DAY 152 - Norway's Beautiful Fjords

August 18 - Car Drive Through the Tunnels & Fjord Country

Our next host in Bergen was a single gal who was so excited to have us "Seniors" as surfers and show us all around Bergen.  She had nice flat in another part of Bergen, so we got another view of the lovely city. 

Her flat was a two story one - her room mate was gone for a few days.

 In total, there are about 1,190 fjords in Norway.  We left Sweden for a couple of weeks just to see the beauty of the fjords.  We were not sorry.  Here is a photo we got off the internet.

We enjoyed the grass roofs of many of the houses on our tour of the fjords.

Marthe, our new host, took us on a beautiful drive through the fjords.We got to stop whenever we wanted to, but also took a lot of pictures out the windows.

Geologically, a fjord  is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion. The word comes to English from Icelandic.

We went through several tunnels as we drive through the fjords.

The Church of Norway is the state church and the largest church in Norway.  Established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536–1537.

I went into this church to see the inside like I always do.

There were many people all dressed up in folk attire.  There had been a special baptism, I guess.  This little girl was so cute!

The whole family posed for a picture.

Most churches have their graveyard on the church grounds.

Most of the day was rainy, but there were occasional times where the scenery was spectacular and we got some good pictures.

As late as 2000, some coral reefs were discovered along the bottoms of the Norwegian fjords These reefs were found in fjords from the north of Norway to the south. The marine life on the reefs is believed to be one of the most important reasons why the Norwegian coastline is such a generous fishing ground.  Our host, Marthe takes us fishing tomorrow - so exciting!

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Our drive was wonderful and Marthe was so nice to take us around and through the beautiful fjords of Norway.

We captured some cool pictures of a pretty rainbow on the mountains.

What a great time we had - shortly before this we bought some mountain cherries - so good!

Last peek of the rainbow.

Another Church - seems as if there is one in every town.

Always a troll to greet us.

More tourists drown rafting in rivers than any other deaths in Norway.  "The waterfalls and rivers are VERY angry," says Marthe.

Mineral Water is very popular as the glaciers release all the minerals into the soil making for very good soil and yummy water.

The waterfalls were thundering down the hills and always so beautiful.

A picturesque panorama of one of the fjords.

The Norwegians are very patriotic.

Marthe's Grandmother has many stories of her experiences in WWII.  Many Jews were smuggled into Norway and her great grandfather hid away a teen boy during the war that left quite an impact on the family.  They felt fear for a long time.

Sweden was supposed to be neutral during the war, but they ended up helping the Germans so that Norway and Sweden had a lot of anger with each other after that.

Some more examples of grass-roofed huts.

Wood Houses are easier to heat up than brick or stone homes.

Marthe served us some dinner when we got home.  Broccoli under some special meat.

We're going fishing tomorrow so that will be an adventure.

UPDATE: 1 Week Back in Idaho Falls

October 26 - Surfing in Our Own Hometown

Our 7 month Europe trip was amazing!  We saw so many wonderful things, but the BEST thing was the friends we made and the fantastic adventures we had with them.  We stayed in 80 host homes in 32 different countries.  We have stories to tell and no one can ever imagine all that we learned.  One thing is for sure:  People in Europe are more similar than different from what we're used to.  We may have some language barriers, but even then, those can be overcome.  Take for instance, our first host in Istanbul.  The mother and daughter couldn't speak any English, but we still communicated very well through google translate, gestures, music, and good food. 

We stayed with a young girl just out of high school, a retired couple, a gay guy, a wealthy man, a very poor divorcee, and several families.  We lived in a one-room cabin, a dorm room, a farm, a fancy hotel, a private flat, a high-rise apartment with no elevator, many one bedroom flats, and even a sailboat.  We slept on very soft beds, king-size beds, mattresses on the floor, couches that made into beds, tiny love-seat couches, and very hard beds.  We ate so many different kinds of foods, never getting ill even once.  

We are enjoying telling our stories over and over again of Shari getting lost, singing in a Vienna graveyard, finding Edelweiss in the Alps, hiking Meteora in Greece, having a fish pedicure, and so many great adventures.  Thank-you for reading along with us on this blog.  Stay tuned as I write about the last 50 days of our journey.  You will hear stories of Scotland, Ireland, Paris, France, Spain, and finally Portugal.

We are staying in a friend's basement for 3 weeks as we are renting our our home, so we're kind of "couch surfing" in our own city.  We will then head to Baja for the winter.  We are building a home there, too.  Thank-you for being a part of our lives.  We love you all.  Feel free to contact us anytime.   sharichc@yahoo.com

P.S.  Tomorrow we continue to explore Bergen, Norway and then off to Moss, Norway.

                                                                       Take care - Rich & Shari

DAY 151 - Bryggen and North Sea Treats

Aug 17 - So much to see in Bergen

Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway.  History shows that Bergen had many fires, but the greatest fire happened in 1702 when 90 percent of the city was burned to ashes.  In 1916, 300 buildings burned down in the city centre, and in 1955 parts of Bryggen burned down.  In 1349, the Black Death was brought to Norway by the crew of an English ship arriving in Bergen.

 

The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are located on Byfjorden and the city is surrounded by mountains. For this reason, Bergen is known as the city of seven mountains.

"Feed the birds...tuppence a bag."

This guy looks VERY grumpy.  It's Henrik Ibsen

 Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th century Norwegian playwright.  He wrote Peer Gynt and A Doll's House  which became the world's most performed play by the early 20th century.

Born in 1810, Ole Bull was a composer and virtuoso violinist.

Ole Bull helped Edvard Grieg with his career.

One of my favorite composers - Edvard Grieg.

Dramatic masks on the Theater building.

Playing basketball in the rain.  They get used to that as most every day it rains here.

A moment of sunshine to get a photo by the pier.

Love doing the "selfies."

I took this picture to say hi to my niece, Natalie.

 The city of Bergen was founded in 1070. The area of the present Bryggen constitutes the oldest part of the city. Around 1360 a Kontor of the Hanseatic League was established there. As the town developed into an important trading centre, the wharfs were improved. The buildings of Bryggen were gradually taken over by the Hanseatic merchants. The warehouses were filled with goods, particularly fish from northern Norway, and cereal from Europe.

The following pictures are from the area of  Bryggen.  It was very unique, but we didn't get much time to tour around the area.

"You lookin' at me?"

 

Notice the building behind me - a little crooked and quite crazy.

 St Mary's Church is the only remaining of twelve churches and three monasteries built in Bergen between its foundation during the reign of Olav Kyrre (1066–93), traditionally 1070.  St Mary's Church was taken over by the city's large German population in 1408 after which it was popularly called “the German church” By belonging to the wealthy Germans, St Mary's is richly adorned and escaped the fate of being turned into a ruin, unlike several of the other churches in the city.  Not until 1874, long after the German domination in the city had vanished, did it again become an ordinary parish church, even though sermons were held in German until after the First World War.

St. Mary's Church, nearly 1000 years old.

Surprise...surprise - another lion

These trolls are very happy, aren't they?

 The 700 year-old Fish Market is VERY famous.  It was so interesting with all the different kinds of fish and all the ways they cooked them.  We didn't buy anything (very expensive), but it sure smelled and looked great.

The dark meat is whale.

Doesn't the salmon look so good?

An array of yummy fish

Fish paste is a favorite spread on crackers and bread.

North Sea Caviar - eewww!   NOT for me, but everyone else loves it.

OK - this plate is more like it.  I'll take it.

 

These critters are so cute!  How can everyone eat them?

A popular dish - can't remember the name of it....

Fur for sale

Breakfast time -We made puffy pancakes for Tora and kids

We had so much fun with them. 

Memories for a life time - thanks for forgiving me for the egg incident.