Post by JH: Now with Additions......pictures stll to come
Summer is coming to an end, NK starts school next week so it is back to the grind for all of us. Summers is what Norwegians live for. The endless days, when the sun is up from 3AM to 11PM or longer makes up for a few dark winter days. Sometime in late July, it got dark enough that one could see stars again, and we found the big dipper, at least most of the stars. Not having seen them for a month you kind of welcomed them back, even though it is a sign of the darker nights and days ahead.
It was a decent summer in Gjøvik, but other areas of Norway had geat summers. Both Northern Norway and the NW region, where the farm house is located have had vey good summers. There is almost a drought in the area around the arctic circle, and a forest fire hazard was posted earlier this week.
When NK came back from the states, he brought back some of his grandparents, so we used the opportunity to give them a tour during the 2 weeks they visited. We looked around the local area for a couple of days, stopped by Oslo before we flew up North to Bodø to visit my (JH) folks and check out the land of the midnight sun. We got there a few weeks too late for the midnight sun, but it was still as much light as we had in Gjøvik for midsummer. In addition to exploring some of the local sites, we tried our luck fishing. The big salmon or trout didn't bite but we got some haddock, cod, coalfish and a little flounder. Catching something pleased the youngest fisherman (the one with the least patience). His favourite fish is cod, and he got to eat some of his catch the same night.
After a long weekend we took the train to Trondheim. It is a 10 hour ride, and most pictures we took are from the first couple of hours when the scenery is the best. It was still nice but it gets a little monotonous through the valleys from Mo i Rana and southwards. LL met us at the RR station in Trondheim, and we went to the cabin we had rented outside of town. The following day we went downtown to look at the Nidarosdomen cathedral. They were in the middle of the St Olav's days celebrations around town, which included a medevial marketplace and a lot of other activities. We didn't get going again until the rush-hour, which wasn't too bad since a lot of people were still on vacation. (Sidenote: Trying to take care of business in Norway in the middle of July can be very trying - a lot of patience is needed. Maybe it can be compared to trying to do business in Mexico during siesta, it just lasts for about a month) I had briefly been to Trondheim back in January, so we had talked about going up there together since, and we found a good time to do it. Trondheim is one of he many cities in Norway worth visiting. It is Norway's third largest city, but has as Bergen kept a lot of its old architecture, and been fairly restrictive with building styles and building sizes as it has developed.
From Trondheim, we headed SW towards Kristiansund N (the N is to help distinguish it from a city close to the south tip of Norway, Kristiansand S) This city is located on a few islands, and has in the last 20 years become connected to the mainland with a system of bridges over and tunnels under the fjords. I will admit that we didn't divulge to our passengers that we were going to take them 5-600 feet below sea level, until we were heading down the slope. Kristiansund N has developed a lot since last time I visited in '93. It has become a major base for oil and gas exploration in ths area of the Norwegian Sea. We had again rented a cabin at a camp ground. It was locatted in a nice forest next to the airport. It was buzzing with helicopters until past 10PM, as the crews manning the oil platforms out in the sea are continuously coming or going from their 2-4 week shift. Outside the cabin we found raspberries and blueberries. Grandpa found one blueberry with his sandals, so we suddenly noticed his discolored toes, and he was pleased that it wasn't gangrene.
The following day we looked a little around the town, and then we took a ferry that by next year will be replaced with a tunnel. The ferry took us over to an island so we could make a stop at one of the old stave churches (Kvernnes) and so we could drive the Atlantic road, where the road skips along on the outer row of small islands. The guide at the church gave a very interesting tour of it. In the same area we read about burial mounds that had been dated to about 2000 BC, and looking around one could see why someone passing by might settle here. Land to farm, and good fisheries in the fjords.
We headed on to Molde, where we only did some driveby sightseeing. We had looked at the ferry schedule and decided to head out to the farmhouse, and we could make it there on the 6PM ferry, if things worked out right. Two ferries and a row of islands were the only things between us. We called our friend Per at the local shop at Myklebust, to see how late he was open. His normal hours were to 6PM, but he would hold the door open so we didn' have to get our supplies on the way. At 6:05PM we were there and got some food to last us until the next day. The car was already full, so the passengers were happy that they only had to sit with groceries in their lap for the few minutes it took to get to the farm house.
This map shows the route travelled:
http://www.gulesider.no/kart/#lat%3D9108364.48655%26lon%3D822208.40897%26zoom%3D7%26layers%3D0B000%26route%3Da_10000472343%26route%3Da_10000009055%26route%3Da_10000486598%26markers%3DTrafikkmelding%26tab%3DrouteThe Addition:
The slacker is back....
After we got installed and unpacked at the house, we took a look around to see how things were. LL, NK and me hadn't been there since Easter. With all the activities in Gjøvik (buying and moving into our house) it had been hard to find time. It was early August and we waded into the tall grass in the yard and found the berrybushes. A lot of ripe berries, and the big price - yellow gooseberries. There were both green and yellow, and the yellow ones are really sweet. We helped us to a bucket full (or 3). NK headed of to find his buddy, who had gotten his own ATV now. Which was good, cause NK's stopped running well, so we had to leave it with a mechanic.
One of the reasons for adjusting the travel schedule to come here this weekend was the musicfestival. They had a non-alcoholic event one night, family activities the next day and then the big show on Saturday night. It was the 3rd year for the festival. It is called Naust Rock. Naust is Nowegian for a boathouse. And the location is at a small marina, in between a few naust. The (Norwegian only) webpage is
http://www.naustrock.com/ , and they had a variety of older rock and blues bands playing. This guy from the states was one of the performers:
http://www.giledwards.com/f1.html. I can't tell if he or any of the other performers were any good or not - I was too busy visiting with people I hadn't talked to for 15-20 years to listen to the music.
We were again lucky with the weather for our stay. Around 60 degrees and no rain. We spent the days hiking and sightseeing - giving the guests the tour. LL and I went to a place we can see from the farm, but I hadn't been to since I was a kid. It is a monolith in memory of one of my ancestors: Store-Rasmus (Big Rasmus) who was a local leader of the farmers in the 1600's. He ended his days serving a life term of hard labor at Akershus. He had noted that the local tax collectors collected more than they sent to the King in Copenhagen (Norway was a part of Denmark in those days) and he documented this and made complaints....which didn't make him popular with the local government.
http://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Ingebrigtsson_p%C3%A5_Myklebust(I tried to find an english link - but no such luck)
In addition to scouring the beaches, Jack and I went out to fish. The weather was nice, but a little windy so we headed for the leeward side of the harbor. The oceanfloor here is sand, and is fairly shallow. At the right times there is some decent haddock (8+ pound) in this area, but they weren't tehre or they preferred some other food than what we offered. We ended up getting one mackerel (about 2 lbs)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_mackerel. And the box of canned mackerel shown on this page is a taste I have not acquired. I have no plans to acquire this taste either......
Sunday, way to early in the morning for someone who had been at naustrock and made it home around 4 AM, we got back on the ferry to start the trip back to Gjøvik. Except for driving the car onto the ferry, LL did all the driving for the day. We took the usual route from Brattvåg to Ørskog to Åndalsnes. Then up the Romsdal over the continental divide, and then we followed the river as it grew into Gudbrandsdalslågen which runs into Mjøsaat Lillehammer, just 30 miles from Gjøvik. The following link shows the roadmap.
http://www.gulesider.no/kart/#lat%3D8808119.8395%26lon%3D959795.05987%26zoom%3D7%26layers%3D0B000%26route%3Da_10000574560%26route%3Da_10000434474%26route%3Da_10000549281%26markers%3DTrafikkmelding%26tab%3DrouteWe made it back to Gjøvik, Jack and Holly got a day to re-organize, before we sent them with the bus to the airport.
Heart Disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. I was almost a statistic. http://www.goredforwomen.com/.
