Norwegian Jarlesberg Cheese Review

BJ's Wholesale Club sells a Norwegian Jarlesberg cheese under the brand name Wellsley Farms. The cheese is a semi-soft part skim cheese. It's a firm slightly nutty flavored cheese that is sold in various triangular wedges for $5.39 a pound. The cheese is legitimately Norwegian as it's made by TINE SA in Oslo, Norway and distributed in the United States by Norseland Inc out of Darien, Connecticut.

Calorie wise, a 1 ounce serving has 100 calories of which 80 of those are fat. The cheese is a very good source of calcium (no surprise considering it is made of milk). Interestingly, the cheese is lactose free as well as gluten free. The cheese does have a rind which is easily peeled off.

Overall, I think is a good cheese. I don't know if it's available at other stores though I would think it would be. I've bought wedges of this cheese twice and enjoyed it both times. It apparently has a decent shelf life. The wedge I bought today supposedly would be good till August though the cheese must be refrigerated at all times. If you see this cheese in the store you frequent, you might want to try it. It's great as a snack or on a sandwich. Bon appetit all!

Source of information I mention in this blog came from the wedge I bought today at BJ's Wholesale Club in Columbia, Maryland with my own money i.e. no compensation. Further information on this cheese can be obtained at their website: www.jarlesbergusa.com. All opinions in this blog entry are MY own and are NOT representative of BJ's Wholesale Club, TINE SA or Norseland Inc.

Picture from Norway

Today, I was going through my pictures of my trip to Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I decided to post one from the trip. This picture is of a town that was on the Sognefjord in Norway. It was taken while the group I was with did a 2 hour cruise on a passenger ferry. The fjord itself was stunning. There were numerous waterfalls and breathtaking mountains. Norway has to rank as one of the most beautiful countries I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.

Thank You Globus

Over a month ago, I submitted a story on the Globus family exchange travel stories website. The story was about the bad hotel I'd stayed at in Bergen, Norway during the "Scandanavian" tour I did with Globus. The hotel was the Thon Rosencrantz Hotel. The single room they gave me was something of a disaster. There was a bad odor that was coming out of the bathroom which stunk up the whole room. The furniture was banged up. The curtains were put up in a haphazard manner. The breakfast buffet was poor and looked like it had been hurriedly assembled. Bacon and sausages were slapped together in the same pan. Fish portions were put out cold when they should've been heated. I found the people at the Reception desk rude and brusque. It short, this hotel really stunk. The only good things I could say about it was the free internet access at their one computer terminal and its location. It was a block from Bergen Harbor and 50 feet from the Hanseatic buildings.

When I saw that I could submit bad hotel experiences on the Globus family exchange travel stories website, I decided to tell of my experience there. I didn't expect anything to come of me submitting the story barring letting people know that sometimes, you do get a stinker of a hotel with Globus. To my surprise, my story was apparently forwarded to someone at Globus. They weren't thrilled to hear of my bad experience. They sent me an email letting me know that my case was being reviewed. I guess they found some merit to it because they sent me a voucher worth $100 which I can use toward another Globus tour. I'm delighted. I can definitely use it as I've signed up for their La France tour. I'm very much a fan of their tours and I can't wait to do another one. You meet great people and you see things you'll remember forever. I'll never forget the breathtaking fjords in Norway. Thanks Globus for the voucher and I look forward to making new precious memories on future tours with you.

Last Day

It was the last day of the tour. I don't know about anyone else in the group but, I wasn't thrilled about that. The 2 weeks had gone by incredibly fast. Today, we were supposed to do a tour of Oslo. Like Copenhagen and Stockholm, a local guide showed up to tell us about Oslo. The reason they had a local guide tell about the city was because they'd be more knowledgeable about it than Arvid would be.

We were supposed to visit City Hall and Frogner Park but city elections prevented us from seeing City Hall. Frogner Park was interesting. This park is filled with nude statues by Gustav Vigeland. They are definitely more laid back in Norway than we are in the states. Some of the statues were suggestive too. Vigeland apparently was fascinated by the circle of life and showed it in a fountain he created at the park. It shows nude children playing in the tree of life progressing to mature men and women to men and women with children and finally elderly men and women before beginning again with young children. It was an interesting series of statues.

Our guide whose name I can't remember took us to a spot where we could get good pictures of the harbor. We also visited one of the piers where the Akershus Fortress is located. The fortress houses the Norwegian resistance museum, the Norwegian Armed Forces museum and a joint headquarters for the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and their Armed Forces. It's an impressive fortress. Incredibly, the cruise liner Star Princess was docked right next to it. The Star Princess was HUGE. The letters spelling out its name were over a foot long which gives you and idea how big it was.

After the city tour, we had a 90 minute break for lunch before the optional tour of the viking ship museum, the Fram museum (an arctic exploration ship) and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki museum. I used the time to dash to the Oslo Hard Rock Cafe to buy some of their t-shirts. I also bought some of their pins to give to Joyce La Chapelle, Carolyn Clancy and Greta Paulsen. The three ladies were our ladies from North Dakota. They were super nice. Joyce had given me a pin from North Dakota so I felt I had to reciprocate. I don't know if Maryland has any pins (I plan to keep an eye out for one and if I find one send it to her) so I decided to get them Hard Rock Cafe pins.

Diane Porch of our group requested I get a Hard Rock Cafe menu for them if possible. It seems they collect them. I said I'd try. I had no idea what I was getting into to. It turned out I had to speak with the cafe's general manager (I think his name was Jimmy). I told him the situation and he very kindly said he'd see if he could find an old menu. He succeeded. Only the menu didn't say Norway in it. After all the trouble he'd gone through, I wasn't able to appear ungrateful about that. I thanked him and offered to pay for it. He said that wasn't necessary. I also asked him about the Reykjavik Hard Rock Cafe. To my surprise, I found out it's gone. He didn't know anything about what happened with it. I found out that the company that owns the Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm cafes is trying to get the licence for Finland, Latvia and Estonia. There might be new Hard Rock Cafes on the horizon in those countries. More t-shirts for me to collect.

I returned to the hotel and dropped of my t-shirts. Our city guide returned to take us to the viking ship museum. The museum has 3 viking ships that were buried with important viking nobles. Two of the ships were in outstanding condition. It was something to see them. The museum showed artifacts they'd found with the ships. Some of those were also very impressive.

After the viking museum, we visited the Fram museum. The museum is built around the Fram which is a pretty big ship. You can actually go onboard the Fram and explore it. The ship made 3 exploration voyages and helped enormously in mapping these previously unknown areas.

Thor Heyerdah's Kon-Tiki museum was our last stop. It was something to see these fascinating ships. We also got to see an 8 minute film on Heyerdahl's voyage on the Kon-Tiki. It was quite a voyage.

The last thing we had on our itinerary was the farewell dinner. It was held at the hotel. The hotel did a nice job. The food was superbly presented and was very tasty. We made chit-chat one last time with those we'd become friends with. Around 8:30 p.m., the dinner broke up. We had to get up early the next morning to catch the bus to the airport. Everyone shook hands or hugged one last time. I very much doubt I'll ever see any of these people again. They were wonderful people. They made my trip to Denmark, Sweden and Norway far more enjoyable. I very much enjoyed meeting them. I wish them all the very best.

The next morning, I quickly packed (I was getting pretty good at it by now) and went down to the reception area. The hotel kindly provided us with a box breakfast which I ate in the reception area. At 5 till 7 a.m., it was time to board the bus for the airport. The airport was 35 minutes away. Once there, we waited for the Continental Airlines check-in to open up. Once they did, those of use flying on the flight checked out luggage in and made our way to security. That's where I found out I should've packed my large jars of vitamins, fish oil tablets and fiber pills. Because of those, I had to open my carry-on bag so they could inspect it. At the game, security was doing random checks. Harvey got tagged and I ragged on him about looking like a suspicious character. The flight to Newark was uneventful. Thanks to the Sudoku game Harvey told me about, I was able to waste 4 hours of the flight playing it. When we arrived at Newark, we had to go through Customs, re-check our luggage and go through security again. That's where I lost a large tube of toothpaste as I guess that was forbidden in carry-ons. I plan to make sure I pack that next time.

That concludes my Scandanavian adventure. The tour reconfirmed my high opinion of Globus tours. I can't wait to take another one. I'm looking forward to their 2008 catalog where I'll be able to see the dates for their France tour. Hopefully, this time next year I'll be on a French adventure. We'll see. Cheers all!

Oslo

We departed around our usual time (8:40 a.m.) from the Dr. Holms Hotel. We had a long drive ahead of us. We head to drive to south and east to Oslo. It isn't super hard driving south in Norway but driving east can be because of the fjords. To break up the monotony of the drive, we stopped at the Torpo stave church. Unlike other places where the people totally tore down the old stave churches, this one was saved somewhat. A good deal of it was torn down and the remaining church is a shadow of what it had once been. Still, it was an interesting church. A guide told us about the church and pointed out various highlights. It has a fine example of Medieval art in its nave which has a painted story of Jesus and Saint Margaret.

After visiting the church, we drove to Gol where we took a pitstop so everyone could use the bathroom. From there, we drove over 2 hours to Oslo.

Oslo is the capital of Norway and it's a good size city. It also has an active port which sees a number of ships including cruise ships. The day after we arrived, the Star Princess from the Princess Cruise Line arrived. It was one BIG ship!

After we arrived at our hotel the Radisson Scandanavia, our guide Arvid hustled to get our rooms keys. The afternoon was free but, Globus offered two optional tours. You could visit the Museum of Skiing and see the Holmenkollen ski jump with dinner afterwards or just to the dinner. I opted to do the museum and the dinner. We left at 6 p.m. and Per our driver dropped 15 of us off at the museum. It was then that we found out our guide Arvid had committed a boo-boo. It seems he didn't call the museum to make sure it was open. When we arrived, it was locked up tight. Arvid managed to speak with the cleaning lady who was leaving as we arrived. Not only couldn't we see the museum, we couldn't go to the top of the ski jump. Lastly, we couldn't call our bus back so we could join the rest of the group that was going to the dinner. Arvid finally found Per's number and got him to come back.

Per stopped at a couple places so those of us who stopped at the museum could take pictures. One place of note was the status of King Olav V who was a very beloved monarch. He was also a very capable cross country skier and the statue shows him doing that. It was a nice statue.

After the photo stops, we proceeded to the restaurant which was at a hotel at the top of Holmenkollen. I don't remember its name. The dinner itself was a fine example of fine dining. All of the food was superbly presented and it tasted great. My only complaint was how LONG they took to serve it. Like at the Dr. Holms Hotel, I was ready to chow down and they took forever to serve the food.

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the tour was what happened after dinner at Holmenkollen. The group walked to the bar where those who wanted it could have coffee. Then, we walked out onto the terrace. The terrace overlooked the city of Oslo. By now, it was dark and you could see the city all lit up. It was incredibly beautiful. This would've made a perfect ending to our tour but, we still had a tour of Oslo as well as a farewell dinner at the hotel. Stay tuned for my next hopefully interesting episode of my Scandanavia adventure. Cheers!

Geilo

Because the tour itinerary promised that people would have a chance to walk around Bergen in the morning, we left later than usual. Normally, this would've hurt us at our arriving destination. However, in the case of Geilo, there wasn't anything to do there. Geilo is a known Norwegian ski town. As it is late summer, none of us were going to do any skiing so there wasn't any rush to get to Geilo. Still, our drive to Geilo wasn't entirely boring.

We stopped at one large waterfall called Stein something. The thing that is so interesting about this fall is that you can walk behind it. It was pretty neat. Another neat thing we did was take a short ferry ride across Hardangerfjord. The crossing only took 20 minutes but, I found it neat.

The rest of the drive to Dr. Holmes Hotel was uneventful. The hotel itself was founded as a place to treat respiratory diseases and became very successful. Later, it served those who liked to ski in Geilo. The hotel has a 6 lane American bowling alley which surprised me. It also has a spa with a wading pool, whirlpool, hotpool and good size swimming pool. I saw the swimming pool and decided a swim would help me burn some pre-dinner calories. The swim ended up being fantastic. Afterwards, I changed back for the group dinner.

The dinner was supposed to be a buffet but, the summer season was over so the hotel changed it to a set meal. Each of the course was superbly presented BUT I found the staff were incredibly slow to serve them. I was ready to chow down. I wanted FOOD! Instead, the meal dragged and we ended up not finishing till past 9 p.m. It was very annoying.

After the dinner, it was time to crash. The hotel's breakfast buffet turned out to decent though we had the same cramped seating we had the night before. We finally departed the hotel at 8:40 a.m. for Oslo.

Note: The rest of my adventure blogs will be reported from home. Tomorrow morning, I'll fly back to the U.S. It saddens me that the tour is coming to an end. Yet, it has been a fun tour. I can't wait to take another one. Harvey and I are looking at taking a Globus tour of France late next summer. It would be a lot of fun. We'll see if it happens. Cheers all!

Bergen

We boarded the ferry around 8:45 a.m. It was a strictly passenger ferry. (they have 2 kinds, the other is a combination car and passenger ferry) There were at least a couple groups heading for Gundervegan (I hope I have that spelling right). Unlike the train, the boat travelled slowly which made it easier to take pictures of the waterfalls, towns along the fjord and the fjord itself. One town called Diordal could only be reached by boat. It was reported that villagers there lived to great old age in part because of the pure water they drank. We saw farms located far up on the mountains. One farm at one time could only be reached by ladder! The views were extremely scenic. All totalled, the cruise lasted 2 hours. It was seriously awesome.

At Gundervegan, we left the ferry and boarded our bus. Our guide then offered us the choice of taking the dull boring way to Bergen or the more adventuresome route. We chose the more adventuresome route. Little did we realize what we were getting ourselves into. The more adventuresome route went along a twisting turning road with mere inches to spare on the sides. A driving mistake could be disastrous. Our respect for your driver Pere increased dramatically. Still, the views were awesome and we saw two more stunning waterfalls during the climb. It was an incredible drive.

After surviving the adventuresome route to the main Bergen road, things became more quiet. We had a long drive to Bergen. Interestingly, we had to pass through 38 tunnels to get there. It gives you an idea of how mountainous Norway is. We finally arrived around 4 p.m. I think. It was grey and drizzly. Harvey and I checked out the fish market which was interesting. We also visited Harald's Hall which dates from the beginning of Bergen and Rosencrantz tower. While there, we saw a re-enactor group that was skirmishing. It was interesting to watch them fight. They had real swords, spears and axes. We also checked out the buildings from the Hanseatic League times. They were neat old wooden buildings. Bergen was one of the towns in the league. I forget what they traded for there. After wandering around a bit more, we had dinner at the Big Horn Steakhouse. The place showed just how expensive Norway can be. I order a large beer, an order of onion rings and a 10 ounce steak with baked potato and corn. The onion rings alone were 70 Norwegian Kronor which breaks out to approximately $12. I received 7 onion rings. That breaks out to over $1.50 per ring. Serious ouch! Still, the meal was good.

After dinner, I called it a day. The next morning, Harvey and I took the funicular up one of the mountains that surrounds Bergen. The views at the top were awesome. You could see the whole harbor from up there. I was able to get some really good pictures. After that, I headed over to Harald's Hall and Rosenkrantz tower to take pictures of those. Then, it was time to get back to the hotel. We were departing for Geilo and further adventures. Stay tuned.

Flam

The Norwegians are incredibly blessed. I've never seen such beautiful waterfalls, massive mountains and stunning fjords. You can point out the difficulties the fjords cause trying to cross them. You can point out that the massive mountains make it very hard to get around Norway and, it does. And, waterfalls don't do a lot of good barring looking pretty. Still, the waterfalls, mountains and fjords make this one of the most picturesque countries I've ever visited.

We arrived at the Fletheim Hotel in Flam just in time to catch the Flam-Myrdal train. The train goes through some incredibly beautiful countryside. I kept getting excited about every waterfall and tried to take a picture of each one. By the time we returned to Flam, I must've had over 30 pictures of waterfalls. I couldn't believe how many they had. Before I went to Australia, I'd never seen one. I know of only four waterfalls in the U.S. There is the Niagara Falls and Horseshoe Falls in New York and there are two waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park. I've never seen any of them. Because of that, it has been a treat to see a waterfall. Norway is a waterfall paradise. After a while in this country, you become a connoisseur of waterfalls. They have so many kinds. It's really incredible.

After the train ride, I managed to satisfy my internet fix and posted a blog on Lillehammer. Then, it was time for dinner. The Fletheim Hotel did itself proud. It was another one of those buffets where if you didn't leave stuffed, you weren't trying. Another nice thing about the hotel was its location. Its snuggled between mountains and right next to a beautiful small harbor. It was a very pretty location.

After a super dinner, it was time to crash. We had more exciting things to look forward to. We were to take a 2-hour cruise on the Sojnefjord, Norway's largest fjord. After that, we were to drive to Bergen, once a member city of the Hanseatic League. New adventures awaited. Stay tuned for further posts on my exciting Scandanavian adventure.

Lillehammer

I have to play catch-up today because the internet connection at the Radisson in Lillehammer was so poor. I had problems trying to check my email and I didn't care to try to type up a blog entry.

We departed Karlstad bright and early and headed toward Norway. At the Sweden-Norway border, I got to claim back the tax I'd paid on the Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts I bought in Stockholm and Copenhagen. I wasn't able to claim my refund for Gothenburg because I forgot to get the refund form you have to have to receive the refund. I found that annoying but, I remembered the form too late. Thankfully, I was able to get 150 Norwegian kronor back which will buy me a few Norwegian brews. FYI, in order to get any tax you pay in the EU back, you must spend $50 plus at one store. They must fill out a form they will give you that you will present to the tax refund desk at either one of the borders between countries or at your departing airport. You'll have to show your passport, fill in your address on the form and sign it. Once that's done, they'll give you your refund in whatever currency you request. Since I was going to Norway, it made sense to get Norwegian kronor.

After we departed the border, we still had a long drive to Lillehammer, Norway. We finally arrived 4 p.m. First, we visited the Maihaugen Open Air Museum. The museum has 200 buildings from Norway's past. It's a very nice museum. We received a guide name Cary who was a riot. When we entered the old school house, she had all the men sit on one side of the school and all the women sit on the other like they would've in back in 1865. Then, she asked if we knew any American songs. Some suggested Old McDonald Had A Farm. So, the entire group sang Old McDonald Had A Farm with Cary picking the animals. I'm not sure who laughed more, she or us. By the end of our brief tour, the heavens started to open up. The next stop was the ski jumps for the 1994 Olympics. The ski jumps were very impressive and it was seriously cool to stand in the landing area where it had taken place.

From there, we had a short drive to our hotel. Our guide Arvid had told us they had a phenomenal smorgasbord at the Radisson and it turned out he wasn't kidding. I couldn't believe all the food they put out. It was another one of those where if you didn't leave stuffed, it was because you didn't want to. It was a fantastic meal.

The next morning, it was wake-up call at 6:30 a.m., breakfast anytime after 6:30, bags out at 7:30 a.m. and departure at 8:30 a.m. We would have another decent drive to Fram, Norway. Stay tuned for the next chapter in my Scandanavian adventure.