More Gaudi in Barcelona

One of the coolest things about Barcelona - along with the great atmosphere, warm weather and landscape - was the amazing architecture. In my last post I showed Gaudi's greatest work; La Sagrada Familia. However, he did many many more works in Barcelona and here are some highlights.

Detail of La Pedrera - It is, yes, an apartment building!

The impressive Casa Batllo

Park Guell - The main entrance
One of the most visited places in Barcelona.

One of the many walkways winding up underneath the elaborate road supports.

Road on top with two walkways below. Pretty Nuts.

Underneath the double walkway

While the architecture in this park was again amazing, overall it did fall a bit flat for me since, for me, a park should emphasize the natural flora of the landscape and should be a pleasant place to stroll through. Thus, my vision of a park doesn't include a road that winds up to a house and that the road is a prominent part of the park. Still, quite impressive nonetheless.

Looking out from the main entrance of Park Guell

From the top of Park Guell
The giant glass penis (called by the locals) and the Sagrada Familia under construction

If you ever get the chance to visit Barcelona - DO!
If you are heading to Europe, it is a city not to be missed.

TNO

The Craziest Church On Planet Earth - La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is just like no other church on Earth. Designed by the architectural genious Antoni Gaudi and considered his greatest masterpiece, it does not take one long to consider why. Under construction since 1883, and with a completion date around 2020, it has been a monumental undertaking. The construction is intricate with most concrete pieces being made from custom fiberglass molds. I'm not religious but I generally find churches to be very interesting and this one in particular takes the cake as the best for me. The gothic style and extreme intricate details in the design are bar none. I also love how Gaudi used patterns from nature and incorporated these concepts into his designs.

The Nativity Façade. The first and most intricate of all the entrances.

You can stare at this wall for a long time and still spot horses, reptiles, birds, etc that you didn't see at first. Very cool.

Columns designed after the trunks of Plane trees supporting the 'tree canopy'-like roof.

Spiral staircase in one of the Nativity towers.

Another view of the inner tree like columns.

More modern Passion Façade which mirrors the Nativity Façade with four large towers.

The even crazier thing about this church is that what people think of the church only vaguely match what it will look like form the outside. Still to be completed are the even larger inner towers (the Mary and Christ Tower) which will litterly tower over all the others. Definitely a must see if you have any interest in architecture at its best (or if your into God and stuff).

TNO

Back from the South - France and Spain

Well, I've been gone away from Norway for a wedding, some fun and also, to get out of Norway and get some actual sunshine before the winter starts to fully come. The main reason for the whole visit was to attend Kim's sisters wedding but we also used the opportunity to spend some extra time exploring Provence and the south of France, along with the castle city of Carcassonne, and in and around Barcelona, Spain. It was three weeks of great fun and we absolutely fantastic weather EVERY SINGLE DAY!

We had three weeks of 25 plus degree weather which made me realize even more about how little sun on the skin you get living in the North. While Norway is such a beautiful Country, the weather, especially in the summer, really stinks. There are some nice days but they usually seem to be interspersed with cloudy and rainy ones. To be fair, we did have some really nice weather for a short time in July but since then... nada.

So, Kim and I definitely feel like we now had summer and this has made the 4 degree weather with snow at elevation a little easier to cope with. It is pretty crazy how one week you can be biking in shorts and a short sleeve shirt (in Barcelona) and the next, your cycling in tights, thick socks, a wool long sleeve, jersey, jacket, gloves and yes, a balaclava (today in Trondheim). The joys of modern times.

Still have tons of Photos to get through so instead of loaded everything all in one go, I'll give you snippets of the best of the best of the trip.

TNO

Cabin Trip in Dovrefjell National Park

Last weekend, Kim and I rented a car once again and headed south with our friends Matthieu and Marion to the National Park of Dovrefjell. This park is primarily alpine with soft rolling mountains reaching up to 2200 meters and is inhabited by Muscox. While we unfortunately didn't see any Muscox, we did enjoy the sights and sounds of a landscape preparing for season of snow.

We headed up on Saturday and planned a 2 day loop trip with a short first day to a cabin (one of thousands that make up the cabin network here in Norway). We had a relaxing hike in and had a nice evening chilling out with some card games and good food. The next day, we did a much longer route that would take us up into the alpine and down a different valley back to our car. Everything went smooth and here are some good shots to give you an idea of the trip. Enjoy!

Old village still used for farming today. This was the location of our hytta (cabin).

The beautiful valley that we hiked up

Nice trail through the trees

On a stroll from the cabin and taking a break

The next day, hiking out of the valley; old village and cabin below.

The hike started with 500 meters straight up to get up to the alpine plateaus

Into the alpine

Despite bad weather surrounding us, we lucked out with some cloudy blue skies.

Marion, Matthieu, Kim and Myself

The moonscape landscape is barren yet beautiful at the same time

Some light rain gave us yet another rainbow

Despite having no trees or shrubs, the landscape is quite colourfull from all the low-lying alpine plants turning as the fall and winter approaches.

Starting to head down another valley

Very old farm houses made of stone, some wood and sod roofs (as is normal here in Norway)

TNO

Trondheim Countryside Road Ride

The other week, Kim and I decided to get out for a longish road ride on our commuter bikes to some areas around Trondheim that we had not yet visited. We set out with an informal plan and ended up going around some mountains, scenic lakes and road on some very quiet country roads. The weather was scattered but we ended up escaping the rain and even had some very warm sunny moments. With the daylight getting shorter everyday, the temperatures are also going down accordingly so any warm weather is currently being cherished by us! In the end, we more or less stuck to our intended route and clocked about 120km which was great.

Kim with one of many many rainbows we've seen in the past few weeks

Taking a short break on the shores of Andoya Lake

Kim making some friends!

Along the way we stopped and watched a sheep herding competition which was part of a Norwegien Cup Series. It was pretty impressive to see the level of control the owners had with their Border Collies! The owner stood on a platform up to about 800m away and instructed the dog to herd the sheep through a series of gates and finally to a ring where the owner would have to spit the sheep in two and put them in a fenced enclosure. Never seem anything like this before!

We had a great ride through the countryside and it reinforced to us once again just how nice this Country is just on the outskirts of any town or City.

TNO

Climbing at Hardmoen

A couple weekends back, we rented a car and headed west to a climbing spot called 'Hardmoen' with a group of friends. This location featured a 30 meter wall with a good mixture of holds along with some crack and an overhang section at the top of one route. As none of us have trad gear nor know how to use it propery, we top ropped the 30 meter routes and I led a shorter anchored route. I'm not too confident leading but am starting to get better at it with practice. All in all, despite the bit of rain we got, it was a great day of climbing.

The Hardmoen wall; Me going up the 30 meter route

Kim going vertical

Marion finding the best route

On belay

Marion going up to the overhang

Taking a break midway up the route

Salmon on the BBQ

Waiting out some rain with some good company!

TNO

Car Tripping Through Fjordland - The Highlights

As usual, so much has been happening that updating my blog has taken a back seat. I've been biking, climbing, doing cabin trips, and just downright enjoying life. On the larger scale though, I was able to do a 10 day car trip from Trondheim down to Bergen and back to take in all the larger than life, world-class sights that are the epitomy of what one thinks of when they think of Norway; majestic fjords, steep vertical mountains, coastal communities and of course, mountain hiking.

This all happened as Kim and I had a visit from Shane and Sonja from Victoria who would be over for a two week period to enjoy the best that Norway has to offer. With over 1000 photos taken of the many places we visited, here is a selection of the highlights for me.

The Atlantic Road

Definitely a highlight was Trollstigen (small switchback road) and Trollveggen (highest vertical drop in Northern Europe. Here is Shane, Sonja and I at base of the Trollstigen climb.

Trollstigen is inhabited by a colony of Trolls

Trollstigen Looking down from the top

On top of Trollstigen

Too big to get into one photo, here is the best to get an idea. If you don't know about this road, if you've seen any base jumping videos or guys flying in wingsuits, this is where you have likely seen them. Check out this video to see wingsuit jumpers flying beside the road!

From Trollstigen, you can hike right up to the top of Trollveggen to get an impressive view straight down to the valley floor!

Hiking to Trollveggen

The impressive backside of Trollveggen (it is nearly vertical on BOTH sides!)

Looking out from Trollveggen

The extremely steep face of Trollveggen

The view of Trollveggen from the other side

The Unesco World Heritage site of Geiranger Fjord

One of many many many waterfalls and glaciers we saw

Hike to the foot of Jostedalsbreen glacier

Hiking up the 1848m Skaala Mountain from sea level. There also happens to be a mountain race here with substantial prize money to anyone who can beet the course record (currently 1:08:39). That is crazy crazy fast considering...

...this is what people are running up!

The top of Skaala

A beautiful morning

A small small road that we found to get to the below campsite

Cows interested in hanging around and licking our tent

Small peak hike in rock land!

Exploring the City of Bergen

Drive up the Flambosa Valley

Hiking in Jotenheiman National Park

On top of the 2nd highest peak in Northern Europe (2nd by 3 meters)

The quaint town of Lom

Having fun on a ropes course!

We went through a lot of tunnels on the trip including the longest tunnel in the world at just under 25 km. On that day, I think we went through 46 tunnels!

And, the little Yaris that took us everywhere. Here, exploded and used for drying our gear!

It was absolutely amazing to see so many of these world class sites. Definitely making the best of our time here!

TNO