Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

ABC Wednesday: B is for
Bicycles in Oslo


In 2006 I visited Oslo and took a photograph of these bicycles.

According to Oslo Daily Photo
There are approx. 1200 bikes to be found in different places of the center. To use them you have to register and pay a small annual fee. Then you use your "smart card" to release a bike from the rack. The bikes are financed by advertising and is therefore an environmental-friendly and inexpencive offer to the public. You must return the bike to the stand within 3 hours thus to make sure that there are bikes available to everyone who's interested.
These were advertising the services of the Oslo Blood Bank. Their services will have been of vital importance following the recent atrocity there.

My heart goes out to all the people of Norway at this time.

For more B posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

ABC Wednesday
I is for the Irishman in Stavanger

They get everywhere don't they?

This one is in Stavanger, Norway and I discovered it during our 2005 Cruise.

The pub was opened in 1991 and is home to the Harbour Folk Band.

Stavanger has two daily photo blogs, one by Tanty and another by Gunn.

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day so we are having a bit of party; we've ordered 30 portions of Irish Stew from the Hot Crumpet. We are having apple pie afterwards which we believe is a traditional Irish dessert, but ours will be curtesy of Mr. Kipling!

For more I posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

ABC Wednesday:
N is for Norwegian Rain

With apologies to Rune of Visual Norway.


It rains a lot in Norway - here we saw it arrive as we looked down on Bergen.


Back in the city it teemed down.


A year later and I was in Oslo, overlooking the quay.


The rain didn't stop me taking a boat trip up the fjord though.

That was in 2005 and 2006.

I am supposed to be away on holiday in Jersey right now but ... At least we not stuck somewhere trying to get home.

For more N posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

ABC Wednesday
G is for Geirangerfjord

Today's photographs were all taken from the ferry which runs between Hellesylt and Gerianger. It was just a short section of our 2005 Cruise.


Many spectacular waterfalls descend the sides of the fjord. These are known as the "Seven Sisters".


On the opposite side is "Friaren", also known as "The Suitor".


To get an impression of their size, compare this photo of a yacht at the bottom of the falls with the one above.


Even more amazing are the tiny farmsteads that cling to the fjordsides. This is Knivsflå.


How anyone can reach these farms either from above or below is extraordinary.


This one is Skageflå.

For more G posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Shadow Sunday: Trondheim


On a sunny July day in 2005 we visited Trondheim in Norway.

I took a tour around the streets in a road-train called Thomas.

You can read an account of the day on my Cruise Journal.

Visit Hey Harriet to discover more contributions to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Friday Bench (9); Hellesylt


Hellesylt is a small village in the Stranda Municipality, which is a part of the Møre and Romsdal County in the western part of Norway. The site of the village on the mountain sides at the end of the Sunnylvs Fiord is exceptionally picturesque. Right through the centre, 100 meters from Grand Hotel, the Hellesylt waterfall gushes down into the Fiord. This waterfall is one of the most photographed sites in Norway.

From Hellesylt the ferry to Geiranger leaves five-ten times a day during the summer season.

I visited the village briefly in 2005 and you can read about my day-trip from Geiranger on my Cruise Journal.

My favourite benches from last week include Rune meeting up with internet friends in Bergen, Barbara's at Two Jack Lake, Malyss's adopted benches at the Château of Versailles, Leatherdyke's dreary bench in Chesterfield, Dina's in the Jerusalem Hills, Nonizamboni's in Minnesota and PERB's historic benches near Rainier.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

ABC Wednesday - U is for Ulriken


Ulriken is the highest of the seven mountains surrounding the city of Bergen, rising 643 meters above sea level.


An aerial cableway was built in 1961. From the lower station in Haukelandsbakken to the top the cableway has a total length of 1120m. Two cars, named Perle and Bruse, each with room for 25 passengers, travel the cableway.


As we climbed we could see our cruiser berthed in the port.


On a wall are the words of a song composed by Johan Nordahl Brun in 1791 and which has become known as Bergen's national anthem.


On one side sheep graze on the green hills.


On the other the sprawl of the city is laid out with the mist covered mountains beyond.


We were helped in our visit by the driver of the Bergen in a Nutshell tour, but we understand that the Cable Car is now closed until spring/summer 2009 because of rebuilding and redecoration.

You can read a fuller account of our time in Bergen on our cruise journal.

You can see the current view from the top of Ulriken on it's webcam.

My other ABC Wednesday U posts this week are ~~ Unity Inn Sign at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Uplands Farm at Old Hyde ~~ Under the Pier at Sithenah

To visit more ABC-Wednesday U posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

ABC Wednesday - O is for Oslo

We visited Oslo as part of our 2006 Baltic Cruise. So much has happened since that I've only recounted half of that voyage on a blog.

On our previous cruise it rained in Bergen and alas it rained in Oslo. Until then we had had beautiful weather, but of course it had to rain on our wedding anniversary. The ship was berthed next to the DFDS Ferry Terminal and Christine decided to stay on board. I took the free shuttle bus.


The shuttle-bus didn't actually take me far as it stopped at the Cruise Terminal which was still a ten minute walk from the city centre. However, it had a souvenir shop and money-exchange. I changed my left-over Danish and Swedish kroner into Norwegian kroner.

Across the road was this charming sculpture. I've searched the internet to try and find some information about it but to no avail. I'm hoping some of my Norwegian readers will be able to tell us more.

[Late edit: The sculpture is a memorial to all the people who died in a fire on M/S Scandinavian Star.]


I walked around to Rådhusbrygge and took a mini-cruise. There weren't very many people aboard and so one could move sides to look at the things we passed by. I waved to Christine as we went past Aurora but I don't think she was looking.

This which looks like a small church or schoolroom is in fact the Heggholmen Lighthouse. The guide on the boat was a very knowledgeable young lady who answered all our questions. It was very blowy but didn't rain too heavily.


Afterwards I wandered into the City Centre and, as I've posted here before, the Nobel Peace Center.

Eventually I wandered into the grounds of Akerhus Slot where I discovered this unusual sculpture. Again I've been unable to discover anything about it.

[Late edit: I am informed that it is the National Monument at Akershus on National day May 17 :Kl. 0800 Akershus Festning: Bekransning av Nasjonalmonumentet ved stortingspresidenten. Forsvarets Stabsmusikk spiller.]


I crossed a fortified bridge into a courtyard just in time to witness the ceremony of the changing of the guard. It was very low-key affair compared to the ceremonies in Copenhagen or London.

It was starting to rain quite heavily. I searched for a road to lead me out of the castle grounds. It came out nearer to the ferry terminal than the cruise terminal but I wanted to spend my short-change (coins) so made my way back there. I bought a nice tee-shirt for one of our sons and spent the rest of my Norwegian coinage on a few postcards. I then took the shuttle-bus back to the ship.


This parting shot was taken through our cabin porthole. The lantern Kavringen Fyr dates from 1892.

My other ABC Wednesday O posts this week are ~~ Onward at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Onward Christian Soldiers at Old Hyde ~~ Over the Rainbow at Sithenah

To visit more ABC-Wednesday O posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Gamle Bybro


As with my introductory post of Hornindal Bridge, this month's contribution to Broer som Binder (Bridges between) is again from Norway.

This is the Gamle Bybro, in Trondheim which has views of the old warehouses lining the River Nidelva. The current bridge was built in 1861 to replace an older one from 1681. Just beyond is a special bicycle lift to help cyclists negotiate Brubakken Hill.


It was closed to traffic the day we visited as you can see from this picture taken from the windows of the road-train.


This was the view from the bridge looking upstream.

A full list of participants to Broer som Binder can be found on Runes TX-blog.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Hornindal Bridge


Along with Hyde Daily Photo and a number of other blogs, I've decided to take part in Broer som Binder or Bridges between. On the first Monday of each month (or the second if the first is the first) we'll all be bringing you a bridge. First official crossings will be on March 3rd 2008. A full list of participants will be found on Runes TX-blog.


In honour of our Norwegian hosts, my introductory post is of Hornindal Bridge, which I visited on a day-trip from Geiranger.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

ABC Wednesday - T is for Travel

I could have gone T for Tallinn but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here and here.

I could have gone T for Trondheim but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here.

I could have gone T for Tenerife but you can see my photos and account of that island here.

People seem to have the impression that I am well-travelled but I have only visited 13% of the world.



This map and the others you can compile on the net are bit misleading but interesting nonetheless. For the first 50-odd years of my life apart from a week in Amsterdam in 1980 [which included a day-trip to Brussels] and one holiday in Denmark, I never left the UK. However we saw an awful lot of the UK from St Agnes in the Scillies to Unst in Shetland. Very few areas of the British Isles are unvisited.

We didn't start world-travelling until 1999 when we ventured across the sea to Ireland. Later that year we flew via Amsterdam to Los Angeles. On the visited countries map that is enough to colour in the whole of the USA from New York westwards including Alaska.

In 2001 we had our tremendous holiday of a lifetime spending a month travelling around New Zealand which puts some colour in the bottom right-hand corner. The dot representing Singapore, our only stopover in Asia barely shows up.

The following year, having had to give up driving, we took a coach holiday through Europe visiting 9 countries in 9 days. There were some highlights but, in some respects it was possibly one of our grimmest holidays. It certainly colours the map though.

It was three years before we ventured abroad again on a fabulous cruise to Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In 2006 we went quite mad (and why not?). Firstly we had a holiday in February to Tenerife, which adds Spain to the map even though we've never seen its mainland. June saw us on our second cruise, this time to the Baltics. Although we only visit St. Petersburg, the map covers in the whole of Russia all the way to Siberia! Finally at the end of September we went to Crete, which adds Greece to the map even though we've never seen its mainland.

Our only holiday this year was a week in Southport. We have enjoyed a few day-trips to various places. The likelihood is that we won't be doing very much physical travelling in the future except for short journeys. Any regrets? Absolutely none. I travel Around the World everyday without leaving home.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ABC Wednesday - N is for Nobel Peace Center


N is for Nobel Peace Center.

The Nobel Peace Center in Oslo is in what was originally the old railway station Vestbanen. The station closed in 1989 and the Peace Center opened in 2005. As you can tell it was a rainy day when I was there.

A photograph of the museum from the other direction can be found on Oslo Daily Photo.


My second photo is a closeup of the windows underneath which are engraved the three great buzzwords:

BROADMINDEDNESS

HOPE

COMMITMENT



The Peace Prize is awarded annually and the presentation ceremony is held at the Oslo City Hall with the Norwegian king in attendance. Once again there is a better picture of this building, taken from the other side to mine, on Oslo Daily Photo.