Norway in a Nutshell

Friday morning we got up early and headed to the train station to start our "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. Public transport can be a bit tricky when you aren't familiar with the area. Luckily we were able to get to where we needed to be when we needed to be in plenty of time. But as a recall, there were a few stressful moments and some major power walking involved. But once we got on the train we were pretty much sitting ducks for the rest of the day - enjoying the view of course! :) These two days were the highlight of our trip. Really the whole reason for our trip to Scandinavia. We wanted to be able to see the fjords and we did and it was fabulous! Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the other places we were able to visit as well, but this part was our favorite. So, be prepared for a ton of pictures...

The tour started out with a train ride. We must have been busy with the girls or we just weren't to the scenic part yet, because we don't have any pictures of that particular train ride. But after the train ride we took a bus, which took us to a ferry. The bus ride was definitely scenic, but difficult to get good pictures because of the windows. We did have to make one stop (thank heavens for a fellow tourist to have to utilize the toilet!) and it happened to be at a waterfall:

I was surprised on the buses in Norway and Sweden. Most of them had special seats that would fold forward at an angle and provide for a rear-facing car seat:

Going down this windy road in a bus made me a bit nervous. Especially because at each curve everyone would stand up and go to the other side of the bus to take pictures. Hello, was anybody worried about the bus tipping? I guess not and we did survive! :)

Definitely a nice view:
At the bottom of that curvy road the bus dropped us off and we got on our ferry ride through the fjords. Here we are at the ferry dock:
The view as we ferried away:
Enjoying a snack and some snuggles:
Pictures during our ferry ride:
Perfect time of year to spot lots of waterfalls:

We got off the ferry in Flam and had a short bus ride to Aurland, where we stayed in a waterfront cabin for one evening. And they weren't joking about it being a waterfront cabin (view from our kitchen window):

Ours was the first cabin:
We enjoyed some naps and relaxation that Friday afternoon. The girls also really enjoyed playing in the loft. Rachel also did a wonderful job sleeping up in the loft all by herself. We were wondering how it would all go. She was quite disappointed the next day when we left the cabin. The girls having fun:Pictures taken after dinner right out in front of our cabin:

Rachel loved the "balance beam" and I thought it was the perfect height! :)

As we were waiting for the bus the next morning we grabbed a cute picture of the girls:

Once we got back to Flam we had some time to kill before we got on the train, so the girls played at a park for awhile...

Rachel fell in love with this tire swing:

We also visited some souvenir shops and a train museum:

A picture of the girls and I outside the "real" train that we rode:

Audrey munching on an apple on the train ride. We are definitely a fan of train rides! It's much easier to keep the girls happy and entertained on a train. Cars and airplanes have quite a few limitations, but you can pretty much do anything on a train (you'll see some fun pictures below).

Lots of beautiful views. Can you imagine living in such a place???

We had a short stop at the Kjosfossen Waterfall. Audrey was fast asleep on me, so I enjoyed the waterfall from the inside of the train. Andy and Rachel got out and stretched their legs for a few minutes...

At Myrdal we did a train change. Our final train took us all the way back to Bergen.

During train ride from Myrdal to Bergen the girls had fun being goof balls and we had fun with them:

Up in the luggage shelf:
A few more pictures as we got back down to the valleys:

We enjoyed our Norway in a Nutshell tour. You can do it in one day - close to a 1o-hour day, but we were glad we split it up. It was nice to be able to enjoy and have a stop along the way in the fjords. We enjoyed our one-night stay in Aurland. It would have been fun to have had a few more nights there just to relax. But such is life! Sunday, May 23rd, we headed back to the airport to fly to Stockholm, Sweden.

Bergen

We had a fairly early flight to Bergen, Norway on Thursday, May 20th. So, by lunchtime we were checked into our hotel and ready to go explore. Our hotel was in a great location. We were able to walk from our hotel to anywhere we wanted to go. Our first stop was these charming old warehouse buildings:

If you do a google search on Bergen, you most likely will see the buildings pictured above. Definitely the most charming place in Bergen. There are sidewalk cafes and lots of shops to enjoy. Here's a peak down one of the alleys:

From there we walked to the Fish Market. It was definitely more than a just a "fish" market. There were souvenirs, fruits, and flowers to buy, but it was still rather small. We were a bit unimpressed. The market in good, old Amstelveen on Fridays is at least 5 times the size. Anyhow, I enjoyed some fish 'n chips and yummy cherries while the less adventurous members of my family had hot dogs. :) Audrey chilling at the Fish Market:

We decided to take advantage of the sunny day, because Bergen is known as the Seattle of Europe, and take the Floibanen Funicular up the mountain to enjoy some views of Bergen. Once we got up to the top the girls enjoyed playing at the playground:

We enjoyed the views of Bergen while Audrey enjoyed climbing up and down the steps:
Photography courtesy of Rachel (I was too busy chasing after Audrey):

We then went on a walk through nature. They had lots of paths to follow and we found a small lake that we took a stroll around while Audrey napped. It was such a beautiful day!

The rest of the evening we just wandered around Bergen, did some grocery shopping, and just enjoyed. The next 2 days were spent on a tour called "Norway in a Nutshell", exploring the fjords of Norway. Once we were back in Bergen late Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a bit more exploring. So, here are a few more pictures of us in Bergen:

Once we got back to Bergen on Saturday and saw what the weather was like, we were definitely glad we did the funicular on Thursday...

We took a ton of pictures on our Norway in a Nutshell tour, so that is going to be a separate post...

Oslo

Our last European holiday was spent in Scandinavia. We're glad we were able to make it up to Scandinavia. This holiday was definitely an enjoyable, relaxing one. We had plenty of time to see and do what we were interested in. It was nice to actually have a bit of a vacation while on holiday. Novel idea, huh? We flew to Oslo on May 18th and arrived right around dinnertime. We spent 2 nights and one full day in Oslo, Norway.

We stayed busy on our one and only day in Oslo. Once we got ourselves put together and out the door of the hotel we grabbed a ferry and enjoyed exploring a nearby island called Hovedoya. We had plans to go to another island, but for some reason (sorry, our Norwegian isn't strong) the ferry to that island wasn't running. We enjoyed Hovedoya though. Here's Audrey waiting in line for the ferry:

We enjoyed walking around the island. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We came upon a little beach area. Audrey was fast asleep by then...

But Rachel enjoyed playing in the water...

And Audrey didn't stay asleep that long:

After our short visit to Hovedoya we took the ferry back to the mainland, found a grocery store to pick up some lunch items, and headed to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. Doesn't Audrey look thrilled???

Our pictures don't do the sculpture park justice. It really was a neat park to explore. Rachel thought this particular statue was hilarious:

Everyone using their shades on a sunny, beautiful day:

Rachel, our little photographer, taking charge:

She's such a good little poser! Believe me, we tried to get some pictures of Audrey, but she wasn't exactly cooperative. So, here's a few of Rachel...

After checking out the sculptures we headed to the playground and the girls enjoyed some fun! We then took another ferry and visited the Kon-Tiki Museum. We could have worn ourselves out from museums in Oslo, as usual. So, we deiced to chose one that was the most interesting to us. After taking a ferry to where the museum was, we found that several other museums were right in the same area. So, we grabbed a picture in front of a ship that was on display outdoors:

We enjoyed our visit to the Kon-Tiki Museum. Definitely put together well and well-worth our time. Quite an interesting story. The Kon-Tiki is actually a raft that was used be a Norwegian in 1947 to go from South America to the Polynesian islands. Andy and I had never heard of Thor Heyerdahl, so we enjoyed checking the museum out.

Audrey cooperated for this shot:

After the museum we chilled on a bench by the ocean. We enjoyed the view and the girls enjoyed roaming around on the grass...

On the ferry headed back to the mainland for some dinner:

We then walked around Oslo a bit more, grabbed a horrible dinner (won't be eating at a T.G.I.Fridays anytime soon - our fault for trying something American), and did some shopping. We enjoyed our day exploring Oslo. The next morning we had a flight to Bergen. More to come...

Do y'all need a ride?

Andy and I had a good laugh yesterday afternoon.  We headed out around noon to check out mobile phones.  The AT&T store was right by our hotel.  After checking out AT&T we decided to just walk across the street (Highway 6, so kind of a major street) to the Verizon store.  After visiting the Verizon store we were making our way back across the street.  Some cars don't exactly know how to yield to pedestrians...  So, we were waiting for some cars to go by when one finally stopped for us so we could cross at the crosswalk.  Well, he honked to get our attention, rolled down his window, and quite seriously asked us: "Do y'all need a ride?  Is everything okay?"

Obviously we were just fine, but a bit out of the norm.  You don't see people walking around here much.  We've actually walked quite a bit the past 2 weeks.  Our hotel is at a good location with lots of restaurants and the mall nearby.  To me it's easier to walk 5-10 minutes than to get the girls all loaded in and out of the car several times.  I guess we've gotten into the habit of walking places.  I'm hoping we keep up the habit.  It's funny how perspectives and things change.  I used to always drive to and from the neighborhood pool with Rachel.  Now I think we're actually going to walk to the neighborhood pool.  

I guess we still have quite a bit of Amsterdam in us, which is a good thing.  Some habits we will keep and others we are glad to say farewell to.  We have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience different cultures. Each and every one has their own pros and cons.  Hopefully we'll be able to integrate some of the pros that we experienced over in Europe to our American life...   

Quick Update

We are plugging along in Texas. We've only been back 10 days, but it already feels like we have been gone from Holland for a long time. We are making progress on our to-do list. Andy and I aren't great decision makers, so it's been a pretty intense couple of weeks. Our house is pretty much painted, carpet should be laid on Monday, we've purchased one vehicle, mattresses are being shipped, and we've done numerous Target trips. We still have mobile phones, home cable/internet/phone packages, a TV purchase, and one more vehicle purchase to figure out. I know there's more I'm forgetting, but my brain is on overload.

Hopefully by the end of next week we will be somewhat settled into our house. Our storage items will be unpacked next Tuesday and Wednesday. Our shipment has arrived in the Port of Houston and is going through customs. Hopefully it will be a quick process! We have enjoyed eating out anywhere and everywhere. You name it, we've probably eaten it. Definitely enjoying Tex-Mex and free refills! :) It will be nice to be done with the hotel and eating out (it does get old after awhile).

The girls are doing quite well. It only took 2 nights to get over their jet lag, so that was nice. They are enjoying going to the pool. Audrey has no fear and will usually go down the water slide without any assistance. We are definitely enjoying the local kid pool. Rachel loves that she can walk through the whole thing. Rachel starts swimming lessons on Monday - it should be interesting! And the girls both have doctor check-ups on Monday. We'll see what the American ped thinks of our tiny Audrey.

Andy headed back to work on Monday. Although with everything else he's been doing, I don't know how much work he has done! :) Unfortunately we (or more likely Andy) have our work cut out for us in the yard. Our tenants ruined our grass. We may have to postpone any major work until cooler temperatures. We'll see what works out.... I've officially joined a new club - the minivan mom club. We ended up with an Odyssey and I love it. I'm still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles. The last car we owned only had a tape deck. So, it'll take awhile...

Well, the girls are getting anxious to get out of this hotel room and get some wiggles out. Until next time...