from tiny pebbles from the Danube River

courtyard at Greinburg Castle
Schloss Hof palace

bike path leading away from Schloss Hof

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

bike path in Vienna

the beautiful Wachau valley--wine country

view from the town of Durnstein in the Wachau region

one of many roadside shrines in Austria

our boat--the Theodor Korner

approaching Grein on our return trip

one of the quaint ferries that take bicyclists over the Danube

Engelszell Abbey, a Trappist monastery, in Engelhartszell














Wednesday, October 10, 2018

An autumn weekend in Stockholm

There is what is called 'autumn vacation' in Norway ('høstferie'), dating back to a time when the farmers needed help with their harvests, so children were allowed to take a week free from school. I don't know if there are/were similar traditions in the USA. I do know that we never had a week of autumn vacation as children growing up in New York State, although there were single-day school holidays scattered throughout autumn and winter. In any case, both children and parents often take a week off in the early part of October here in Norway. I've never taken any autumn vacation before, but this year, I decided to do so. I took a few days off, as did my husband, and one of the things we decided to do was to spend a weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. We drove through some beautiful countryside and saw some gorgeous autumn foliage before we arrived in Stockholm on Friday afternoon. We stayed at the Elite Palace Hotel on Sankt Eriksgatan street (https://www.elite.se/en/hotels/stockholm/palace-hotel/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google-local&utm_content=stockholm_palace), where we had stayed once before when my husband was in Stockholm for a PhD defense where he served on the doctoral committee that reviewed the student's work. That was in November or December 2006, when it was considerably colder outside; I remember that we visited Millesgården (https://www.millesgarden.se/home.aspx) in 2006 and it was cold and rainy; the museum's cafe served hot pumpkin soup with feta cheese in it, and it was wonderful. The weather this past weekend was temperate, no rain, cloudy with some sunshine--perfect for walking. We did some exploring of the neighborhood around the hotel on Friday evening and ended up at an Italian restaurant called Grappa for dinner. On Saturday morning, we drove to a part of town called Pålsundet, a small strait (or canal) with many beautiful wooden boats located in that area, some on land, most still on the water. Since we had booked a early-afternoon three hour lunch cruise around the archipelago that is Stockholm, we made our way back to the hotel, parked the car, and then walked down to the main harbor to meet our boat. The boat trip brought us past many small islands dotted with lovely homes, and is well-worth taking as it is not expensive (about 90 dollars for two people including lunch, which was more like dinner). And when it was over, we walked back to the hotel through some lovely neighborhoods (the architecture in Stockholm is beautiful), and ate a late dinner at the Bishop Arms pub adjoining the hotel. I calculated that we walked a total of six miles on Saturday. On Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast and just hung around the hotel until we checked out and headed for home.

I took some photos of our trip to Pålsundet, on our boat trip, and of Stockholm, and have posted some of them here. Enjoy.......






Running for the bus












Sunday, August 19, 2018

Some images of Tarrytown

My hometown--Tarrytown--I love returning here each year when I visit New York. I know it now like the back of my hand, know all the driving shortcuts, and where the hotels and supermarkets are. It feels like home when I'm there, and that's such a good feeling.

When I was in Tarrytown on my recent vacation, I took some photos of the new Tappan Zee Bridge (from the riverside park in Irvington), of the Hudson River at sunset from Barley on the Hudson restaurant (a good restaurant for informal American food--not too expensive), and of the Tarrytown Lakes--with the lush foliage and vegetation. I realize how privileged I was to grow up amidst all this beauty, and am grateful for that, as well as for the opportunity to visit each year. 






The surreal world we live in

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