20230620 The Borg Hotel

It was raining in the morning and we slept in hoping it would go away. The weather report suggested there might be a break in the rain at 9:00 so we started packing at 8:30. The French couple who had stunk up the house with their dinner were already gone. When we left we put the lock back on the door but it required a key to latch it closed so we did our best to make it look like it was latched.

I was sad to leave the place. It was beautiful and quiet. With a solid internet connection, I could see myself staying for some time.

We took our time hiking back up the 1000' mountain but my heart was still pumping by the time we reached the top. It may have been caused by skipping breakfast, dehydration, or maybe because I was carrying twice as much as the previous day.

Amanda stopped to try to photograph the snipes and we heard baby skuas mooing the fields. After the rain the ground was littered with gastropods. There were giant black slugs the size of kit-kats, smaller slugs with lateral stripes, and snails with shells varying in color from white to yellow. The sun came out as we picked our way through the sheep pens on the final downhill slope.

I had a brief moment of worry when I looked down from the mountain and couldn't see our car in the parking lot but it turned out to be parked behind a larger van. In the campsite along the road we tried to get reservations on one of the bird watching boats but they were sold out.

At the seashore we watched the common gulls scream and swoop the line of glowering hooded crows and oystercatchers. While Amanda worked on figuring out our lodging for the night and places to visit on our way back to Ålesund, I spotted three baby gulls in the rocks along the shore.

Amanda eventually made reservations at a place near Ålesund called the Borg hotel because it was cheap, "it looked good", and the name made her laugh. We decided to take our time driving back, stopping at every opportunity to sightsee.

Parking on the side of the road we sat to have lunch beside the stagnant tide pools where the seaweed smelled like rotting poop. Without a knife we had to nibble at our cylinder of cheese like mice.

A family of common shell ducks swam back and forth in the shallows with mallards and oystercatchers.

The bridges leading Runde were tall, steep, and only one car wide except for a wide spot near the top where you could stop, look down the slope and pull over if necessary to let someone pass. We drove by a guy fishing from the top of the bridge with his catch on the concrete near his feet. He must have reeled it up 100' from the surface of the water.

The traffic got worse the closer we got to civilization and driving got more stressful. The car kept pulling on my grip when it thought I wasn't paying attention.

We used the ferry to cross over to Ålesund and I was impressed again at how powerful and quiet these boats are. You couldn't even tell you were underway unless you looked out and saw the water streaming by at a high speed. The ferry fees were included in the rental cost so we didn't have to do anything but drive on and drive off.

Entering the ferry, cars are directed into 8 queues with red and green traffic lights letting each queue drive on in turn. A worker on the boat directed cars into specific lanes, putting the tall trucks in the center where they wouldn't hit the structure overhead. We saw bicyclists drive up onto the ferry, lean their bikes against the railing and head down to the cafe to sit and rest. I think it's free for them to cross the channel.

On the way to our hotel we stopped at a lake with a short 2km hiking trail that took us to the top of a small hill overlooking the fjords. There was a wooden hut halfway up with a firepit, first aid kit, and candle lantern. We signed the logbook and geocache while being harassed by biting flies.

Down at the lake we saw giant gulls, a dozen heron, and two red throated loons. When we approached the water we saw a nutria or beaver swim away. I waded out into the cool water to escape the biting flies and cool off my burning feet and hands. We stopped again on the other side of the lake to try to see the merganser chicks and I poked at the tadpoles that gathered at the waters edge eating the pollen floating on the surface. Amanda looked up restaurants in the area and found a highly rated sushi place so we stopped on the way to the hotel.

The restaurant had no sit-in dining so we ordered a tray for 3 people and wandered through the adjacent grocery store while they prepared our food. We bought chocolate digestives, apple granola, and a bag of all-sorts licorice then we picked up the sushi and drove the last few miles to the hotel.

This involved a right hand turn onto what looked like the wrong way of the highway exit. Amanda was shouting "Just turn!" while cars pulled off the highway towards us on this road and other cars piled up behind. "I'm looking for the one-way sign!" I said overwhelmed by the road signs, traffic, and car dash which never stopped sparkling various warnings. Eventually I turned and learned the road veered before it merged onto the highway going the wrong way and we drove up a narrow road to a long low building backed by snow covered mountains. The building looked like a factory and the road ran parallel to a paved bike lane and a driveway which made me wonder if I was even driving in the right one.

"Just go!"

As we drove around the corner of the factory building we went past an open door where we saw a bunch of old men dressed like motorcycle bikers sitting in a circle like they were at an AA meeting. I was getting bad vibes.

Amanda was irritated by my hesitation, "Just let me out here and I'll ask where we can park." She went into the "hotel" Fromgarten(?) and told me to drive back and park on the gravel in front of the factory. As I walked back to the building I heard her shouting from an open window. "Hey! Hey! I left the door to the room open!".

I walked through the lobby, nodding quietly to the woman at the desk, and went to find Amanda. The walls were painted with bright abstract shapes and the vibe of the place gave me the willies. When I saw the room my unease increased. There were two separate beds, a low bench and a table. Everything was white and sterile. I realized what was bothering me, it reminded me of a cult.

Amanda said, "You probably weren't listening when I told you, it's a Christian boarding school that rents out the rooms during the summer, a sommerhotel.".

We ate our delicious sushi on the little coffee table and then headed out find the chiff-chaff that was calling outside the window. Instead of chasing the bird however Amanda veered towards the adjacent cemetery (obviously where the cult either buried or procured it's bodies) and the birding was better. Many gravestones said "Takk for Alt" (thanks for everything).

The trail we were following led us into the backyard of a beautiful house on the bay with a full view of the distant mountains and we hiked through the bramble on the hillside above it to return to the hotel. The AA bikers/cult members were gone and Amanda asked the receptionist if we could go downstairs and see the 'Oasis room'. It was more horrible than I imagined: