The train to Bergen

The train ride from Oslo to Bergen is one of Europe's highest and, many say, one of the most beautiful train rides in the world.

Eventhough it was a rainy, overcast day, I would have to agree. This train ride is seriously beautiful.

Yes, I have to admit, I was really disappointed that it was such an ugly day, but I'm still thankful we had such an amazing opportunity to see such beauty.

Had I thought things through a bit, I would have realized that we would be travelling through the mountains, above the tree line. But I was pretty shocked to be whizzing by a snow-covered, treeless community in mid-July.

A Norwegian woman who lives in Bergen (our destination city) told us that it is quite unusual to still have so much snow at this time of year.

Did you know that while the US is suffering from a record-breaking heat wave, northern Europe is experiencing one of the coldest, wettest summers on record?

We could have taken a bike ride through some of this terrain on another day, but I forgot to pack the winter coats...and the hats...and the mittens...oh well.

This is just a little taste of what lies ahead of us in fjord country!

Norway--Oslo

When I planned our trip to Norway, I only scheduled one day in Oslo. I expected my kids to be tired of visiting museums and churches and anyway, our goal was to get to the fjords--on the other side of Norway.

What I didn't expect was how quickly our lone day in Oslo would fly by and how thrilled my kids (as well as Rob and I) would be with the few sights we did have time to fit into our short stay in Norway's largest city.

I expected a visit to Oslo's Opera House to be a quick stop. One look at this architectural wonder and you can quickly understand why our visit lasted well more than an hour.

The building was designed to look like an iceberg. This place must be stunning in the winter!

The cruise ships park across the water from the Opera House.

The inside is as beautiful as the outside.

Norway is insanely expensive. Helsinki looks cheap by Norwegian standards! So we made a lot of sandwiches for lunch. Fountains always make a good place to stop for lunch!

On the move again, we arrived at the Royal Palace just in time for the changing of the guards.

Sam served as the family photographer for this event.  I took a few liberties with editing his shots :)

Rob and I would have loved to spend several hours here (the Nobel Peace Center):

But even the ticket sales person said Lily and Sam would not get much out of it.

Our final stop of the day was at Vigeland Sculpture Park.

Vigeland was an extremely prolific Norwegian sculptor. He is also the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal.

There are 212 bronze and granite sculptures in the park.  I don't think Sam can look Joey in the eye without laughing!  (Or maybe he was giggling because I asked the boys to copy the pose of the two nude guys behind them?)

I think it's pretty easy to guess what the subject of Vigeland's art was.

Youth...

Parenthood...

Love...

old age...

LIFE...

Summer Cottages- Part 2

We were invited to visit a cottage a couple hours north of Helsinki in Vääksy with the family of one of Joey's friends from school.

Their cottage sits right on Lake Päijänne--one of the deepest, largest and coldest lakes in Finland. 

When I got there, I walked down to the lake. The water was so still, it reflected the clouds above just like a mirror. I just couldn't capture it on camera :(     It was stunning.

It was also one of the most "Finnish" couple of days I felt we've had since coming to Finland!  We were treated to some truly wonderful meals. Timo is a big Weber grill fan and brought this back to Finland with him from New Jersey!

You can't beat fresh Finnish salmon on the grill!

The table was always beautifully set with Arabia dishes (the blue plates and yellow mugs are Arabia from Finland).

and Ittala glass (the glass "bowl" with the cookies is also from Finland).

 Oskari's family lived in New Jersey for two years so it was fun to compare and contrast American and Finnish cultures--the good and the bad!  The conversation was never dull!

Rob and Joey experienced a true summer cottage sauna with a dip in the cold waters of Lake Päijänne!

They also took a boat ride around the Lake.

Joey tried swimming in the Lake, but he said it was just too cold!

The kids slept on Moomin bed linens...

...while the adults were treated to a beautiful lake at midnight

Joey and Oskari played Finnish monopoly.

In fact, I was feeling so Finnish, I thought I would try the lemon licorice ice cream. I actually ordered it as sort of a joke, and ended up loving it!

It was a truly Finnish experience!

Thank you Oskari and family!

I Hate Seagulls

I really do. I hate them.

I didn't used to hate them. In fact, I loved to feed them at my parents' cottage in Door County, Wisconsin.

But now I hate them--at least I hate Finnish seagulls.

They are the most agressive birds ever.

Let's just say you are enjoying a nice ice cream cone (lemon licorice--my new favorite) at Market Square by the seaside.

When suddenly, a seagull divebombs you from behind and snatches up your ice cream cone right out of your hand! Seriously, I'm not kidding. It happens all the time to people.


It almost happened to me.  I screamed because a seagull was flapping over my shoulder trying to snatch my ice cream cone and the kids yelled at me for embarassing them. Imagine that. I embarassed them. I was about to have my eyeballs pecked out in some Hitchcockian way and I was embarassing them.  So sorry.

Then, a few weeks later, I was MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS at the zoo. I had ZERO ice cream in my hands this time and ANOTHER seagull lands on my shoulder. Again, I screamed and again...my kids were embarassed because I made a loud noise in Finland (people are pretty quite here). As if they haven't shouted at each other from one end of the tram to the other on a regular basis sending me into the fetal position right there on the tram.

Momma seagulls are THE WORST. They make this horrible, ear-pierching screeching noise to protect their babies and to try to scare you away. It totally works on me.  I took this photo with a zoom lens 'cause there was NO way I was going to get close to Momma's eggs. 

By the way, this nest is right in the middle of the sidewalk. 

Oh yeah, I know what you're thinking..."but they are so cute!"

They may be cute for a few weeks, but they too will grow up with the same annoying habits of their parents and it is NOT cute.

In Helsinki, they try to protect you by stringing these wires across the top of market square or other places where food is sold, but it doesn't always work.

All I can say is I will NOT miss the seagulls when we leave Finland.

If it ever occurs to you to feed seagulls...DON'T DO IT.