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Postcards From the Ridge
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Showing posts with label September 12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label September 12. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friday, September 12, 2008
Traveling to Trondheim
I’m trying not to feel too guilty about the fact I skipped school today. I just had an incredible amount of work to do to get ready for our big road trip north, that I couldn’t see the logic in leaving the house this morning. I’m sure everyone in class “got on” fine without me and I’m so thankful I had extra time to pack up the van (our sweet liberation vehicle.) Kaleb was the only one out the door early this morning. The rest of us had a leisurely cup of coffee, cleaned up messes, packed our things and ate real American pancakes for breakfast. I also made the Norwegian Svela pancakes to take with us, as that is standard “road food” around here, so it will be lunch tomorrow. We were so efficient working together that we had an hour to spare before Kaleb was off from school so we took Willy and Nancy down to our closest sandy beach park and they walked around and took a few more dozen photos. Everywhere is so picturesque that Nancy said, “It’s like a smorgasbord for the eyes.” And Willy is trying to understand why the whole world doesn’t live here because it’s just so darn gorgeous. They haven’t yet grasped just how much God is smiling on them this week with the sunshine we’ve had everyday – which is certainly NOT the norm for Norway. (My Norsk teacher told me the umbrella is the national costume for Aalesund.)
We picked Kaleb up from school right at 1pm and headed out of town on E39 (a major highway by Norwegian standards) all the way to Trondheim, which only included two ferries, two toll roads, a few bridges and at least a dozen tunnels (some more than a mile long.) It took almost seven hours to get here but we stopped a few times along the way to have snacks and/or take photos. (The above photo is Willy and Kory talking during one of our snack stops.) One spot we stopped had a ceremonial rock monument that was set in place prior to the year 800AD – a meeting spot where one of the early Vikings met with the local farmers to have them unite under one kingdom. As the bird flies, Trondheim isn’t that far from Aalesund, but when you factor in the road is one lane in spots and we needed to back up a ways when a large truck was heading right at us, and that there were few passing lanes, but farm machinery and big trucks ahead of us, we made good time traveling an average of 40-45 miles an hour. Willy was in awe of the journey as he just loved all the remote farms with barns and houses up on the hillside overlooking the fjords. He started dreaming of owning a farm in Norway someday… but I’m thinking if Nancy can just talk him into painting his own barn at home the same shade of red as the barns here, they might feel close to having that Norsk farm feeling without the expense.
Kory, brave soldier that he is, drove the entire way -- although Willy might disagree – he swore I was doing the driving. Kory got a lot of “input” regarding his style (too fast, too close to the edge, too dangerous of a spot for passing…) but overall his heart held up fine during all the sudden shouts of terror coming from the back seat. (Nancy and I were the ones in danger of having a heart attack at times, however.) Kaleb just sat and read a book the entire trip. I had restricted him from re-reading Harry Potter this weekend because he wouldn’t put the book down and get ready for bed last night, so this morning he said he wanted to bring an “equivalent” amount of reading in other books. I suggested he just look at the number of pages in the Harry Potter book and find books that equaled the same pages. He said to me, “No, I don’t go by pages, I go by weight – where is a scale?” And he then proceeded to weigh his Harry Potter book and then find enough books to equal it – which he brought along for the trip. (That kid cracks me up sometimes.)
After we landed at our hotel, we went out for a late dinner in the core of the city at a (coincidentally) American restaurant. Willy and Nancy were so happy to eat pizza but Kory was a bit sad there was nothing Norsk on the menu. Everyone got their fill and they are all now sound asleep, but I’m so excited our hotel has internet access that I’m sure I’ll be up all night.
We picked Kaleb up from school right at 1pm and headed out of town on E39 (a major highway by Norwegian standards) all the way to Trondheim, which only included two ferries, two toll roads, a few bridges and at least a dozen tunnels (some more than a mile long.) It took almost seven hours to get here but we stopped a few times along the way to have snacks and/or take photos. (The above photo is Willy and Kory talking during one of our snack stops.) One spot we stopped had a ceremonial rock monument that was set in place prior to the year 800AD – a meeting spot where one of the early Vikings met with the local farmers to have them unite under one kingdom. As the bird flies, Trondheim isn’t that far from Aalesund, but when you factor in the road is one lane in spots and we needed to back up a ways when a large truck was heading right at us, and that there were few passing lanes, but farm machinery and big trucks ahead of us, we made good time traveling an average of 40-45 miles an hour. Willy was in awe of the journey as he just loved all the remote farms with barns and houses up on the hillside overlooking the fjords. He started dreaming of owning a farm in Norway someday… but I’m thinking if Nancy can just talk him into painting his own barn at home the same shade of red as the barns here, they might feel close to having that Norsk farm feeling without the expense.
Kory, brave soldier that he is, drove the entire way -- although Willy might disagree – he swore I was doing the driving. Kory got a lot of “input” regarding his style (too fast, too close to the edge, too dangerous of a spot for passing…) but overall his heart held up fine during all the sudden shouts of terror coming from the back seat. (Nancy and I were the ones in danger of having a heart attack at times, however.) Kaleb just sat and read a book the entire trip. I had restricted him from re-reading Harry Potter this weekend because he wouldn’t put the book down and get ready for bed last night, so this morning he said he wanted to bring an “equivalent” amount of reading in other books. I suggested he just look at the number of pages in the Harry Potter book and find books that equaled the same pages. He said to me, “No, I don’t go by pages, I go by weight – where is a scale?” And he then proceeded to weigh his Harry Potter book and then find enough books to equal it – which he brought along for the trip. (That kid cracks me up sometimes.)
After we landed at our hotel, we went out for a late dinner in the core of the city at a (coincidentally) American restaurant. Willy and Nancy were so happy to eat pizza but Kory was a bit sad there was nothing Norsk on the menu. Everyone got their fill and they are all now sound asleep, but I’m so excited our hotel has internet access that I’m sure I’ll be up all night.
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