Trip to the West Coast & Back Again - FINAL UPDATE made on August 5th!

JH, NK, my friend from Minnesota (my best buddy from my old days at the College of Saint Catherine) and I traveled from Gjovik to a cabin in Bismo. Cabins are called "hytte" in Norwegian and I think the original translation is hut. We left Gjovik and traveled west/north-west. The trip took us past a lot of places and sites which I will mention near the photos listed below.

I drove most of the way - my preference. It was a little spooky for me sometimes since I am afraid of heights. The switchbacks on narrow roads hanging over thousand foot drop-offs with wandering goats in the road all the while meeting double-decker buses...okay it was pretty spooky indeed. A good link to the Norwegian fylke (county - but more like a state) we live in, Oppland can be viewed on this link. It will start with Norway and you can zoom in to Oppland. We drove through Fagernes through Jotunheimen and through Lom to the Kommune (county) of Skjak. Oppland was a petty kingdom in the Iron Age and located in south central Norway http://kart.gulesider.no/kart/map.c?ps=5&companies=&imgt=MAP&id=a_10000155133&n=68.7326645592647&s=52.8212092407353&e=35.4771535384147&w=-13.9965155384147&zoom=3&tool=zoom&scrollX=0&scrollY=0.

The photos above and below are of stave churches in Norway which were mostly built between in the years between 1000 and 1200. This church is in Ringebu. A good link to the stave churches is here, http://www.stavechurch.org/. We went into one of the stave churches. From the inside they look like upside down viking ships - I asked and they were designed and built in the same manner as the ships - even the windows were/are small round openings. In the church we went in there is a lot of viking iconography, like dragons which were to help good fight off the evil forces.

Above is a dragon guarding a stave church. to the right is octagon church built a few hundred years ago.

These two characters are our good friends, LeeAnn from Minnesota and Jann who mostly hails from Alesund and sometimes from Myklebust and also SE Asia.

NK at the indoor water park at Finnoy. Finnoy is a little island in the North Sea. It has this water park - an excellent restaurant sitting on the rocks and dock above the sea, a few marinas, a hotel and more. It amazes me how progressive this little community is. The citizens value their community and are committed to the infrastructure and to developing a high quality of life.

The building below is in Alesund. It is supposed to be the most photographed building in the area.

Alesund is spread across islands on the west coast of Norway. The city once burned down because most buildings were built of wood. The city was rebuilt in stone.

Jann in East German and Russian garb. Always the jokester.

A couple in traditional Norwegian dress, bunad. I was fascinated with the fish in the aquarium which included fish found in the region around Alesund.

Sea anemones.

Flounders and rays. NK and I "petted" the rays and the sharks, but the flounders were speedy and had no interest in being loved by us.

We enjoyed watching this shrimp do the dog, er uh, shrimp paddle all around the aquarium.

A few weeks ago we saw baby star fish at the beach near Myklebust. This much bigger star fish was fun to watch as it slid around the window.

This cloud formation hanging above Alesund was amazing to look at. We were on top of a small mountain in Alesund photographing the city and looking out at sea to Myklebust in the distance when we saw this cloud and other white poofy cloud formations kind of streaming into view.

Alesund. With only a few hours of darkness at this time of year we have been able to enjoy Alesund for at least 20 hours a day;-)

This is a view back to the Geiranger Fjord. The fjord is supposedly the most beautiful in the world. I agree. It was breathtaking. The fjords were carved into the land by the receding glaciers. http://www.geiranger.no/english.html

Family photo at Gerianger. Not exactly a sunny day, but we did see some sun.

NK and LeeAnn aboard the ferry on our one-hour trip through the fjord.

One of the many wonderful vistas from the fjord. The waterfalls are numerous in this area.

This is one of the abandoned farms hanging high on the rocks above Geiranger. It appeared that some day hikers were hanging out enjoying the view from this farm.

My little photographer was snapping away during our trip through Geiranger.

This is a famous waterfall called "The Suitor". It is across the fjord from the waterfalls called the "Seven Sisters" which are in the photo below.

The Seven Sisters.

LeeAnn enjoying the trip.

Me hugging my little photographer. We were somewhat giddy because the trip was so amazing through the fjord.

Family photo above Geiranger. One of the cruise ships in the fjord behind us is the Queen Elizabeth II. It is a big boat. A lot of the tourists were being ferried to shore for the bus trip up the mountain for the view from the lookout spot we occupied!

Snow Troll...oh wait this is NK enjoying snow and some of the nearby glaciers.

A photo of our hytte. There were six-eight hytte and some camping area. The other tourists appeared to be Norwegian, Icelandic and from the Netherlands.

The hytte was at the base of thousand foot rock cliffs and near a river. Snow and waterfalls surrounded the area.

The entrance to a stave church. Notice the intricate carvings around the door. The window was added in the 1600's. Originally the church was supposed to be dark and depressing for the peasants and farmers to look forward to the well lit and beautifully decorated pulpit which represented God, Heaven and the better life in the "beyond".

This stave church is in Lom. I definitely want to return to Lom to spend some time. It is high in the mountains and with ski areas surrounding the area.

The dragons on the church guarding against evil and also from the iconic viking age.

Family photo at the site of where a Norwegian fairytale about a love story arose called Ridderspranget (the Knight's Leap). There is a rushing stream coming down the mountain and sometimes falling down into a river called Sjoa. In the 1200's a knight found out the the woman he loved (she apparently loved him back) was married off to another man - his adversary. The knight abducted the bride and they rode away on horseback. While being pursued, they jumped to the other side of the rushing water. The story goes on but somehow ends happily ever after.

The hike down to the site of the fairytale leap across the falls was steep. I figured I would die on the hike back up. I almost did. I finally decided that jogging was somehow easier than hiking so I ended-up jogging back up the hill/mountain to the car.

NK loved this site. The rocks, the rushing water and the forest made for an exciting combination for a little guy.

At this time of year there is a whiteish moss that is starting to blanket the forests in Norway. The reindeer eat the moss to ready for winter. Along with the moss are an assortment of mushrooms - many of them red in color.

Since Norway is in the midst of the rainiest summer in 124 years you can imagine we have seen a lot of rainbows. They are everywhere. They come in groups. The other evening we saw three rainbows out over the lake. Not a double rainbow, but three separate bows of bright prisms.

This is the highest mountain area in Oppland. It is about three hours from our house. The mountain range is amazing. We stopped above the tree line and we had ice crystals blowing down on us from the clouds. We plan to return sometime to camp and hike in this area which is filled with reindeer and fox. Because of the glaciers that scrapped across the top of this region there are lakes and boulders scattered across the tops of these mountains.

NK and I had to go to the bathroom and without a bathroom in site - we went commando.

Hikers place groups of these rocks in formations to mark their trails.

The Sami, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people the indigenous people in northern Europe are also the largest idigneous group of people in Europe. In this photo we are above the tree line at a goat farm. NK was petting and playing with the goats while we bought cheese from the farmer/shopkeeper. NK was curious about the goat's "gutter". We gave him a crash course in "udders" and where dairy products come from.

This little tree looked lonely on the bank of this river where we stopped to see ancient stone carvings.

NK badly wanted to joing other European tourists who were skinny dipping in the cold waters.

This photo of the carvings shows the carving as they are outlined to show the ancient figures.

out-of-pocket

We are heading out to the west coast of Norway, and we won't be back until next Monday night. Call us on our cell phones if you need to track us down since I don't know what computer access we will have. We plan to stay in the Norwegian Alps in cabins with a night at the farm on Myklebust.

Day Trippin

I couldn't really get a good photo of this spider - too bad it is really interesting. It has been weaving beautiful webs outside of our dining room window for a few weeks.The train arrives in the Gjovik station about every hour during the day. It goes back and forth to Oslo.

We were leaving the water front area when an air ambulance came down and very quickly was back in the air.

Photos from around Gjovik, a marina and flowers along a street. The statue is of Gjovik Resistance during WWII. It honors men and women who were sent to concentration camps as a result of their organizing Resistance to the Nazis.

The photo above is of a building at Hunderfossen.

Bees, bees everywhere are bees. We walked up a path near a park and there were hundreds of huge bumble bees buzzing around the flowers.

More photos of Hunderfossen above.

JH and NK panning for gold in the valley north of Lillehammer.

NK and I at the Troll Cave restaurant.

My son;-)

Lillehammer street above. To left you can see NK and me (my legs - to the left side of the photo) riding a ride at Hunderfossen.

NK in Lillehammer at the park.

NK and I have had a great time on our day trips. On weekends JH joins us. I am feeling a lot more comfortable driving the car around. I think I have deciphered most of the Norwegian road signs, and I can find fifth gear on the car.

I still suffer from sticker shock when shopping. The US Dollar continues to fall against the Norwegian Kroner. My dollars at Intrust bank in Wichita are getting less and less valuable here in Norway, http://www.x-rates.com/d/NOK/USD/graph120.html. JH keeps reminding me that he earns Kroner, but still the stickers on items scare me! I think that after 11.5 years of marriage to a frugal spender that a little bit of JH has rubbed off on me.

NK and I spent a day in Lillehammer and we both loved the town. It is so quaint and filled with little cafes, shops and parks. NK wished he had brought his bike and I was glad he didn't! The hills were steep. Although the number of older senior citizens biking up and down the hills without helmets amazed and worried me! We went to the Olympic Park to look around and we plan to go back soon to check out the museum and the ski jump. The Bobsled Course is outside of town. You can go down the course - I think that NK and I might do it.

Over the weekend we went to an amusement park called Hunderfossen, http://www.hunderfossen.no/. It is a troll themed park. NK loved it. It is in a valley outside of Lillehammer about 45-60 minutes from our house. We spent the entire day walking around the park, riding rides and swimming at the water park. We also enjoyed a great dinner in a troll cave. JH and I had moose lasagna and NK has Scandinavian Pancakes. This was only my second time eating in a restaurant in Norway.

NK likes to spend his time at motorcycle shops looking at ATVs/-wheelers. Last week we went to a motorcycle shop in Lillehammer and he found a helmet he loved. Well, the helmet came home with us. So now we are looking for gloves, gear and of course an ATV.

We have been loading NK's bike up and taking it to trails and down near the lake as I and sometimes JH and I walk/hike. The water level here is still high. Remember that the rainy weather followed me across the Atlantic from Kansas to Norway. There are some marinas where the boats can't get out due to the high water and the bridge system - there is only a foot or two between the high water and the bridge girders.

NK continues to make more friends. They pop-in and have a glass of brus (soda) and play Play Station and ride around the neighborhood with NK. They speak an English/Norwegian mix of language. The kids in this neighborhood of Kopperud all go to the same school so I am glad NK is making friends prior to starting school. He is also really practicing his soccer (of course now he calls it football - since the Europeans call it football) ball control. When he has no one to play with he runs around with his ball. We were at the beach one day last week and he saw some boys a little older than him and their ball control was amazing - and he is worried that he won't be as strong of a player in his new league - Vind (wind).

Our crate with our worldly possessions supposedly arrived in Oslo yesterday, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo. They have told us that we should get our delivery in 3-10 days. Hurrah! The company doing our move seems to not be coordinating it well. We have been contacted by the Norwegian authorities and the Norwegian moving/expediter with questions and confusion. It is obvious that somebody isn't doing his job at the moving company. We have paid for better service that we are getting. I will wait until our crate has arrived at our home before I give them feedback;-)

We went to Oslo ourselves yesterday. We went shopping at IKEA to get some items we need. Of course I could have spent 2 days shopping at IKEA! We also had the proper English Breakfast at IKEA, baked beans, hot dogs, scrambled eggs and toast. We added Lingonberry soda. Yum. NK ate all of our hot dogs and some pancakes - of course.

We went to a few motorcycle/ATV shops in Oslo - and I think the guys have narrowed down the list of ATVs to what we are going to buy. We also went to a couple of sport/bicycle shops since JH had a wheel blowout on his bike (going downhill) and NK broke a brake handle trying to stop going down a mountain. Dangers of working out - hee hee.

At the end of our shopping day in Oslo we stopped by the airport and picked-up our friend LeeAnn who flew in from Minnesota to be my interior decorator! It is good to have friends!

I cooked a yummy fish dinner last night, and after some wine followed by a hike into the woods further up on the mountain we were all tired! LeeAnn is still asleep after about 12 hours:-) The weather is supposed to be nice today so I will wait until NK and LeeAnn wake up and we will have a nice day walking around Gjovik and enjoying the mountain air, the lake and the flower arrangements all over the city.