Scandic Nidelven, Trondheim, Norway: Go for the Breakfast
November 5, 2022
More post-COVID business travel in 2022. Trondheim, Norway is well north of Bergen and Oslo, situated on a Fjord, and is the home of NTNU where NPS was participating as adversary for a Ph.D. defense. That meant travel was dictated by university policy. Fortunately, breakfast was included.
In case you have forgotten what Norway is like, here is a video. About the same geographic size as California, Norway has only 5.4 million people. It is a gorgeous country.
Flying in to Trondheim is always an adventure, as you have to stop off in Oslo for customs and then brave the winds at the Trondheim airport. One poor old lady on my flight was literally screaming in fright as we made our approach and landing.
The great news is some of our good Norwegian friends were in town to greet us. Our first committee meeting was a very nice dinner out at the cozy Fagn bistrot.
The Scandic chain has done nothing to improve post COVID. A middle tier hotel chain on par with Marriott in the US or maybe Hyatt, Scandic pays more attention to their common areas and meeting rooms than they do to their actual rooms.
The Scandic Nidelven does boast the “best breakfast in Norway.” And the spread is actually quite good (and equally crowded). So go for the breakfast! I got two breakfasts in while in town.
The shower in my room (423 I think) looked something like this. Distinctly uninspired, yet functional and not plastic.
Views from the breakfast room over the Nidelva canals are very pretty.
In one minor wrinkle, my suitcases followed me into town by a day. That meant borrowing a coat and a dress shirt from friends just to stay warm and presentable.
The defense itself was interesting and fun. We minted a new doctor!
After which it was time to celebrate. First with a large dinner at Rive Gauche a droite (LOL) and then for some late night cocktails at the Britannia. The hotel has undergone major renovations and now has a world class cocktail lounge fittingly reminiscent of its London cousins.
We had to sort a major travel SNAFU on the way to the cocktail bar (NPS does sometimes drop packets, but we also bring along our credit card to buy entirely new packets…and sometimes a router.)
The next day a public talk at the university on Machine Learning Security was in order.
After lunch with the faculty (deeply interested in MLsec), there was a very short window for some tourism in Trondheim. The Rockheim museum is almost worth a visit..if you go with the right attitude it can be silly and fun.
The Trondheim sense of humor is even visible in the cafe signs. “probably the best espresso in the world” (more LOL).
After a parting Negroni at the Scandic bar (inundated with business types having a cocktail before their conference dinner), it was off to the airport to wait several hours for a quick flight to Bergen?
All in all, three showerheads for the Scandic Nidelven. Like the headline says, go for the breakfast.
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.
After a one day delay, room 620 became available. An excellent, interesting, quirky space with a great shower.

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.
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.
Scandic Hotel, Lillehammer, Norway
August 26, 2019
It’s conference time at NPS, and you know what that means…conference hotel time.

The grounds of the Lillehammer Scandic are very nice
The Scandic chain seems to be one of those hotel chains that focuses lots of attention on its common areas and not so much on its rooms. This is a common hotel failure condition that older properties seem to suffer from more often than newer ones do.
That said, the staff is professional, courteous and helpful. Also the bar has Zacapa 23…so there’s that.
But you can have hamster cage 542. Good thing there is the back lawn to relax and hang out in and an excellent balcony for late night fun!

Welcome fruit and a personal note. Very nice.

Veneer abounds
The good news is that in the tiny bathroom, there is a glass shower.
The bad news is there is hardly room to turn around in the tiny bathroom.
Then again, the grounds.
Vietnamese food in Lillehammer is pretty not bad (at B&T Kafe og Mat), especially after a glass of wine by the river.
Two showerheads and a sincere wish that the rooms lived up to the rest of the property.
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
Do NOT Stay at the Oslo Airport Radisson Blu Ever
October 2, 2017
Imagine that you blog about showers all over the world and that you have intentionally not had a shower for 3 days during which intense hiking has occurred. You know, like camping, but slightly more civilized since a well-supplied cabin is involved. But definitely “ripe.”

The hiking happened here
Then imagine you decide to stay up way late to catch the 2:23am train to Oslo which gets you to the airport in plenty of time to take a shower. I mean even if the train is delayed by 45 minutes (it was), there will still be time for a long hot shower.
The airport flytoget is fast at least.
Now imagine that there is no hot water at the Radisson Blu. None. And management’s “solutions” are ridiculous. And there you have it!
Showering was like boy scout camp. Cold and awful.
And then when you are crossing the Atlantic after a stop off in Germany the Radisson Blu twitter bot awakens. Good for a LOL.
Fortunately, when offered a 50% discount, NPS requested a 100% discount which was granted. Its as if we never set foot on the property—our precise future intentions.
Do not stay at the Oslo Airport Radisson Blu for any reason. Zero cold shower heads.
A Cabin in the Mountains: Skarvheimem Norway
September 30, 2017

The view from the bus
First you take a bus from Oslo. The views along the way are incredible. As the altitude gains, the temperature droops.

Oslo Bus Station
Then you arrive and are met by a good friend who whisks you off to the cabin in the middle of nowhere. Rustic. Beautiful. Warm. And Perfect.

The cabin
The hours spent eating, talking, playing music, drinking rum and wine, and sleeping go by fast!

Morning view

Ready to hike?
The 13.8 mile hike on day one was incredible. One of the best hikes ever.
(Read more and see more pictures about the day one hike here.)
Day two summit attempt was beautiful in its own way on a cloudy, rainy, blustery day.
(Read more about hike 2 here.)
But what made it all particularly amazing was the friends.
(Oh, and the shower was not plastic, because there was no shower!)