The long days of summer!

By 4:30 in the morning the sun has been brightly shinning. So by 10:00 it feels like lunch time. Dinner is at 17:00, so what do I call my fourth meal at 21:00?? Today is the longest day of the year and so the sun will shine until at least 21:55. Day light remains until much later than that so days are long, efficient and it is very easy to get through my daily to-do-list! We have really been enjoying the Danish summer, especially sitting out back. Chris has been really lucky in that some of the world's best beers are sold here at Øl Butikken, a beer specialty store. Can you see how happy he is??

Being summer, it's also the time of year when every road seems to be under construction. The bike paths are under repair, the train rails are being re-done and some of the roads are right out closed for repaving. My commute has evolved into a combination of bike, bus and train. Teaching has been keeping me busy and working at the airport has been keeping me entertained. I love the chaos of people coming and going and my job is to help keep the chaos at a minimum!

The other day we went to watch the ballet in the park - it was really cute to see all the families with their picnic blankets and bottles of wine. Surprising to us, several ballerinas came from the National Ballet of Canada!

The Hills are Alive!

The title of this blog is dedicated to you Christine. As I know you haven't had enough of the theme :-)

I continue to share the tales of the lands of Norway. We saw so many beautiful sights but there is one in particular that I will remember always, which is the town of Vik. After about 22 hours of driving we reached were close to the location of the last ferry - the one that would take us to the cabin that we would call home for a few days. As we descended from a long mountain overpass that the guide book called bleak and improbable, we approached the magical town of Vik. It was everything you think of when you picture the northern fjords of Norway. Take a look:

This church you see in the distance is almost a thousand years old. One of the few remaining stave churches in Norway.

I think the fog helped set the scene for the mystical almost eery feeling. Once we crossed over to the north side of the fjord, we reached our cabin and were really glad to have survived all the tunnels, bridges and ferries. Thank you Robert for driving so carefully and getting us there in one piece!!!

Check out the view from our cabin:

Another one of the many highlights was the hike we did in the nearby town of Balestrand.

I was full of joy when as I was quietly hiking up the side of the mountain (not an easy feat!) hummingalong to the sounds of my all time favorite movie: The Sound of Music!!

With these views, how could one resist rejoicing about the hills!!

Bergen: How proud are they?

During the trip north, we spent a night in beautiful Bergen. It's not the capital of Norway but it might as well be since it seems to have all the history! On our morning there we woke up at 7:00 am to a very nice surprise of canons and marching bands. We couldn't believe our eyes, everyone in the town was out strutting their stuff and celebrating National Day in their traditional costumes. You could tell who was a visitor in the town since those dressed in modern clothing were the minority. I've also never been around so many tall people!

Infrastructure

During the Mayer's visit, the long days of rain did not stop us from trekking up to Norway. We also challenged Robert’s driving endurance when after two hours into our road trip Chris and I realized we forgot our passports at home so we had to turn back. Double the bridge tolls and double the gas later, we made it on time for the ferry that takes you across the North Sea to the southern tip on Norway. The ferry was incredibly fast, and flew like an airplane just over the water. We took the time to relax and re-charge after a very long driving day.

Pics below, entrance to the ferry, us sitting on the ferry, and the airplane-like seats on the ferry.

This was the first ferry but not the last, I lost track after the 5th ferry that we took to get to our final destination of Balestrand. We became experts at loading in and out of the ferries. For most we arrived with only a minute to spare, once a girl in the ticket kiosk just stuck her head right out and waived us in yelling "Just pay on board!" That was not the last close call. I can't imagine living in the south west of Norway. You really have to have all the timing right in order for it not to take 5 hours to drive 200 kms. This is the biggest challenge in Norway, it's not the distance, it's the logistics!

It's not only about the ferries. There are countless bridges, which on a windy day will make even the most confident drivers nervous, and there are tunnels. Oh joy! The tunnels are not for the claustrophobic because they can be many kilometers long. Thank goodness we were able to avoid the longest one (30 km) but we did travel through dozens of tunnels that were anywhere from 2 to 11 km in length.

The other threat of travelling Norway are their roads. Why didn't anyone warn us?? No wonder most towns in Norway are dry towns. Yes, that's right, no booze. How else can they control people on their crazy single lane roads made for two way traffic?? See for yourself: