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:

The Mayers: LIVE in Copenhagen

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. The Mayer's are on a plane back to Toronto after a very exciting and sometimes nail-biting road trip through Scandanavia. Robert will have returned their rental car with approximately 5,000 km travelled. They were warmly greeted by traditional Danish weather: four days of non-stop rain. But that didn't stop us from visiting the famous castles around here.

Some of the highlights: the medieval fishing town of Dragør, Denmark's best ice cream shop, Ismageriet and seeing all the thatched roofs.

Stay tuned for highlights of the biggest highlight: the fjords of Norway!

Full Skies & Smørrebrød

Home Sweet Home. As soon as I got word that the airports were opening up again I took an early morning train to Nice to try to get on stand-by. The gods were smiling on me when an hour before the flight, they issued me a boarding pass. It is really nice to be home. Not to say that my trip was not SUPER FANTASTIC! Southern France is a dream. But when earlier in the week people began to panic about the volcano eruption and lack of mobility around the continent, the mood was quite somber. I was so lucky to be living with the most wonderful host mother who was kind, helpful, comforting and truly a friend. She took me in as her own. She drove me to magical places like Eze and St. Paul to keep my mind off the situation. She spoiled me rotten with her fabulous cooking (crepes, calamari, etc.) and taught me so much about her relaxed approach to life.

Highlights? Being by the ocean, hearing the signing accent of souther french people saying "Au revoir" and living out my dream of studying French in France.

Cannes and Nice are wonderful cities full of life, culture and beauty. But the true gems are the little towns that are scattered on the site of mountains. St. Paul is an artists paradise. Dozens of art galleries filled with the most amazing work - all very accessible to us common people.

Eze is a medieval town on the peak of a mountain. The views from up top are incredible!

On the flight home yesterday I noticed a heck of a lot of air traffic. It seems that the airlines are working double time to get everyone home as quickly as possible. My hats are off to all the ground people working double time to get stranded passengers on flights - the ladies I dealt with at the airport in Nice were working as a team, keeping long lists of people and working creatively to find a solution for everyone. All while providing service with a smile.

On the lunch menu today: smørrebrød and danish pastries. Being in Denmark never felt so good.

Trains, planes & automobiles...

Another week in Antibes! Never in my life have I been around such displacement. It's crazy to hear how many people are stranded. Spend the afternoon running around getting things sorted for myself. The French trains are starting to run (thank goodness!) so I now have a back up plan to get home by the weekend if the airports are not open yet. I have no choice but to sign up for another week of class to stay busy and profiter un petit peu.

Will try to get some more pics up later in the week.

Pray for strong winds to get these ashes to go away!!!

What a view!

Just some snippets of my first few days here... I called Chris yesterday to confirm my return to this beautiful part of France. Sooner rather than later! Aside from the challenging never ending strikes of train personnel and the lack of 'accueil' of the tourism office (when you walk in they look at you like you are disturbing their well being!) This place is magnificent. Yesterday, I went to Cannes - the energy that city brews is incredible. It may be by the large amount of wealth and wanna-be's that frequent the area but it still did not deter me from loving it. Ici on trouve vraiment la joie de vivre!

La belle ville d'Antibes

It is now my fourth day in France and the French is flowing. They say you loose 20% of the language for each year that you don't use it... that means that since I graduated in 2002 my french technically should have disappeared! Glad to report it has not. Antibes is spectacular... the views of the ocean are amazing, the old city centre full of history, the Picasso museum outstanding and it goes on and on. Funny to notice the differences between Denmark and the south of France. For example, it is next to impossible to ride a bike in Antibes, cars drive way too fast for my comfort and the sidewalks are about two feet wide.... they also stop suddenly. I rented a bike for a few days but basically carried it around with me all day so it proved to be quite inefficient... à pied it will be.

Stay tunned for photos to come...

APRIL 8th - not today's date, but Chris' Birthday!!!

We had a very relaxing and long Easter weekend. Almost a little too long... everything was closed for many days but we managed to keep entertained with the simple things... nice bike rides, cooking nice meals, having the company of new friends. I think we clocked at least 8 hours of cooking time one day... that's a lot of time in our cozy little kitchen. Chris wanted to make his own easter chocolates this year, like in true Danish fashion:

The weather is now beginning to change... although we get teased when the sun is out because it is comfortable & warm but as soon as the sun sets it feels like winter again. I have also decided to retire my monthly train pass in hopes for getting in shape for the summer. It's only a 10 km bike ride into the city... EACH WAY! And it's only been a few days since I started this little test and I am utterly wiped out after all the exercise.

We celebrated Chris' birthday yesterday by doing what he does best... drinking beer! Before hand we went to a really cozy café where they serve a traditional Nordisk brunch. Had some nice Icelandic cuisine and enjoyed sitting in a bastion from the 1700's.