Norway

We have been in Norway for one week and are thoroughly enchanted. It is full of spectacular scenery and friendly people. We started our first night out in Bergen in an apartment near the docks. The owner mentioned he knew exactly where to find the town of Saevareid (the area where Travis's ancestors were from) and that it wasn't very far from Bergen. This was pretty intriguing so we had him show us on google maps where it was and how to get there. In the evening we walked around the city and had a picnic dinner near the town square. We wandered through the oldest part of the city, Bryggen, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and looked at the old wooden buildings, picturing what they must of been like many years ago filled with merchants and people in the streets.

In the morning we headed south towards Os where we got on our first of many car ferries to cross the fjord and drive to Saevareid. The roads in the fjord region are narrow, windy, and very close to the edge of the fjord. It makes for exciting driving in a manual transmission car! It didn't take us long to find the town of Saevareid where we took lots of pictures of the farms and signs and then stopped in the town center to have ice cream at the small local market. We chatted a bit with the people in the store and found that there are still a few people living there with the same name. Suddenly it all makes sense to us why Travis is drawn to the ocean and to northern regions. It must be in his bones from his ancestors living there for years, farming their small acres of land and rowing around the fjord to fish and travel.

The next leg of our journey took us on another ferry across another fjord and then through a 11 km long tunnel under the Folgafonna mountain and glacier. Then up north to the small "town" of Aga along a narrow branch of the Hardanger fjord. This fjord runs north/south so it is well suited for fruit farms. We passed small plots of cherry, apple and plum trees, hanging on the steep sides of the hills between the pine trees and the water. In Aga, we stayed in a cabin right next to the water. It was owned by Erling Aga and besides renting out a couple cabins for tourists, he raised chickens and had a farm of plum trees and a few milking cows up the hill for the winter. It was quiet and beautiful and a perfect place for the kids to enjoy a bit of swimming, some exploring of the glacier, the town of Odda, and also towards the Hardagervidda National Park and the town of Eidfjord. The waterfalls coming off the mountains in this area are unbelievable. This time of year the snow is still visible on the higher peaks and it is melting quickly and coming town in raging, icy waterfalls.

Leif and Travis spent an entire day fishing (it was rainy and chilly most of the day so we also read and put together a puzzle). That night Leif was sleeping so hard he fell out of his bunk in the cabin and hurt his foot. It was the middle of the night, so we didn't give it much thought and put him back to bed in our bunk. In the morning, seeing it was so swollen and bruised we decided we should probably have it checked out in the ER in Bergen. We were going there anyway to take back the rental car and take a train to Finse. The ER was quiet and efficient and in about 1 hour we learned he had broken a couple of the bones in his foot, they wrapped it up in a bandage, we paid 40 NOK (about $6) and we were on our way. The next problem was deciding what to do since the only activities in Finse were hiking or biking. We spent a couple hours at the tourist info center, canceled our train tickets, drove to the dock of the Hurtigruten (Norwegian Cruise line that also delivers mail and supplies), returned the rental car, and then found ourselves headed north in the last 2 cabins on the ship. The Hurtigruten left Bergen at 8pm at night and we arrived in our destination, Aalesund by 8:45 in the morning. What a thrill for the kids to spend a night on a ship and to see the gorgeous coastline of Norway. Travis was able to arrange a hotel for us in Aalesund and we are all cosily packed into a "family room" in the Thon hotel located right on the water only a few hundred meters from the Hurtigruten dock.

Today we rented a car for the day so we could drive to the island of Runde (a drive, a ferry ride, and then a drive over several islands and bridges). On Runde there are half a million sea birds nesting on the cliffs, the southern most nesting colonies in Europe. This was a dream come true for Travis that we were able to go out on a guided boat tour and see the puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbacks, fulmars, kittywakes, and sea eagles (oh and also a few seals). The kids were pretty impressed as well- it was a stunning sight to see the birds swarming the island likes bees. The puffins were floating in the water right next to the boat so we could see their bright colorful beaks quite well. The kids were also impressed with the large swells as we bobbed up and down in the fishing boat!

Tomorrow we fly to Oslo (rather than the 9 hour train trip- another slight change in our plans). Then we will be off to London on Friday. The pictures will have to wait until we are back in Switzerland.