Ålesund!

The first evening we were there, we took a walk with the girls. Here Margrethe, Anja and Elise lead the way.

Erik's friend Vegar from Hedmarktoppen (his folk high school in Hamar) lives with his wife, Margrethe and daughter, Elise in Ålesund. It's a great city on the western coast where you travel in and out of tunnels (above and below ground) to get from place to place. The city burned in 1904 (all but one building), so everything was rebuilt in the style of art nouveau. Great vistas, great shopping, but above all, it was a great time for everyone! Thanks again, Vegar and Margrethe!

Here are some of our favorite photos . . .

A view of part of the city from Fjellstua (a great vista!). You can see the boat that this gentleman was on . . . look at the eyes on that fish (deep sea fishing probably).


Erik and Vegar check out the new football stadium from Fjellstua (that's soccer stadium for all of our American readers).

A couple more shots from our walk. Anja's first time on a tire swing.

While there, we also visited the coolest aquarium, Atlanterhavsparken (Atlantic Sea-Park), the which is one of the largest in Europe.

It was fun for everyone to just watch the fish in the viewing room.


Anja with the penguins.


Fun with Papa!

Oslo!

Anja leading the way to the Munch Museum.

After visiting with Brit, Vidar and family in Trysil (thanks for being such wonderful hosts!) for a few days, we headed to Oslo before flying to Ålesund for the weekend. In Oslo, we stayed with Siv and Morten (thanks for everything!) and saw more Nordsveens: Terje, Mariann, Kristoffer and their new baby, Ivan.

A view of Oslo (Holmenkollen is up on the hill--you can see the ski jump) from Akershus Fortress.

A long day for Anja . . . sleeping on Oslo's Karl Johan's Gate.


Kristoffer playing peekaboo with Siv and Anja.


Sharing food and play! (See Erik's first post.) :)

Norway . . . finally!

It's been two weeks, and we've finally recovered from the trip. Since there are many pictures we'd like to post, but Anja is waking up from her nap right now, I'm going to do things in batches.

Take 1: Take-off and arrival in Norway . . . and our first day in Trysil! Enjoy the forthcoming photos!

Erik and Anja just before take-off to Reykjavik. She did pretty well on this flight . . . thank goodness we bought her own seat and brought her car seat! Lifesavers!


Easter Sunday . . . we skied out and had what I would call hot dogs wrapped in lefsa. (Tasted great after the ski!) Anja got to ride the entire way in a Fjellpulken (a really cool sled).

There was an incredible amount of snow . . . we took this photo from the car. We would've been buried in the snow banks no problem!

The next day brought us back out for another ski. This route had lots of hills and great vistas!


Siv, Morten and Morten charting our route. Our view while we skied . . . we could see forever!

We carved out a bench and stopped for hot chocolate, coffee and some Norwegian chocolate. Yum yum!

Siv waves on the way back! We were on a great big hill!


Erik pulled Anja in the pulke again . . . she kept yelling "fun! fun!" when we skied down hills on the way back. If you look closely, you can see her left dimple! Big smiles!


Look closely and you can see buried cabins . . . there was so much snow!

Back Home

An Easter ski trip up in the mountains

It's always a little bittersweet to come home. On the one hand, it's good to be back. On the other, who wouldn't want to stay in Norway! In either case we had a wonderful trip. It was great to see family and friends, meet some new people, and see some new places. We'll be posting a bit more from our trip in the next few days as we get back into the swing of things. I had to at least put a few pictures up today (in part because I don't want to face the reality of having to get back to work!).

Anja made lots of new friends. Here she is swinging with Elise (above) and sharing some snacks with Kristoffer (below).

Here's Anja and Shana on the boat to Aurland.

The Olympic village in Lillehamar is spectacular. This is also the area where the Norwegian Birkebeiner finishes. We tried to find the cross county ski stadium, but ran out of time.

The ruins of the Cathedral Church (1152/53) or Domkirkeodden in Hamar at dusk. We spendt most of our day in Hamar at Hedmarktoppen, but had to stop in for a quick photo before we left.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful trip! Check back often for more pictures in the next couple of days. We haven't even gotten the chance to download all of Shana's photos yet.