Today was a designated work day, not driving or flying or training or boating anywhere. We left for lunch and dinner and a quick walk to the St Charles Bridge. All of today’s photos come from my phone.

Lunch was the yummy street food we was hoping for in one of my recent posts. We had the ham, roasted over an open fire.

The potato chip skewer thing

And the yummy traditional dessert. We went back for seconds on this.

List of yummy goodness:

Later on, we walked over to the St Charles Bridge and up to the top of the tower. Yes, we went into this dark scary place voluntarily.

It looked like this for what seemed like forever.

But the view from the top was kinda awesome.

Then we got the nighttime shots as the sun went down.

No pics from dinner. We went to this little Italian place in a basement near our hotel and something was not right with the food and we rushed out. It mostly looked and tasted fine, but my tummy will tell you otherwise. That’s all you need to know, I’m fine now J.

The next day is also not well-planned, we do have some work deadlines to worry about, but we’re in Prague, we’ll find something to do in the breaks.

Overall I liked Norway. The people were nice, the food was good, and everything was clean.

I did not like the beds. Every hotel had these awful thin mattresses, and mattress is a generous word for what was more like a pad on top of box springs. They don’t know what a true and proper two-person bed really is, pushing two twin beds together is not the same, it’s hard to cuddle when you sleep if you’re worried about the beds splitting apart and you come crashing down to the floor. Rooms at hotels were European small, but clean and mostly comfortable. The bathrooms tiny, the showers usually had these doors that folded in to allow more room to stand at the sink, but even then the space was tiny.  They could use a lesson in fabric softener, but at least after each shower when I toweled off, I got a good exfoliation.

It is a beautiful place. Rolling hills and mountains and running water everywhere. It was very rainy. That’s part of what causes the beauty I’m sure, how do you fill all those rivers, streams, lakes and waterfalls if not with rain and snow?

The driving was good, the roads all in great shape. BUT, in such a beautiful place, you really need more places to pull over the car to look around and take pictures. The driver really misses out seeing things because there are so few places to stop. Take a lesson from the south island of New Zealand, they do this well.

I will start the hotel reviews by saying that though I couldn’t see myself staying at any of these hotels for more than a couple of days, I would totally go back to any of them and would totally recommend them for anyone else to stay.

Here’s the rundown of the specific hotels we stayed at:

Saga Hotel Oslo
Eilert Sundts Gate 39, Oslo, 0259 Norway

This was a quiet little neighborhood hotel. Was within the center ring of the city, but far from metropolitan. We were able to find street parking for free and walk to many things, most importantly to find food! The breakfast was included and it included real American-like bacon. Any international traveler can tell you that the meal that is most different across the world is breakfast. It was nice to have a small piece of comfort food. The bathroom was one of the small kind with the inward folding shower doors to create room to use the rest of the space. But here, like the others, the tile was very absorbent and didn’t cause a hazard when wet, it quickly dried and never had sitting water.

Flamsbrygga Hotell
Flåmsbrygga, PB 44, 5742 Flåm, Noreg

This was a small, rustic place. It’s placed at the base of some mountainsides, there’s the end of a fjord on one side, waterfalls on the other. The room was small-ish, but had a great balcony and free coffee! The people were super friendly, the front desk had little cakes for an evening treat, complete with sprinkles on the icing.

Clarion Collection Hotel Havnekontoret
Slottsgaten 1, Bergen

This was the only hotel we stayed at that had any kind of affiliation with a name brand that we recognized, Clarion. But it felt like a one-of-a-kind-er. The building was old and full of character. It is placed in a great location on the water. A couple of Viking ships park outside at night. The dining room had free food for most of the day, including the make your own bacon and eggs station.

Scandic Oslo Airport
Ravinevegen 15, Oslo

This hotel served its purpose, clean bed and near the airport. We had a yummy dinner, but left too early for breakfast. The staff was

It was supposed to be an easy day. An early one sure, but easy. The plan was fly from Oslo to Munich, then a quick drive to Prague, there by lunch.

As we tried to leave the hotel in Oslo, we couldn’t get out of the parking lot, our credit cards were not the correct type, we needed pin+chip and 99.9% of American cards are not this. I have pin cards, I have chip cards, I have none of pin+chip (though requested from the issuers). Dave heads back into hotel, hoping to pay via different card or cash or somehow get out of the flippin parking lot and to our plane. Ok, success, hotel gives us an exit ticket “on the house” and we head out. The night before when we arrived, we packed up all of stuff so we could go right to the plane. That included the GPS, on purpose. We were close to the airport, could see the flight line from our room, we just drive in that direction, right? Um, no. The airport was fogged in and it was not yet daylight. In my Norway review blog post (coming up right after this one) I will be complaining about their road signs, and lack of them. So, finding the airport was not that easy. But we found it, returned the car and got all checked in for the flight. The SAS lounge had a never-ending wine fountain. Too bad it was 6am, I was tempted but it was still 6am. I had coffee, fruit and pastries instead.

I am trying to get a picture of the two of us on every plane, train, boat and so on. We even sat next to an American on the plane. Apparently I found the one American woman of my generation that has yet to figure out how to use a camera on a phone. I was looking at her attention-seeking 10 yr old child.

It was far too overcast to see much out the windows and the seats were far too uncomfortable to nap, so I was not very happy. The food offered was meh. I was safe, I’ll be quiet and take that.

We make it to our car quick easily, and are quite happy that we will be driving a shiny new Jaguar for the next two weeks. We take a little time to get all the settings, seats, mirrors, temp and language all set and head out. Quick stop at a gas station for snacks and drinks (gummi bears are so much better here, I promise) and head out. GPS says we should arrive at our hotel in downtown Prague by 1pm, yea! About 40 minutes in, Dave is looking at the documents from Hertz and we discover that our car cannot go to Czech. Or Hungary. Or Croatia. Or Italy. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. A call to Hertz to confirm and we turn around. After several hours of traffic (that wasn’t there before) and waiting for Hertz to find and re-contract a car for us and we have not even left Munich yet by the time we were supposed to arrive in Prague. Ugh. The people from Hertz were VERY helpful and it all worked out just fine, but ugh. Why in the heck didn’t any of my reservation speak to that issue? It’s about insurance. You can (obviously) address it, or I wouldn’t be in Prague right now, but couldn’t that wasted time have been avoided? We got our brand-new (less than 100 miles on it) Volvo XC-90 all packed and we’re off.

I used to live “over here” and never gave it a second thought driving around. I started my drive with the same attitude. But after driving 90 mph in the slow lane now, knowing what a piece of crap car I had when I lived here, I am amazed to not be dead. Americans hear of this magical “autobahn” in Germany and its lack of speed limits. Let me give some perspective for you. Autobahn simply translates to motor-way (like in the UK?), it’s the highway system, like our interstates. It’s not this magical racetrack-like thing, it’s the highway. It happens to be fast. FAST. In town, there are speed limits like everywhere else. Once you’re out of the city you are blessed with the “no more speed limit” sign and vrooooom, all cars are now in turbo mode. It is certainly more work to drive in that, but people here are far less dumb than the American drivers. It’s not personal when someone passes you, it’s just one car passing another car. The trucks all stick to their lane unless they are passing and they are so polite and only do it when they must. Before you change lanes, you must look twice or more in your mirror, do you see any fast moving lights back there? Look again. There is a bit of a rush when you know you’re already driving fast and someone flies past you in a super nice fancy car.

Crossing the border was nothing, it’s an open border. The driving did change drastically, suddenly speed limits and rule-followers.

Driving into the city was rough. I know that I am the hazard if I am driving some big city that I do not know and I try to avoid it when possible, that’s both US and abroad. Arriving for evening rush hour didn’t help things. I had to get to the hotel, could leave the car with the valet from there. Prague was definitely not built for cars, but it’s better than Rome for sure. Finally make it to the hotel and get checked in (thanks for the upgrade Starwood, it’s a great room). We’re here for a few days. Today is not a touristy day, it’s a work day. We do still have jobs and clients and stuff to get done. Vacation doesn’t happen until safari time in Africa.

We walked around the hotel a bit last night. Graffiti everywhere, people still smoking in most places. Old streets, cobblestones and uneven walkways and such. Great smells from the food. No beggars or homeless people (that I could see). The city is old, but not dirty. We stumbled upon “the cheapest restaurant in Prague” and had dinner there. It was so yummy. I had the chicken, Dave had a “hot plate”. His came on this cool old cast iron plate-like thing, the sauce was still boiling. His had several bites of different meats and a bit of a spicy kick. My chicken had the best flavor, I couldn’t tell you what it tasted like, but it was yummy for sure. Both our plates and our drinks (coke for him, big jug o’ beer for me) cost us $26.

I do plan to walk some more around here and the city center today. The street vendors have the most wonderful smelling and looking food, there’s these pastries that looks and smelled good, which I must try. And the fresh potato chips. And the ham cooked over the fire on the street. And….yea, I just ate breakfast and am now ready for lunch!

Today was a looooong day. We woke up early, made our own eggs and bacon at the hotel cooking station, and then headed out to our boat.

The boat ride was great, except that we had crazy overcast skies, lots of rain and it was hard to take pictures. We say lots of pretty things, but not good pictures.

After the loooong (almost 6 hours) boat ride, we had a looooong car ride, we drove another 6 hours to get back to Oslo. Some rain, some snow, some sun along the way. Rain plus sun means rainbows, we saw lots of them.

Tomorrow is an early start, we fly to Munich then drive to Prague where we’ll stay for a few days.

Yes, I am tired today.  In addition to the world traveling, I am still working several hours a day.  It’s late.  I’m tired.

The day started in Flam, that adorable little town from yesterday’s post. Breakfast had more bacon (free food at hotels is a thing in Norway, AND the food doesn’t suck!). We then packed up and hopped on the scenic train from Flam to Myrdal. The closest comparison I have for this ride is the Pikes Peak cog, if it were not a cog, and were not in Colorado and were much much shorter and with no yummy doughnuts on top. So maybe it’s not like my cog back home.

The ride took about an hour and really was quite beautiful. Lots and lots of fjords, waterfalls, valleys and so on. But with the gloomy skies that means we have more memories than we have good photos. Not tragic for me, notsogood for you.

The town of Myrdal makes Flam look like a thriving metropolis. We stood outside in the freezing rain/snow/sleet for about 5 minutes and hopped on the next train to take us to Bergen. I underestimated how long this train ride was, it wasn’t tragic, but I did get a nap. It too was pretty along the way and the sky started to turn to a mix of doom and gloom and blue! By the time we got to Bergen it was mostly blue skies and raining lightly. We’re tough international travelers, so we walked to our hotel in the rain (about half a mile).

The hotel is pretty nice, but the sliding bathroom door has a rim of clear glass so there’s not much privacy for whomever may be in there doing whatever it is you do in the bathroom (watch for another blog post with hotel reviews). We were starving, so next came FOOD.

The menu had everything from Norwegian fish soup to whale and reindeer.

Looks so innocent.

English side.

I settle for a delicious steak sandwich (from a cow).

After food we decided to go to the top of the town via a rail car that works like the car at Royal Gorge in Colorado, steep gage rail, two cars, counter-balancing each other.

View from the top.

We walked a little around town and I quite like it here. It is worth a trip back.

Here’s the requisite photo of the flag of the country I’m in.

Tomorrow has us on a boat for not quite six hours. We will be traveling through the waters of the fjords to get back to Flam. Then we take the drive from there to Oslo.

The day started with bacon. Real, American-like bacon for breakfast. The hotel had free breakfast, typical stuff and bacon. (I said bacon three four times already.)

From there we packed up the car and headed out for our drive to Flam. It was a very very rainy day. But, again these Norwegians know how to do things well, and that includes the roads. Having just left the hundred-year rains of Colorado and seeing how it could be, now here in Norway, I saw how it should be. Well designed, well maintained roads with the water sliding right off to the side, not pooling in traffic. The drive was very pretty, I wished we’d had more sun and less clouds, but the sky did open up later in the day for a few pictures and a rainbow in a fjord. Look to the right of the building below, there’s a rainbow, I promise.

Speaking of fjords, man they are so pretty. If I had to compare, I’d say Norway was very similar in looks to the southern island of New Zealand, but the greenery is of totally different variety.

The drive had lots of tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. Short tunnels. Miles-long tunnels. And snow. And waterfalls. And houses with grass growing on the roof.

The town of Flam is adorable. Tiny. But somehow when we arrived there was a full-sized cruise ship right outside our hotel. The town has a grocery store, train station, hotel, dock, a couple of cafes, a brewery/restaurant and souvenir shop. All within walking distance to each other, like they all share a parking lot, not like you walk down the street. Squint and you can see the tiny town on the other side of the water, that’s Flam.

Lunch at the café was meh. Dinner was yummy and the chocolate cake was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture of it until the end. See below.

Tomorrow we start toward Bergen. We take a scenic train through the mountains, then another train to the coast of Bergen and stay the night. Then the next day a boat through the fjords to come back the Flam and get our car, drive back to Oslo.

We left our home at 4am on Saturday to head to the airport in Colorado Springs (instead of taxi or waking friends to drive us, we did a one-way car rental from our end of town to the airport, was $30). That first flight was totally uneventful (the goal of EVERY flight, no?), we stopped in DC for a few hours, had some bad food for lunch and boarded our Lufthansa flight for Frankfurt. The seats were fairly typical for international business class except for a few notable exceptions. The lie-flat position was really not all that flat, and the angle was such that I had a hard time sleeping, it felt like I was constantly sliding down the seat at my feet. The cubby area for storage around the seat was good, place for headphones and small items and a special spot for my glasses. Food was yummy, wine was yummy.

We had great tail winds and even with taking off almost 30 minutes late we arrived a bit early. The Frankfurt airport was a bit confusing to me, I didn’t know if I had to go through customs to get my bag and then re-check it before I could go to my next flight, or was I supposed to go straight to my flight and clear customs in Norway. No signs to direct me to customs, only signs to gates and exits. I finally actually just asked someone and was told to go directly to my next flight, no need for customs. We had just over an hour before the next flight and went to the Lufthansa lounge. Snacks, coffee and comfy chairs with power for charging our devices. They also had this nifty napping room, four “beds” in a quiet room with dim lighting. Pretty much out in the open in the room, no privacy, no hanky panky and if you’re a light sleeper, no sleep either.

Flight to Norway was a bit bumpy, but otherwise nothing special. We get our bags (first and third off the plane!), wheel our carts through the green zone (nothing to declare) and head out. We find an ATM to get some local currency (we think this is a great idea and know what bank/accounts we have who have favorable fees when we travel). Then over the get the car and we’re ready to go. Well, no. As we load up the car, Dave says we’re missing a bag. Oh $&(#(, yes we forgot to get one from the luggage carousel. At the last minute we decided to bring an empty camera bag for carrying around the city so neither of us had to carry a big huge heavy bag around when we’re out walking around. I totally forgot we even brought it. So, now we had to somehow get the bag back from no man’s land, between customs and the outside world. Ok, first place we go is the customs desk. Very nice, very efficient (did I mention we’re in Scandinavia, they KNOW efficiency here) but not our guy. Pointed to the information booth, they could help us, a mere 20 meters away. We go speak with her, and she says go walk over there (the magic area, back to customs) and go speak with the airline baggage folks and she buzzes us in to the secure area. Ok, we find the airline lady and she escorts us right to the area with the bag, just going around and around. She walks with us to the RED zone of customs. The same guy that we started with was standing right there, smiled and said “oh great, you have your bag” and waved us right through. From the first “can you help us” to the airport exit was maybe 7 minutes. Yes, these people know how to be efficient.

Ok, drive into town, find our hotel, no rooms available yet (it was 11am). We get a recommendation for food and head over to the place, a local bakery United Bakery. We had great service and good food. Head back toward the hotel and get our car, go drive around. Wander here and there, look a squirrel turn here. Wow, opera house, go there. Back to our hotel and check in. The room is tiny but perfectly adequate, we’re only here for one night and it’s clean. The bathroom is smaller still but take a look at the efficient use of space, small space, and decent size shower. The doors fold in to make more room available, then when you’re showering and not needing the rest of the bathroom, they enclose your shower.

By this time we had to nap, we kept it to an hour then got up to wander around some more. We went to Statue Park. Holy moly this place was weird. Lots of greenery around, colorful flowers and as you likely guessed by now, statues. Lots of them. Creepy ones. Bronze storyboards going around a fountain depicting everything from life and death to children playing or being eaten by a wolf to hetero sex, gay sex and threesomes. Not sure what story they were trying to tell, but it was a weird one. Notice the little boy on the left being eaten by the wolf, while the one on top of the wolf has this sick crazy person smile.

The rest of the statues around the park were crazy weird too.

Do not anger the statue, she will eat you.

So after the crazy statue park, we were starving. We found a Chinese place to eat. When you travel you find out that there are local variations of ethnic foods, but for all intents and purposes they are much the same worldwide. This place was clean (probably the most important thing when looking for a place to eat in a stragne land) and there were a few people already there, but we were early for dinner, our internal clocks were still off a bit. It’s a tough call, wait until it’s full on dinnertime and go to the place crowded with locals, you know you’re going to love the food. But, then you’re the needy tourist, likely not speak the language, you’ll annoy the wait staff. I ordered “deep fried chicken with peanuts”. That is exactly what I got. With a bowl of sweet and sour sauce for dipping. It was yummy. I ATE LOTS OF FOOD.

From there we headed back to our hotel and I tried to do some work, like write this blog post. Dave had already given in and went to sleep by 8pm, I lasted only another 15 minutes.

We slept a full 8 hours, maybe a little more. Now we’re up at 5am, getting a few hours of work done before hotel breakfast starts. After breakfast we head out in the car for Flam. It’s about a 4 or 5 hour drive, but we plan to take all day to get there. Today is about the trip AND the destination. We overnight in the tiny town of Flam. Tomorrow we take a scenic mountain train from Flam to Myrdal, then another train from Myrdal to Bergen (these guys are from Bergen). We overnight in Bergen, then take a 5 hour boat from Bergen through the fjords back to Flam, then drive back to Oslo before heading to Eastern Europe.

Original blog post here

1. Chapter 2 - CRM Server Installation & Configuration – Learn the requirements, the planning steps, and the process for installing and configuring your CRM server.

2. Chapter 17 - CRM Server Optimization, Maintenance & Monitoring covers CRM server, IIS, and SQL server optimization, as well as maintenance and monitoring of the servers.

3. Chapter 5 – E-mail Router Installation & Troubleshooting covers the necessity of the e-mail router, the deployment wizard, the configuration manager, hardware and software requirements, installation and configuration and user settings for the e-mail router.

4. Chapter 4 - CRM 4 Upgrade to CRM 2011 – In this chapter you’ll learn the software and hardware requirements, develop an upgrade plan, prepare your database, upgrade customizations, perform and test the upgrade and train your users

Original post here

1. Chapter 1 - Building the Foundation – This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding the various terms and parts of a CRM Organization. It includes helpful tips not covered elsewhere in the book.

2. Chapter 2 - CRM Server Installation & Configuration – Learn the requirements, the planning steps, and the process for installing and configuring your CRM server.

3. Chapter 3 – CRM Outlook Client Installation & Configuration addresses the different choices and troubleshooting techniques for installation and configuration of Dynamics CRM Outlook Client.

4. Chapter 5 – E-mail Router Installation & Troubleshooting covers the necessity of the e-mail router, the deployment wizard, the configuration manager, hardware and software requirements, installation and configuration and user settings for the e-mail router.

5. Chapter 6 - Security Best Practices covers the why and the how of security in Dynamics CRM, including the security tools already built in to CRM as well as a look at special case handling.

6. Chapter 10 - The Power of CRM & Outlook explores the benefits of integrating and synchronizing CRM and Outlook and explains how to make it happen and make the most use of the combined tools.

7. Chapter 16 - CRM Outlook Optimization & Troubleshooting examines what you can do to optimize the performance of the Outlook client and how to troubleshoot CRM for Outlook.

8. Chapter 17 - CRM Server Optimization, Maintenance & Monitoring covers CRM server, IIS, and SQL server optimization, as well as maintenance and monitoring of the servers.

9. Chapter 21 - Introduction to Solutions gives details on custom solutions and components, managed vs. unmanaged solutions, the importing and exporting of solutions, deleting solutions and managed properties.

10. Chapter 15 - SharePoint & CRM: Better Together discusses the benefits of SharePoint collaboration tools being integrated with CRM in order to provide the 360° view of the customer, including how to set up integration and how to access CRM from SharePoint.

11. Chapter 4 - CRM 4 Upgrade to CRM 2011 – In this chapter you’ll learn the software and hardware requirements, develop an upgrade plan, prepare your database, upgrade customizations, perform and test the upgrade and train your users,

12. Chapter 25 - Community Resources is a plethora, a veritable cornucopia, of resources from the global community of user groups, users, MVPs, Microsofties, social media masters and blogs that can help you maximize your CRM skills and guide you to the answers you seek.

Original post here

1. Chapter 1 - Building the Foundation – This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding the various terms and parts of a CRM Organization. It includes helpful tips not covered elsewhere in the book.

2. Chapter 24 - Rapid Development Best Practices is an overview of the strategies of preparation, planning, execution and delivery of customizations in an efficient and effective way that meets the needs of the client without reinventing the wheel.

3. Chapter 20 - Customization Strategies discusses a variety of strategies that can be used to customize CRM to fit your business needs and reviews the solution architecture and management.

4. Chapter 21 - Introduction to Solutions gives details on custom solutions and components, managed vs. unmanaged solutions, the importing and exporting of solutions, deleting solutions and managed properties.

5. Chapter 22 - Solution Management and Troubleshooting is a more in-depth look at solutions, covering import behavior, managed properties, layering strategies and tips and tricks to get the most out of your CRM solutions.

6. Chapter 23 - Dynamics Connector - From Zero to Hero, in this chapter, you will learn what some of the considerations are when combining CRM with other members of the Dynamics family, what options are available, how to choose and implement the best option or combination of options, and some helpful resources for reference.

7. Chapter 6 - Security Best Practices covers the why and the how of security in Dynamics CRM, including the security tools already built in to CRM as well as a look at special case handling.

8. Chapter 14 - Report Development shows how to create the best (read: most useful) reports by utilizing SQL, FetchXML and other tools to build custom reports in CRM.

9. Chapter 9 - Marketing Management Best Practices is a detailed look at the benefits of CRM’s marketing tools, including marketing lists and campaigns, as well as campaign reporting.

10. Chapter 25 - Community Resources is a plethora, a veritable cornucopia, of resources from the global community of user groups, users, MVPs, Microsofties, social media masters and blogs that can help you maximize your CRM skills and guide you to the answers you seek.