Norway and Sweden 2015

Southern & central Norway, southwest Sweden

Sunday July 26 through Monday August 10

After being delayed by a day because of mechanical problems on our first flight, our rescheduled trip began early on Sunday, July 26. We flew from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Washington Dulles Int'l Airport in Virginia (near Washington, D. C.), then to Newark Int'l Airport in Newark, New Jersey, and finally to Oslo (Gardermoen), Norway. We visited Oslo, then took a train to Bodø, spent a couple of days there, and returned to Gardermoen, where we picked up a rental car. We drove into Sweden, visited several points of interest, then returned to Norway. We drove to Bergen, then to Ulvik, where we stayed for a couple of days, then returned to Oslo. We departed Oslo/Gardermoen for Newark and Oklahoma City on August 10 (also delayed by about 5 hours!).

I mainly used a Garmin Monterra GPS for tracking. Much of the train travel is missing, apparently because of reception problems. There is also a 15-minute (approximately) missing track after we departed Karlstad, Sweden. I forgot to start the Monterra until we were already on the highway, and it failed to start properly for a few more minutes. There are also many tunnels in Norway, and GPS/GLONASS signals cannot be received there, so the tunnel tracks are shown as straight lines between our entry and exit points.

Topographic maps are denoted by a "(Topo)" link (only one is available for this trip). Bright pink/magenta lines represent manually-powered transportation (e.g., canoe, hiking).

Unless specified otherwise, GPX tracks are unedited. To view unedited versions of edited files, remove ".edited" from the file name in your browser's address bar, and press [Enter] or its equivalent.

Overview

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank partial world map, with the tracks highlighted in yellow, and the train travel marked in red.
All GPS tracks (Monterra) / view map—The whole trip, including hikes, driving, train (except as noted above),....
Colored overview map emphasizing the counties we visited in Norway and Sweden (highlighted in yellow), with the GPX tracks in red (including the inaccurate tracks north of Trondheim, although the correct railroad tracks are also shown in red there), and county lines in blue (Norway) or green (Sweden).
Train / view map—The portion of the NSB ("Norges Statsbaner AS", or "Norwegian State Railways" in English) tracks that we took, downloaded from NSB's website.

Sunday, July 26

GPX / view map—Riding the van to the Oklahoma City Airport (Will Rogers World Airport).
GPX / view map—Our flight from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Washington Dulles Int'l Airport, Dulles, Virginia.
GPX / view map—Our flight from Washington Dulles Int'l Airport, Dulles, Virginia to Newark Int'l Airport, Newark, New Jersey.

Monday, July 27

GPX / view map—Our flight from Newark Int'l Airport, Newark, New Jersey, USA to Oslo lufthavn (Airport), Oslo (Gardermoen), Norway. This flight originated on Sunday, July 26, and was an overnight flight.
GPX / view map—Train, walking, bus, and walking path to our hotel in Oslo. Note that nearly the entire train ride is missing.
GPX / view map—Our meanderings (mostly on foot, but ending in a bus ride) in Oslo. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)

Tuesday, July 28

GPX / view map—Our walk/bus ride/walk/train ride from our hotel in Oslo to Oslo Sentralstasjon (Central Station) to Oslo lufthavn (Airport) in Gardermoen. The train reached speeds around 200 km/h for much of the ride! (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)
GPX / view map—Train ride from Oslo lufthavn (Airport) in Gardermoen to Trondheim railroad station. There are several apparent signal losses (resulting in straight lines where we really traveled in a curved path): near Otta, near Dombås, and in Trondheim. (See the "train" GPX file, in the Overview [above], for the actual train route.)

Wednesday, July 29

GPX / view map—Train ride from Trondheim railroad station to the one in Bodø, plus our walk to the hotel in Bodø. Most of the trip was not trackable, because of signal loss. (See the "train" GPX file, in the Overview [above], for the actual train route.) This was an overnight trip, beginning late Tuesday night.
GPX / view map—Bus ride from Bodø to Saltstraumen, home of a famous Malstrøm (Maelstrom). This is the strongest maelstrom in the world, produced by a strong tidal current. The GPS track also includes our walking to the bus station in Bodø and around the Saltstraumen area.
GPX / view map—Our wanderings (on foot) around Bodø, in search of a dinner place. We ended up going to a coffee shop just southwest of the hotel (the hotel appears as a mass of short track segments).

Thursday, July 30

GPX / view map—Our wanderings (on foot) around Bodø, including walking to Nordlandsmuseet (The Nordlands Museum), the boat terminal (where we missed a boat we thought about taking), and dinner, along with other wandering (including a long walk to the northeast part of town).

Friday, July 31—early morning Saturday, August 1

GPX / view map—The train ride from Bodø to Trondheim to Oslo/Gardermoen. Note that the GPS track fails just southwest of Mo I Rana, and doesn't pick up again until Trondheim. (See the "train" GPX file, in the Overview [above], for the actual train route.) The Trondheim—Gardermoen segment was an overnight ride, and we were able to sleep in a sleeping car.

Saturday, August 1 (enter Sweden)

GPX / view map—We picked up our rental car in Gardermoen, Norway, and drove (this segment) to Arvika, Sweden, and the Arvika Fordonsmuseum (Automobile Museum) therein.
GPX / view map—Driving from the Arvika Fordonsmuseum to our hotel in Karlstad.
GPX / view map—Walking in the vicinity of our hotel in Karlstad, including dinner almost next door to the hotel. Much of the track sequence is "noise" caused by being indoors.
GPX / view map—Walking from/to our hotel in Karlstad to/from Mariebergsskogen (literally, "the Marie mountain forest"), a large (beautiful) park in Karlstad.

Sunday, August 2 (Sweden)

GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Karlstad to Nobelmuseet (the Nobel Museum) in Karlskoga.
GPX / view map—Walking around the grounds of Nobelmuseet (the Nobel Museum) in Karlskoga, including a guided tour of the main house.
GPX / view map—Driving from Nobelmuseet (the Nobel Museum) in Karlskoga to a parking lot near our hotel in Lidköping.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking lot to our hotel in Lidköping.
GPX / view map—Walking around Lidköping, including dinner adjacent to the hotel.
GPX / view map—Additional walking around Lidköping, ending at the hotel.

Monday, August 3 (Sweden, return to Norway)

GPX / view map—Walking from the hotel (Lidköping) to the parking lot.
GPX / view map—Driving from downtown Lidköping to nearby Läckö Slott (Lacko Castle).
GPX / view map—Walking + hiking near, and in, Läckö Slott (Lacko Castle). This includes a guided tour of the castle. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)
GPX / view map—Driving from Läckö Slott to a parking spot near our hotel in Oslo, Norway.
GPX / view map—Walking in search of dinner around our hotel in Oslo. Wound up getting take-away ("take-out" in American English). Note: "gate" in Norwegian means "street" in English. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)

Tuesday, August 4

GPX / view map—Walking to the car in Oslo.
GPX / view map—Driving from Oslo to a parking garage near our hotel in Bergen.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking garage to our hotel in Bergen, plus walking to the harbor (where we had dinner) and Bergenhus festning (House of Bergen Fortress), which has buildings dating back as far as 1250, while most on the grounds were built around 1700. Bergenhus was the King's residence during the time when Bergen was the capital of Norway.

Wednesday, August 5

GPX / view map—Walking from our hotel in Bergen to the nearby parking garage. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points and "noise".)
GPX / view map—Driving from the parking garage in Bergen to our hotel in Ulvik.

Thursday, August 6

GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Ulvik to nearby Osa. There is some "noise" in the track at the hotel.
GPX / view map—Hiking, north of Osa. Note that I lost GPS/GLONASS signal for quite a while in the east-pointing spur in the trail. Some of the hike is therefore missing (there's a 27-minute gap in usable data, represented by an unusually long straight line on the map). (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.) (Topo)
GPX / view map—Driving along the road east of Osa up into higher terrain and deep snow! In fact, we had to stop where we did because the road was covered in deep snow beyond that point. When returning back west, we reversed course for a few hundred meters to go back to a lake for photos, then went west again (shows up as multiple tracks there). We then returned to the hotel in Ulvik.

Friday, August 7

GPX / view map—Walking from the hotel in Ulvik to the Informasjonkontor (Information Office) and back. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points and "noise".)
GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Ulvik around Hardangerfjord (this continues most of the day). We stopped first in Øystese so I could go to an "apotek" (pharmacy). I had a rather bad cold that lasted into September.
GPX / view map—Walking around Øystese, including the visit to the apotek (pharmacy).
GPX / view map—Driving from Øystese to Norheimsund, where there is a walk-behind waterfall.
GPX / view map—Walking to/from Steinsdalsfossen ("foss" = "waterfall", and "fossen" = "the waterfall") and the gift shop: at Norheimsund.
GPX / view map—Driving around Norheimsund, then to Tørvikbygd, ferry to Jondal, driving to Utne, ferry across the fjord, and driving to Vossevangen, where we had dinner.
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking lot to the restaurant and back in Vossevangen.
GPX / view map—Driving from Vossevangen back to our hotel in Ulvik (and briefly walking from the car to the hotel entrance).

Saturday, August 8

GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Ulvik to Øvre Eidfjord, where we considered renting a canoe, but didn't actually do it.
GPX / view map—Walking around in Øvre Eidfjord.
GPX / view map—Driving a short distance east of Øvre Eidfjord.
GPX / view map—Walking briefly (had considered hiking here, but didn't find a suitable trail).
GPX / view map—Another short drive to the east (to park near Vøringsfossen, a major waterfall).
GPX / view map—Walking from the parking spot to view the waterfalls at Vøringsfossen. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)
GPX / view map—Driving from near Vøringsfossen to our hotel in Oslo, including stops at Sysenvatnet (reservoir), Skiftessjøen (lake), Geilo (town with ski areas), Uvdalstavkirke (Uvdal Stave Church), and dinner at Kongsberg.

Sunday, August 9

GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Oslo to the Vikingskipshuset (The Viking Ships "House" [Museum]), also in Oslo.
GPX / view map—Walking in the Vikingskipshuset, then to the museum complex, including Frammuseet (The Fram Museum), and back to the parking spot. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points.)
GPX / view map—Driving back to our hotel in Oslo.
GPX / view map—Walking to/from dinner from/to our hotel in Oslo. (Edited to remove obviously incorrect data points and "noise".)

Monday, August 10

GPX / view map—Driving from our hotel in Oslo to Oslo lufthavn (Airport), Oslo (Gardermoen), and walking into the terminal building.
GPX / view map—Flight from Oslo lufthavn (Airport), Oslo (Gardermoen), Norway to Newark Int'l Airport, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
GPX / view map—Walking (and riding the train) through the terminal buildings at Newark Int'l Airport, Newark, New Jersey.
GPX / view map—Flight from Newark Int'l Airport, Newark, New Jersey to Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
GPX / view map—Riding the van from Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.