Grown Up

 

I've recently realized that I have been blogging for 17 years this month, which seems absurd!  Blogging went out of fashion many years ago, Substack seems to have taken over, but I keep coming back to this space because I love looking back through our blog books (ya'll they are so old that some of the bindings have come undone!).  I stopped thinking about blog numbers (or type of content) a long time ago, and am always pleasantly surprised when someone leaves a comment because I assume it's just my family reading!  As I find myself wanting to be in the social media world less and less, this is the space that still feels good and brings me joy.  But all that aside, what really blows my mind is the way this blog has seen our children grow up!  I looked back through the beginning and this is the very first picture I ever shared of the children together!  How crazy is that?

Bergen

 

Bergen was our last stop in Norway.  It's the second largest city in Norway and was the capital at one time (apparently some feel like it still should be!).  It was much bigger than I realized it would be and very busy (those cruise ships!) but also very interesting and full of history.  

Our first evening there, we visited the fish market and wandered around to get a feel for the place.

The next morning, three out of four of us decided to do a walking tour.  The tour focused mainly on Bryggen, a Unesco World Heritage site, and was fairly fascinating to learn about this wharf, trade and the politics of those that lived here.  

The ancient wooden buildings, which have burned down repeatedly, are just built on top of the old rubble with just the sea underneath!   

After our tour, we stopped and got our last hotdog!  It was reindeer with lingonberry sauce and it was delicious!

Later in the day, while taking refuge from a storm (the first rain since our first day!) Grace took us to a bar that was also a vinyl store.  It was fun because Bryce and I never would have wandered in here on our own and was clearly a local hangout.  

After dinner, we headed to the Floibanen funicular to go to the top of Mount Ulriken.  At the top, there is a great view of the city and loads of trails.  We took a hike (maybe more of a walk) around the top and it was lovely!

And... that's a wrap on our Norway trip.  We would absolutely go back, it feels as if we barely scratched the surface!  It was an amazing trip, maybe one of our best.  I think we all agreed we would like to do more hiking next time (so much of the big, scenic hikes are day long hikes!) and now feel like we've seen enough city in Norway that we would just focus on the more rugged areas.  It felt a little overwhelming at times, the planning of this trip, but it was well worth the effort and I learned a lot (traveling with adult children is very different travel!).  This trip was planned with the idea that we simply don't know when we will be able to take another big vacation together as Grace seeks a full time job and school/internships take priority for Harris.  We travel well together and while I don't know when the next trip all together will be, I'm already looking forward to it.

Loen

After our time in Alesund we headed to the small village of Loen which is located within the Nordfjord region.  Here we took the Skylift, one of the steepest cable cars in the world, to the top of Mt. Hoven.  At the top, the view is not only of the fjord but Lake Lovatnet and the valley in between.

I definitely balked at the price for the four of us to take the skylift up and back but, in the end, I wouldn't have wanted to miss the view.  Even though it wasn't a crystal clear day it was still stunningly beautiful.

Afterwards, we checked into Hotel Alexandra, which while lovely seemed humorously stuck with the 70's/80's upscale family lodge vibe!  Grace and Harris were delighted by the whole thing.  Of course, we went down to sauna and jump in the fjord. 

That evening, we went for a walk through the village and to visit the Loen Church.  One of the crosses in front of the church is over a thousand years old!  There are also two stone pillars memorializing the lives lost when part of the mountain slid off causing a massive wave that killed 135 villagers.

One of the things that Harris really wanted to do while in Norway was to kayak and I had planned on doing that while in Loen.  However, to my surprise when I went to rent the kayaks I was told that in Norway if you don't have a "license" to kayak on the open sea you have to have a guide and there was no availability.  I was so disappointed!  However, the guide kindly shared that there was a camping hut by the lake that would rent kayaks and that the view was "actually much prettier."  So we got up early and headed to the lake hoping to find this hut (there was zero information online about it!).  We did and we had a spectacular morning on the glacier lake all by ourselves.  The pictures don't even come close to doing it justice.  The experience was literally awesome.

Of course the kids had to get out!

The maneuvering it took to get this selfie was monumental and I remain extremely impressed that we managed it!  Ha!

We ended up having such a wonderful time on the lake that we had to give up the train ride I had planned for us.  I couldn't even get too worked up about that because the experience of being on this incredible lake, by ourselves, on a beautiful morning, was well worth the trade off for a more touristy type of activity.  It was a wonderful way to end the more nature focused part of the trip as from here we headed to our last stop, the coastal city of Bergen.

Alesund, Noway

From Storfjord we made the quick journey to the coastal town of Alesund for two nights.  Alesund burned down to the ground in 1904 and was rebuilt in the style of Art Nouveau.  The buildings, and their relationship to the water, was really interesting to see so we did a decent amount of wandering around while here.  

We arrived early in the afternoon and since it was a Saturday, Grace and I immediately headed to an antique store she had read about (it was going to be closed Sunday).  I always find it interesting to see antiques in other countries and Grace even sound something to bring home as a souvenir!  

In the afternoon, we had a really fun time partaking in the hotel's tubs, sauna and sea jumping!  The bubbles were huge and the wind was blowing them all around!  While I would have some notes for the set up of the tubs, it was a really fun and funny experience!  Turns out Harris loves a sauna!

The next day, we signed up for a Sea Safari!  It was a fun way to get out on the water and see some of the islands surrounding Alesund, as well as to see some seabirds (puffins included).  It was a speed boat and was a very bumpy, and thrilling, ride so I have very few pictures.

In the afternoon, we made our way to Aksla viewpoint.  Here you start at Byparken and climb the 418 to the viewpoint where you are rewarded with a stellar view of the city.  

I loved the flowers in the grass!

At this point, the children were sort of tired of exploring, and Grace had some work to do, so they peeled off and Bryce and I wandered around for a bit longer.  We went to find "the church" and I loved the scalloped roof tiles (or were they fish scales?).  We also walked past the old wooden fisheries.  I'm so amazed that these wooden buildings last next to the harsh conditions of the sea.

The next morning we knew we wanted to get up and head out but Grace and I were determined to make a stop at the Devold factory store.  Devold knitwear has been made in Noway since 1853 and the original factory (now their offices and a factory store) are a ferry ride away from Alesund.  Our hotel told us that the ferry ran every 15 minutes so we made sure to be there right when the store would open.  However, the hotel was wrong and only after we were well on our way did we discover that after the next pick up the ferry stopped for several hours.  Therefore, we literally had 30 minutes to run to the store (a 8 minute walk), shop and then run back (again 8 minutes!).  It was the fastest shopping trip ever!  Fortunately, we made the ferry and were soon on our way to lovely Loen.