For eighteen months Rob had planned and made bookings for what was, for us, to be a really big adventure - seven weeks in Europe. I must say I was not as keen as she was about heading off to visit a whole group of countries with languages I could not speak, notwithstanding that many people had told me it would not be a problem.
Our itinerary would see us travel to Norway, Switzerland, France, Italy then back to France for three days in Paris before a coach trip to The Netherlands to commence a two week cruise to Budapest via the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers and finishing with three days in Prague. This story is all about our time in Norway. Before starting, however, I should give a bit of a background on why we went there.
A few years ago when we were baby-sitting Shady Lane Tourist Park in Katherine while the owners, Phil and Marianne Bates were having a bit of a holiday, we met up with a delightful young couple Christian and Tonjé Warg who were holidaying around Oz, travelling on their motorbikes. Christian’s had broken down and they were waiting for a part to arrive from overseas. They were still there when we left Katherine but in the meantime, we got to know each other reasonably well. A couple of months later, after we had arrived back in Sydney for Christmas, they sent an email asking if we would meet them for lunch in Sydney as Christian’s Mum and Dad, Berit and Rolf, and Tonjé’s Mum, Tøri had come from Norway to spend Christmas with them and they would like us all to meet. We did, and had a great lunch during which we made the promise to the group that if we ever went to Europe we would go to Norway and visit them. We kept our promise.
It was 30 hours after leaving Sydney that we flew over the southern coast of Norway. There had been heavy cloud all the way from Vienna, our entrance port into Europe. However, as we cruised over the coastline, the cloud disappeared and we looked down on a beautiful sundrenched landscape of green and water - water everywhere, our introduction to the fiords of Norway. I must say that after having left a dry and somewhat parched Oz 30 hours earlier, the sight of so much green and water was truly fascinating.
It wasn’t long before we touched down at Oslo airport and it was a slightly nervous pair who made their way off the aircraft and into the terminal. Although we had corresponded with Christian and Tonjé by email a number of times since our Sydney encounter, our face to face friendship had been of relative short duration. Would they be as excited about our visit as we were and would our proposed stay of around five days stretch the friendship too far?
Although Norway is not a part of the European Union, there was no passport control to pass through but as Rob was carrying a bottle of Vegemite that we were taking over to our Swiss daughter, Ursi, she went through a door for those carrying goods to declare. I went through the all clear door and found myself in the terminal public space surrounded by many people but feeling very much alone. Suddenly, I heard a voice that I recognised calling a greeting to me. I turned and saw Christian moving towards me. I set my luggage down to shake his hand but he gave me a big hug whereupon all my concerns just drained away. Rob joined us momentarily and we left for the hour long journey to Christian and Tonjé’s home on the shores of the magnificent Randsfjorden fiord. Along the way, Christian told us that both he and Tonjé had taken a week’s holiday each to show us as much of their country as we could comfortably fit in. We arrived to be warmly greeted by Tonjé, the beautiful new addition to the family, daughter Nina and the lovable family dog, Leo.
The house is situated on about 8 acres of what was previously farmland and has a very long frontage to the fiord. It is of 3 levels and split vertically into two halves, one of which C & T live in and the other they rent to a friend. The bottom level they now use as storage because of the low height of the ceiling - though at one stage they had a tenant there also. He must have been very short.
When C & T bought the place there were also a number of non-paying tenants on the property which caused C & T and their tenant some distress, but considerable trauma to both Nina and Leo. I will talk more about the barn on the property later but for now suffice to say that the freeloaders occupied both the house and barn.
The farm is very old with a long history and some of the previous inhabitants were reluctant to leave it, even though they had long passed away. It needed specialist treatment from a couple of exorcists to convince them to move on. The first person C & T sought help from decided that it was too big a job for her and recommended the couple who subsequently performed the exorcism. After the event the pair provided C & T with information about the farm that they had gleaned during the event. The descendants of the departed, from whom C & T purchased the house, later verified much of what they were told. It transpired that the disturbing, and at times frightening activity, resulted from the fact that the farm had been sold to people outside the family. The day after the freeloaders left, both Nina and Leo slept soundly for twenty-four hours.
Like most houses in Norway, C & T’s is made of wood and painted white. Also, like most farms in Norway, it has a very large barn painted brick red. This is also three levels high and because it is built on a sloped section of land running down to the fiord, it has vehicular access to all three levels. It is pretty spectacular considering the considerable height of each level. There is also a cabin on the land down close to the water but it will remain unoccupied until C & T get around to renovating it. The final structure is a new jetty which has a room on the land end that has been set up as a fully equipped kitchen. After we had settled in and had a bit of a look around, we all headed off down to the water to relax on the jetty drinking freshly brewed coffee. Nina was happy just lying on a rug while Leo entertained us with his energetic swimming, chasing a cormorant that had been cheeky enough to land about 50 metres out from the jetty. Remember, this was late September in Norway, but obviously Leo has no feeling. As a matter of fact, every time we went near the water, he had to go for a swim.
As we lazed around marvelling at the beauty of the place, T & C enthralled us with descriptions of what the area looked like in the dead of winter when the land all around was covered in snow and the fiord iced over. We were also fascinated by the fact that in winter they would sometimes sit on the jetty reading, by natural light, up until one o’clock in the morning and how, at other times, they could sit there for only an hour looking towards the top of the fiord to see the sun rise on the east side and set again on the opposite side. It is a truly special place. That night we had a lovely dinner of fresh baked trout.
After a sound night’s sleep we awoke to a fairly thick fog which C told us is fairly normal in areas near water. We had a typical Norwegian breakfast that comprised cold meats, various cheeses, jams and the most delicious bread that C had baked overnight. He has his own recipe that includes a number of different seeds. How good was that!
After breakfast we drove into Oslo. At one point along the journey, C mentioned that the fog would disappear as soon as we reached the top of the next hill. I was a bit sceptical because it was pretty thick, but sure enough, when we got there we were greeted by a beautiful clear blue sky. On our arrival in Oslo, we met up with Tøri at a marina where Rolf mores his yacht. We boarded the yacht and C took us for an exploratory trip around the fiord. Unfortunately there was not enough wind to sail but it was pretty special just the same, motoring around looking at various sights of the city. We could even see in the distance one of the King’s palaces.
After our boat ride we bade farewell to Tøri and drove to Rolf and Berit’s home for an early dinner. They were magnificent hosts and the dinner prepared by Berit was something special. After dinner we showered, changed into our good clobber and headed off into Oslo central to the city’s very new opera house, a spectacular place reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House in that it is built over the harbour (fiord). It was Berit’s 80th birthday and C & T were celebrating it by taking her and Rolf and Rob and me to the ballet, Sleeping Beauty. Fantastic!
The next day C & T drove us up into the mountains to spend a couple of days in their ski cabin near Hemsedal - “beautiful valley”. This was another spectacular area with the trees resplendent in their autumn coats and framed in the foreground by a lake and in the distance by high peaks bearing patches of everlasting snow. As was the case every day we were in Norway and indeed, nearly every day we were in Europe, the sky was clear and sunny. After lighting a fire, C set about preparing the dinner for the next night, a traditional Norwegian autumn dish of mutton & cabbage – Fårikål, while Rob cooked chicken risotto for tonight’s dinner. As I did whenever I had the chance, I busied myself playing with Nina.
That night at the dinner table I found out how scary a micro-sleep can be. I was dead tired but we were sitting around the table talking after dinner when I started telling a very special story. I’m sure it would have been riveting stuff but half way through it was as if I was talking in tongues - except than no one could understand me. Jetlag, rarefied mountain air, and/or whatever had kicked in, and half way through a sentence I was sound asleep blabbering unintelligently. It only lasted for a few seconds before I suddenly felt myself waking to the site of three very bewildered pairs of eyes staring at me. Scary stuff and very obvious why drowsy drivers die.
Next morning we set off for a tour through the mountains and to have a look at Sognefjord, the largest fiord in Norway. Along the way we stopped at Borgund to have a look at one of the few Stave Churches that has miraculously survived through the ages. It is constructed entirely of wood which has been calculated to have been felled in 1180. The building was constructed shortly thereafter, very fortuitously on stone foundations, which is the reason it survived. None of the wood touches the ground which helps preserve it from rot. It is really awe inspiring, having been built originally as a catholic church in the Middle Ages then becoming Lutheran in the Post Medieval period following the reformation. The building is now owned by the Society of Ancient Monuments though it still stands beside the “new” Lutheran church. While she was in the building, poor little Nina displayed the same signs of anxiety as she did before the exorcism back home so Tonjé had to take her outside. As soon as she did, Nina settled.
Our next port of call was Lærdal at the head of one of the arms of the Sognefjord where we had lunch. At this point, I should mention that I was determined to learn some words from each of the countries we visited. Norway was good because I do remember one word – Norwegian for “speed”. Now I can hop into a lift and ask, “Who just speeded?” or into bed and ask Rob, “Did you just speed? No? Oh well, it must have been me!” I mentioned it here because there is a photo of a speed sign we took at Lærdal in our web album that you can view at http://picasaweb.google.com/rovin.richos. Rob is in the process of going through her photos from the trip and will be uploading them to this site progressively.
Christian is very critical of the road system in Norway and, I have to say, with some justification. We travelled many kms with him and Tonjé and most of the time the speed limit was 80kph. However, one thing the Norwegian authorities do brilliantly is build road tunnels - and one of them starts (or finishes) at Lærdal. At 24.5kms long, it is the world's longest road tunnel and runs between Lærdal and Aurland, beneath mountains that tower up to 1809 meters above it. It was only opened in November 2000 and provides all weather access across (through) the mountain. If you are interested, there is an excellent site that describes the tunnel and gives some details as to how it was built. Have a look at http://www.bergen-guide.com/538.htm.
C & T wanted us to see Aurland and we could have travelled via the tunnel; however, it would not have been nearly as interesting, or pretty, as going over the mountain via the Snow Road that we travelled on. That trip was long, steep and windy but, truly spectacular. We passed little green farms that just clung to the mountainside, trees of red and gold and, near the top, patches of everlasting snow. Every turn brought gasps of awe from both Rob and me, but the highlight awaited us at the other end. There is a fairly new lookout high on a cliff face overlooking Aurland and the Sognefjord. The view is from an ultra modern wooden platform suspended out from the cliff face. It is designed to look like a ski run, and with a glass end, you get a spectacular view even if you have to slither out to the end on your tummy to overcome vertigo that I sometimes suffer from. Fortunately, I didn’t have to this time and the view was truly magic. Rob and I were secretly a little concerned as to how we might make our way down to the bottom; however we did snake our way to the very beautiful Aurland.
Our day’s excursion was a big round trip so we continued on from Aurland along a road that had many other road tunnels, though none nearly as long as the one from Lærdal to Aurland. There were many caravans on the road so at one point Rob and I started raving on about the possibility of returning to Norway some time in the future, buying a van and travelling the country for twelve months or so. Probably a pipe dream, but it did get us excited at the time!!
At some time, Tonjé had mentioned she was learning Reike. That interested me as my sister Pauline, when she was dying from cancer, loved receiving Reike treatment from a nun who befriended her in her last days. I asked T if she would try her emerging powers on me. She agreed so, after dinner that night, she administered the treatment. After it was over, T asked me if I had felt anything but I had to admit that there had been nothing other than a very warm feeling transmitted through her fingers, even through the heavy clothing I was wearing. She was quite certain something had happened but it wasn’t until a couple of days later that I realized that indeed, something had. You see, since I was a kid, I have suffered from tachycardia, a fast and irregular heartbeat. It usually only happens on irregular occasions and, although sometimes uncomfortable, is not life threatening. However for a few weeks up to then, I had been having quite heavy attacks every night, and sometimes during the day. I have to say, they were so regular that I was secretly wondering if I could continue with our trip. However, a couple of days after the Reike, I realised that the attacks had stopped. It took a 30km pushbike ride through an area of German vineyards to bring it back on. I am now a true believer.
The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we headed back to T & C’s home via a very scenic route. We visited a waterfall just outside Hemsedal then it was up to the Hemsedal Ski Resort for a coffee. After that we continued up the mountain past a myriad of ski slopes until we came to the cross country runs at the top. We continued on past several snow huts, a few of which had earth roofs complete with long grass, and eventually descended on the other side of the mountain. It really was a fitting end to a couple of very memorable days.
Anyway, all good things must come to an end. We were very sad to be leaving Norway, particularly when Tonjé gave Rob a big hug and told her how much she would miss her. However, our emotions were mixed. As well as being greatly saddened, we were excited because our next stop would be Switzerland where we would be meeting up with our Swiss daughter, Ursi and her family we had never met.
Christian, Tonjé and Nina took us to the airport but along the way we had a final look around the district. They do live in a truly beautiful and interesting part of the world. The visit to the Sisters Churches, two very old but still operational stone churches that stand side by side in the middle of a graveyard atop a hill, was pretty special. A christening service had just concluded when we arrived and all the attendees, some in national costume, were filing out of one of the churches and being greeted by the lady minister. No one knows why two churches were built but services are alternated between the two. Like the Stave Church, they too were originally Catholic but were taken over by the Lutherans after the Reformation.
We got something of a shock when we got to the airport. When we arrived five days earlier, the place was extremely quiet, but this time it was absolutely crowded. However, after what was, for us, an emotional farewell, Tonjé came into the terminal and got us sorted out. Our trip would see us fly SAS Airlines to Copenhagen where we would change to an Austrian Airlines subsidiary for the final leg to Basel. On one of the legs we were given a meal and a mini bottle of wine. Imagine our surprise to find the wine was Jacobs Creek, from Australia.
We landed in Basel at around 7.30pm and very excitedly made our way into the public area of the terminal. We were apprehensive because we had not seen Ursi for quite a few years and many things could have changed in that time. As we walked through the door, Ursi was the only person there looking at us with tears running down her cheeks. We all embraced and knew immediately that nothing had changed, we were still Mum and Dad and she truly still our Swiss daughter.