As I sit here admiring the the rare but rewarding day of sun in Seattle, I can’t help but recall the pitch black winter I experienced in Norway. Before I traveled to Norway, I had never been to a place darker (aside from Alaska, but I was there in summer when it was light out 22 hours a day) than my home town. Norway in December, is only light (twilight) from 11 am to 1 pm and is pitch black the rest of the day and night. This makes for excellent Northern Light viewing if it’s not cloudy, but also extreme hibernation.
To my surprise and delight, the little town we lodged in, Lyngseidet, Norway, had more gluten free options in their one tiny grocery store (it’s actually a chain found in Sweden, Norway, & Denmark), than the entire city of Copenhagen. Just to give you an idea of how small this town is, there were no restaurants, no bars, just a grocery store, church, and retirement home for the 800 people who live in the area. We flew into Tromso and then drove to a ferry, which got us to this magical little place.
The Lyngen Alps are truly majestic mountains, rising high and white. Lyngseidet sits in one of the many Fjords the glaciers cut out centuries ago.
My first order of business (required for all gluten free travel) when I get into foreign cities is to hit the grocery stores and pharmacies to see if and what gluten free options are available. The grocery store/chain in Lyngseidet is called REMA 1000. I found gluten free potato flours, almond flours, and a whole dedicated gluten free section for all sorts of gluten free mixes, cookies, crackers, breads, and pasta. They also had an entire freezer section of frozen gluten free almond flour cakes, brownies, and breads. So despite there not be one restaurant (that we knew of anyway), we ate very well on our trip.
So what did we learn? Gluten Free in Norwegian is Glutenfri (The Norwegian language is almost identical to Danish, just pronounced differently). When you are reading the ingredients of products if it has wheat flour or Hvetemel, it is usually the first ingredient listed. Uten Siktet Hvetemel translates to ‘without wheat flour.’ Other ingredients to look out for, Potet, is potato and Mandel is almond, both are common gluten free flours used in gluten free goods. Mostly you will see glutenfri listed on the front, but these tips will help further investigation.
We had many adventures in Lyngseidet, our first being dog sledding. In my head I had a much more romantic expectation of what this looked like, maybe a large sleigh, pulled by 20 large huskies through the alps for hours. When we got there we realized it was more like 5-6 scrawny (and poorly cared for) little husky mixes pulling 2 people for an hour with a guide. At first I was sad to see hundreds of dogs yelping and living outside, but after I realized they were excited to go for a run and it’s what they love to do.
We also managed to get out and hike in the afternoon (when it was pitch black). It was dangerous to do that, so we didn’t make it that far unprepared, but we managed to overlook the entire town and Fjords of the Lyngen Alps.
Our group stayed through the New Year, dancing, eating, and playing games in our cabin waiting for the Aurora Borealis to come out and play (and it did!). It was a fun little trip and a place I’d like to visit again during the warmer months.
If you are gluten free and looking to travel internationally, Gluten Free Hotels for Celiacs has a robust list of hotels all around the world who can accommodate you.
If you are gluten free and looking to travel internationally, Gluten Free Hotels for Celiacs has a robust list of hotels all around the world who can accommodate you.
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Related articles
- Gluten Free in Copenhagen (guidetoglutenfree.com)
