Day 9: Exploring the Norwegian Fjords

With a bit of a late start today, Kristen and Kennedy decided to drive us around to see the local scenery, as well as other towns that they had lived and gone to school near by. We were both in a state of continual awe at the jagged snow covered peaks rising from the still blue waters. The peaks seemed to emerge from nowhere, and the interplay of shadows and light made them seem alive and powerful. Around each turn was yet another breath-taking view, we giggled and marveled, as our hosts seemed to embrace the opportunity to appreciate their landscape with renewed enthusiasm. We visited the Hareid Seal Hunting Fishing museum and learned that musk (to us a musk looked like a small version of the wooly mammoth) had been captured imported to Norway from Greenland long ago and they can still be found (YIKES) in the countryside between Oslo and Alesund. (but now mind you, our hosts are a playful bunch, so we were never sure exactly what was true and what was “fun with the Americans”). Along the journey we drove through Eiksund sambandet-tunnel, the world’s deepest underwater tunnel (240 meters below land). We visited the towna of Volda and Orsta and found the sweetest café in an old Norwegian house called Fru Svendsen and had coffee, waffles with sour cream and jam and pear cake. In the evening after dinner, we had the opportunity to share a bit of Olympic international bonding as Norway’s cross country ski prince Petter pulled ahead to win 2nd place. (Much to the family's dismay, a Swede came in first!)