Back in Oslo at the Hotel Christiania Teater
November 20, 2021
Being back on the road again is so good! And we’re not even stuck in the good old US of A. Oslo even! When in Olso, NPS always likes to use the Hotel Christiania Teater as the base of operations. Heck, we even know our favorite room (620) which not only has an interesting shower but also features non-rectangular architecture.
Be forewarned, however, that the “getting into Norway” thing at this phase of the global pandemic is non-trivial. The rules are tricky and they don’t have things set up for Americans to visit. The problem is the EU covid passport requirement. Since the good old US of A has its own digital records system (times 50, one for each state) there is no way to get the QR code signed by the EU authority.
What we did to prepare was download digital records from the Virginia Department of Health for vaccines (NPS is triple vaxxed) and then store them in the Common Health app on our phone. We did the same thing with covid test results generated the day that we flew (get them done less than 24 hours before entering Norway). Make sure you practice pulling up the records and displaying the QR code when the police ask you for it at the gate of your arriving plane! And practice being super nice and explaining, “well, these are the records my government makes available.”
That’s right, even though we were flying in through the EU and had been admitted into Germany with our records with no issue at all, the police met the EU-origin plane in Oslo and asked all passengers for passports and vaccination/testing documents. After ten minutes of “sweating it” in the hall, we were admitted.
Getting to the hotel from the airport is a breeze. Just take the express train in from the airport and go one stop past the central station. Even though we arrived a bit too early for checkin (which is a 3pm), the wait for room cleaning final check was only 10 minutes.
Waiting in the lobby to check in
The lobby is well appointed, comfortable, and quirky fun
Then it was up to 620 to shower off the metal tube and start the attempt to stay up until at least 20:00.
Here is the bathroom from 620, built next to one of the cupola rooms. The shower is over a huge stone tub inside the shower room area. Very not plastic, and a very nice shower indeed.
Here’s the rest of the room.
A small sitting entry way
The main living room (not at all rectangular
The very cool cupola window
Another cool window
The king size bedroom dominated by the bed and a closet.
Covid has put a small damper on the bar at the hotel, which is still good but is not as relaxing and excellent as it used to be. We’ll hope that gets back to normal when the pandemic is over.
Breakfast is fantastic. A beautiful room, a machine that makes fresh orange juice, excellent espresso drinks, and, well, just a great spread. Sneaking in for breakfast would be a good move.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First we had to stay up. So we started at the bar with an arbitrarily constructed not very good Negroni (how can you fuck that one up?!), and moved on to an Indian restaurant in search of spicy food.
Seeing my friend Gøran was a great pleasure. The food at The Great India was plenty hot, the wine was good, and they made a much better Negroni. Soon it was time to slink off to bed and crash for 10 hours straight.
The next day, after an excellent breakfast and a visit with the orange smashing machine, it was time for some work in Oslo.
Visiting @TranscendentGr in Oslo and talking #MLsec pic.twitter.com/UvLrf4TRSI
— Gary McGraw (@cigitalgem) November 17, 2021
And then it was out into Oslo with friends old and new. We started at Torggata Botaniske, a very nice cocktail bar where they were shooting a movie scene as we arrived.
A crazy Sazarac variant with absinthe foam (a bit too sweet and not hot enough for NPS)
Sami shall on marie
We had an excellent but way too risky dinner at Habibi. Absolutely outstanding food, but crowded and stuffy. No venues in Oslo are requiring vaccination proof (though the double dosed vaccination rate is 87.4%). In Oslo on the street it feels like the pandemic is over. It is most assuredly not over.
Then it was a visit to the always outstanding Himkok. We were once again pressed to finagle the door. Done.
Beetroot
Our obligatory bottle of Aquavit was delivered.
All in all Hotel Christiania Teater remains a five showerhead kind of place. Tops on the Oslo list! Can’t wait to be back when the pandemic is actually over.
The thing about Bloomington is that though almost everybody at IU is vaccinated (in theory), none of the places in town ask for proof of vaccination. Fortunately, masks are required. But not when you’re eating or drinking. Things seem a little lax. NPS bets that one day pandemic processes will be more like NY or Portland. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The old IU stomping grounds
Bloomington is an oasis of intellectual goodness in a sea of rural America. This has its positive aspects. The Midwest is a thing. For example, though NPS has stayed at the Grant Street Inn countless bazillions of times through the years, this trip happened to coincide with an important big ten football game. That meant that every hotel within 150 miles was filled to the gills with football fans. Heck, even the Dean’s Advisory Council arranged to send people to the game. No sportsball for us though. Instead, we focused our energy on intellectual pursuits.
The upshot was that we needed a place to stay Friday and Saturday nights. Fortunately our friend (and thesis advisor of yore) Rob and his partner Katy put us up in their gorgeous house on Lake Monroe where we kayaked, fossil hunted, and even tried an e-foil. Honestly, the weekend was the highlight of the trip with excellent conversation, shared art, baking, and fun in the lake. Real life, well lived.
View from the deck
Our fearless leader paddles with his feet
The best fossil (which also caused the bag to switch guardians)
Hiking the ridge at scout camp
The take: fossils and geodes.
The best geode
We kayaked on Saturday which was cooler but not raining. E-foil experimenting was left for Sunday in wet suits. The weather was shockingly warm for mid-October.
We ended up staying at the Grant Street Inn Thursday and then again Sunday and Monday. NPS chose the usual room (number 30).
Room 30 has a bed
Room 30 is quiet with a nice bathroom
You can read more about the Grant Street Inn elsewhere on NPS.
The DAC meeting included a tour of the new Luddy AI Center. One day it will be filled with students. For now, it is still being set up.
The VR room of the Luddy School AI Center
Tuning the system
Of course, Indiana places a big emphasis on breakfast (at least outside the confines of Rob and Katy’s house). Here is one example. This is a light breakfast.
While in town, we made a couple of visits to C3. One with Kay and one just ourselves. The cocktails are (still) excellent.
A dughof sighting (at the Spoon of course). This was a delightful lunch as usual.
The icing on the cake of our Bloomington run was a visit to the IU Art Museum which has been completely renovated and updated. Going to a museum chock full of history certainly puts things in perspective. 9000 years from now, we wonder if some off-planet Earth museum will have one of our everyday items on display.
Read about our visit to the museum here.
IU Art Musem
Fin.
Back in Oslo at the Hotel Christiania Teater
August 30, 2019
Oslo is a beautiful city, but whatever you do, don’t try to drive in it. Even people who grew up here can’t do it. In particular, trying to get to the Hotel Christiania Teater from Lillehammer is, well, “interesting” in that Chinese curse kind of way.
As a creature of habit who has found a great property in Oslo, NPS is happy to stay at the Hotel Christiania Teater again. The only wrinkle is that someone else has booked 620 for Wednesday night. Scooped!
That meant we were relegated to room 510, which is a nice room with an inner courtyard facing “view.” 510 is very nice, but is not at all a 620!
510 is dominated by this comfortable bed
The suite sitting area is in the same room as the bed (which in our view makes it less of a suite and more of a room)
bathroom alcove
the shower is set apart by a huge heavy door
Sadly the plumbing seems to wake up early and make insane amounts of noise. An alarm clock of sorts.
The glass shower compartment, this shower is OK
One of the best parts of Hotel Christiania Teater is the bar downstairs which is top notch and always nice to visit.
Negroni with Norwegian gin
Excellent Indian food can be found at Jaipur.
Delicious
And of course a visit to Himkok is pretty much mandatory.
Experimental aquavit cocktail
Experimental Aquavit Cocktail
2cl aquavit
2cl tequila
4 cl beech water kefie
10 ml ambrato (bison grass)
10 ml Italicus
stir down. serve up.
Oslo #himkok bar pic.twitter.com/PSRIQrGJJ8
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 28, 2019
After a one day delay, room 620 became available. An excellent, interesting, quirky space with a great shower.
Alcove respite on 5 @HotelChrTeater pic.twitter.com/z0pWkidLjw
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 29, 2019
The supermodels show off 630
bedroom is all bed
walk in shower with tub
One of two great alcoves with windows
All in all 620 has tons of room to hang out, exercise (which is important since the hotel has no gym of its own), blog, read, etc, in comfort.
Some time in Oslo, included a visit to Gøran’s cousin’s excellent art gallery PURenkel.
I added a painting to the art collection.
starfish
There was also Indian street food, beer, and espresso.
Espresso oslo https://t.co/RvGRv3v9gb pic.twitter.com/m9nRBivt1C
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) August 30, 2019
A talk.
Visiting Miles
Dinner at Hanami was very good. Excellent sushi and great service.
Just skip the bar at the thief. These people have forgotten what hospitality is.
Five showerheads for Hotel Christiania Teater, one of NPS’ favorite hotels on the planet.
Return to the Cabin in the Mountains: Skarvheimem Norway
April 27, 2019
In the mountains, there is always a remarkable difference between the seasons. Our first visit to the cabin in Skarvheimem was in the Fall. We did some great hiking. This time we visited at the tail end of winter, just before Easter. Here is a short montage about our visit.
We arrived in Bergen…well maybe it was Bergen just in time to pee.
Bergen airport bathroom
Nobody in Bergen is sure about anything
After 20 hours or so of travel, sunset was a welcome sight.
Then it was off to the cabin.
Our now familiar pass
This is where the talk about photography began in earnest. It is not where it ended.
The “path” to the cabin was a little snowy
Home for Easter week.
The living room and bar area
Heat turned out to be kind of important
Outdoor fire
This is us lazing around doing nothing. Note that we were not relaxing (right Gøran?)
Panorama by Anne
The cross country ski area
Way down there is the entire crew
Did I mention there was some talk of photography?
Picture by Amy Barley
The two most important things at the cabin are both liquids.
First, there is water.
Then there is rum
Downhill day
My downhill morning companions
Moon over ice (by Anne)
The view at dinner
Music was a thing again even though the violin was left in Virginia.
Fernet anyone?
More skiing
Pretending to fly the planet
Boo!
Another fire
Two fisted Anne
Somebody is very happy
The visitor
Pancakes and ice cream
Some biathalon
Spring in Norway
Another magical visit to Norway with great friends.
Of course the shower itself was not plastic, since it was nonexistent.
The moonlit view
Jim and Chloe Have a Cabin (Guerneville, CA)
March 18, 2019
First of all you have to go north, over the Golden Gate Bridge and up the coast. Guerneville is situated on the Russian River.
Up the 101 in a convertible
But before you go to the cabin, a picnic at Preston winery is in order. There is some stocking up to do in the alcohol department.
Picnic on a perfect Spring day (preston winery)
After bread, cheese, some more cheese, salami, and different salami, olives, and hummus, and a couple of bottles of wine, and those wee little pills, it is off to see some big trees at the Armstrong Redwood State Natural Preserve. Make sure to see the amphitheater, but do not dilly dally.
Amy dwarfed by a giant redwood
The band at the crest
We did make it to the cabin after an espresso in town at Big Bottom. No really, that’s what they called it.
The cabin has modern sensibilities
Drama and moss is a thing
The a pit stop by the cabin to change clothes and it is off for dinner in Healdsburg. Chalkboard is worth driving way up to the sticks for. Excellent food. Fun, friendly service. Very good indeed. (We were slightly late the whole time, mostly due to amphitheater…LOL.)
One of the many superb dishes at Chalkboard
These doughnut things were out of this world
Sadly, we ended up being on time to see the show at the Raven. Eileen Ivers played a pre-compiled show of world music (many mixed genres). The show was solid, but also phoned in and somehow cloyingly fake. Still, it was fun singing along, and the support band was filled with excellent session musicians.
Everyone joins Eileen
The show was opened by JigJam who, other than desperately needing a new name, played an opener that topped the main event. The young fiddle player was far better than Eileen will ever be.
Then it was back home in the volkswagon and to bed by 1am.
A stint in the hot tub in the morning happened first thing, followed by some delicious eggy concoction with expert-level toast. Next, we attempted to cram 20 square feet of stuff into a 10 square foot space in the car. The stuff was consolidated, and the trunk was very slowly shut over the lil tiny bass through the use of random quantum properties, black magic, and the power of wishful thinking.
A call by the Pacific was next. The Russian River pours its brown self into the ocean at Jenner.
Then a short hike (maybe 3.5 or 4 miles) through the vernal wonderland (read “muddy”) of the California coastal hills. Sonoma is gorgeous and green for at least a week in the Spring, and we got to witness it.
Uncle Jim leads the way
Also Pacific ocean.
The Pacific at shell beach
By this time we were late again, but who cares? A drive down 1 took us directly to Rocker Oysterfeller’s where we partook of Negronis and oysters. Jim found out that oysters can be cooked and smothered in various things and still be delicious.
Negroni and oysters at rocker oysterfeller in valley ford pic.twitter.com/zlrLRP362L
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 17, 2019
What an adventure! We’ll do it again as soon as we make up for lost time.
Some bridge pic.twitter.com/YnnurOtHoA
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 17, 2019
Paul’s House (undisclosed location San Francisco)
March 18, 2019
Paul’s house is situated on a dead end in the city that abuts a park. Pretty much picture perfect. Also, Paul’s house has a beautiful little apartment in it. Yes please.
Why are we in SF? Maybe for something to do with hair.
Or maybe we’re trying to cross the Global Services finish line as quickly as possible.
Looking forward to our last @united trip as #100K flyers this weekend. Headed to San Francisco for some fun and games.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 14, 2019
Probably both.
A visit to Kippu in Japantown seems to be the way we do it now on landing
This aesop thing is Jacob’s fault regardless of continent
Kitchen opens on to the back garden
Glass cube. NPS approved.
For some reason, the chairs have socks
We went to see a Cal concert featuring Esa-Pekka Salonen. The Bartok was particularly good.
Cal concert at 11:30pm EST (yawn)
Cafe du Soleil is a delicious place for a quick breakfast.
All of the @tcboyle books are sideways in SF pic.twitter.com/ZfBzkGL4Vk
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 15, 2019
R2 Wine Luncheon Take 4
February 16, 2019
The fourth LA wine luncheon run was excellent and fun as always. This time the highlight of the day was an absolutely top notch menu put together by Bistro 45. (FWIW, Bistrot 45 already held the top dining position for these wine lunch things and knocked themselves right out of first place into first and second place.)
Your gracious host donnie sporting a svelte new look
All hands on deck
The fun end of the table
The menu features all organic ingredients
Carpaccio
Ravioli
Duck and polenta
Did we mention the polenta?
Of course, there was lots of wine, good conversation, and laughter.
The whites
The reds
Note to self that wine tasting is much better without the last vestiges of a chest cold.
After lunch we headed into greater downtown Pasadena for a cocktail or two. The bar at Smitty’s Grill is remarkably good. Excellent standard cocktails and a bartender who is even experimenting with milk punch.
smitty’s grill bar
milk punch
No Fly Nöel 2018
December 27, 2018
2018 was an interesting year for travel. We stayed close to our 20 trip goal (miraculous), but still managed to hit Argentina, Africa, the Bahamas, New Zealand, and Australia, not to mention a bunch of domestic travel. From the highest winery on the planet, to walking on the Serengeti. Pretty not bad.
Here is the trip-o-meter for 2018.
Because of all of the international flying, we racked up lots of United frequent flyer miles. It will be interesting to see how this goes in 2019 now that we are finished with the silicon valley corporation (whose travel policies, frankly, sucked). Our best bet is less Germany and more Europe this year, but we shall see. We may miss Nuremberg, but we won’t miss the reason for going there!
2018 was our first trip in international First class. Here is our report.
The United lifetime ticker stands at 1,736,206 miles. Yowza. Hopefully our 146,879 miles will keep us in Global Services next year.
Sadly, our love affair with Kimpton is over. Kimpton just became too IHG too fast to retain any loyalty. Oh well, we will miss our great industry friends who I am sure we’ll see from time to time.
Just remember the rule! NO PLASTIC SHOWERS!
Knobs Flat Cabins in the Heart of Fjiordland
November 24, 2018
After a day packed with adventure in Milford Sound, we drove off over the mountain and through the tunnel to the other side just as the sun was going down. Turns out that spending dead turkey day in the southern hemisphere is a good thing!
Leaving Milford Sound
The drive to Knobs Flat is around 45 minutes. Though the cabins are rustic, they are perfectly suited to the environment. We cooked a very late dinner at 10pm (which included a fake Thanksgiving turkey).
Unconsumed, but present
The great people at HQ allowed us to stash groceries purchased in Te Anau for a day while we stayed at Milford Sound. We stopped in on our way to Milford Sound. This was a very good plan.
Headquarters
A morning hike to the waterfall is recommended. The trail itself is wild with a log creek crossing, lots of moss, notched trees, and drippy bushes.
Cabin 1 on the left
Sadly, we did not snap any pictures inside the cabin. So the shower and the little kitchen will go undocumented. Such are the hazards of a high adventure day.
The drive to and from Te Anau is gorgeous.
We stopped by Te Anau for a fantastic super fun jet boat ride and some delicious Indian food at Radhas.
NPS highly recommends the Knobs Flat cabins. Four showerheads and a waterfall hike!
Glamping in Tanzania with African Environments
October 9, 2018
This posting is cross-posted on apothecaryshed.com
During our 15 day trip to Tanzania in September, we saw some remarkable things about as up close and personal as you could get. We hiked over 70km in four national parks. And we stayed in tents. But don’t let that last bit fool you, we were “glamping.”
So what, exactly is “glamping” anyway? That’s the subject of this posting. There are 92 pieces of media in this posting.
If you are going glamping, you will need a truck
This is the passenger seat. Just for the record.
On the way to our first tent, we did a game drive for a few hours and saw many things. Including an albino baboon. But that’s another posting.
Without further ado, our first tent in Arusha national park.
The tent in Arusha
These tents have multiple rooms, double beds, and non-plastic showers.
This bed is better than a thermarest pad
Of course, readers of noplasticshowers are going to want to know about the bathroom area. There was a chemical toilet. And some sinks that drained directly outside.
Sinks without water
Mirrors in a tent?! Dang.
The shower also had no running water. It was somebody’s job to put 3.5 liters (not quite enough, that is) into the dispenser just before a “glamping shower.”
Those little handles control the water flow.
The shower from outside
Home for a couple of nights
Then there was the food situation. Just great. Really. No camping food here. Fresh fruits and veggies. Great chefs. Delicious.
Our first lunch. This is a theme we will return to.
Of course, some lunch spots were better than others. Like, say, this one. No bees and only one land shark sighting.
The fig tree in Arusha is famous. This is a staged video.
Lots of stuff happened between camps. By the time we got to Ngorongoro crater we had seen elephants fighting, black hippos, and more. See this posting for all that nature stuff.
Driving between parks
The roads in Tanzania vary widely. This one, recently completed by a Japanese engineering firm was all shiny and new. We stopped for gas. That’s because in Africa, the cars take gas, just like ours.
Gas station. Mostly familiar.
We’re here for the tents, though, and so tents it is. These tents are manufactured in Arusha. They are sturdy and must weigh several hundred pounds. Fortunately, whenever we arrived, they were already set up. Oh, and the best part about the tents? The views.
Another cushy double bed
In the morning, hot coffee was always delivered here. Just outside the door, er, flap.
There was a lunch, this time close to some bees.
Denis does not serve honey near bees
Base camp with the Maasai includes solar panels
Our little panel pales in comparison
The Ngorongoro base camp was another two night thing.
This lion is checking the exhaust system
More lunch is in order.
Fresh
Product placement opportunity
Did we mention that lunch was great?
Lunch was at hippo-land. I counted 53 trucks.
After Ngorongoro, it was off to the Serengeti for a completely different thing.
You go, Denis!
Your faithful crew enters the Serengeti
Pre lunch yoga
Yeah, there was lunch.
More lunch
Our guide Denis was by this time a great friend.
The roads in the Serengeti get some serious use. And so they also get repaired.
Road repair happens
Our third tent in the Serengeti looked suspiciously similar
We arrived at sunset and were delayed when we came across a pair of mating lions less than a kilometer from camp. For more about the lions, see this posting.
The camp lions. We saw this pair 4 times.
Solar
Our tent was cushy
The common areas in the Serengeti base camp were all hipster and very cool.
Firepit. The sand had lion tracks in the morning.
The Living Room tent, charging station and location of cold beer
Stuff
The mess tent
Breakfast was also good
Hitchhiker. This guy forgot his towel.
Make sure that you make up some Pele Pele for every meal. It is best if it stews in the sun for a week in some vinegar.
Dinner setting in the Serengeti
Base camp was great, but our plan was to do some hiking. Actually, it turned out to be mostly a walk in the park.
The scariest thing we came across on foot was this.
Camp was set up each night. Two different camps within walking distance.
Serengeti field camp
Even in the field, there was wine.
Who needs civilization?
Our tent in the afternoon. Sweltering.
Reading
Sunset was spectacular everywhere we were. This view from a Kopfe was typical in its atypical beauty.
Sundown on the Serengeti
Though the walking camps were less cushy than the base camps, they were still pretty cushy. Like, they were all set up, there was no carrying in stuff in a backpack, there were field showers with warm water, and so on. Yeah. We’ve backpacked 65 miles in Montana. This was definitely not the same thing.
Home glow
Field camp 2
Oh, and even when walking the Serengeti…there was lunch. This time buffalo.
Hiking lunch
Grill
The guys tried to surprise us with lunch, but we had binoculars and a sense of what was up.
Lunch was trucked in
James was our walking guide
Everyone was armed, though they were not really paying much attention to their rifles.
Morning at field camp
Then it was back to base camp for a night.
Glamping involves chairs and a fire at sunset
We had another lunch. Just under these bees.
And holy cow. On our way to the Hadza bushmen, there was this cheetah. In a tree. Remarkable. Cheetahs do not climb trees.
Sometimes there were goats in the road
Fire at night in the Hadza camp
Denis was a very serious person
Even while hanging around in camp, the Hadza were busy. Making arrows.
On occasion, one must stop for onions.
Onion stop!
Street vendors. Read the signs.
Another lunch shot. Because lunch!
Our last camp in Tarangire was at a tent lodge. The lodge had power, running water, a bar, and a pool. There was net too. Talk about glamping!
Civilization
A pool
Of course we were still, technically, in a tent.
The luxe tent
Which had a view.
View from the lodge
Though the showers were not all that, they did have LOTS of hot water that did not stop after 2 minutes. Woo hoo!
Not the best shower in the world, but hot water.
Anyway, that is pretty much what glamping in Africa is like. African Environments makes everything incredibly easy and fun. If you’re a real camper (like we are), it will seem unbelievably luxurious.
More product placement. We cannot recommend this firm any more highly.
Arusha HQ of African Environments. Where we had…anyone? anyone? Lunch!
Our guide Denis Mollel made the trip outstanding. Best guide in Africa. Ask for him by name.
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