Norway: Land of the midnight sun

Hello darlings! ‘Finally’ these are our two last weeks of the trip. Although I am happy to go home and see you all back, I certainly will miss travelling with the girls.

These last weeks we are spending in Norway. This country is different from most other European countries because of the light. During the summer months it does not get dark at night, because then there is a natural phenomenon called the midnight sun. This means that the sun does not set during these months. The duration of the midnight sun depends on how far north you are. At the Arctic Circle, you can see it from 12 June to 1 July, at the North Cape in Finnmark you can see the sun from 14 May to 29 July and at the North Pole the sun does not set for six months.

 

From Monday until Thursday we are going to visit: Stavanger, Skien, Halden and the capital Oslo.

As usual we will post each day a message on our blog.

Kiss!

Monday 9 may 2011: visiting Stavanger

Stavanger is a city and community located in Rogaland county, on a peninsula on the southwest coast of Norway. The climate is maritime mild temperate and rather windy. Winters are cold with temperature averages above freezing but summers are quite pleasant with average high temperatures of 18 °C.

In the second half of the 20^th century, after oil was discovered in the North Sea, Stavanger became one of the most influential and important Norwegian cities. Therefore the city is commonly referred to as the Petroleum Capital. Furthermore is Stavanger the metropolitan area and the administrative centre of Rogaland.

Norway is definitely the place for people who enjoy an active outdoor life, with many places to go and a wide choice of sports. That is one of the reasons why we went climbing with the Norwegian Trekking Association, (in Norwegian: Den Norkse Turistforetning (DNT)). Another reason why we did this was because climbing is the best way to see the fantastic landscape around Stavanger. DNT’s motto is: Nature experiences for life (in Norwegian: “Naturopplevelser for livet”) and I must admit that this is true. In entire my life I have not seen such a breathtaking landscape!

After a whole day climbing, we are very tired and now we are going straight to bed!

Sleep tight and cya tomorrow! –xx-

Tuesday 10 may 2011: visiting Skien

Skien is a city and municipality in Telemark county and is considered to be the seventh largest city in Norway.

This city has three shopping malls, namely:

·         Handelsbyen Herkules (110 stores and services)

·         Arkaden Skien Storsenter (47 stores and services)

·         Lietorvet Senter (28 stores and services)

Logically we went shopping and we bought some presents for you all but I am not going to tell what it is. It has to be a surprise.

Besides shopping we also enlarged our cultural knowledge by visiting the Telemark Museum. It is located in Kleiva, the older part of Skien and was founded in 1909. The farm is part of a large park called “Brekkeparken”.

The main attraction, aside from seasonal exhibits in the main halls of the farm house, is the outdoor museum. Several older houses and farms from Telemark county have been moved from their original location and rebuilt in the park.

It was a quite interesting day but the best part of today was of course going to the shopping malls.

Now we are going to town to have a drink in a bar and probably dance the night away.

Nigthie Night! –xx-

Wednesday 11 may 2011: visiting Halden

Halden is a town and a municipality in Østfold county. The seat of Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, which is the most southern border crossing between Norway and Sweden.

The city is surrounded by forests and water, so hiking and fishing locations can easily be found. Fruit like raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, wild cranberries but also many varieties of mushroom can be found in the woods in the early autumn. Unfortunately we were here too early to find them, because I really like eating fruit.

Interesting sights in Halden are the canal system, Høiåsmasten and Svinesund bridges.

Høiåsmasten

Høiåsmasten is a TV tower used for FM- and TV-transmission built in 1980. It is one of the tallest, partially guyed, towers in the world and with a height of 320 metres it is the second highest of Norway.

Svinesund is a seaway separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad from Halden. The Swedish side is extremely popular with Norwegians who buy relatively cheap goods over there, because a large shopping area can be found immediately after crossing one of the two toll bridges. Due to the fact that Norway is not in the EU there are much stricter restrictions on the amount of goods, like alcohol, cigarettes, food, … that can be taken across the border.

We rent a car and drove to the bridge and after taking some pictures, we crossed the seaway to go the shopping area in Sweden. There we had lunch and bought some souvenirs. Afterwards we drove back to Norway to enjoy the rest of the day in downtown Halden.

Svinesund bridge

Thursday 12 may 2011: visiting the capital Oslo

Between the Oslo Fjord and the green hills of Oslomarka lies the Norwegian capital Oslo. The combination of city life and easy access to outdoor activities makes the most populous city of the country a unique destination.

Oslo has a humid continental climate and because of the city's northern latitude, daylight varies enormously: from more than 18 hours in midsummer to approximately 6 hours in midwinter. Because of the Gulf Stream the climate is relatively mild throughout the year. Although the city has pleasantly mild to warm summers with average high temperatures of 20–22 °C, heat waves are common during the summer. The highest temperature ever in Oslo was 35° C. Average low temperatures are around 12 C.

Due to the fjords, the water temperatures can get quite high during long warm periods. During the summer of 2008, the water reached a temperature of 24 C.

Winters are cold and snowy with temperatures between −7 Cup to −1 C. The coldest temperature recorded is −27.1 C in January 1942. Snowfall can occur from November to April but mainly it snows from January through March.

Today we had quite good weather and went to TusenFryd Amusement Park. Here you find attractions for all ages, as well as fun games, great shops and many places to eat. This amusement park features dozens of spectacular rides, including SpinSpider, SpeedMonster, SuperSplash, Nightmare, and ThunderCoaster. The park also features Barnas Fryd, an area especially made for the youngest children. In summer, guests can enjoy BadeFryd, a waterpark with a swimming pool, a swimming river, a triple slide and beach volleyball.

Although I had to overcome my fear of over heels rides, it was a fantastic day. We laughed the lungs out of our body and had the time of our life. It seemed like we were kids again and that felt good.

These four days have been great and we are looking forward to the next 10 days.

C ya 2 morrow ! –xx-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME this is a link to youtube where you can see the winner of the Eurovision Contest 2009.