Juvet
When they ask me how we organize the trips, they do not believe the answer, but it is true: with Google Maps , a network of good dealers gastronomic, beautiful photos to rage and the cinema **(so, to the beast) **.
As for the whys, sometimes (so many times) it's a restaurant the culprit of the trip and others it is simply the beauty . dig or beauty as such : without pretentiousness or excuses, beauty as the plot of the work, without further ado (it doesn't need any more alibis).
Ibsen wrote (Norwegian, precisely) that “ beauty is the agreement between content and form ” but I am not so clear about the equation or that protestant obsession with harmony because beauty is also in the broken and in every wonderful imperfection of nature; and I cannot imagine a more savage, imperfect and totemic nature than that other Norway away from obvious tourism.
Norway is not heaven (but almost)
More reasons? Fiction . I am clear that traveling is an encounter with the world but it's also an encounter with yourself , which is why so many times the culprit of the reservation is a work of fiction: a book, a song or a movie.
In this case the movie was Former Machine , the feature debut by Alex Garland (later he did Annihilation for Netflix, another outrage) about the artificial intelligence and a dystopian future where androids dream of electric sheep and the Steve Jobs on duty (huge Oscar Isaac, with a Jackson Pollock at home) lives and works on a stage that cannot be real.
Does such a place exist? You are right, exists and is a hotel in the middle of nowhere.
DAY 1: THE SEAGULLS OVER ÅLESUND
A note before the route: this 'road trip' is located in the the antipodes of backpacking and feverish wandering : no adventures to tell your grandchildren and danger around every corner. Rather, cups of warm coffee, fleece blankets, beautifully appointed cabins , civilized hotels and Spotify lists in the rental car's CarPlay.
First stop, Alesund . With a small airport populated by Norwegian sailors (large-scale fishing area) Ålesund is a small town that looks like a fairy tale partly because it was almost completely rebuilt, under an Art Nouveau architecture , in 1904 after a devastating fire.
In Ålesund passing travelers usually spend their days forest walks, hiking trails and to function as a base of operations to tour the fjords : It's a great idea. We chose the Brosundet hotel for three reasons: it's nice, it's affordable and it has bay view rooms , but reality exceeded expectations because it also hid a exemplary breakfast , fabulous filter coffee and a huge fireplace that carries the entire building.
We had dinner at Polarbjørn because Michelin suggested it and I thought of that advice from Alfred Hitchcock, “if you shoot in Paris let the Eiffel Tower be seen”. In Norway you have to ask for wild fish : salmon, trout or cod.
DAY 2: SO MUCH BEAUTY CANNOT BE TRUE
"In a remote place in a remote village in a remote region of Norway"... They tell me that and I'm already inside. But it is that in addition, it turns out that it is the storytelling of Juvet (where the movie was shot Garland and which is also a must have hotel ) goes far beyond the decoration: “the Juvet Hotel is the Europe's first landscape hotel and the idea is to create a space where modern architecture meets historical culture and nature in its purest state”, he tells us Christopher Schønefeldm , chef and owner of this space that seems to be taken from a dream between the liturgy and the stendhalazo.
Every night, in his dining room, all the guests meet and dine at a common table : “I only use local suppliers and we also grow an orchard just five minutes from the hotel ; For this reason, one of the things I enjoy the most every day is collecting wild flowers, mushrooms and herbs (together with my son) and cooking outdoors, on a grill and over the fire in the middle of nature”.
We had dinner with two Finns and two Norwegians -rather siesos- in front of a fireplace and I remembered **why I love gastronomy** : because it connects us with the world.
Christopher Schønefeldm
DAY 3. IT'S TIME FOR FJORDS
Let's confess, I'm not much of a lookout (stopping the car and looking at the horizon while a man from Kyoto takes photos of Akane, who is a little tired of her little corner at the Kyushu Institute) but that was because I did not know the viewpoints that lead to the Geiranger Fjord, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Specifically, the viewpoints of Ørnesvingen and Utsikten , from where the beauty almost hurts (what the hell, it hurts) . Waterfalls tumbling down from the snowy mountains, hundreds of thousands of trees around the ocher and olive green falling in front of your eyes (and your heart) before the cobalt and the indigos of the sea ; the mist riding the mountain, paths carved in stone and that primal sensation that it makes you feel so small when you are in front of something huge.
his thing is tour the fjord by electric boat, observe how time stands still, book a room with a view of the show (we did it at the Hotel Union) and be fully aware of this certainty: we are here passing through and From this life you will only take love... and beauty.
Geirangerfjord