The ride across the strait from Denmark into the Oslo Fjord was on a ferry-boat – sort a cruise ship ferry boat. Great food in several restaurants, good rooms, clean and quiet over all with a huge shop (but everyone has a huge shop). It really seemed more like a cruise ship. Anyway, we ate and slept and spent the early morning up on the top deck to watch our ship sail up the 100 kilometer long (62+ miles) Oslo Fjord. Most of Norway’s fjords are along the western edge and drain into, and are flooded by, the North Atlantic. The Oslo Fjord aims due south toward Europe. It is a wide waterway and the scenery was of islands, ocean, eider duck, and woodlands. It was very much like the other great fjordlands that you can access; New Zealand and Southeast Alaska come to mind. But the fjords on the west side of Norway are even more spectacular and we will look at those down the road.
The ferry did carry cars and trucks but there was no exhaust, oil, gas smells, or humming engines as we enjoyed a rather luxurious crossing from Denmark to Norway.
The Nobel prizes are given in six categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economic sciences, and peace. The Noble Peace Center is one of the many buildings involved with the Nobel prizes. The construction cranes all around the building speak to the vibrant city and the many new structures being built. The city is a mix of old, the inner city, and new, the outer perimeter.Fences and buildings generally use materials that are readily available; rock and wood usually make up houses, barns, and fences. Maihaugen is located in the town of Lillehammer and is an open air museum of older rural Norwegian buildings.Each valley in Norway has a regional look. The dresses, hats, pants, and other trappings are specific to an area. This mother and daughter were going out to dinner and were in their locally derived outfits.Much of Norway is covered in snow in the winter. They like skiing and ski jumping. This is the famous Lillehammer ski jump, built in 1989, which you may remember from the 1994 Winter Olympics. This is one of the first places where we realized to the overwhelming challenge of the Norwegian language. The Lillehammer ski jumping arena at Olympic Park is called Lysgårdbakken by the Norwegians. The Norwegian alphabet has three extra letters in it – well maybe we have three fewer letters (everything is perspective) – any way they have æ, ø, and å as well as the 26 letters we know and use. However c, q, w, x, and z are not used in spelling any indigenous words. Pronouncing those three extra letters is beyond my linguistic skills – by far.
On The Road With DEC 