I'm posting this a day late since Blogger was down for maintenance. The top three snaps are of the Stave Church, the 'farm' is well, an old farm building, and the bottom one is obvious. And, in this bottom ship snap: it didn't contain the body/grave of a man but that of a woman. FYI: you can click on the above snaps to 'blow them up' for a better look.
Well, I’m typing this from the train between Oslo and Kristiansand. My brain is on overload. After being in the desert, and then jumping into the fall color change of Norway, well…it’s mind blowing to say the least. The pines are a lovely deep green, and the parks and paths are loaded with oak a maple leaves just begging to be jumped on and crunched. The smell is homey and comfortable after the smells of sand, dust and sandalwood of the middle east. The middle east ‘smells’ good, but it’s not a ‘homey’ smell for us yet.
Yesterday was extraordinary. We took the bus from our hotel out to the Viking Ship Museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum. The Viking Ship Museum was as amazing as I had always dreamt it would be. When we walked in and saw the first ship, it almost brought tears to my eyes. Ever since I was very young, I have dreamt of seeing a ‘real’ Viking ship. Yet another check/tic mark on my life’s to-do list. Until I was up close to the ships, I just didn’t realize how big they are. But, even after seeing how big these ships are/were, it is still amazing to me that the Vikings traveled so far and wide in those open decked vessels. They must have been tough people.
The Norwegian Folk Museum was next. It’s a large park with winding paths and a collection of 155 old buildings. The Stave Church from about 1200 was the best. I’ve seen big stone churches, but the warm look of this old wooden structure was comfortable and yet inspiring. Our next favorite set of buildings was the old water wheel saw mill from the 1700’s. An old rusty saw blade was still sticking up through the floor of the mill. The husband barely touched the old water wheel, and the bearings still worked. All these old buildings were just clustered into groups in the ‘woods,’ and you could peek in them and get really up close with them. It felt like one was touching history. The old farm houses were really fascinating to me because as I looked at these old houses, I could see the roots of the styles of farm houses I’ve seen in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The table in our family’s farm house looks like a brand new version of what we saw in these old buildings – right down to the benches. I knew that the Northern U.S. has been influenced by Scandinavian culture, but I didn’t realize just how much until I came to Norway.
For dinner last night, we were ready for familiar food – plus we were all sick of walking all over Oslo looking for someplace ‘cheap’ (they don’t exist). We ended up at a TGI Fridays and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
As I look out the windows of the train, I’m still amazed by how lush and beautiful it is here. It’s like the lush woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, mixed with the rocky coastline of Oman, mixed with a touch of the Appalachian mountains, mixed with a touch of the Rockies. Truly fabulous. And, I told the munchkins that since Daddy has to work the next few days, we’d try to find some places to go hiking and play some in the woods. The munchkins responded with cheering. Yup, truly fabulous.
Yesterday was extraordinary. We took the bus from our hotel out to the Viking Ship Museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum. The Viking Ship Museum was as amazing as I had always dreamt it would be. When we walked in and saw the first ship, it almost brought tears to my eyes. Ever since I was very young, I have dreamt of seeing a ‘real’ Viking ship. Yet another check/tic mark on my life’s to-do list. Until I was up close to the ships, I just didn’t realize how big they are. But, even after seeing how big these ships are/were, it is still amazing to me that the Vikings traveled so far and wide in those open decked vessels. They must have been tough people.
The Norwegian Folk Museum was next. It’s a large park with winding paths and a collection of 155 old buildings. The Stave Church from about 1200 was the best. I’ve seen big stone churches, but the warm look of this old wooden structure was comfortable and yet inspiring. Our next favorite set of buildings was the old water wheel saw mill from the 1700’s. An old rusty saw blade was still sticking up through the floor of the mill. The husband barely touched the old water wheel, and the bearings still worked. All these old buildings were just clustered into groups in the ‘woods,’ and you could peek in them and get really up close with them. It felt like one was touching history. The old farm houses were really fascinating to me because as I looked at these old houses, I could see the roots of the styles of farm houses I’ve seen in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The table in our family’s farm house looks like a brand new version of what we saw in these old buildings – right down to the benches. I knew that the Northern U.S. has been influenced by Scandinavian culture, but I didn’t realize just how much until I came to Norway.
For dinner last night, we were ready for familiar food – plus we were all sick of walking all over Oslo looking for someplace ‘cheap’ (they don’t exist). We ended up at a TGI Fridays and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
As I look out the windows of the train, I’m still amazed by how lush and beautiful it is here. It’s like the lush woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, mixed with the rocky coastline of Oman, mixed with a touch of the Appalachian mountains, mixed with a touch of the Rockies. Truly fabulous. And, I told the munchkins that since Daddy has to work the next few days, we’d try to find some places to go hiking and play some in the woods. The munchkins responded with cheering. Yup, truly fabulous.
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