There hasn’t been a lot of traveling in the past months, mostly due to work and other engagements, but, a few weeks back, I had the chance to take an overnight road trip in beautiful early-summer weather.
The road-trip started an early Saturday morning from Trondheim, and well before lunch, a stop at Surnadalsøra was planned. With fresh strawberries from the local grocery store at Skei in the back, and after a quick stop for quad-flying, it was time to spend a couple of hours with an aunt of mine. Surnadalsøra is a charming little, narrow street with old houses on both sides. I have always thought this tiny street/community besides a small river is extremely photogenic, but I had never seen any aerial shots of the place yet. I had several times in the past planned to get those shots, but each time, there was always reasons not to fly (such as bad weather).
After Surnadalsøra, it was time to continue onwards to Sundalsøra (are you confused by the similarity of the names of these two places?). The drive between these two places is about an hour, including a 15-20 minute ferry crossing. I arrived at thew ferry dock just in time to be the last car to be loaded.
After getting a free pizza-wheel, a free piece of marzipan cake and a free hot dog, and after visiting more relatives at Sundalsøra, it was time to head for the last stop of the day: Oppdal. There was also some driving around familiar areas where many of my relatives lived before passing on, as well as a visit to the church where most of them are buried.
Sundalsøra has always had a special place in my heart, I still remember the summers spent here staying with grandparents on both sides of my family. The sad thing about the place though, is that the “identifiable smell” of this place is gone. The largest industry here is a factory where they manufacture aluminium, and this factory used to … ehhh… omit a certain distinguishable smell. I miss that smell. It’s not the same without.
On the way to Oppdal, an impromptu stop had to be made at Vindøla (local) Airport because there was apparently a small air-show that same day! What a luck! There wasn’t many aircrafts to see, but it was still worth a stop: despite being painfully bitten by some kind of bee!
Back down to the main road, and back on the road to Oppdal, I had to make a U-turn to have a second look at this VW Transporter, one of the car’s I continuously dream of owning myself in the future. This one is however “too new” for me. I would prefer the one with a double front window, with openings in the lower part, and the modified glass roofs on the sides towards the back.
Then, as afternoon turned evening, Oppdal was eventually reached. The evening was with great expectations, intended to be spent at the “famed” Quality Hotel Skifer” (skifer is the Norwegian word for slate rock). Many people I have spoken to, had recommended this hotel for a long while, and built up my expectations quite high. The price per night was definitely not cheap, near 1400NOK per night in a standard room. At that price, I though it HAD to be pretty good.
Firstly, the check in process was pretty “meh”, and once at the room, I was even more disappointed. Very standard Norwegian hotel room, with only the barest of necessities. The TV was really small, with hardly no volume, there was no air condition and the heater could only be set to a minimum of 20 degrees, the windows hardly opened, there was no mini-bar, no fridge, and no internal hotel telephone system! And it was really warm this evening at Oppdal!
How about the dinner at the hotel restaurant? There was only three choices and none of them appealed to my tender appetite that evening. After a quick walk around Oppdal, dinner was instead going to be at Mølla Restaurant (which apparently was a really old establishment here).
So, how was the dinner at Mølla you say? Oh, well, how do I say this nicely without sounding like an angry old man? It was … ehhh… below sub-par and really expensive, but, the garlic-seasoned snails and beer was nice. The other starter, the so-called marinated giant shrimps…. ehh… those are the kind of shrimps you buy in a plastic container with salty water. The really cheapest of any shrimp. And, putting a little gralic butter over them doesn’t make them marinated. Honestly, this could not even be eaten.
The main courses was supposed to be a delicious king prawns in garlic sauce, but I would instead have called it average sized shrimps in white sauce with a little bit of garlic. The other main course was something we in Norway call “plane-steak”… couple pieces of beef served with two or three different sauces on a piece of wood. It was OK.
The next morning, it was an early call. Managed to put in an hour of exercise before breakfast and the return to Trondheim. Hotel breakfast was actually not that bad though, with great selection and lots of delicious things. But, during my walk, I got to thinking. In the past, I’ve repeated myself to saying it’ll be a pity for Oppdal when the expected toll-roads between Trondheim and Oppdal gets opened. They are talking about 3-500 NOK each way in toll-fees. That, I think will “kill” the weekend traffic from Trondheim, to the hotel. I always thought that would be a shame, because Oppdal is such a cute mountain town with so much great potential.
Now however, I don’t really bother about it anymore. Let them manage themselves. The hotel was nothing but a big disappointment, and the dinner at the local restaurant wasn’t anything to be happy about either. The bottom-line is that the high price of this two-day-one-night getaway, could instead have taken me from Trondheim to Hong Kong and half the way back! That would have been a better way to spend hard earned money.
