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On the road following the first route recommendation from Kristiansand to Stavanger along the coast and through the Byrkjedal valley. At this point this really was when the landscape started to shape into an amazing collage of lakes, mountains, the sea and an unbelievable blue sky.
#2 – Oslo to Kristiansand: seemed like a no-brainer that in order to do a roundtrip Oslo – Oslo we somehow had to get to the most southern point of Norway. Unfortunately of all the route recommendations we found there was non that covered the part between those two cities. It seemed like all routes either start from Oslo north- and westbound or from Kristiandsand continuing westwards.
This year’s summer roadtrip led me to the beautiful fjords, mountains and coastlines of southern Norway. By now many months have passed since I had the pleasure to experience one of the most breathtaking landscapes in Europa, but this makes it even nicer now to think back of the two beautiful weeks I had.
A day of from work while being abroad in a different country – obviously that calls for a short trip to experience some of the local sights and food. So although time was limited the route map contained a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth town of Shakespeare, as well as a stopover at Warwick.
…I went there end of April and not in the summer months so I don’t want to paint the picture that it’s always cold in Helsinki. Yet for the German tourist group I joined for an architectural excursion in Helsinki it was quite shocking that they needed to wear mittens, hats and winter jackets at that time of the year – for you Scandinavian readers, in central Europe spring starts according to the calendar mid March and not end of May.
Looking at the pictures it seems rather cold and chilly. For those of you that live in Scandinavia this is quite common, for the rest maybe not. At Easter here in Sweden it was still snowing and at that particular day I was lucky to get a perfectly clear sky mirroring the perfectly clear blue water of the Baltic sea.
This will be a purely food related post covering the best american style food experiences I had in Chicago. After all I don’t want to stay hungry on tour.
What makes Chicago such a pleasant destination for a city trip? In my opinion it’s the possibility to reach nearly all of the diverse little villages within the city by foot. So it does not come as a surprise that I walked from my hostel, located in downtown/River North, all the way north to Wrigley Field and beyond to Andersonville.
Navy pier is one of the popular family weekend destinations but I went there to get a good view back on Chicago’s skyline. And I would say it was worth it even though the hot dog “Chicago-style” was really not to recommend.
The bean, or officially Cloud Gate, is most likely one of the most characteristic sights of Chicago. With its distorted reflections of the Chicago skyline it really delivers a fantastic illusion of bringing the clouds and sky closer down towards the spectator.
The Loop, the financial and historic heart of Chicago, is basically build purely with skyscrapers nowadays. From the beginnings of highrise architecture of the early 1900’s with Frank Lloyd Wright in the center of it, the world famous skyscrapers from the 1970s with the Sears Tower (nowadays called Willies Tower) and the Hancock Building by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and plenty of 21st century skyscrapers with its charateristic glass design which makes the bulidngs look like a big mirror in the sky.
First time Chicago, a whole week to discover everything my little pocket travel guide could recommend and even more. Being one of the biggest cities in Northern America and famous for its architecture and massive amount of skyscrapers I had a lot to see and discover.