Mike, Ryan and Norway

Been a busy month already. It started with the arrival of our good friend Mike Kleps. Mike had been in Thailand for a few months before sailing toward the EU. After getting stuck behind some US warships in the Suez Canal and getting sick in Egypt he decided to jump ship and fly to Amsterdam to spend a few days with us.

While in Amsterdam he prepared for a bike trip, borrowed my bike and left for three weeks. More to come on that trip after he gets back in late May.

Days later saw the arrival of my good friend and college roommate, Ryan Keith. Ryan did a tour of France and a brief stop in Brussels before coming to see us in Amsterdam. Ryan has lived in Napa for the last few years and has turned into a bit of a wine connoisseur. In addition to drinking a lot of our wine we ran around Amsterdam and took in a glorious windmill...


After Ryan's departure we made ready for a quick trip of to Norway. We traveled at the crack of dawn on Thursday May 17th and arrived in Oslo around 10am on Norway's National Constitution Day. The streets were packed and we had to cross a massive parade to get to our hotel. The rest of the day we walked all over the city which was crowded with people in traditional Norwegian clothes. Apparently you dress in the clothing that is specific to the city or area you were born in. You are only allowed to wear these outfits if you are less than one generation removed. IE. your grandparents have to have physically lived in the area in question for you to wear the outfit. I'm not sure how they prove this but I bet it results in a lot of arm wrestling.


The following day Kindra and I left on the Royal Fjord tour. The trip takes a day and goes from Oslo to Myrdal by train, from Myrdal to Flam on the Flam Railway, from Flam to Bergen by boat and then from Bergen to Norway by train again. It's a crazy long day and if we'd had more time we would have stayed in one of the smaller cities along the way. The route is outlined on the map below and passes through snow, mountains and the longest Fjord in Norway, the Sognefjord...


Our train returned to Oslo at about 6.30am and after trucking to our hotel we were lucky to get an early check-in and take a nap. The rest of the weekend was spent tooling around Oslo, taking ferries to islands and finding places to spend millions of dollars eating. Oslo is so expensive it is insane.

We checked out the Akershus Fortress, the Vigeland Sculpture Park and the Fram museum which houses the Fram and the Gjoa. Learning about these things was very special for me as I'm pretty sure I'm related to everyone in Norway.


All in all a great longerude weekend and it sucks being back at work. We have friends visiting in early June and are headed to Greece for vacation on June 7th. We are happy to have more lazing about to look forward to.

More Flickr action...LINK TO SWEET NORWAY PHOTOS