Playing at the water fountain in Sandefjord, Norway after just getting off the long ferry ride!
Soon after my parents left Sweden, we got ourselves ready for a big road trip to Norway. This would be the first road trip of this sort that we’ve had with the children. Before the girls, Christopher and I would travel by car and with tent as often as we could. We’ve camped in Pennsylvania, Maine, Utah, and Washington to name a few. We’ve always enjoyed hiking, particularly mountain climbing, and rockclimbing. Linnea definitely seems to love it also. With Nora, it’s a bit early to tell. She was asking to go home around our first day away from home, and pretty much said she wanted to go home just about every day we were gone. On all of the bigger hikes, she got a shoulder ride. But she’ll certainly boulder any good- looking rock she sees.
A moment of self-determination for Nora.
I loved Norway immediately because I missed the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania. Of course, the hills and valleys in Norway are quite a bit steeper, deeper and more dramatic, and have the added feature of fast rushing glacial waters nearly everywhere you look. We actually hiked to a glacier on one of our day trips!
This is about as close to the glacier as we could get, safely, with the girls. Linnea walked this hike entirely herself-about 3 hrs round trip!
The trip was more about the journey and less about a destination. We took several days and snaked our way up to Strind Farm in Lom, an adorable little mountain town quite close to the largest peak in Norway. We stayed in a perfect little log cabin with grass roof. Linnea immediately mades friends with a little boy who was the grandson to the owners of the farm. (http://www.strind-gard.no/index.php?sg=aktiviteter)
After our stay in Lom, we began the long trek back home, stopping each night to camp or stay in a small cabin. The first night we stayed at a spectacular spot outside of Bergen called Skogtun (http://www.skogtun-camping.no/indexENG.html)
The campsite at Skogtun
On Saturday July 17, we pulled into Sandefjord for the last leg of the trip, only to find we had just missed the afternoon ferry to Strömstad and it was completely filled up. We had to wait until the 5 pm ferry, so we enjoyed an American style pizza at a restaurant on the dock and wandered about the town until it was time for us to drive onto the ferry boat. The later ferry meant we got home to Duvelycke during the dark hours of Sunday morning. We woke up in the morning to the realization that our home isn’t so far from the dramatic landscapes of Norway but it’s natural beauty and open wilderness certainly rivals Norway to the extent that we continue to feel we are on vacation at our own home!
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