Tag: Norway
Evening moods
Summer!
At the art gallery
The royal palace – now with christmastree
Look backwards when you row, and you will have a steady course forward!
in the dark.
Climbing through troubled water!
Winter at Kolbu
Autumn leaf
Concave face
The result of terror
The government buildings after the July 22nd bombing in Oslo. All fixtures and fittings are removed. The Government has not yet decided if the buildings will be demolished.
What’s that ugly scarf on your arm?
Teehee – Hello Kitty!
Evening moods of Noway
Harvester
Oats, straw, rowan and two I do not know
Veierland
Quercus
Sorbus aucuparia
Lotus corniculatus
Well
This lovely little island in the southern part of the Oslo fjord used to be home to whalers. As the whaling now is just for scientific purposes, It is only 150 permanent residents left and most of the houses are transferred into summer residence for rich people from nearby cities. Jens Bjørnebo, a famous Norwegian author, resided on the island about a year before he hang himself…
When I walked around the small farms and gardens, I was put back to my childhood and my grandmother’s garden with buzzing bumblebees, currant, blackcurrant and apples. I could almost see my grandmother on the front door stairs with a tray of homemade lemonade. The lemonade went down in big gulps, while a loving hand strokes the fringe away from one’s eyes … Norwegian summer memories!
Captured in a puddle…
National Opera house, Oslo
Preparing for trekking in Bhutan at Dronningberget
To the mountain lodge
The Mountain Lodge
Sad lion
When I woke up this morning I felt that today is the most splendid day to start the preparation for our journey to India and Bhutan in october. This journey will be a combination of trekking at high altitude, and hard core tourist sight seeing.
As I consider my self to be an expert in sight seeing (have at least a master degree),there is no need to prepare for that, not at the moment at least. But I need to improve my trekking abilities. So to get a feeling of how my back will feel like after 5-6 hours trekking at high altitude. I filled my back pack with some heavy books (books from my psychology study ) and my camera gear.
The weather conditions was fine and I met a lot of people, presumably not with the same purpose as me.
Anyhow, in the absence of mountains, I aimed for Dronningberget – “The Queen’s hill”, which had to do as mountain substitute.
This little hill’s forest is created in inspiration of the english parks from the 19th century.
At the foot of the hill there is a bust of Count Wedel Jarlsberg, with the grieving national lion, and at “the summit”, a “mountain lodge”. The path to the “mountain lodge” goes through an old hazel and linden forest. The lodge, which now serve as a café, has been renovated and is now sparkling in its utmost beauty.
Well, for me this was the end of todays hard work out. Still, this was not at all a challenging trek, I admit that I could feel a mild pain after carrying my books on my back for 3 hours. So the little trip, was not in vain…
Slow traveler
Sailing
Pilot house
The pilot and his wife
Light house
Last weekend I was invited to come sailing with some friends and we had the most splendid weekend. The tranquility and the feeling of being in touch with the elements, makes sailing one these activities one cannot get enough of .
I also came across a well hidden secrete, or it is a secret thus one knows about it yet. On one of the islands of Bolærne were we landed, I felt an attraction towards a beautiful old house. The woman whom met us at the door step was warm and welcoming, she served us waffles and we felt at home instantly. She could tell us that the house had been own by a pilot and his wife. Today the house is for rent if one would like to stay a weekend or even a week. So why not get away from a stress at an island in the Oslo-fjord…
Holy places
Religions are important to us, and to some extend it describes your personality or how you want others to perceive you. Generalized, the essence of religions are for us to behave good, and if one do so, his afterlife will be good. In reverence of our gods, we erect buildings or constructions, and make sacrifices. Here are selection of the thousands of holy places I have visited. I tried not to put them into order, as religions now mix together as people move to new countries and settle down. Communism do not recognize any religions, yet people in communist regimes tend to look upon their leaders as they have divine power.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus
Church of assumption Bled
Mevlana, Turkey
Bodnath, Kathmandu Nepal
Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangoon Burma
The Blue Mosque
Santiago de Compostella
Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangoon Burma
Florence
Gate to the Forbidden City, in Beijing. The picture of Mao is considered holy to the communist .
Acropolis, Athens
Heddal Stope church, Norway
Heddal Stope church, Norway
Petra, Jordan
Cremation, Kathmandu
Ermita de San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Northern Spain
Bodnath, Kathmandu Nepal
Bagan
Salt mine Krakow
Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangoon Burma
Bagan
Florence
I’m a little crazy, because I love Italy!!!
NRK (Norway’s major tv channel) was making the comedy show of Rønning and Bye. One of the sketches is about a small group of Italian loving people that never have been to Italy. But simply cannot get enough of the country. They drink Italian wine, with names they cannot pronounce, eat Pizza, not the common cheap one but the exclusive expensive frozen pizza from the local super market. They love opera, but as Pavarotti died they found a replacement in their neighborhood. And that’s where I come in, and act as the opera star. A great honor, I mean they could have had Pavarotti!!!! And for me the combination of opera a travel, couldn’t be better! 😉
50 km on bike around the Bunnefjorden bay, and one get paid with a magnificent view of Oslo!
Snøhetta
It was so beautiful at Dovre today that I had to share a photo of the majestic Snøhetta. A mountain we conquered last summer!
Sensing spring!
Laughter on the quayside
Nobel’s peace centre
Town Hall
Is it a living statue?… No!
After the coldest spring ever, we finally got some warmth. And after visiting a photo exhibition at The Nobel’s peace centre, I wandered around at the square in front of the Town Hall and shot some photos. It was great walking around and feel the warmth and see all the smiling people… spring is here now, at least at mid day. Because early this morning I wanted to try my new racing bike. Unfortunately I didn’t take into consideration that winter still rules at night. Therefor I almost froze off my toes, which were squeezed into tight cycling shoes, and they were not prepared for temperatures around 0. They had to be thawed when I got home, quite painful!
🙂 🙂
Yearning towards summer
Yesterday we had snow! It seems that the spring and eventually summer have other things to do, than give us smooth and warm southerly winds. And in my longing for summer, I ended up looking at pictures of some of our hikes in the mountains…
…before I went out and bought myself a new racing bicycle, now I definitely need warmer weather! 😕
The traveler 