Mom Arrives

Jason arrived home from a trip to the US on Tuesday and my mom also arrived Tuesday afternoon for a 2 week visit! Jason surprised me with a brand new Mac Book Pro laptop! So I am back to using a Mac (which I love) and it is really nice to have my own computerJ

We haven’t done a ton of sightseeing with mom but we have seen the downtown area and many of the local stores. On Saturday we took a drive out to a little town called Frosta, on a peninsula in the Trondheim Fjord. It was a nice drive and a pretty little town with a church from mediaeval times and some stone drawings from the Stone Age. There is also an abandoned Monastery from the 1200’s. We had lunch at a tiny little bakery and then headed back to Trondheim. On the way home we saw two bald eagles diving for fish in the fjord right next to the road. I have never seen an eagle in the wild – they are massive and very beautiful.

On Sunday we went to see Dark Knight – it was opening weekend here in Norway – it was quite good- maybe even worth the $20 ticket. This week there is a festival going on in Trondheim so hopefully we can see some of that and then on Friday we plan to take a train to a city called Roros about 3 hours from here to sightsee. Hopefully I will have some photos to upload then.

Our Weekend Adventure

Jason and I took a weekend trip to see some of Norway. The locals were pretty insistent that we needed to see Norway. We decided to go to Alesund which is along the coast south of us and is supposed to be one of the prettiest towns in Norway. We had Emilie (our relocation agent's daughter who is 16) dogsit for us. That went really well so we are pretty excited we have someone to watch the dogs at our house while we are gone. Here is a link to the map of our trip. I have highligted the route we took along with some sights.

We left after work on Thursday and drove to a town called Kristandsund which is 198 km from us (or about 123 miles) but the drive took about 4 hours which is due to slow speed limits, narrow roads and breathtaking scenery. We had the experience of taking a ferry and driving under a fjord. The tunnel under the fjord (which cost us a $20 toll) was pretty interesting – it was quite steep, dark and very wet – the rock was dripping the whole way. We had several tolls to pay along the way – all were automated booths that took credit cards and coins. The Norwegian road people do run a good racket - if you pay with coins they don’t give you change! The toll is 16NOK (which would require 3 coins) but if you put a 20NOK coin ($2) in you don’t get change.

Kristiansund is a cute little town of about 16,000 and it is situated on 3 islands. The town was pretty sleepy due to the holiday season. We had dinner at the worst Chinese place in Norway then found a cute place for dessert. Our guide book told us to see the “old town” on the next island but the ferry stopped running (so we thought) so we walked a long way over to the “old town”. Not much to see so we hiked up to the lovely stone monument – which was really just a large rock but it had a nice view. Then we hiked all the way back to the other island since the ferry wasn’t running. After we hiked back we saw the ferry running! Very annoying but we got some exercise.

Day two of our trip started with another ferry to the island of Averoya. We took a detour to see the Kvernes Stave church. There are only 31 of this type of churches left in Norway. We followed the GPS’ advice and took a road that would lead us back to the main road. Bad advice! The road ended up being a one lane dirt road with a 25% grade up and down. Luckily our little car has all wheel drive. About halfway through this 6 mile road we meet up with a large bulldozer coming right at us. We back up about 200 meters to find a wide spot so we could pass. It was slightly scary – I am glad Jason was driving. I am really glad Jason drove the whole weekend actually since the roads are crazy here- many areas are one lane and around turns you are gambling. Buses and trucks have no fear and barely slow down for you! We continued on to the Atlantic Ocean Highway which connects about 17 islands with 8 bridges. It was a neat sight – very different scenery then you would expect. Next we hit Molde for lunch and our next ferry ride. We ended up in Alesund about 3pm.

Stave Church

Atlantic Coast Highway

Alesund is a very pretty town of about 33,000. It was burnt to the ground in 1904 and was rebuilt in an Art Nouveau style which is very different then the rest of Norway. There was a boat festival going on so we saw the city with lots of people and stourist around. We visited the Atlantic Ocean Aquarium. It was kind of interesting but overall a disappointment for an aquarium – they only showcased Norwegian fish (not surprising I guess). We did see some penguins in an outside exhibit along with some huge flounders. And the next day we saw puffins in the wild on our fjord trip!

Day three is our fjord adventure. We took a catamaran boat from Alesund to Oye down the Hjorund Fjord. From Oye we took a bus to Hellesylt. Our bus driver was a local from Oye and was a fearless driver on the one lane road. We saw a part of the fjord that had been dammed by a rock slide many years ago – you could see the old road and house foundations in the lake. From Hellesylt we took a 70 minute ferry ride to Geiranger through the Geiranger Fjord which is one of Norway’s most famous. I had seen pictures and I expected it to be pretty but words cannot describe how beautiful it really is.

The mountains come right out of the water and the water is blue green almost like the Caribbean Ocean. There are some farms along the fjord that are abandoned but have pretty amazing stories – these people lived in the middle of nowhere and many times had to row to another section of land for water in the middle of winter! The ferry we took was just like any other car ferry and wasn’t much more expensive but it did have nice commentary. We arrived in Geiranger – which is not much since the only business anymore is tourism- they say 600,000 people tour it and the fjord each year.

We stayed an hour and then took a cruise ship called the Hurtigruten back to Alesund. The Hurtigruten is cruise ship that does the whole Norwegian coast in 6 days with something like 25 stops – it has been around for about 100 years (not the boat but the company). Back in Alesund we hiked up to the 400 steps to the Kniven viewpoint over the city then hiked back for some dinner which was one of the first very good meals in Norway.

View from top of hill over Alesund

Last day – we left Alesund pretty early and retraced our steps for about an hour. Then headed to Andalsnes which is famous for the Trollstigen (a sheer rock wall) and the Trolls Highway which consists of 11 hairpin turns up the mountain- we had seen enough crazy driving so we skipped this and drove on. We drove though the Rauma River Valley. I can’t really put into words how spectacular this drive was. We stopped several times to take photos. The river runs the whole way and drops from about 600 meters (2000 feet) to the sea – so the waterfalls are pretty spectacular. We continued home on highway E6 – which is the major north south route from Oslo. It is one lane in each direction with a max speed of 90K (55 mph) so Jason was ready to shoot himself when we got home. It was a really great trip. Norway is hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice. Norway doesn't have the castles and churches like the rest of Europe but their countryside more then makes up for it. I have added pictures of the journey to the New Photo Album along with more commentary on the photos.

No Fourth of July

We have not done anything too exciting in the past week or so though we have kept busy which is nice.   We were very worried when we first moved here about how difficult making friends might be since the Norwegian culture is fairly closed to strangers. 

 

Last weekend we had Jason’s project leader and his wife (Olav and Marita) over for lunch.  It was a nice visit with good conversation. I made homemade cookies and Marita had never had homemade cookies before so that was fun.  The interesting part for us was that they brought their 2 year old with them – she was asleep in the pram (stroller) and they didn’t want to bring her in the house since she was “dressed too warmly” so they left her on our back porch for about 2 hours to sleep.  She was not really in view of us and the door was closed so we couldn’t hear her.  After talking to others we discovered this is very common and the Norwegians believe the outside air is best for babies.  Most people also use a mosquito net over the pram – we learned that this is not only for bugs but also to keep the cats out of the pram- I guess there was a case of a baby being smothered by a cat one winter!  It is interesting to live in a county where the only fear they have of leaving their baby unattended outside and out of view is stray cats.  I can’t imagine anyone in the US leaving their baby unattended ever- but it is a very different society here.

 

We have also had brunch at Erin and Michael’s flat- which is very nice and much more modern then our house.  We meet a new acquaintance through them named Alister- he is Scottish and married to a Norwegian.  We actually helped him move into a new house yesterday for about 6 hours.  He had way too much stuff. The new house was very large and pretty neat -they had a walk in refrigerator in the basement!  We also were invited over to Olav’s house this week to watch a movie in his media room.  They have a new home which is similar to US track style homes but with all the Norwegian goods like built in frideges etc- it has an amazing view of the city and river.  And last night after moving we had diner at Carlos and Lena’s (people we meet though Erin and Michael).  It was a typical Norwegian meal of cold shrimp, bread, butter, lemon, dill and mayo.  You make sandwiches- it was not too bad but you have to peel all the shrimp (and take their heads off) which is a lot of effort for a little food.  On the way to the car we saw 2 badgers!  I had never seen one before- they are pretty big and kind of neat looking but I have heard the can be vicious- we tried to get a picture but the badger was too quick for us. 

 

It was strange not being in the US for the Fourth of July.  Jason had to work and there is no celebration since there is not really a US group here. We had Erin and Michael over for dinner of ribs, homemade potato salad and $3 an ear corn on the cob.  It turned out well but it was weird to not have a fireworks display to head off to after dinner.  It has been very warm for the past 2 days but today it is raining so it is a nice break from the heat.  Not much on tap for today since it is Sunday and everything is closed.  Jason and I have a trip planned to a town south of us called Aalusand next weekend so we are exited to get out of the city and see some sites.