When I planned my last trip to China, I was a little worried about having enough time to change planes in Shanghai on the way home. But I shrugged it off, thinking that if I missed the daily flight between Pudong and Vancouver, I would just get a day to visit Shanghai.
Leaving Qingdao
On the day my daughter and I were to fly home, our flight from Qingdao to Shanghai was going to be delayed several hours. The airline graciously booked us on another flight on another airline that was scheduled to leave 30 minutes earlier. (Good thing we got to the airport early!)
That flight left late because it was held up by all the people from our flight rushing to board at the last minute, and we arrived in Shanghai at the originally scheduled time. We speed-walked for 20 minutes to get to baggage claim, then fidgeted through security (why did we have to go through security to leave the terminal? I’ll never know). Then we speed walked for what had to have been two miles to get to the international terminal. We finally arrived at the check-in counter almost exactly two hours before our scheduled departure. Where we stood in a line that never moved.
Stuck in Pudong
I was used to the patient air of resignation that accompanied long lines in Asia (I’d experienced it at this very airport before), and this didn’t feel like it. In an hour, maybe six people moved through the check-in counter. Some of them did a good bit of yelling in Chinese. Finally the line started moving, but by the time we reached the counter, I kind of already knew we weren’t going to make our flight.
That was fortunate, because the woman at the counter never even acknowledged us. She ignored my questions, and refused to make eye contact as she unhurriedly went about some inscrutable business. Then she walked away. A few minutes later, the person at the next station noticed us and came over to help. She explained that the flight was overbooked and we would be scheduled on the next day’s flight, exactly 24 hours later.
Then she counted out $450 worth of RMB, stuffed it in an envelope. She handed it to me with the name of a hotel whose shuttle we were supposed to catch outside. By the time we got outside, that shuttle had left, and we had to go back in, stand in line, and request a new one. We were booked into another hotel. This time we got the shuttle, and it dropped us off in the hotel. It was a nice enough hotel, except for the sign on the wall forbidding smoking and prostitution. (Yeah, I really should have taken a picture of that – oh wait, I did.)
But as you can see from the view out our window, it was roughly in the middle of nowhere. Not near enough to the airport to take the train into town; not near enough to Shanghai to even find a cab, let alone pay for the drive into the city.
A Day in Shanghai
So my daughter watched cartoons all afternoon. We ate a tasty but overpriced dinner in the restaurant downstairs. I stayed up most of the night watching the door that didn’t seem to close properly. The next morning we had breakfast in the same downstairs restaurant. We caught the next shuttle back to the airport, where we immediately checked in.. Once we secured our spot on the plane, we had six hours to kill in Pudong’s international terminal.
And that is how our unplanned night in Shanghai didn’t turn into a chance to see Shanghai after all. For our next trip to China, we’re flying through Beijing.
On September 20, youth around the world went on strike, skipping school to march and demonstrate, demanding that adults start acting like grownups and take meaningful action to deal with the climate crisis. Among them were my youngest daughter and some of her friends.
As a 10-year-old, my daughter only recently learned about the climate crisis. Last summer, she accompanied me on two interviews with local youth climate activists. While I got information for my articles about Fridays For Future and other local groups, she learned about climate change as a problem that kids are active in solving.
In anticipation of the Global Climate Strike, she prepared a presentation for her classmates. I thought it was pretty good. I was especially impressed that she did not piggyback on the information from the interviews she heard, but built her powerpoint on her own research. So I thought I’d share it here.
I expected the village of Flåm to be a pit stop on our DIY Norway in a Nutshell tour. Instead, it turned out to be a vacation highlight. It’s true that the appeal is purely one of atmosphere – there’s not much going on in Flåm, and almost nothing that would count as a tourist attraction per se. Unless you believe in the concept of the destination brewery. Which I do. And Flåm has a doozy of a destination brewery in Ægir.
Flåmsbrygga
There are literally only about a half dozen buildings in Flåm proper, and most of them belong to Flåmsbrygga, a hotel built right on the waterfront of the fjord, just steps from the ferry terminal. Although the building exteriors are designed to evoke the great halls of Vikings (or at least their churches), the kitsch stops at the door and the hotel rooms are modern and stylish, and not even that expensive by Norwegian standards. I was tempted to stay that but an extremely tight budget (and my daughter’s infatuation with bunk beds) landed us in a cabin at the campground instead. Which was fine, because we were very happy there, and we still got to eat dinner at the hotel.
Ægir Brewery
Among the cluster of Flåmsbrygga buildings is the brewery. Named Ægir after the Norse god famed for quality brewing, Ægir is one of Norway’s top craft breweries with an attached pub on the ground floor and a fancier restaurant upstairs. The décor is ski lodge meets stave church and I loved it. Although their award-winning beers are available in several Nordic countries, they do not export to the U.S., so my only chance of tasting them was at the source.
The Beer
They have a huge range of beers with some seasonal rotation.
The day I went there, I got a tasting flight of five beers:
They were all good – even the beers I wouldn’t normally drink, like the porter or the blonde, were tasty. They were also obviously part of a different brewing tradition than the brew culture I live in. All of the beers were more lightly carbonated and hopped than I’m used to. This made them feel thinner, but it also allowed for more subtlety and nuance than the beer I usually down.
Being from the PNW, I’m all about the IPA, and being more familiar with IPAs, that’s what I gave the most scrutiny. The Ægir IPA was different in the ways I’ve described, but still very recognizable as an IPA. Nearly everything I drink at home uses Amarillo and Cascade hops. This beer was hopped differently, and I was surprised how much it affected the overall character of the brew. I had to ask and discovered that there were some Citra hops, which I’m familiar with, but the primary hop was an Eastern European variety. (Unfortunately, I’ve lost my notes and don’t remember which one it was.) Anyway, it was a great reminder how easy it is to get stuck in a provincial rut, and how delightful to break out of it. I had forgotten it was possible to be surprised by the flavor of IPA.
I also picked up a can of the Upstate IPA for enjoying later
back at the cabin. Cold and canned, this one was familiar in flavor, although still
more lightly hopped than I’m used to. And that’s fine, because even though I
love them, I recognize that PNW IPAs are, objectively speaking, too heavy on
the hops. That means the Ægir IPAs were actually perfectly balanced.
The Food
Food trucks have overtaken the brewpub culture where I live,
so it was a delight to sit down to a real gastropub dinner. At Ægir,
they offer a seasonal Viking Plank, a five-course meal served with beer
pairings. The dishes are modern gastro-pub fare, but made with local, historic
ingredients that would (mostly) have been familiar to the Vikings who lived in
this fjord a millennium ago. The best part of this modern sensibility is that
there was a vegetarian version – hallelujah!
It’s probably not worthwhile to go into too much detail about
the dishes, since they change regularly (and I can’t find my notes). But to
give you an idea, there was salad, vegetables, an open-faced veggie burger,
cheese, and a brownie. Like a lot of stylish food, the vegetables were in such
large pieces they were hard to eat. The veggie patty didn’t hold up very well
as a patty, but it was delicious, and a welcome change from the Gardenburger
that is literally everywhere at home. Brownies with whipped cream and
strawberry on top seem to be the molten chocolate cake of Norwegian
restaurants, and I’m down for it. But I’m easy. The real test was my kid. Like Mikey,
she hates everything. But she chowed down on her kids’ meal of meatballs and
mashed potatoes.
Would I Go Back?
Okay, I don’t actually believe that any restaurant merits a special trip from the West Coast of the U.S. to Scandinavia. And unless Ægir himself brewed it, the same could be said for any beer. But if I happened to be in the neighborhood – say Bergen or Oslo, a mere 5-10 hours away, depending on traffic/train schedules – yeah, I’d make a side trip to have dinner in Flåm at the Ægir Brewery.
I’ve posted more than once about the cute little hilltop towers in Qingdao that remind me of creatures designed by Studio Ghibli. But actually, the entire German Concession area of Qingdao has the same Sino-European look as many of Studio Ghibli’s movies – especially Kiki’s Delivery Service. When I was in Qingdao, I would not have been one bit surprised to see a teenage girl on a broom rushing down one of these hillsides.
I have no excuse for it. But after five trips to Iceland and as many readings of Egil’s Saga, I finally realized that most of the action in the story takes place in Norway. Fortunately, a trip to Norway was already in the cards, and of course, the itinerary would include as much Viking stuff as I could fit in. The Oseberg ship was a no-brainer; as was the Viking exhibit at the National Museum. But I’d already seen Viking ships and static exhibitions. I really wanted to get to a living museum where I could see how all those artifacts worked in a Viking village.
Finding A Viking Village
Unfortunately, many of Norway’s Viking-themed living museums are only open in summer. The biggest one, and probably the best, is open year-round, but it would have taken nearly half our time to make the round trip above the Arctic Circle to reach it and get back to Oslo. The Midgard Viking Center was promising, but in April had limited hours and was a bit hard to reach by public transportation. Then I discovered the Viking Village Njardarheimr, or Njardheim. Not only was it open daily in April, it was on the Norway in a Nutshell route.
Njardheim, the Viking Village
Njardheim is not exactly a living museum; the people behind
it are not academics. But it’s a bit more than a Viking-themed Ren Fair,
because it does aim to educate as much as it aims to entertain. Located in the
village of Gudvangen, Njardheim is a reproduction Viking village, built with
materials and techniques as close to authentic as modern craftsmen can achieve.
Its “residents” wear period clothing and practice the crafts and skills of the
age. Visitors are given a tour of the village, a chance to try out a few activities,
and have the opportunity to purchase “Viking” meals from the onsite facilities.
Njardheim grew out of a summer Viking festival that has been
held in Gudvangen for nearly 20 years. Gudvangen has a population of 100 people
today, but in the Viking Age, Gudvangen was an important trading center. When
the permanent village was built in 2016, some people were not thrilled that
permits were granted to build what could be considered a for-profit LARPing
venture in a UNESCO World Heritage area. But since I was traveling with a kid
and curious to see Viking technology and culture in action, it seemed like a
pretty good fit.
The Plan
In summer the Viking Village is open from 10-6, but in early April, it was only open from 10:30-1:30. I had considered the Gudvangen Fjordtell but ended up staying in Flåm instead. We loved Flåm, so I don’t regret that choice. But the Fjordtell looked pretty cute when we peeked inside. I think in the summer when the village is open later and there’s more sunshine to enjoy quiet evenings outside, it would be a good choice.
We took the day’s first sailing of the Nærøyfjord
cruise from Flåm and arrived in Gudvangen shortly after the village
opened. After stashing our luggage and using the restroom in the nearby
restaurant, we arrived at Njardheim just after one of the hourly tours started.
Online reviews had ranged from “you only need about an hour here” to “families
with kids will want to stay all day.” We had about 2 ½ hours to spend before we
needed to catch a bus out of Gudvangen to Bergen, finishing our Nutshell route.
The Tour
We joined the tour in progress, which only had one other
family on it. Our guide was Marie, a woman completely in character with a full
backstory and markedly contemporary views of Viking society. I appreciated that
she gave the Vikings credit for their egalitarianism and gender equality
relative to the rest of Europe at the time, while still being quite clear that
modern women and people not born to privilege would not be thrilled by a return
to Viking standards.
The tour was naturally presented at a very introductory
level, so I had heard most of it many times before (horned helmets weren’t
used; most Vikings were farmers who carried axes because swords were expensive,
etc.). But, like any good museum docent, the guide was knowledgeable beyond the
spiel and able to answer deeper questions. And, as I has hoped, we did get a
chance to see how some things worked. In particular, my daughter and I were
fascinated to see how card weaving worked and what kind of material it
produced.
My daughter also got a kick out of being able to try on a helmet and brandish a weapon. I was super grateful to Marie for inviting her to do so. Since the only other kid on the tour was a boy, and a loud, pushy one at that, I think most guides would have ignored my quiet female child when it came time to hand out swords. Although her barbaric yawp could not be heard above Marie’s roar when they posed for pictures, a strong impression was made. That night she put on all the woolen items she could find and spent an hour threatening the coat rack in our Bergen hotel room.
The Village
When the tour was over, we were free to wander the village
as long as we wanted. This was where we really felt the off-season nature of
our visit. Although they steadfastly maintain the fiction of actually living
the Viking life, not even half a dozen “Vikings” were to be found in the village
that day. In the summer we might have met storytellers and weavers, people
dying fabric, working leather or metal, and making food the really
old-fashioned way. We would definitely have wanted the whole day.
As it was, we met a couple of sheep and the Chieftain, an
older gentleman who happily confessed when the boy on our tour accused him of
also being Santa Claus. A younger man gave the kids a quick archery lesson
before Marie challenged them to axe throwing. Even though it was a sunny day,
the mountains kept the whole village in shadow and the wind off the water was
cold. We warmed up by the most wonderful outdoor fire I’ve ever experienced and
had to hustle to make our bus. We didn’t get to look closely at the gift shop,
but my impression was very favorable. I wish they an online shop for the
handmade items, especially the jewelry, that I only got a quick look at in
person.
We also didn’t see any sign of the Viking dining options
mentioned from the website. We picked up some ready-made sandwiches and a bag
of chips at the restaurant where we stored our luggage, and dragged our
suitcases out of town to the bus stop on the highway with a few minutes to
spare.
Conclusion
Njardheim is not a destination for serious scholars of Viking history. But it is a great stop on the Norway in a Nutshell route, especially if you have kids, are interested in handicrafts, or lack the patience for static museum exhibits. If you are not already a Viking nerd, a couple hours in the Viking Village will be enough to dispel popular mythology and give you a pretty good sense of what is known about the era. Njardheim occupies a strange place in between the cheesiness of summer fairs and them parks and legitimate academic study. But I think that in between place is a good place for curious visitors to start exploring Norway’s Viking history.
