Updates Archives - Page 15 of 25

17 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 121 – 123 | It’s not always fun

Day 121 | Wednesday July 13

At 6 o’clock I set the alarm as today I wanted to take the ferry from Bodø to Lofoten. It left at 10 but at The Scandic Havet Hotel they tipped me that it would be wise to park in the line very early as it’s a popular line. At 7 I parked my car in front of the line and went back to the hotel for breakfast.

The Scandic Havet Hotel was awarded with one of the best breakfasts in Scandinavia. And this appeared to be very true. They had a huge variety of french bread, coffees, cheeses, cakes etc. Perfect!

At 10 I took the boat the the other side, a 3 hour ride and the longest so far. When I got of the ferry I did not know exactly were to go so I looked for a free wifi place to look up the address. A hitchhiker came to me and appeared to be Dutch. He needed to go in the same direction as me so we shared the ride. He traveled all the way from Holland to here by foot and with the help of other people, nice guy.

At dinnertime I arrived at my hosts, Threes and Rob. Two Dutchies who own the Polarlightcenter in Laukvik on the north side of Austvågøya, the most northern island of the Lofoten. In this center they explain you everything about the Northern Lights, a beautiful phenomenon which can be seen from this area. Rob has a room full of electronic devices, oldschool printers, recorders and I don’t know what to see if there is any polar activity. The polar light (auroras) are produced when there is a disturbance on the sun. When this happens Rob can read this on his devices and now knows that 1 to 4 days later there will be northern light, if it was send to the right direction. An interesting wonder of nature which I unfortunately couldn’t see because it’s light here all day but definitely a reason to come back for.

Day 122 | Thursday July 14

Lofoten is a beautiful island and it became popular only a few years ago so the nature still is very untouched. To discover more of the island I went for a hike. I can tell how it went but it’s better to just check the pictures below.

Day 123 | Friday July 15

In Berlin a few weeks ago I forgot my jacket at Jacob’ place. He send it to Lisa in Lynkoping (Sweden) but it arrived there too late. As I had no address for sure the coming weeks I didn’t know what to do with it. Luckily Lisa send me a message a few days ago that she would go to Lofoten for a few days so she could bring it! Perfect. She was staying with some friends about 100km from Laukvik in Ballstad so I drove there to pick it up.

On the way a tiny cable from the computer in the car broke. This was the same computer that had some problems earlier. I could still keep driving but I can’t see how many % battery I have left and charging is also not possible. I could still connect it with my hands to check the status but this had to be fixed.

On the way back I stopped at a few shops but they said it would be hard to find a plug like that. I kept driving and knew that I had to stop sometime soon because I couldn’t make it on one charge. At a parking for campers I tried to check the status but the screen didn’t turn on anymore. Panic. I called from from Electric Cars Europe. This is the company who made my car, not Detroit Electric which I mentioned earlier.

He told me I had to check the fuses. I had to remove some panels and find my way through a maze of wires before I found them and they appeared to be ok. This meant to cable powering the computer had no current anymore so I needed to power it from somewhere else. I thought I would never manage to do this but some Polish traveler had a 12V cable with them. First we tried to connect it from there car which didn’t work and eventually we managed to power it from the fusebox of my car. Now it was possible to charge it. The polish people invited me in their caravan for some fresh caught fish dinner, really nice people. I can even stay with them if I would come to Poland once.

When I had 45% left I had enough energy to reach Svolvaer, there was a type 2 station and was hoping to recharge so I had enough power to come home. Bad luck, the station was not working. At a hotel I could charge for a few hours and returned home at 3.30 in the morning. It was a really long day. Crazy thing that it was still light at this time as the sun doesn’t come down here at all.

Pictures of this day

Breakfast

Breads

Beaucoup de croissant!

Breakfast with a view

Sheeps during the hike

Scary stuff

My jacket

Shoe dryer

Where the problems happened

Macgyver set-up

The friendly Polish family

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14 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 120 | Solving problems

Day 120 | Tuesday July 12

Last night I didn’t close an eye, I was afraid that something would be really wrong with the car and it would be hard to fix it. I still didn’t know what the problem was and how it needed to be solved. I had to keep driving today as I couldn’t communicate well here with the mechanic in Holland as the connection was bad. There is a trick to keep driving, it’s possible to turn off the car’s software by pulling out a cable from a computer. This way there is no emergency signal but also no information about the car. So I can’t see how many percent battery is left. You need to be careful with this because when the battery is totally empty it will get damaged.

I started driving and after the first ferry I re-connected the computer and surprisingly there was no emergency signal! Good stuff. I continued driving and when I stopped the car the emergency signal appeared again. Really weird. I figured out it had something to do with the computer and started fidgeting with the cables on the back. It worked, the signal stopped. I send a mail to Wim, the mechanic in Holland and he confirmed that it had something to do with the optical cable coming out of the back of the computer. Problem fixed for now.

I was on my way to a village near Bodø, I had someone who plugged me in but he didn’t reply to my mails or text messages yet. When I got there he still didn’t. I decided to drive to Bodø and make my plan from there. The city appeared to be very nice and cosy. It was surrounded by water and hills. I walked around and received a text message from the guy, he was on holiday in Denmark so he couldn’t help me. There were many hotels so I tried my luck at the first one I passed by. Just like 2 days ago it was no problem at all to offer me a room! This time I was staying at Scandic Havet, the hotel appeared to be one of the tallest buildings in Northen Norway and the tallest in Bodø. My room was on the 15th floor and had a view over the see and mountains. I feel blessed that I could stay in this wonderful place.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/510144505861283/?type=3&theater

Soo this night I mainly enjoyed my room. Skyped with mom. Let all my friends know on whatsapp. Watched TV. Showered 2 times. That kind of things. It was good. Thank you Scandic! The receptionist was also a nice guy. He let me charge the car on the delivery spot and I had to move it when to normal charge spot was available. He would watch the camera to see when they would leave and give me a call if it was free. They didn’t leave though so he moved his own car. Great service.

At around 12 I saw the midnight sun for the first time in my life. It’s weird but mainly beautiful to witness.

Pictures of today

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12 July 201613 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 119 | Problems in the middle of nowhere

Day 119 | Monday July 11

This night in the Fru Haugans Hotel did me really well, and the breakfast even more! A wide variety of Norwegian bread was waiting for me, perfect! I felt completely recharged this morning and the car was too.

I had a plugger 260km away from me in Glomfjord and I was not sure if I could make that especially because google maps told me it was a 5.5 hour drive. I contacted my possible host yesterday and asked him if it would be possible to stay there IF I would make it. In the morning I didn’t had a reply yet so I just started driving.

Driving in Northern Norway is so beautiful, I was amazed that it is so different from the southern part. It is really the country side and it feels a bit like driving through the Australian Outback. Next to the lake you will find many small cabins, lodges and piers. On the route I had to take 3 ferries, free for electric cars of course. On the second one I got recognized by someone, he had seen me on Facebook. This was the first time ever that I got recognized, starting to get a little bit famous 😉 It was just a short talk as we had to embark the ferry but on the third ferry I saw him again and showed him the car. He told me he was a salesman in electric cars so I was sure he was interested.

While waiting for the last ferry I received a call from my host, Vidar. He told me that he wanted to go to his parents in Brevik which was actually just 20 minutes passed the ferry. That was perfect for me as I was sure I could make that.

When I drove of the ferry some problems appeared. The car made a emergency signal and I couldn’t drive faster than 20km/h. I did not know where the problem came from, there was no sign on the dashboard. After I turned the car off a couple of times it seemed to be ok.
Right in front of the house of Vidar’s parents the problem re-appeared. I left the car on the street and introduced myself to the father of Vidar, a friendly man who explained about where the polar cirkel exactly was. Apparently I crossed the circle when I was on the ferry. His house was located on a hill with a view over the lake and mountains. I believe I have used this sentence a couple of times before but this was time it was really jaw-dropping. I took my camera and went for a walk over the shore.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/509904195885314/?type=3&theater

Around 6 Vidar himself arrived, he is a 38 year old man who still enjoys coming here where he grow up. He works for a hydrogen water company and has a background as electrician. I was lucky with that because he knew a lot about electric cars. I showed him some specs and drawings from the car and he understood the most parts. I still don’t. Sadly we couldn’t find what the problem of the car was. I had to make some phone call with the mechanic in Holland. He thought it was a problem with the optical wires. Which is a big problem as the are in the battery pack and almost impossible to replace. To be continued…

Pictures of today

North Norway

Perfect holiday house

The view from my host' house

Houston we have a problem

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12 July 201612 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 118 | Adventures in North Norway

Day 118 | Sunday July 10

My host Jarri has many jobs. He works as a tour guide, runs this B&B where I stayed, is a father and works on a few farms. He helps farmers while they are away. We walked to one of these farms nearby. It was a funny sight to see him in his big boots carrying his baby in a harnas while feeding cows. In Holland we got many cows but I realized that this was the first time that I got really close to them. They are a bit afraid when you approach them but when you stay calm and relaxed they come to inspect you, and start licking your pants.

When we finished feeding the cows we crawled under the fence and unfortunately by pants teared out. Now I got just 2 jeans left but I’m sure I can fix theme somewhere.

Jarri invited me to stay for another night and watch the Euro final tonight, a tempting offer but as I travelled through Norway slowly and still have to do a long way I decided to keep going. I am very grateful to Irena and Jarri that they where so welcoming and took care of me! I hope there new B&B Snåsa will get the succes it deserves.

I continued my way and didn’t know where I would end up today as I was still on the no-plan plan. I passed the Nord-Norge mark, the sign which is the ‘border’ to the North Norway province. When I had 20% battery left I passed a tiny village called Trofors. Quickly I found a normal charge point which I could open with the key I received from elbil.no. After a while a man came to me and said it was not allowed to charge here so I had to move somewhere else. At a gasstation nearby I could continue. As the village was really tiny and a bigger city was just 40 kilometers away I decided to go there.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/509196789289388/?type=3&theater

Around 8pm I got to Mosjøen, a city surrounded by mountains. As my experience yesterday with the B&B was so good I decided to try my luck at a hotel. Fru Haugans Hotel was the first one I saw and I walked in there and asked the receptionist if they could plug me in. He made a phone call with his boss and they were ok with it! So great that everyone is so eager to help me. The hotel was very modern and cosy and the room they gave me had everything I needed, including free wi-fi and a huge television.

The final of the Euro was at 9 and in the bar were some people watching it so I joined them. Finals of championships are mostly boring because both teams play very safe but this one was way beyond boring. It was so bad that I finished this blog already in the first half. I was supporting France as I don’t feel much for Portugal, especially after that terrible semi-final in 2004. Still I felt bad for Ronaldo when he got injured, a dedicated sportsman like him deserved to play the full game.

So congrats to Portugal but it was a good decision from Holland to skip this tournament as the quality of the games was low this year. That’s why we only do world cups 😉

Pictures of today

Jarri with his cows

They smell a cowspiracy

Jarri's kid

Fingerlickin' good

The Fru Haugans Hotel

With a beautiful view over the mountains

My room

And even a possibility to charge

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11 July 201611 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 117 | 800KM without energy

Day 117 | Saturday July 8

With a fairly big hangover I woke up in the Radisson Blu Hotel. Breakfast was included and it was one of the best I had so far. I enjoy buffets a lot and especially sweet sof and here they had it all. Croissants, pineapples, cakes, everything was well arranged.
Around 10 Geir picked me up at the hotel, looking a bit sleepy too. We went back to the Carpoint to pick up the car and say goodbye.

Today was the start of a mini-adventure. From Trondheim my next plugger is located in Glomfjord, about 800km farther away. With my range of 200km it will take 4 days to get there so I need to survive those days and night. No plan, no nothing. A few weeks ago I introduced the no-plan plan which turned out really well so I’m doing that again and hope it will turned out the same positive way as last time. The no-plan plan means I start driving and make a plan when I have 20% battery left. This is the first time this trip I have to cover a distance this big without anyone who offered me energy. This is not a downer for me, I believe it is really great that the last 4 months I managed to get from one plugger to another almost every day. I feel very blessed and actually looking forward to the next days as I am up for some adventure!

At 20% I did 180km which is really a lot and passed Snåsa. There was one hotel and I was hoping they could be at help. At the reception there was a friendly lady and she had to call her boss if it was okay for me to stay there. The boss didn’t agree with that but the lady just opened her own B&B last week and I could stay there! So amazing that it turned out so well. She called her boyfriend and let him now that I would come by.

I drove to the Bed and Breakfast which is called B&B Snåsa where Jarri welcomed me. The B&B was located on a hill with an view over a lake and mountains on the other side. They had just opened July first and have been working on it since last september when they bought and moved into this house. Jarri and Irena are originally from the Czech Republic. They are both from the same city but they met each other in Norway, what a small world. Together they have an 11 months old baby.
Jarri was impressed by my story and thought I would make it to Australia easy. He has been traveling around Europe by himself in 1998. He hitchhiked, worked for food & accommodation and saw how hospitable people are. He still enjoys travelling and works as a private tourist guide in the Snåsa area.

At night they invited me to have dinner with them. Like every other Norwegian they made fish. I started to get tired and felt like I needed some time for my own, my room even had a bath and it was a long time ago I had one so I filled it up and almost fell asleep.

Bed & Breakfast Snåsa

The view from the B&B

Jarri & Irena

My bed

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10 July 201618 August 2016 by Wiebe

Day 116 | The Atlantic road to Trondheim

Day 116 | Friday July 8

Today I had to do 220km from Hustad to Trondheim and the road to there promised to be beautiful as I needed to pass the Atlantic Ocean Road. The Atlantic Road is built on several small islands and skerries, which are connected by several causeways, viaducts and eight bridges. My host Harald told me it was just a 30 minute drive to there and after a while I started to see a lot of campers and busses with Japanese tourists. I thought I would make it to the road in a few minutes but when I drove over the iconic bridge I found out I’ve been driving on the Atlantic Road for a already some kilometers.

After I passed the bridge (which I knew from many blogs) I stopped to get some pictures. I have to say that the road is more beautiful from the air and a bit disappointing from the ground. Still I found some nice spots.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/508556416020092/?type=3&theater

I continued my way to Trondheim. Last night I send a request to the only offer I had there and in the morning I didn’t have a reply yet so was not sure if I would have a place to stay. I had to do a recharge underway and on chargemap I found they have a Gronn Kontakt charging station in Valsøytunet, luckily it was working with my car this time. The station was located on the parking of a camping with restaurant. As it was lunchtime I wanted to check if they could offer me some lunch. The owner of the Valsøytunet restaurant and camping was happy to provide me with a fish salade! On the terrace of the camping I had a nice view over the lake, I imagined it would be a beautiful spot for a camper. Check out this movie of the campsite:

Valsøya 2020 – rått reiselivsprosjekt i Midt-Norge

After lunch the car had enough range to reach Trondheim. A few weeks earlier in Oslo I went to the presentation of the Detroit Electric SP:01, read that blog here. There I met the owners of Carpoint Norge, they are the importer of Detroit Electric. They have their office in Trondheim and invited me to come over. I got there around 4 o’clock.

Geir, one of the guys I met before wanted to know everything about the trip from Oslo to here so I shared all my experiences. I also told him that I was not sure if I had a place to stay tonight so he quickly made some phone calls. A few minutes later he got a call back and was happy to tell me that the owner of the Radisson Blu Hotel Trondheim offered me a room! The hotel was actually fully booked but still they could give me a place to sleep! So great.

I left my car at the Carpoint garage to charge there and Geir brought me to the hotel. Around 8 o’clock he picked me up again and together with his wife and a friend we had dinner at a restaurant. Geir is a busy man and involved in many businessclubs and also knew the owner of this restaurant who hooked me up with free food! What a day.

After dinner we went to a nightclub, the Pianobar. There was an Australian women singing and playing on the piano. She was seriously good and when she heard there was a Dutchmen in the club she sang a song in my language! The song is called ‘Tulpen uit Amsterdam’ (Tulips from Amsterdam). I felt a bit stupid that I only knew the refrain of this song but it was cool that I could sing these few words in my own language. I’m grateful that Geir took all this effort to entertain me and made my stay in Trondheim one to remember.

We had a lot of drinks at it was only the second time this trip that I got drunk. The first time being in Germany in the first month so the beers and gintonics hit me hard this time.

Pictures from today

The Atlantic Ocean Road

Crossing The Atlantic Ocean Road

Near The Atlantic Ocean Road

The restaurant where I charged the car and myself

The lunch I was offered

View from the campsite

The camping

Geir

Carpoint Norge

My car in the garage, definitely not for sale though

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9 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 115 | Picture perfect Hustad

After breakfast a journalist from Sunnmorsposten came to the B&B to interview me. He heard about me from a friend and thought it was an important project. If you speak Norwegian you can read it here (Premium), if you don’t then put it through google translate 😉 It’s worth reading.

Today was a relaxing day, I only had to do 115km to Hustad so I didn’t need to worry about charging and arrived fairly early at my hosts Harald & Randi. They life in an impressive house in a village of just 1200 inhabitants. They lived and worked on a farm the biggest part of their lives but because of health issues they decided to change that so they build this brand new house. For me the size of it and the space you have around it, is unimaginable in Holland.

They have 2 daughters and one son. One of her daughters has a Dutch boyfriend and his son Hans Ivar came by later for dinner. Harald and Randi have a strong connection with Holland, they found it very similar to Norway and like to go there for holidays.

Because it was early I had time do some periodic tasks, I cleaned the car from the inside and gave the outside a wash for the first time this trip. It looks brand new.

For dinner they introduced me to some kind of fishballs, I’m not a big fish eater so it’s alway an surprise if I like it or not but these ones were excellent.

After dinner I went for a drive with Harald through town and looked for some photo opportunities. A few 100 meters we drove though a unpaved road, luckily Harald knew exactly where are the stones were so he guided me through it. At the end of it we took some great pictures, see below.

When we got back I watched Germany – France together with his son. Unbelievable that the final is Portugal – France, who would ever thought that. I’m not a fan of Portugal with all their dirty players and Christina so let’s hope France will win the Euro.

The B&B were I spend the night

Harald's house in Hustad

The view

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7 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 114 | What happens in Alesund

Day 114 | Wednesday July 6

Last night I charged the car on 10 ampere and this was actually the first time I needed to that. Normally I charge on 16A. I didn’t know exactly how long it will take to fully charge the car and I when I checked the status in the morning I found out the battery was on 85%. This was after 13 hours. I had a long day with multiple pit stops so I decided to start driving.

I thanked my host Asgeir for helping me and left. My end destination today was Alesund. When I wanted to enter the address of tonights host I discovered I didn’t had a place to stay yet! Stupid mistake. A few days ago I planned the coming days, send a request to someone who offered me energy in Alesund and put in in my agenda. However the host didn’t reply yet.

It was a 220km drive to Alesund so I needed to charge a few times. My first stop was in Nordfjordeid. I found a supermarket with free wifi and started contacting the people in Alesund who plugged me in. The 2 options I had there both couldn’t help me because they were away. One of them felt a bit guilty and told me I had to get in touch with him if I couldn’t find a place to stay.

Charging in Nordfjordeid was not so easy, the regular EV station didn’t connect with my car. There were plenty of normal 220V stations but they all required a pass to access and I didn’t have one, normally they can be opened with a key which I do own. One of the non-accessible stations was in front of the city hall so I went in there to see if they could be at help. They couldn’t find they pass but had a normal socket were I could charge. I did so for a few hours and then drove to the next city with charging stations, Volda.

Volda is a beautiful looking town on the end of a fjord. Again I had the same problem with the regular EV stations so I charged on a normal socket, this made my day last long. Still I had no place to stay so I contacted Espen, he answered “Be right back…” A few minutes later I received an SMS from booking.com saying a B&B had been booked for me! Espen wrote me that he had booked this for me on his costs, including breakfast and possibility to charge! What a great guy.

He was at his mothers place, 2.5 hours drive from Alesund but he still wanted to meet me. He made the effort to drive all the way down and pick me up at the ferry. He drives an platinum Tesla Model S with auto pilot, first time I saw that!

We drove to the B&B to start charging the car, it was around 10pm that we arrived there. The B&B is a high school during winter and in the summer they convert it so they can earn some money. I didn’t had lunch today and was pretty hungry so we drove to a Burger King. First time this journey I got some junkfood and it was actually pretty good.

Espen took me for a sightseeing trip in his Tesla and showed me the Autopilot function. The autopilot makes the car drive automatically. I was surprised how well it worked. Espen told me that he doesn’t trust it always as the system looks at the lines on the road and here in Norway they disappear sometimes. If that’s the case next to a cliff it’s better not to use it… Almost autonomous we drove to the top of Alesund with an amazing view over the city. Alesund has almost completely burned down in 1904. German emperor Wilhelm II was a great fan of Norway and send food and emergency supplies to the city. Also he send a couple of Norwegian construction workers and architects. These architects were influenced by the Jugendstill which was a populair style at that time. That’s why Alesund has been reconstructed in this Jugendstill style giving it the nickname ‘Jugend Town of Norway’. It feels like wandering through a German town.

While it’s a great city I found it surprising that they didn’t had any charging stations, for a city with 50.000 citizens and many tourists they should at least have a few.

Around midnight Espen had to take his ferry back to his wife, mother and children and we said goodbye. I am very grateful to him for making the effort to come meet me and helping me survive.

Pictures of today

Chargespot in Voda

Mountains around Voda

This boat sailed here from Australia! Crazy.

Jugend Town

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6 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 112 & 113 | Underground vacuum cleaner

Day 112 | Monday July 4

Last night my host Kristian got in touch with a lot of companies with the question if I could interview them and some answered very quick and positive. This morning Agnes could make some time to answer a few questions. Agnes is the founder of Bærekraftige liv. This is a community of people who take care of each other and handle resiliences in their neighborhood. For example in Norway there are 3 major supermarkets who basically decided what Norwegians eat. It’s hard to tell where the food comes from. The community decided to start producing their own food and sell this within the community.

After I interviewed Agnes I went back to Kristian’s home and worked all day. For dinner they served crab and it was the first time I had this. I thought it was more fun to brake it open then to eat it.

Day 113 | Tuesday July 5

I was welcomed by BIR Nett, Norway’s second biggest waste management company. They are putting in place a completely new system to collect garbage, called ‘Bossnett’. It is an automated system that transports waste underground using air pressure.

They brought me to one of the 2 collection terminals. Right now one is in place and the other one will be finished in 3 years (including the infrastructure). How it works is that citizens or companies bring their waste to a bin on the street. In the city there is always a bin within 100 meters. You can open it with a pass, drop your garbage in the bin and it falls into a bigger container. Two times a day the content is sucked through a pipe by vacuum! This pipe has a diameter of 50 meters and the machine that sucks the garbage has the power equivalent to 9000 vacuum cleaners. In the terminal the waste is collected and stored in large containers. These containers are then picked up and transferred to various recycling facilities, depending on the type of waste they contain.

It was time to leave Bergen. My next stop was 220km away so I knew it was going to be a long day as I had to recharge somewhere, and that point came a bit earlier as I expected. Because it was raining I lost a lot of range. I knew there was a chargepoint in Førde but I just couldn’t make that. I stopped in a tiny town and looked for a possibility to charge. I found a self-service gas station where on the side a socket was placed on the wall. There was nobody there so I thought it would be ok to take some electricity. After an hour I had 30% and was sure that I could make it to Førde. Once there I found a Gronn Kontakt station. These guys gave me a key so I could charge for free at their stations so within a short time I had enough to get to my host Asgeir in Eikefjorden. Asgeir’s address didn’t show up in my navigation so he picked me up in the centre.

Asgeir is a teacher at a high school and teaches students how to be an electrician. He thought my journey was a special project so that’s why he wanted to help me, he didn’t think that I would actually come to his place. He lives in an unique place, on the foot of a mountain with a view over the lake, quite astonishing.

My video about the Wohnwagon that went viral didn’t go unnoticed by some people and Vincent Everts, trendwatcher and EV-enthusiast wanted to know more about this. He has interviewed me before and in the first week of the trip I stayed at his place. He wanted to know how it went viral and was interested in the statistics of the video. Via Skype he interviewed me and I will post the video once he publishes it.

Pictures of these days

The view from Christine & Kristian's house

Crab

The hut where I slept

Gas station which "provided" me with electricity

Asgeir's house

Asgeir

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4 July 20164 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 111 | The top of Bergen

Day 111 | Sunday July 3

After a good night of sleep my hosts took me on a sightseeing and hiking trip through Bergen. Yesterday, with all the delays, we didn’t talk so much so today I had the time to get to know them better. Kristian works as an engineer at Norway’s biggest oil producer. His job is to find new bubbles of oil or gas and see it it’s suitable to drill. To compensate this he drives an electric car. His wife Christine works as a psychologist for children. Together they have 2 little girls, 4 and 6 years old.

At breakfast Christine told me that she know that dutch people have hagelslag for breakfast. These are chocolate sprinkles which we put on bread. Although this is not very nutritious food Christine could tell me that Dutch kids in general eat very healthy. Hagelslag is a returning theme in this journey and I can’t figure out why. I have a few boxes supply with me but they are finished since a few weeks. It’s hard.

In Bergen we went to the top of the hill with a funicular. I can’t remember I have been in one before and it is a fun experience. The wagon is pulled up a few kilometers with an electric wheel and brings you to a height were you have beautiful sights over the city.
On the top there was a playground for little children with statues of trolls everywhere. Trolls seem to be important in the Norwegian culture. Christine stayed at the playground and with Kristian I took the train back and he showed me Bryggen (the warf). It is a series of idyllic hanseatic buildings which has been on the UNESCO world heritage list since 1979. Every house has a different color which reminded me of Nyhavn in Copenhagen.

Close to Bryggen was a fish harbor, they sold crabs with a 2 meter diameter and parts of whales. Although the market looked nice it was more adjusted to tourists and it didn’t feel very authentic.
We went for a hike to the top of Stoltzekleiven. It took us about an hour to get there and on the top we had the nicest views. We wanted to do another hike but because of heavy rain we decided to return home.

When I opened my laptop I was kind of shocked. Last Wednesday I posted this short movie about the Wohnwagon in Austria. Apparently A LOT of people liked this idea and shared it and it got HALF A MILLION views! Pretty amazing. A few days ago I had ‘just’ 1.100 fans on my page and now I am already on 7.500! It’s crazy what a little movie can do and I have no idea were this will end, at the moment people are still watching and sharing it.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/videos/505244663017934/

Images of today

Kristian on the top

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