Under Construction

I took a walk to the town of Nesttun on a bright and chilly March 31st. This is our nearest town and is only a little over 3km from our place. The "City Train" extention is being built from Nesttun to the big shopping center at Lagunen - about 5 - 6 km away. Since we moved in on August 10th we have heard the construction and blasting noises during the day.

The workers build massive reinforced concrete walls leading to/ from the tunnels.

They cover up the blasted and jack-hammered rock walls with spray-on concrete. The train tunnel emerges from the rock just under the orange plastic.

Besides tunneling and using concrete the builders stack massive rock retaining walls.

It appears that they are about ready to put a roof over this tunnel exit.

The new tracks run right down the middle of the old street in Nesttun. It is now a Gågate or walking street with double train tracks where the cars used to drive.

The almost finished part of the main street.

Now, to the stacked boulders. These are all squared off, big pieces of local rock. The are not cemented or linked together - just stacked. They are so straight and precise!

The rock-stacker guys work all the time because it takes so long to make these walls, so this guy was working today. He has a nifty rock picker so he can put the rock into place wherever it needs to be.

His machine can pick up really heavy stuff and guide it into place.

Then he sets it gently and precisely where it needs to be.

He makes any fine adjustment with a sledge hammer and then he picks up the next rock.

Norway has a rubust economy in spite of the woes of the rest of Europe. There is construction going on everywhere. A housing shortage is helping to fuel the economy here. Everything, including these multi-story apartments is fastened to the ever-present gray rock of Norway.

Shanna and I are partial to the traditional designs of an older era of Norwegian housing. Isn't that a pretty little home?

This old farmhouse and out-buildings sits across a small lake from the edge of town. Notice that last night's light snowfall hasn't all melted from the rays of this morning's sunshine.

 The old workshop, apartment and garage is connected to the main house by a steep stairway. You have to make use of all of you land here; be it vertical or not.

Here is a more modern way of hooking into the bedrock on a mountainside and still maintaining some sort of front yard.

"there's a bunny..." and he is over six feet tall. It is a piece of public art over by the side of the lake.

No matter how you look at them as you drive by; neither one is level. I guess they missed the bedrock. Both of them appear to be occupied.

I hear that gas in the US is over $4.00 per gallon. Our price is down today from 15.50 kroner per liter to only 14.70. At the current exchange rate that makes gasoline only $9.91 per gallon which is down from last week's price of $10.47!

But not to worry, you can grab a quick snack on the way home. A hamburger is only $8.75 and a medium one toping pizza is $19.46.

I have become a fan of the roundabout. When traffic is light to moderate, which is most of the time, the roundabouts work great. These two connected roundabouts allow you to come in / leave from any of six different directions. I love the fact that there are no stop signs anywhere in Bergen - just a few traffic lights.

For those of you who have been in Norway back in the day here is one thing that hasn't changed. You can leave valuables out in public - unattended - and nobody steals them! The guy who belongs to these tools was working on the old Saab but needed lunch so he left everything. At the shopping center we see baby carriages with sleeping babies in them parked outside the store while the mom is shopping inside the store. It isn't unusual to see a couple of bags of just-purchased groceries leaning against a shop while the shopper is inside getting something else. This is one of the most refreshing things about Norwegian culture - honesty.  



Shopping for food

We shop several times each week for a couple of reasons. We have limited storage and refrigeration AND we cook meals for up to 20 people at a sitting. So, we often fill our cart. Speaking of carts. Being uneducated Americans we thought at first that we had to rent the shopping cart. Hey, they were all chained together and required 10 kroner ($1.79) to unlock the chain. We eventually realized the kr.10 was just a deposit to make sure people leave the carts at the pickup places around the parking lot and structure.

That they do. The carts are always hooked back together for the pickup guys to bring them back into the store. You never have carts blowing across the lot or sitting in the middle of the spot where you want to park.

One of the great pleasures and great deals in Norway is the bread. If you buy three loaves at a time it costs only 13 kroner or $2.32 per loaf - but you have to buy three. (We freeze it.)

The bread is sold in fresh whole loaves racked up and waiting.

It isn't baked in pans but in the old fashioned loaves. Some is stone-baked and some is baked in regular ovens.

If you want it sliced you have to slice your own. There are a couple of slicing machines in the store. Sometimes you must stand in line while two or three other people finish slicing. Norwegians buy a lot of bread. As soon as you close the hopper the machine starts slicing.

Down comes the fresh (and still warm) loaf.

Now just to put it on the holder thingy and slip a plastic bread bag over it. Right at this point in our story a nice lady in a store uniform told us that we could not take any more pictures in the store. Opps, I didn't know that it was "ulovelig." We obeyed.

If I were the store people I would want the good word about their fabulous bread spread around the world. None the less, I will go with their wishes. This is my favorite Norwegian bread. It is Rugstump or whole grain rye so it is makes great toast. It is not flavored with caraway seeds like some ryes in the U.S. You should taste it with a little Norwegian Blueberry jam. Mmmmmm.

I have been thinking about why photography is forbidden in the market. It may be to keep an embarassing state secret. Don't tell anyone but I think Norwegians, who have traditionally been very health conscious, have been overly influenced by over-weight, out of shape Americans. They have developed a taste for soda and American style pizza. Look at those prices! -40%!!!



Eat your heart out Costco. This is the heart of the beverage section and the Coke is on sale for 40% off the regular price.

There are multiple cases filled with frozen pizza. Many flavors and brands are featured with great sale prices.

More pizza...

This, I am told, is the single top selling item in all of Norway - Grandiosa! We have yet to eat a frozen pizza here. There are many pizza restaurants all over town. They deliver too. We have had some fresh made pizza while working on a service project. It has a whole different taste than what we are used to - much milder, low garlic and less tomato (pizza) sauce - it was OK. 

Sorry, we never got to the fruits and vegetables section. They are very high quality stuff and you can buy just about anything that you can think of - except jicama.



Travels in February

Zone Conference takes place about every two months. This is our district group. We fly to Stavanger for a day's worth of meetings. I can get all of us to the airport in just two trips in the VW Polo----the ladies in relative comfort and the men crammed into the back seat with both front seats far forward.

Boyz in the Polo



I still love a window seat - especially over fjords and mountains.

Elders and sisters from five cities plus the two married couples, the mission president and his wife and the two assistants to the president make up our group for the day.

President Johansen and his wife are upbeat, enthusiastic, and fun to be with. Our day ended in the late afternoon, so it was back to the airport to catch our delayed flight back to Bergen.

Sorry for the focus problem but this is the sliding door to the first mens' restroom you come to after deplaning in Bergen. What I need is a picture of the men in the same pose hurrying to make it in time.

The very next day I flew to Oslo for an Institute teacher training meeting. This was on Feb 18, and it was still winter in that region of the country. This is the group that I met up with as we took the fast train from the airport to the center of town.

We stopped for about 30 seconds in Lillestrøm, where I lived in 1967. I thought, "Great, I will be able to look at all of the towns on the line where I used to work everyday for those eight-plus months." That was not to be. We entered a tunnel just past the platforms and didn't come up for air until we were in the Oslo train station.

Lillestrøm station platforms

We came up from deep beneath the city at the stop called "National Theater." We went up the escalator on the castle side. We came outside right near the King's Castle, which is the actual residence of the King of Norway. You can walk right up to it - just like in the old days.

There are still special guards (4 that you can see) standing watch in the snowy cold but there isn't any security fence. The residence is in the middle of a park at one end of what is kind of like the national mall in Washington D.C. The street is called Carl Johans Gate. Storting, or The Norwegian Parliament sits in its building opposite the King's residence down the street a ways.

After a day of meetings we walked back to Carl Johans Gate. This is the National Theater.

Fun street! The ice skating is free - bring your own skates. There were also booths with exhibitions and an outdoor big screen TV showing off the big international snowboard competition that took place in Norway that weekend.

It is a little cold and slick for a stroll in the winter, but summer in Oslo is delightful and the street is a great place to take an evening walk. Storting is at the far right top. The day in Oslo was enjoyable but too short. When the trees are green again we will go back and spend a day or two.

The next evening was a great surprise and fun time.

This is Hilde, whom I first met when she was 9 years old in 1967. She is the mother/mother-in-law of a wonderful young couple in Bergen branch. Shanna and I had a dinner and long evening of catching up when she visited. 

I never get tired of the view. We took a hike for a young adult activity. First we took the cable car up the mountain. It was a mostly unrainy day. We took off through the woods, past a frozen lake and then down to a path that leads back to the city.

It was a bit snowy but not cold so we didn't slip and slide - we walked...mostly.

The ice on the little lake behind me was very soft.

The forest is getting ready for the seasonal change.

The walk down is steep and beautiful

with many switch-backs.

At the bottom of the hill is for us the oldest building I have ever seen housing a McDonald's hamburger joint. This one is from the early 1900's. No golden arches here. No, we haven't tried fast food in Norway except the kabob. It was one year ago, on March 3, that we found out we were coming to this wonderful city. We are quite at home here now and look forward to each day.