Changes in Latitudes

After just one week at my new job, I took two weeks vacation for our Norwegian wedding in northern Norway. We picked up Carolyn on July 4th, and started driving north. We drove about 13 hours the first day, and made sure to stop a couple of times to fill up coffee and give the dog a break. The second day we drove the last 7 hours, and made it to the summer house at Gjelvågan in time for dinner. Driving through Songdal - fjord Norway (western Norway) is the prettiest drive. Summer skiers...people skiing on the 4th of July - only in Norway Hard to see, but just behind Marius is the landmark for crossing the Arctic Circle We had a few days to finish decorating the old gym and some fun stuff before Mom, Dad, Aunt Jill and Uncle Jeff drove in. We decorated the old gymnasium of the community center with a marine theme. Rigmor was very creative. To drop the ceiling, she borrowed some fishing nets from her brother and bought some rice paper lanterns. We found some glass floats...

It meant a lot to me that Marius came with me to Michigan for Christmas this year! Our bags were stuffed with presents when we departed Bergen/Oslo on the 13th at 6am bound for Detroit. When we arrived Marius greeted everyone working at the airport with a Merry Christmas, which spread a lot of smiles. Unfortunately, some of our gifts were confiscated...apparently all meat is prohibited from entering the US unless it has been boiled and sealed in a metal container. Sounded a lot like spam. So our gift of Norwegian smoked ham and lam sausage was given in spirit. At least the other gifts made it through! [Upon arrival at DTW] [Marius cutting down the tree] Mom and Dad picked us up on time and we were tired. We had a hard time adjusting to the time zone since our flight just made us awake for the day, but after three days we were adjusted. We picked out our tree the day after arriving and Marius was given the task to cut it down after a fair amount of time of comparing several...

We drove from Copenhagen to Oslo in one day; it's only 6 hours. While we were still in Denmark we found a grocery store to stock up on cheaper beer and some road snacks. But then the GPS took us the wrong way, and we found ourselves in line for the ferry from a city just north of Copenhagen to Helsingborg, Sweden. Instead of backtracking to the bridge, we decided to take the 20 minute ferry ride across. We obviously went way north! Six hours later we were back in Oslo. We took it easy the next day and walked around our neighborhood and up the river. It was good weather for a long walk. Rigmor had us over for dinner and served moose "gryte" (a stew) and "Troll krem" (troll cream = lingonberry, egg whites and sugar) for dessert. We still had some must-sees to cover in Oslo. Mainly the royal palace and ski jump/ski museum. We made it in time for the changing of the guard. Skis varied by region and were over 15 feet long back in the day! Dad...

First Carlsberg of the trip As we crossed the bridge from Malmö, Sweden, into Denmark, we saw blue sky, blue water and white sail boats. The bridge was long, but before we knew it we were in Denmark...yet again, no indication that we actually entered another country, and it felt more like we were crossing the bridge up to the U.P. Following our GPS passed lots of houses that Marius described as "typical Danish", but to me they just looked like "typical northern Europe": brick homes with steep roofs. There were tons of cyclists! A lot of people bike in Norway, but Copenhagen sets the bar really high. We came to the street with our hotel and parked in the street. As well as there being two other hotels, there were also two "gentlemen's clubs", and the street smelled like pee. At least the room was alright! We went to the tourist information center around the corner and got a map for a walking tour of Copenhagen that "should only take...

I realized I never wrote about Mom and Dad's visit back in the beginning of September. They were here from September 2-11. We started in Oslo and then drove down to Copenhagen, via Gothenburg, for a long weekend before coming back up to Oslo. It was a lot of fun! I wish I could remember the "Dad-isms". I should have written them down! I will try to think of them for the next post. We had them in our little 44 m/sq apartment, so it was definitely pretty tight with the four of us, but we all share hotel rooms when we were on our little roadtrip anyways, so it we got used to it fast. When they left, though, it seemed so quiet. When they arrived we quickly got them into the Oslo experience with a visit to the famous sculpture park, Vigelandsparken. A walk is the best cure after travelling. The next day Marius went to the office and we went to the Viking Ship museum. But Marius caught up with us in time for the Kon Tiki museum. I highly recommend both of those...