January in Scandinavia

This month was marked by a visit from our friend Craig, who is a senior in college and was earning college credit for spending his university’s January term traveling around Scandinavia with us. We first met Craig when he was a freshman at the US Naval Academy, and we were assigned to be his sponsor family. A sponsor family provides a place for the student to go during their leave time to get a break from military life. We’ve stayed in touch even after he transferred to a civilian college.

Craig’s program involved travels through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland, with Trondheim providing a home base and opportunity for downtime. We accompanied him on the first three adventures — Oslo, Åre, Sweden, and Aalborg/Aarhus, Denmark — before leaving him to tackle Iceland on his own.

Oslo

We met Craig in Oslo, as it’s an easier place to fly into than Trondheim. As the capital of Norway, Gavin and I felt like we couldn’t go the whole year without seeing it. This city is home to one-fifth of Norwegians — approximately one million — and is in the country’s southeast region. The city seems supremely livable. It is clean, it has great public transportation, and is situated between the Oslofjord and several large nature reserves. Like other major Scandinavian cities, it places great emphasis on architecture. It is also well-positioned for trips to Norway’s southern fjords, which are probably the country’s most popular tourist attraction.

We purchased the Oslo Pass, which covered entry to all museums in Oslo as well as public transportation. We’re not typically big on going to lots of museums, but those in Oslo are well worth a visit. Oslo’s museums are heavy on history and navigation, which fit well with Craig’s need to learn something about Vikings for his class. We visited the Viking Ship Museum, the Nobel Peace Center, the Maritime Museum, and Norway’s Resistance Museum, but our favorite was the Fram Museum on Polar Exploration.

Oslo provided a great Scandinavian orientation for Craig and is well worth a stop on a trip through Norway.

Viking ship.

“Bath houses” on the Oslofjord.

Oslo at sunset.

I would like this garment.

Åre, Sweden

We had about a week of downtime after Oslo and used that time to provide Craig with the Taylor introduction to Scandinavian life. This largely involved a primer on skiing and the opportunity to try two new kinds of meat (moose and reindeer).

The skiing was important because our next trip was to Åre, Sweden, a world-class ski resort 2.5 hours from Trondheim by train. Gavin and I have our own skis, but we were able to borrow a brand new pair for Craig from Trondheim’s winter sports lending center. I have no idea why this service exists, but it’s an extraordinarily nice perk of living in a socialist country.

I think Åre was everyone’s favorite part of the trip. It’s primarily known as an Alpine ski and snowboard destination, but as we’re firmly committed to team cross-country ski, we did that instead. The opportunity to ski the same trails three days in a row afforded us the chance to greatly improve our skills. After long days out in the cold (temperatures ranged from -6 to -18 degrees C), our hotel offered multiple recovery strategies, including a spa (Allison’s preferred method) and a meat plate (Gavin and Craig’s preferred method).

The skiing was excellent. Despite no previous experience, Craig was a natural.

Aalborg & Aarhus, Denmark

We took a week to recover from the ski weekend (and for Gavin to go to work) before embarking for a few days in Danish Jutland. Denmark was 10-15 degrees warmer than Trondheim, which offered a welcome respite from the bitter cold. Its AirBnB offerings, however, left something to be desired.

It’s hard to be tall.

The Jutland region is home to many Danish Viking sites, and so afforded Craig the opportunity to get more information to complete the academic portion of his trip. We were based in Aalborg, which allowed a visit to Lindholm Høje, a famous Viking burial ground.

Aalborg was also home to some very strange art. Gavin considered getting a haircut in Denmark (haircuts are expensive in Norway), but was turned off by the possibility of this experience:

On our last day with Craig we traveled to Aarhus, Denmark’s second city. In Aarhus we took in some world-famous art at the Aros museum. We have consistently been impressed with the quality of Scandinavian museums, which are usually a place of active continuing scholarship in addition to a curated set of artifacts. Aros did not disappoint, especially if you like contemporary art.

Craig, thanks for spending the month with us. We hope you had a great time!