3 boats 1 little bus. A spectacular day spent fjording.
Pure wonderment. Cinematic beauty. LARGER THAN LIFE.
Floating in a perfect cocoon of salty sea air and clear blue water. I did a lot of this: nothing.
Staring at all that snow melt water falling over rocky cliffs. Cradled by the Sunnmøre alps. Yes. Somehow there really is an alpine coastal mountain range. I don't understand it either. Pure green nearly vertical mountains, some rising 5600 ft. straight up from the fjord. Abandoned farms which were once home to people, goats, cows. Conditions so challenging only a truly hardy people could carve out lives up here. Some climbing ladders to get to their homes. Some mothers tethering their children to ropes so they didn't tumble over the edge.
Avalanches, rock slides, paddling across a fjord daily to bring water for humans and animals. Nothing was easy. But they did it. They did it all. Growing apples, apricots, and pears. Many died. More lived. If you come to Norway you can hear their stories on the little boats that ply through these waters. Touching and beautiful the way the people who worked this land are still remembered and spoken about.
Lost goats rescued by brave men. Search and rescue teams who rescued the brave men. 7 human and 4 goat lives lost. Stories like that. The kind that make your heart twist and wrench and feel glad to be alive.
And then there's us of course. 100 years later. Drifting through the glassy fjord water in our boats. Still not believing we are here. In Norway. In the summer. It's true. It really happened.
sister threw my glasses overboard. I had to buy new ones. There weren't a lot of options. But since I always wanted a nice pair of ROUND white glasses to accent my ROUND face I thought I'd give these a go.
my sister only looks innocent. She is not.
Here we are riding through a technicolor landscape in our tiny bus. Rambling down little lanes? Passing mountain lupines, meadows with cows wearing leather collars. flowers flowers flowers. 5 people on board. Fjord hopping. Snow and green and rushing rivers and still waters.
Impossible to capture the whole thing on camera.
the majesty of it all.
I snapped photos and taped them to the inside of my mind so I would remember.
It was 2 seconds after this photo that my old glasses met with an untimely end.
did I mention the wooly warm blankets you get to wrap yourself in. Warmth for a land just below the arctic circle.
as usual this is part 1. I can't fit it all into 1 post!
Sent from my iPad
Loved the Fjord hopping. 🙂
ah sister! first the scarf, now the glasses. what up?
oh mary anne, i too am a ‘younger’ sister and have had to deal with many abuses from my ‘older’ sister.
i get you girl.
now off to read sister’s version of the story.
I freakin’ love your new sunglasses on you! They are perfect. The glasses overboard situation was meant to be, I think! Sometimes sisters know best.
Hmph! It is very entertaining to read the two DIFFERENT perspectives of what happened to your old glasses. Very!
Sister and I love poring over your comments and doing funny skits and dramatic interpretations. Keep em coming. Love love love. Xoxoxo
Guess I better start hitting the books, so I can get into a good college, so I can get a good job, so I can feed a fat 401k something or other, so I can retire in Norway.
Maybe I can get one of those abandoned farms cheap.
It’s fine, wouldn’t have made it as a writer anyway.
The water and the mountains and the green and the snow…. It looks a lot like southern Alaska. Only there seem to be a lot more people/houses in Norway.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
So amazing. I like the new glasses.
Y’all are having FUN! I know neither of you, but so GLAD you get to explore as sister/friends. Girlfriends make everything better and when your GF is your sister! Wow. Blessed fo sho.
majesty. perfect word
Once again, the most wonderful views! We know, but we really don’t know do we, about the beauty of the earth? We heard a different version of the loss of your glasses 🙂 Oh that Carol!