The Advent Season and Back Home Again

 

We were so surprised that we didn't even get any  photos but on the night of the big Julebord (Christmas Dinner) we got a visit from Erin, Ali, and Susie. We had a great time eating pinekjøtt, ribbe and all the trimmings. Next morning we were up late for breakfast but ready for a day in Bergen.

 

 

First it was the old castle and fort, followed by shopping at Bryggen and some lunch.

 

 

This is the view of the Bryggen from the back. It was cold too, with highs below freezing.

 

 

About 3:30 we all gathered downtown at Festplassen - the main square - for the Lysfest. Yes, It was December first and time to light the official Christmas Tree for the city of Bergen.

 

Thousands of people gathered around the big pond, in front of the stage and jumbotron, and on the surrounding streets.

 



 

Various local entertainers sang Christmas songs until it got dark at about 4:00. Then they got right down to business. The tree was lighted in simple Norwegian style - very minimalist - just white lights. We all and I mean just about all of the 30,000 people sang carols together. As we looked around we started to see torches being waved about. They were handing out torches! Free torches for Everybody! OK, not little kids.

 

 

Before long we were holding torches and singing Deilig er Jorden. That was followed up with a great fireworks display shot over the big pond. By 6 pm it was over; we were cold and ready to sit down.

 

 

We walked a couple of blocks to the "teaching center" that the church maintains for the missionaries to use for their street contacts and as a shelter from the rain and cold. Tonight it was perfect for hot chocolate and sweet Norwegian waffles with jam. We sat around with the young adults, missionaries, and visitors until the crowd had cleared. Then we headed home in the cold.

 

 

We drove up until the steep road got too slippery in Sandviken for a night view of the city.

 

 

After church we posed for this wintery scene. The days of our daughter's visit were the coldest days we saw in Norway. It was in the low teens and the highs were only in the twenties.

 

 

Right around the corner from our church is the Fantoft Stave Church. It was beautiful in the snow.

 

 

Erin had to leave (work in London beckoned) but we got Ali and Suze for another day. We took the funicular up to Fløyen and then continued the day with a little more shopping and a beautiful ride out to Nærøyfjord.

 

 

It got colder as we went into the mountains. All of the waterfalls were frozen.

 

 

We made it to this part of Sogne Fjord in time for sunset. Then it was back to the house and off to the airport. We had a most enjoyable time for the long first weekend of advent.

 

 

Besides packing, cleaning, and clearing out stuff we didn't need, we had numerous dinner or lunch appointments. Christiana and Vital had cooked a lovely goodbye dinner for us.

 

 

We shared a wonderful lunch with Karin and Henry. There were other goodbyes too.

 

 

The Broughs, front left in the photo, came one week before our departure. We had all of those days to help them get set up, introduce them to people and answer questions.

 

 

The night before we left Bergen we gathered with the Young Adults, our missionaries and a few others at the home of President and Sister Berg.

 

 

After a fantastic family recipe of codfish with sour cream sauce, plus ribbe and Christmas pølser (Christmas sausages), we posed for a farewell shot.

 

 

We flew to Oslo on Dec 17th. After a day kicking around the city we gathered for our farewell dinner with President and Sister Evans. Seven of us were going home - none of us slept much.

 

 

With President and Sister Evans

 

 

 Oslo to London to Dallas to Sacramento and it is over. We were met by this enthusiastic crowd. Now, we are on to a new begining, our family and renewing relationships with old friends. We learned so much, made so many new friends and got back much more than we gave. We know that we are fortunate to have had such an experience and such complete support from our wonderful family. So, it is on to a new adventure ... as soon as we get unpacked!

November goodbyes - our last full month in Norway

 

Pilar was a member of our Young Single Adult presidency from our first day in Bergen. She left for a screen-writing school in Los Angeles on November first. She may get back to her native Peru someday but after two years of school and mountain climbing in Bergen she will now be in Dodgertown for a while. Lucky for us we can visit her again soon.

 

 

Dinner with the wonderful Herland family - three generations worth - was a farewell gathering for us and for Pilar. Alexander with his arms around two of his brothers is one of our YSA's. We were treated to the most tasty Norwegian traditional foods, including venison that was taken on their land during the recent hunting season.

 

 

"Hurrah for deg!" We sing the birthday song to Michelle at yet another special dinner this month.

 

 

Dinner for the "seniors" included us and featured special Danish style cooking.

 

Daily walks pass over this little river which runs through the town of Nesttun. Since the last week in August we have had mostly rain so the river is running full bore. We have had maybe a dozen sunny days in the past three months. Even the locals are complaining, which is rare in a area that has this saying: "There's no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothing." (it rhymes in Norwegian)

 



I have been waiting for this house to fall down for 15 months now.

 



 

Downtown Nesttun is back to normal with the completion of the new lightrail line right down the middle of main street. The extention of the line from downtown Bergen will open in the summer of 2013.

 

 

There was a great deal of interest in the US elections here. Norwegians as a group are very knowledgeable about world politics. Our never-ending election cycle is totally different from what goes on here. This URL could be Republican headquarters in Norway but it is the address for a children's store called Mitt Rom or My Room.

 

 

On one of those sunny days we took the gondola (far left) up to the top of the highest of the seven mountains of Bergen. Ulriken is a little over 700 meters above sea level. The view of the city and the outer islands is even better than the view from Fløyen.

 

 

The gondola is small and the temperature dropped below freezing quickly.

 

 

We were treated to a clear view as we clomped along over the rocks and frozen ground.

 

 

The communications tower is lighted with bright colors at night.

 

 

The professional fotball klubb in Bergen is named Brann or "Fire." They were organized in 1908 and play all their matches to a packed house. Bergensers may have their favorite "Champions League" or other European league teams but as far as Norway's pro league goes there is only Brann.

 

Haukeland Sykehus is THE hospital in Bergen. It is a teaching hospital too. It is part of the impressive public medical system here.

 



 

Across the downtown area and out to sea.

 

 

Craggy islands connected by cookie cutter two lane suspension bridges make up the whole patchwork of islands in western Norway.

 

 

So, all of a sudden these three people inflated their kites and jumped off the mountain. This is a great place for para-gliding. Aside from freezing your tush off it looked like great fun to sail around over the city and then land on one of the practice fields by Brann Stadion.

 

 

Soaring over the city

 

 

Winter is coming on. The leaves are almost all down. Most of the boats have been taken out of the docks. We get one last look at the city from a mountain top that will soon be covered with snow.

 

 

Last of all, here is our little crew of missionaries, out in the weather as usual. We have a "tripanionship" and our two Elders. One of the best surprises of our mission has been how thoroughly enjoyable these young men and women have been. We are losing three of this group on Wednesday. We will get our last group that same day. What a pleasure to serve with them all.



Stockholm, Sweden Temple

A Norwegian ward temple trip is an event. We flew to Stockholm with a large group of ward members for the second of two weeks that were "our weeks" for 2012 at the temple. We arrived late on Monday afternoon and checked in at the guesthouse.

 

The facility is a large rooming house with many apartments and dorm rooms.

 

 

Our room was cozy but well equipted with a full kitchen. We just had to buy the food.

 

 

In the evening the people gathered to sing songs or play games.

 

 

Shanna was part of a Chilean version of Phase 10 that lasted long into the night.

 

 

The people who stay in the dorms and those who want to make a group meal get to use the big kitchen that is adjacent to the lounge / dining area. You get you own refrigerator and storage area.

 

 

The Stockholm Temple was dedicated in 1985. It is not a large temple by any means but it has the capability to run simultaneous sessions in different languages. It is lovely and very peaceful inside and outside.

 

 

It was considerably cooler in Stockholm than in Bergen as we snapped this picture on the way back from an evening walk.

 

 

This is the name of the little suburb where the temple is located. We departed on Thursday just before noon so we could make our 2:40 flight.

 

 

Swedish colors! We had the train to ourselves most of the way.

 

 

At Stockholm Central Station we connected with the airport bus and made our way through the city and on to the motorway another 45 minutes to Arland airport and our flight home.

 

Once home we had one day to get ready for a road trip to Stake Conference. This was to be the first stake conference in the history of our brand new Drammen Stake. We washed, packed, and switched the tires from summer tires to our winter mud and snow tires.

 

 

Most of the waterfalls are just trickles this time of year but this one looked big still. On closer inspection we noticed that it was totally frozen! Cool, I mean cold! The drive to Drammen is about seven and one-half hours.

 

 

Hard to see with these out the window shots but really it was frozen.

 

 



 

Stake conference is all about meetings. This was taken at the Saturday evening general meeting. The youth choir sang a beautiful original composition by one of our Bergen Ward members.

 

 

Ane-Rebekka was one of our passengers and was a speaker at the conference. She is a medical student here. We stayed in Drammen and as soon as we could get away we started the trek back home.

 

We let the Tom-Tom GPS system plan our route and it threw in this short cut over the mountains. We were in snow for the first couple of hours of the trip. I am glad I had the snow tires on the V-dub.

 



 

However, once we rejoined the regular highway we fell into line behind Brother Gjevik and the other Bergen Ward caravan. No more snow, just cold and dry.

 

 

Always great to be back home. The fall nights are starting earlier and earlier. We are back in our scarves and wool coats. This is our view off the deck.