From July 27, 2007:
We arrived in Norway on Wednesday after we took the ferry over from
Copenhagen. It was pretty neat to take the ferry. It was like a
huge cruise ship with all the entertainment. We danced until
midnight. The next morning we enjoyed the fjords up to Oslo.
Currently we are in Lillihammer and thoroughly enjoying the scenery!
It is absolutely magnificant! However, how come no one ever told us
there were hills here! (just kidding) We have had ample miles of
straight up. Thank god for physics...what goes up must come down!
The sights are breath taking! Maureen Larson (a friend that moved
here from Decorah) is housing us for a couple of days. We toured
around the Olympic stadium and climbed up to the top of the ski
jumps. Let me tell you, you almost get short of oxygen way up there!
This afternoon we will be biking and hiking the Lillihammer
Birkibeiner trail. It should be pretty exciting and fun to compare it
to the Birkie that Ward and I ski in Telemark\Hayward, WI.
The prices in Norway are even higher than in Denmark but we are
starting to learn the system. We had a hard time finding internet
access so now we have been using the libraries where the internet is
free and once we even bugged the ladies at the Court House. We also
learnt that you can camp anywhere in Norway and Sweden so one night
we asked a very nice gentleman in Roa, Norway to camp in his yard. He
(Hans)said, "no problem" and brought us 2 chairs and a table to eat
on. Thank you Hans. Another day we paid for a shower at a
campground and then found our own spot to camp right along a very
beautiful lake. The sight was truly priceless with the mountains
behind.
From Lillihammer we will be heading to Sweden. Ward has decided to
go above the artic circle once we get to Alaska vs Norway. The
change was dependent on time available to travel to the other
countries before we need to be in France on October 13.
Some people ask, "what do they do all day long?" Well, everything
takes twice as long to do. Every morning we have to make our coffee
and breakfast on our campstove, figure out where we are going to go
that day, and pack up basically our house. Then we need to go to a
grocery store (which means finding it and then trying to make the
currency conversions). After that we are finally off...which doesn't
necessarily mean we know what roads to take. Many times we have to
ask for directions and many times the locals don't know how to read a
map very well or don't know how to tell us to go. We have had times
when we were on bike forbidden roads. Once we're off we take some
picture and food breaks. Now we are in the next overnight town. We
have to find our way to the Centrum and find out where we can camp.
Then its off to another grocery store to get food for the night.
Then its a shower, set up our house, eat and hopefully have time to
journal. Its weird but you really don't have that much extra time.
Rotarians: Ward has tried to make it to 2 Rotary meetings. One was
in Lubeck, Germany and the other was in Gjovik, Norway. He arrived
there both times (on time) but no meeting was held. He will keep
trying.
Goodbye for now. Pictures should be up in a few days. Our webmaster
is on RAGBRAI...good for her.
Jacky and Ward