NTW Pre-Tour 2011 - skiing through Fjord Norway

I'm still trying to get there: to the North Cape!!!

Every year there is that Norwegian Travel Workshop (NTW) taking place. It's an annual event organised by Innovation Norway and is a meeting place for 700 participants from the tourism industry, equally divided between suppliers and buyers. The workshop enables you to meet and negotiate with a multitude of suppliers, update your product knowledge, and to initiate and complete contracts for business.

Always before and after that workshop, Innovation Norway organises various tours for the participants to (better) get to know the product destination Norway.

In this connection I tried last year to get to know the North of the country. As you could read from a post last year, I was first subscribed to a tour to the Lofoten which had been cancelled allegedly due to a too little number of subscriptions. To a tour to the Lofoten? Not enough participants??? Sorry, I didn't believe that. Anyways, I then changed my plans and had subscribed to a North Cape tour. This one, however, got eventually cancelled due to... guess what... the volcanic erruption in Iceland!!!

So this year I tried again to explore Norway's northernmost point and registered to the NTW-Pre-Tour "D - Finnmark: arctic experience in Northern Norway". I was supposed to see and experience some exciting winter and summer activities for both individuals and groups by visiting the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel, the northernmost town in the world Hammerfest, try out a king crab safari, go on bird safari and go dog sledding and of course visit the North Cape. And you know what? I was cancelled! Again! This time's excuse: due to last year's cancellation by the volcano Innovation Norway had even more subscriptions for the North Cape tour this year and they preferred to give precedence to workshop participants from abroad... and well, I'm based in Oslo, means not abroad. Shit!

Most of the alternative tours were already full as well, so more or less the only tour I could still register for instead was a skiing tour through Fjord Norway!

The description: Ski Fjord Norway - an extraordinary tour to winter Fjord Norway including skiing and fun activities, charming towns and fjord views. We start in Bergen, “the gateway to the fjords” and continue with skiing and winter activities in Voss. In combination with a lot of skiing we will visit the Hardangerfjord and stay overnight in Lofthus before we continue southwards to the ski resort in Røldal for more winter activities. We continue by bus to the Åkrafjord the next day where Åkrafjord Adventures will take us on a fjord cruise to see the magnificent Langfoss waterfall close up. We end up in the town of Haugesund, host town of the 2011 Norwegian Travel Workshop!"

So that's the tour I was in the end participating in end of March:

Thursday 31/03:

I took the Norwegian flight DY612 at 13:20 from Oslo Gardermoen to Bergen where I met the other participants to start together our pre-tour.

Transfer by bus to town.

14:30 - Lunch was initially planned at the Skyskraperen Panorama Restaurant at Mount Ulriken followed by light activities in nature with the activity company Exin. However, since it was exceptionally windy the funicular up the the top of that mountain was closed and so the lunch had spontanously been postponed to the Fløyen Fjellrestaurant at Mount Fløyen instead and the mountain activities had been cancelled :-(

Short guided tour in Bergen by foot and bus, starting as usual at the oldest part of town, in "Bryggen", the hanseatic quarter which is also known as Tyskebryggen (the German Wharf). It is a series of hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen. Bryggen has since 1979 been on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage sites. Around 1360 a "Kontor" of the Hanseatic League was established there, and as the town developed into an important trading centre, the wharfs were improved. The buildings of Bryggen were gradually taken over by the German Hanseatic merchants who filled the warehouses with goods, particularly fish from northern Norway, and cereal from Europe. As Bryggen mostly consisted (even today) of wooden builidngs, it suffered severe damages from fires throughout history. As of today, around a quarter dates back to the time after 1702, when the older wharfside warehouses and administrative buildings burned down.

(Wikipedia, 2011)

 

18:00 - Check-in at Grand Hotel Terminus. I was really happy to stay at this hotel as we use it a lot for our tourists in Bergen, but I had never seen it during my previous visits to this city.

 

19:45 - Meeting at the reception of the hotel and walk together to the restaurant for dinner.

20:00 - Dinner at Tracteursted in Bergen. Unfortunately, the main dish turned out to be exactly the same as the one for lunch: amandine potatoes, beetroot and celery. Only the main ingredient changed from lamb to fish. And I assume they somehow forgot to bring us bread along with the dinner. We had those little side plates, but they remained unused... However, the location was pretty nice.

 

Surprisingly, after dinner nearly everyone ran back to the hotel and straight to bed!!! I don't wanna say this is a holiday trip. Yes, we are still here on business, but still: we cannot go to bed at 09:30 p.m.!!! I had difficulties finding someone still going out with me for a drink. Eventually I found Timo from Wolters Reisen in Germany and Gian Luca from Blueberry Travel Company in Italy that felt the same: having a nice drink somewhere in town! After two beer also we called it a day and went back to the hotel.

Friday 01/04:
08:45 - Check out.

09:00 - Departure by bus from the hotel to Voss, wearing already waterproof and warm clothes for skiing.

10:30 - Arrival Bavallen (Voss Resort) where we were welcomed with coffee and a snack while listening to a short presentation of Voss Resort. Voss is the winter capital of Norway with 40km of prepared ski runs, 13 lifts, a renowned ski school with an international guest tutor, two ski-rental facilities, three skiing areas for children and four cosy cafes for when you need to relax. It is the most accessible ski resort in Fjord Norway.

After that we had a short inspection of the cabins before we went over to the ski rental shop, getting ready for skiing. For those who wanted/needed were ski teachers available. It was advised to split the group in three: total beginners, intermediate skiers and advanced, quick skiers. I wasn't sure how good the "advanced" group was, so I was hesitating a little who to join and eventually decided for the "quick ones" which turned out to be the right choice :-)

We had one woman in our group who was totally convinced of herself. Even before we started dividing into the groups she raised her hand and asked totally arrogant and self-assured "I'm a very good skier and will be in group three. So is there anyone as quick as I am and will join?"... Well, I did join group three, but definitely not for her!

And guess who was the first to fall just right after getting off the first lift? - Exactly, her! *lol*

13:00 - Lunch at Panorama Café at the ski resort.

14: 00 - More skiing at Voss Resort after lunch.

 

15:30 - Finish skiing. Meeting again at the ski rental in Bavallen. Returning ski equipment and getting ready for departure.

16: 00 - Departure by bus to Voss Fjellandsby, 30 mins drive from Voss.

Situated in Myrkdalen, Voss Fjellandsby is one of Norway's most dependable areas for snow offering a very long season, 6 ski lifts and 11 slopes suitable and perfect for families with children. 

16:30 - Arrival at Voss Fjellandsby. Check-in followed by inspection of accommodation.

  

The cabin that I shared for the overnight with a very nice Danish girl, Ane Kristine.

The view from my room!

Optional activity in the afternoon: sledging (or similar) at the ski resort.

 

 

19:00 - Dinner at Voss Fjellandsby. Wasn't a big deal, but ok. The nice part about it was the sitting and chatting together with the others of the group.

Saturday 02/04:

09:00 - After a rather meagre breakfast we were supposed to explore the ski area of Voss Fjellandsby.

What we could see on the map of the skiing area was definitely not visible to us that morning. It was snowing and sooooo foggy outside that we couldn't see further than max. 15m. That's why the majority of the people didn't even get dressed for skiing. They knew they couldn't be bothered to go out on the slopes. It was only me and about 8 others that still gave it a try. However, after getting off the first lift, we had absolutely NO orientation; we couldn't see neither left nor right. Even following the local ski guide turned out to be a challenge as we were not able to see him though he wasn't even 10m ahead of us!

So after all I cannot really talk about this ski resort as I literally haven't seen the area at all. It was impossible! But what I do know is that I would't really agree with their description that the place "offers a variety of skiing experiences, from great beginners' slopes to challenging terrain for the most experienced skiers". "Great variety" and "challenging terrain for experienced skiers" are in my opinion a little exaggerated.

The weather conditions caused a little change in the programme. There was no sense in staying in Myrkdalen until lunch at 1 p.m., so we left the resort already after an hour outside on skis and were spontaneously welcomed at Fleischer's Hotel.

Despite the fact that we announced our lunch group about an hour before only, the staff was really nice and had managed to prepare us some tasty chicken sandwiches.

12:00 - After this early lunch and a quick visit of the hotel we left Voss by bus towards the Hardangerfjord region.

The Hardangerfjord is 179km long, making it the 3rd longest in the world and the
queen of the Norwegian fjords. Destination Hardangerfjord is often referred to as “the fruit garden of Norway”. Morello cherries, apples, pears and plums have been grown here since the monks introduced fruit farming in the 1200s. 40% of all fruit produced in Norway now comes from this region and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees can be seen blossoming along the fjord every spring.

 

14:30 - Visit Hardanger Cideri at Lekve farm in Ulvik.
This is a farm based small-scale apple cider and apple brandy maker in the little village of Ulvik. We heard about the product and its history, saw the production and the newly established café and tasted the local produce. Hardanger is the cider region of Norway with traditions back to the 13th century.

15:30 - Hotel inspection at Rica Brakanes Hotel in Ulvik, directly located at the banks of the Hardangerfjord.

I was really happy to finally visit this hotel. Also this one is used a lot by us for our tourists, but I never had the occasion to get there for a look.

 

16:00 - Continuation by bus from Ulvik.

16:30 - A 10 minute crossing of the Hardangerfjord by ferry Bruravik-Brimnes. I had taken this ferry already on one of my trips before, but it's always nice again to take some pictures. Especially because the sun came out right when we were on board.

 

17:30 - Arrival at Lofthus and Hotel Ullensvang.

WOW!!! This is a great hotel: http://www.hotel-ullensvang.no

First of all we checked in and everyone brought the luggage to his/her room, mine being #509 at the end of the corridor. When I opened the door to my room "wow": I got a suite!!! I had a whole huge appartment for myself.

A livingroom with great view over the fjord, two bedrooms...

...two bathrooms (it took me a while until I figured out that there was a second one attached to one of the bedrooms) which were not only equipped with bathtub AND body massage shower...

...but also with a heated multi-function, hightech toilet seat which is worth to be mentioned as I have never seen (yet alone used) somehting like this before:

I have never been sitting on a toilet before killing myself laughing...

After the first inspection of all corners of my accomodation for tonight, we had some time for a swim in the pool which I used walking a bit around the house.

19:00 - Meeting at the reception for the hotel inspection including the tennis court, the relax and massage area, the bowling lane and all other various corners of this family-run hotel. The visit ended with an aperitif in the wine cellar.

After the guided tour through the hotel by the owner in 5th generation, I waited at the reception to meet my colleagues. Franck, Stéphanie and Michelle were on a "private" workshop pre-tour and happened to stay at Ullensvang Hotel the same night as me with the group that night.

20:30 - Dinner at the hotel, so I joined "my" group again.

After dinner, though, we came together again and spent the evening all together chatting and having fun outside on the hotel's terrace. We first set in the hotel's own discotheque, but since there was a private party already going on (some family celebrations including a lot of small children) we moved outside. Timo and some other guys sat with us. We had so much fun! ...and the evening turned out to have been really good for business:-) The best business relationships are sometimes established with a beer in the hand after the official business during the day :-)

We had actually so much fun that we didn't realise how time flew and so we ended up in bed by only 2 a.m.

Sunday 03/04:

I started the day with a bath! I couldn't leave this hotel without benefitting from the great facilities of this hotel, i.e. of my luxurious room. The breakfast buffet afterwards was as vast and ample as the dinner the evening before.

However, we soon had to get ready for departure. But before leaving I jumped quickly out into the garden again to take some more pictures.

09:00 - Departure by bus from Lofthus to Røldal. The journey started grey...

...but then became so beautiful!!!

10:30 - Arrival Røldal and Røldal Skisenter.

Definitely not the biggest skiing area, but known to have the deepest snow in Europe. It offers (though not many) downhill trails and off-piste riding for all abilities. The resort includes a chairlift, five draglifts, over a dozen trails and unlimited freeskiing terrain all above tree line. The chairlift transports all guests to 1000 m.a.s.l. granting fantastic views of the valley, steep mountains and the rest of the ski resort.

After a snack, coffee and some information it's again time for skiing.

13:00 - Lunch at the ski resort.

Unfortunately the weather didn't allow us to have lunch served outside on the terrace in the snow; the weather became a little worse. However, we still continued skiing after lunch.

15:30 - End of skiing. Meeting by the ski rental of the resort and departure by bus to Røldal Terrassen where we visited the apartment houses.

16:30 - Departure by bus from Røldal Terrassen and stop at Røldal Stavkirke (stave church) for a short guided tour.

 

17:00 - Arrival and check in at Hordatun Hotel Apartments.

 

This place has the potential to be a nice, but in somehow it seemed a little "cold". Something was missing, something in this place was wrong. It looked nice, but it was kind of mis-constructed and without atmosphere. On the surface all looked fine, furniture ok, size great, equipment sufficient and still it wasn't welcoming. A closer look even showed that it wasn't even properly cleaned (neither in the kitchen nor in the bathroom).

A joke was also the set up of the room I stayed in. I shared again the apartment with that Danish girl. Her room was ok, but I didn't get the sense of the placing of the beds in mine. The room (immediately right after the main entrance!) had two sliding doors. The first one was blocked by a bed and then there was the other one to enter the room as well and one had to jump over the beds in order to get from one to the other.... Bizarre!

19:00 - Dinner at the Hordatun hotel in Røldal. The food was delicious!!!

After the very good dinner we went down to the hotel's bar where they had hired some guitarist to entertain us with live music.

Here I also met my colleague Gerlinde from our office in Stockholm. It was her and her husband plus kids that I went to visit in Stockholm in December 2010.

Gerlinde also went on a pre-tour, but with another group which, however, also had Hordatun Hotel on their programme for this overnight. I didn't know she was on tour as well and so it was a total surprise to meet her. Always a pleasure :-)

Monday 04/04:

After breakfast we checked out.

09:30 - Departure by bus from Røldal to the the Åkrafjord region.

10:15 - Visit Rullestad Aktiv Fritid for coffee/tea and traditional pastries from their
bakery.

Here we also met Åkrafjord Adventures who provide fixed tours for individuals and tailor made tours for groups to beautiful locations well off the beaten track; by boat, on foot, or by tractor or horse. With a fjord sightseeing trip, you can experience Åkrafjord’s rich history and rugged landscape.

Together with them we departed by bus for a short drive to Fjæra and the Åkrafjord, boarding MS Stein Viking for a fjord cruise including attractions like the 612m high Langfoss waterfall which has been selected as one of the world’s most beautiful waterfalls. A light lunch was served on board.

12:30 - Bus drive along the old Åkrafjord Road.

Stop at Trolljuv bridge, 115 meters above the fjord to view bungee-jumping and zip-line.

 

14:30 - Arrival in Haugesund. All the participants of the workshop checked in at the various hotels in town. Since it wasn't me who attended the workshop, but my colleague Franck, we switched in Haugesund. I was just having a quick look around the water front before he came to pick me up to accompany me to the airport while he stayed the next three days to make business. I basically just took the fun part of the whole :-)

I had my flight back to Oslo at around 6 p.m.

All in all it was definitely a nice tour, though it was surely not the French Alps which provide a totally different kind of skiing experience. The Norwegian ski areas are of course much smaller in size, but perfect for skiing short breaks, escaping for the weekend for some winter activities, for families or for those that want to learn skiing.

So now I have been skiing... again... on business costs :-) However, I still haven't seen the North Cape now! I really have to try to get up there! Soon!