THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090068
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 90 lines
NORWAY is a largely rural, sparsely populated (5 million) country occupying the western part of the Scandinavian peninsula. Practically the same size as California in land mass, it is long and slender (shaped like a tadpole swimming south), extending from about the same latitude as northern Scotland northward to well beyond the Arctic Circle. If you unhooked Norway from Sweden and pivoted it southward, it would reach beyond Rome.
Getting there: Norway's flag carrier, SAS, Scandinavian Airlines System, has daily fights (Boeing 767) from Newark to Oslo (flight time about 7 1/2 hours; cost about $1,200 round trip, peak season). Islandair flies from BWI to Oslo with a change of aircraft in Keflavik; KLM flies from several U.S. gateways via Amsterdam; British Airways flies from several U.S. gateways via London. See a local travel agent about best connections from South Hampton Roads.
Getting around: Norway has an impressive (for Americans) public transport system. The trains and buses are modern and efficient; more important, connections are easy to make: Buses meet trains, ferries meet buses, ferries meet trains and often take buses onboard. Car rentals are available in cities and many towns. Cost is a bit high - about $72 a day including 125 miles and insurance - and gasoline is very expensive.
Getting along: Norwegians seem to like Americans, and they speak ``our'' language. It's a place where, when you ask, ``Do you speak English?'' the answer is NOT ``a leetle'' offered with a frown, but ``Oh, yes, of course'' with a smile. The ``of course'' because they have been doing it since the third grade. English has become the world's lingua franca. In a Bergen hotel I heard a woman from Belgium, where both Flemish (Dutch) and French are official languages, ask the Norwegian clerk about her reservations in English. Menus almost always have English (and other language) translations.
Getting a bed: There is a wide range of sleeping accommodations in Norway ranging from more than 100 hostels to luxury hotels. Hotels in between these extremes tend to cost between $50 and $125 for two per night, breakfast almost always included. Norway Tourism offers an extensive brochure detailing all types of accommodations.
Getting fed: Norway is a seafaring nation; Norwegians eat a lot of fish. Reindeer and venison also are frequently available. In case you get homesick, there are Pizza Huts and McDonalds in almost every town of any size. Prices are not cheap, but neither are they exorbitant.
The cities: Oslo is Europe's oldest capital, settled in 1050, and one of the smallest (500,000, about 10 percent of Norway's population). Its downtown has tree-lined promenades (particularly Karl Johans Gate, which runs from the Royal Palace to the train station) and parks with nice shops. The National Art Museum features an Edvard Munch (``The Scream'') gallery, a nice El Greco and an impressive collection of French art from Delacroix to Picasso. The most popular museums occupy a wooden peninsula best reached by boat: an open-air folk museum with a large collection of building from throughout the country, the Kon-Tiki museum with Thor Heyerdahl original vessels and some splendid relics of ancient Viking ships that roamed to the far reaches of the Atlantic five centuries before Columbus. There's also a vast park that includes a lot of very naked bronze and granite sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. Oddly, Oslo's best-known landmark is almost certainly a towering ski jump on the city's outskirts; nice view if the weather is clear.
Bergen, the 900-year-old gateway to fjordland, sits by the sea in an amphitheater formed by seven mountains. There are 220,000 people living here, but it seems more like a small town, easily walkable: small wooden houses of many colors lie along higgledy-piggledy, cobblestone streams. It's famous for its bustling fish market, its Hanseatic Quarter that recalls its commercial heyday from the 1300s to the the 1700s and the long funicular ride up to Mount Floyen for a wonderful view - again, if the weather is clear. Note: Bergen is infamous for its lousy weather.
Summertime bonus: You get about 19-20 hours of daylight to see it all . . . providing you can keep going that long. I saw a woman writing postcards in natural light after 11 p.m.
Info: Norwegian Tourist Board, 655 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017; (212) 949-2333. If you're thinking of planning independent travel, be sure to request information on Fjord Norway (a particularly scenic region in the southwest part of the country) as well as brochures on accommodations, train, bus and ferry schedules, farm stays and day trips. The more specific you can be about your interests, the more detailed information you will receive. Local travel agents have information on escorted land tours as well as cruise ships that ply the Norwegian fjords. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE FIRST OF THOUSANDS
Dombas, Norway, has a place in the trivia books. A four-hour
train ride north of Oslo, this town of just over 1,000 residents has
long been an important rail and communication center. That is what
brought U.S. Army Air Corps Capt. William Losey here in April of
1940.
The American defense attache in Oslo was here to observe what was
happening with the Nazi invasion of Norway. It was at Dombas that he
was killed by a bomb, the first U.S. serviceman killed in World War
II, April 21, more than 18 months before the United States formally
entered the conflict. by CNB