Hi blog readers! We've had a exciting past few weeks with our "American Turistas" to use the words of my father! We had such a great time with pops and Trisha and did a good job of seeing a lot of Norway and Sweden and sharing a little bit of our London life!
Just to give you the gist of their trip, they arrived during the week and we left for a 9 day trip to Scandinavia and spent time in Bergen, Voss, Flam and Oslo in Norway and then finished up with a 2 day tour of Stockholm, Sweden. It took a lot of coordination and planning (thanks pops!!) and it was just a wonderful and relaxing trip! It was the first time that Trisha, Chad and I had been to either country. My dad had been to Norway quite a few years ago when he was at the Naval Academy and spent a summer on a Norwegian torpedo boat in an exchange program - so it was fun for him to see things again!
So I'll explain some of the best photos and try not to bore you with all the details!
Here we are on day 1 in Bergen, which is on the west coast of Norway and the second largest city in Norway. We took a trip up to a lookout over the city called Floyen on a Funicular and enjoyed the sights despite the rainy weather. The city is located on a harbor and there are boats everywhere you turn from cruise ships to fishing boats to sailing ships. Oh, and therefore, lots of fish and seafood to be eaten!
Here is a building at Floyen where we took a rest and had a snack and I just loved the Norwegian flags!
Here is a photo back in the city of an area called Bryggen, which is a historic area of the city that lines the fjord coming into the city.
Crazy enough - we found a KPMG office (I think!) on our walk back to our hotel that was outside the main city area! How funny is the building? It was right on the water and looked like it could use a little work! I had to get my picture in front of it of course!
So here is our first photo of a fjord cruise. There are a bunch of fjords near Bergen. Fjords are basically inlets that have steep sides (mountains) which have been formed by glaciers. They are just beautiful! There were little towns along the two fjords we visited and things to do and see along the way. It's a great way to see the country and experience nature!
Another pic from the boat on Hardanger Fjord.
There are waterfalls all over Norway - it was amazing and I've dubbed it the "land of waterfalls"! I have tons of photos of them but this is the first big one we saw called Voringfossen. We took a hike up to one later on in the trip, but this one was nice because we got dropped off on a bus and got a great view!
Just a cool photo of a decorative anchor and the sunset that I took our last evening in Bergen.
Another one of the sunset in Bergen. The great thing about this is that we took it at about 10:30pm. We weren't far enough north to be in the land of the midnight sun, but it got pretty close!
So after leaving Bergen, we headed a little bit north to visit some of the towns on the Sognefjord. We spent a night in a little town called Voss and learned that it was the hometown of Knute Rockne, famous for his role as head coach of Notre Dame. Here are the football fans posing with the bronze sculpture across from our hotel!
View of a boat similar to the one we were on cruising around the fjords!
View from the boat we were on cruising around the fjords!
Cute little town 0n the fjord on or way to the next town we stayed in, Flam.
Flowers and the surrounding hills around Flam.
The cruises we took on the fjords were through a company called Norway in a Nutshell - so here we are posing in front of a nutshell sign!
Enjoying lunch outside at Furokoa - we just loved the name!
On the train up the Flambama.
Here we are in Oslo in front of a fountain at Vigeland park, which was beautiful!
Sculptures in Vigeland park.
So my dad's maternal grandparents both immigrated to the US from Norway and we still have distant relatives there. We met up with his second cousin, Kari Lille and her husband Sven for dinner one night is Oslo! My dad had met them when he was in Norway a long time ago. They were so nice and it was fun for me to meet them!
Here are Trisha and Kari Lille!
The crew and the bags outside the hotel in Oslo waiting for the taxi.
In the old town in Stockholm.
Sunset in Stockholm. The city was neat because it's a series of islands!
Pretty flowers in Stockholm!
Chad hanging out in the lobby of Hotel Rival in Stockholm. The hotel is owned by a former member of ABBA, Benny Andersson. It was pretty cool and they had CD players in each room with CD's, including ABBA of course! I couldn't get Dancing Queen out of my head for days!!
At the Old Bank of England on Dad and Trisha's last day in London.
So that's that! We had a wonderful time with our visitors and the chance to see new places! Hope that all is well with you and yours!
xoxox, Kari and Chad
