Meet the (Grand)Parents (2/2)
... and Norwegian smiles
Greetings from The Old Inn in Bhandipur, Nepal. Since our time in Norway (see below) we’ve spanned much of the globe and stopped into four new countries. Rest assured that we’re ashamed by how far behind we’ve fallen in our efforts to regale the masses with our influential adventures. In any event, read on! The next issue of this newsletter features what may or may not have been our favorite stop of the trip thus far.
NORWAY
We arrived from Ireland around midnight in mid-September and woke to a drizzly paradise of rococo-influenced architecture, winding our way through the wooden planks of Bryggen, the seafood market in the harbor, and nordic coffee shops of legend. We pretty much instantly fell in love with the communal approach to design, the art installations that happened to be playgrounds, the pedestrian-only residential blocks with communal dining tables and bike storage dotting the streets below. It was an incredibly walkable and totally beautiful city that felt just big and small enough.
Just when we thought our hearts would burst with gratitude, Mimi and Papa arrived! All of a sudden, Liz had time to take another watercolor class, and Alex was cooking minor variants of the same type of pasta again.
While several Scandinavian countries boast of being the happiest, Norwegians importantly felt happiest to host us. The women in the knitting shop were inexhaustibly helpful and good humored despite Liz’ cluelessness as she attempted to tackle her first sweater pattern. The burly fishermen were all too happy for Alex to photograph their freshly caught whale meat. We hiked up Mount Floyen and braved a troll forest, Alex purchased some very waterproof, and very rubber pants, and we made our way out to the fjords.
The view from our home in Aurland was epic and in easily in the running for best Airbnb of the BTIF trip. Each morning god1 hovered over the depths in the form of fog, and then parted to show the majesty of creation. Everywhere we looked there was deep turquoise water, living roofs, skipping sheep, waterfalls, and shaggy longhorns. Despite the awe-inspiring natural landscape, for cheap thrills we looked no further than neighboring Flam where the cruise ships vomited out cruisers in the thousands daily. We shadowed them from a distance, admiring their lanyards and public disdain for one another from afar. Occasionally a boomer couple argument was so fierce, Liz found herself trailing them for miles, taking great comfort in their lack of investment in therapy. They used words like “never” and “always” and they were always furious for having lost each other yet again in the throngs of people at the Norway outlet mall.
After hygge-ing, hiking, and biking for several days in this paradise, and achieving local status at the one and only brewery in Flam, we embarked on our second date night of the trip! This time we kayaked to a waterfall, and took a justifiably famous train up to Myrdal, where a Wes-Anderson-meets-the-Shining-inspired lodge awaited us at the top of a mountain. We eavesdropped on the “best-selling author” (his words, not ours) of Raising Boys. Unfortunately we were too intimidated to directly engage him on raising our boy, but we did have a great debate about organized religion within earshot so needless to say, he knows who we are now and likely respects us.
We woke the next morning and sprinted down the mountain to a bike depot for our second Flam ride - so nice we rode her twice - rushing back to ensure we had time to reassemble our 17 bags for checkout from the airbnb. Imagine our surprise when the roadway was closed due to falling boulders. Patty and Dick had to pull off a legendary pickup operation in which they located all of our belongings and repacked our 17 bags, catching a city-sponsored ferry back to Flam in record time so that we could make it back to Bergen to catch our flights. Enjoy the grandparents perspective below.
Direct Testimonials from Mimi and Papa
Dick: “We had a fantastic time together in Norway. Traveling with Chester promotes a slower pace with more time in a place (we were in Bergen for a couple of days and the rest of the time in Aurland) and less continuous shifting. Every day included some wonderful nature activity (hike, bike ride, kayaking) and tons of time hanging. We based in a beautiful home on a fjord surrounded by incredible scenery. On a 1-10 scale it was a 23!”
Patty: “Our destination this fall was to a newly discovered country named "Chester", which borders the countries, "Elizabeth" and "Alexander". "Chester" seems to be conquering more and more hearts as he takes over more territory and grows bigger and bigger!
We were fortunate to be able to get a visa to visit as "Chester" welcomes all with open hands (hands that usually are used to balance in his newly acquired skill of walking)!
We were pleasantly surprised that we understood most of the language, as "Chester" touched our hearts by calling us by our grandparent names... "Mimi" and "Papa" for the first time.
The cuisine and customs around eating seemed mostly on the floor and consisted of foods you can pick up, put in your mouth or pick up and put anywhere. Blueberries are the best!
The country of "Chester" may have been formerly where Aladdin lived because the mode of transportation was a magic carpet ride!
We were so happy to add this country to our passports and hope we will be able to visit sometime real soon!
Oops, we really went to Norway! It was a blast... fjords, skies that change every 5 seconds, biking, hiking to sheep, kayaking and best activity... babysitting!
***We had a crazy grandparent challenge when one day after babysitting, a landslide occurred and Alex and Liz could not get back. Our only recourse was to pack all their stuff in bags and get the 9 pieces of luggage plus Chester into a taxi, on to a ferry (where all the other grandparents took pity on us and helped drag all the luggage over the gangplank into the boat), fun times with Chester on the boat ride and yippee... we found Mommy and Daddy waiting for us!”
Note that this is Liz’s Christianized perspective and the Jews and New Agers in the house would likely describe things differently
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