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Published: March 11th 2011
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Our Hosts, Annegry & Anders
At their second home in Hvasser - where Anne grew up; met her mom and dad who still live here; Anders grew up nearby; met his mom too - all delightful YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE JOURNAL OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (CLICK ON THE NUMBERS AT THE TOP) IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT. TO RETURN TO THE JOURNAL, JUST CLICK YOUR BACK BUTTON OR ON THE NAME OF THE BLOG ON THE RIGHT OR BOTTOM OF PHOTO - DEPENDS ON YOUR COMPUTER.
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We had wanted to visit Norway for a very long time, so when friends we made in the Netherlands, Annegry, aka Anne, and Anders, returned home to Oslo after living abroad for many years, we jumped at their generous invitation to visit. So, just before returning to
the states after living more than a year in Berlin, we flew to Oslo.
Anne & Anders live a short distance out of the city, in Hvalstad, but as is common in Europe, Norway's public transportation was fast and convenient - we hopped on a train right at the airport, which delivered us to Hvalstad. Anne and four-year-old Herman picked us up and we drove a very short distance to their lovely home.
Anne is a chef by training, so our welcome meal, and all the others she so cheerfully prepared, was scrumptious. Anders arrived from work shortly after we did and we spent a fun evening with a lot of sussing out of our schedule for the week. We decided to spend our time in the immediate area, as opposed to driving or taking the train to Bergen for example, as there is so much to do in and around Oslo.
Anne and Anders both grew up on or near Hvasser Island, south of Oslo. Anne's parents still live there and Anders mom does as well. It is an area they both love, so they rent a second house there, mostly used in summers. Since we
Annegry's Dad, Rolf on his boat
Anne's dad is retired, well, sort of as he is an avid fisherman and shellfish procurer. We had the most delicious and fresh shellfish imaginable courtesy of Rolf arrived on a Friday, the plan was to spend the weekend "on the island."
As you can see from the photos, it wasn't a particularly nice weekend weatherwise. In every other respect, it was fabulous. Anne's dad has a boat and spends his retirement supplying the family with fish and shellfish. We had fresh crab, crayfish and lobster - you can see from the photo
(first photo - above) the size and number we had - amazing, and we couldn't eat them all. Since it continued to rain, we spent only one night on the island. On our way back to Oslo we stopped at Ander's mom's house for a great lamb dinner. She had been expecting us the following night, so we were amazed that with the change of plans, she was able to put together a wonderful roast dinner in so short a time.
We enjoyed Anne's parents and Ander's mom very much. Which brings me to the
topic of languages. As you might have guessed, we were NOT speaking Norwegian to our hosts and their family and friends. Scandinavians are definitely some of the best linguists in the world. They start learning English at a
Bernard & Anders
The weather was not great in Hvasser, so we only stayed one night; had an amazing lamb lunch with Ander's mom; and headed back to Hvalstad, near Oslo to their primary home very young age and most are fluent in it. Granted English is needed in many business dealings, but it isn't just the business people who are proficient - the entire country is!! Like the Netherlands, and opposed to Germany, Norway broadcasts television programs in their original language - if it is a French film or an American sit-com, they subtitle instead of dubbing, which Germany does. This has the advantage of training young Norwegians' ears to many different languages, in addition to the connection they make between the subtitles and the language spoken. It is truly a gift these countries give they citizens, along with early and intensive language classes starting in elementary school.
Herman, who was only four at this time and hadn't started his English lessons yet, found it very frustrating to try to communicate with us. He is such a funny little guy though, that he had us in hysterics with trying to communicate. He would pull faces and act out things, and when we didn't understand, he'd get one of his parents to translate. He did use some English words he knew, but at one point he had Anders explain that since his English wasn't
Map
Click to enlarge. Never found a map detailed enough to have Hvasser or Hvalstad, but Oslo is southeast near border with Sweden, perfect yet, he
temporarily needed an interpreter.
So, back to Hvalstad late Sunday afternoon and our touring of Oslo started early Monday. We could walk to the train station from Anne and Ander's place - lovely walk - and in about 1/2 hour we were in central Oslo. The photos we've included tell the story - Nobel Peace Palace, art museums, parks, the opera house, folk villages, and viking ship museums. We also walked around Oslo exploring different neighborhoods and searching out recommended restaurants. The weather was cool, but we had very little rain. In fact the only day we got really wet was our last, and that wasn't until late in the day. We felt very fortunate.
As luck would have it, the only days available for us to visit the famed
✹Edvard Munch Museum, it was closed! Fortunately the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design has a fabulous collection of Norwegian artists, including one of
The Scream by Munch (he painted several versions) and more of his work. We LOVED this (free!!) museum - small and intimate, but with a first-class collection well laid-out. We listened to commentary on earphones (my favorite way to "absorb"
cultural) and spent an entire morning in pure delight. (See last photo of
✬✬The Girls on the Bridge to get an idea of Munch's other work - he is so associated with
The Scream that people don't realize what a versatile artist he really was.)
✹Edvard Munch 1863 - 1944 was a symbolist painter and an important forerunner of expressionistic art.
✬✬Anne's great aunt is one of the young girls on the bridge.
Norwegian Kroner vs. US Dollar. Norway is by far the
most expensive country we've ever visited. At lunch in the city, albeit at a nice restaurant, I had an open-faced roast beef sandwich (two pieces of thinly sliced roast beef, atop a small piece of brown bread and topped with fresh sprouts) and Bernard had a salad, no wine - only water to drink and it was
$33.00 per person! Anne & Anders realized how strong the kroner was against the dollar, so Anne cooked dinner every night and we made sure to be home on time. And as you might have guessed, Anne's cooking was better than most restaurants, which was an added incentive to be home for dinner.
The day of
Inside Hvasser Light House
Anne took this photo - her back was to the raging weather while we were getting hit full-on with the wind and rain. Anne wondered why she had to coax us forward - we could barely keep our eyes open! our departure dawned clear and beautiful, so Anne drove us to some scenic areas around Hvalstad/Oslo and then up to a ski resort/jump area above Oslo. It was a glorious day, but unfortunately while it was clear and sunny where we were, there were clouds below us obscuring what was a breath-taking view, or so we were told.
From the ski resort Anne drove us straight to the train, which took us directly to the airport. Easy peasy.
It was a wonderful week with delightful people and a fitting end to over a year in Europe - we were headed back to Berlin to pick up our bags and in a few days fly back to Arizona.
In Berlin we had given up our apartment (shipped our belongings to AZ) just before the Norwegian trip and stored a few travel necessities at Bernard's boss, Heike's, complex. We had to rush from the airport to Heike's and then immediately to a farewell dinner the German Red Cross was hosting for Bernard. Whew, a mad dash indeed, but it was a delightful evening.
Don't forget to see all the photos below on this page and then click on Hvasser Light House
A fire was put in the basket at the end of the pole and the keeper had to keep the fire going during bad weather "2" or "next" to see the rest
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carlos
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Cu Cú jeje
Cool picture! jajaj Fantastic! Un beso grande