Munkholmen Island

In the middle of the Fjord off Trondhiem is an island whose history reminds me of Alcatraz in San Francisco.  In the Viking age they executed people there and then put the severed heads on stakes.  People coming into the Fjord were supposed to spit on the severed heads as tribute to the king of Norway! Then Munkholmen became a monastery, prison, fort and now tourist attraction.

We took a boat out one afternoon and discovered a beach there with real sand!

 Syd and GG with Trondheim in the distance

Sverresborg Folkmuseum

Saturday we spent the afternoon at the folk museum and had a blast learning about the history and culture of Norway.  We saw lots of the traditional homes with sod roofs.  

I loved hearing about the native Sami people of Norway who made their living herding tame reindeer and also invented skiing.  Check out these dugout type "turf huts" they lived in.

We walked the ruins of Norway's first stone castle built in 1182

Pretty view out to the fjord

 Cool historic homes

 We all had to try out the stilts.

 I love the looks of concentration-this was a lot harder than it looks!

 Pete wanted to see the history of skiing exhibit.  Lots of cool carved wooden skis.  His grandfather served his mission in Norway and the legend is, he sometimes skied just to get around.

 It was a cold day and we stopped in the museum cafe to get hot cocoa and a croissant.  Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world and the food is especially pricey.  This little treat cost more than it did for all of us to get into the museum!

Real life

The second week the weather got colder and wetter, more typical Norweigian weather.  Now Pete was at the office all day and I was trying to help the girls adjust to life without preschool or playdates.  They were starting to get on each others nerves. We found two cool parks nearby and went there everyday. There's a market just around the corner and grocery shopping is part of our daily routine.  The first couple times I went into the grocery store I was so overwhelmed.  The markets, like everything in Europe, are tiny and without carts to stash the kids in, everyone was tripping over my children in the narrow isles, making it hard for me to focus on deciphering what anything was.  I didn't know the words for sorry or excuse me, I felt so rude bumbling through the store with my rowdy kids.  That first time to the grocery store on our own was a rough day for me.  I'm embarrassed to say that the next day when they forecast another full day of cold and rain, I drove the girls to the most familiar place I could think of, IKEA, and spent the better part of the day there.  The kids played on everything, we bought a few things, ate lunch there, listened to the American music playing etc.  How ethnocentric is that?!  After the IKEA day, I was able to laugh at myself for being so silly and we all had more fun.

exploring the city in the rain-glad we brought our rain jackets!

 Nutella moustache

 GG and a Norweigian troll (they are super into trolls here)

playing at the park

climbing on city landmarks

We did have an fun night that week when the Trondheim professional futbol club had a game and we got tickets. We've never been to a pro soccer game before and it was really fun to watch.  The bleacher section at this game was pretty impressive.  They not only paint their faces like devoted fans in the US, they had a guy on a bullhorn leading cheers and chants and someone on a huge drum to punctuate their cheering.  They were almost as entertaining as the players.

The girls eating traditional Norwegian sausages, called polse, at the game.

First week

Here's another picture of an energetic Grace.  She's up, dressed, fed and jumping on our bed by 5am.  It's amazing how much you can pack into the day when you're up by 4am.

 Those first few days Pete was able to work from home since it was a holiday here and then we had the weekend so we were together as a family everyday.  We explored the town a little and took some day trips.  Here are the girls in front of the town cathedral, a beautiful church that looks like a mini Notre Dame.

 

This is a beautiful old city with cool historic architecture and lots of cobblestone streets.

 We drove up to Bymarka, a wilderness area close by and found a cold, beautiful lake to hike around and wade into.

 We've been really lucky with unusually warm weather this week(~75').  It hilarious to see all the people in town trying to make the most of all this warm weather and sun in a country that doesn't see very much of either.  All over the city you see people laying out on lawns, parks and in chairs on the side walk.  People just take off their clothes and soak it up.  We've seen more than a few elderly people who just strip down to their underwear and sit in front of their homes or apartments in lawn chairs! 

 We went to a nearby beach one day and had fun collecting rocks, shells and splashing our feet in the water. 

 The beaches here are pretty rocky and make me appreciate the soft sand in California.  Ouch!

 But it was still fun to hang out on the edge of the Fjord.

 Saturday morning the girls expected the usual pancake breakfast, but we didn't have any of the ingredients or maple syrup to make them.  We found these Pannkakker crepe type things and eat them with nutella and bananas.  I think this will be our fill in while we're here.  Mmmm!

Trondheim

We flew eleven hours direct from San Francisco to Frankfurt, then a two hour flight to Oslo, finally a one hour flight to Trondheim.  It was a long slog, but the girls were great little travelers. 

It felt really good when we finally arrived and could drop our bags in our apartment.

  Jet lag is especially brutal for kids, who never really know what time it is anyway.  Since Norway is so far north, it's subject to seasonal shifts in what time it gets light, or dark. That means in the spring, it doesn't get dark here until midnight and then the sun rises again around 3:30am.  This makes it very difficult for one to adjust to a nine hour time change.  Our girls were up with the sun at 3:30 for the first four days.  Oy Vey!  Here they are full of energy, already finger painting at 5am.  

 Our second day here was Norway's independence day and the whole town shut down and dressed up for the event.  There were three parades throughout the day and most people were wearing traditional Norwegian clothes which was cool to see.  Even those not in traditional garb wore dresses and suits.  I was impressed.  It was very different from what you'd find people wearing at fourth of July parades in the states.

 A band playing in front of the Nidaros Cathedral

 Pete and the girls enjoying the show and Norwegian pastries

 I loved seeing all the traditional clothes, they were beautiful and so unique.  The different colors and patterns represent different regions.  Here are a few pics so you can see what I mean.

We only made it through the first parade and then we started tiring out.  We took the girls back to the house and they passed out at 1:00 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 6pm.  Not helping our progress on the jet lag situatuion.