Norway (July 3 - July 8)

On Thursday, July 3rd, we drove from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Edinburgh to catch a plane to Oslo. We had no time to stop for any length of time on the way up, but the road was good and we enjoyed the scenery. Although we were booked on a Norwegian flight our crew and aircraft were from Hola! Airlines. There was a lone representative from Norwegian who translated all the announcements (made in Spanish and English) into Norwegian.

We spent two nights at the farm, where my MIL visited her mother's parents as a child, and which now belongs to her brother. This was the first time I had met his partner; she is really sweet and a great cook.

We spent the 4th of July in Oslo proper, visiting the Natural History museum and spending time with DH's grandfather (Bestefar, "best father"). Unfortunately we missed his grandmother (Bestemor, "best mother") by just a couple of weeks, as she passed away while we were on our anniversary camping trip. We called my MIL on speaker phone for her birthday. It was quite funny hearing what the kids chose to tell Grandma about our trip.

On Saturday, July 5th, we drove from the farm to the mountain cabin ("hytte" in Norwegian). This is a required part of a visit to Norway for us. It was built in ~1912 by my MIL's paternal grandfather, with some additions built on later. (During our time at Stanford, DH came home from a trip to Norway somewhat startled because the cabin now had electricity.)

Last time we were in Norway, we took the kids to the "badeland" ("swimming land" or water park) at the airport Clarion hotel, just a few minutes drive from the farm. They were looking forward to going there again. Unfortunately, the Clarion badeland closed permanently just a few days before we arrived this year! We made it up to the kids by stopping at the Tropicana Badeland at Per's resort in Gol on our way to the cabin. Great fun, although I was surprised to see so many overweight Norwegians.

(DH and I have taken to referring to the Tropicana Badeland as "Per's well." There exists family legend that Per once interrupted my FIL bathing in the well at the cabin. The well was shared by several cabins, and was everyone's source of drinking water. Needless to say, Per was less than pleased to find some american there with his bar of soap! These days we have running water and a shower in the cabin, so no-one need resort to such extreme measures.)

The children especially enjoy the upstairs bedroom at the cabin. As you can see from the picture, the doorway is only slightly taller than three year-old DD2. The stairway is kid-sized, too; it's more like a ladder for adults. There are lots of interesting toys stored up there!

We had a relaxing time at the cabin despite some cold, rainy weather. Kite flying, hiking, fishing (no fish, as the river was too high), and plenty of games of Yahtzee. DH's uncle cooked us a wonderful meal of trout he caught while up at the cabin the weekend before. It was lucky that he had frozen some, or we wouldn't have had any fish! On Sunday we had roast ham; Bestemor had planned this meal for us before she died, and was very insistent that we have it.

On our return to Oslo we wandered through Frognerparken and Vigelandparken, visited Bestefar, and had a nice dinner at Holmenkollen. (Bestefar was once a ski-jumper, testing out the jump before competitions.)

On Tuesday evening we flew to London Gatwick. Norway is wonderfully child-friendly. The kids had a great time at the concourse playground while we were waiting for our flight.