One fine day, not too long ago, in Norway......

[DFW]

My brother-in-law and his parents, who are of Norwegian heritage, decided to book a boat trip up the coast of Norway to the "top of Europe," the Nordkap.

Their cruise on a relatively small boat started in Bergen, where they were to spend 3 days to get over the initial jet lag. Since Bergen is not too far for us to get to, and since I (sorta--Norwegian is mutually intelligible with Swedish) speak the language, they invited my wife and me to spend those 3 days with them. While there are no direct flights to Bergen from Düsseldorf, there are direct 90 minute flights from Amsterdam, which is a 35 minute commuter flight away. Anyway, we did join them, and we loved it. I had been there in 1971, but not since, and remembered almost nothing.

My brother-in-law took this picture of me, my sister, my wife and part of some unfortunate moose (or whatever it was) while we were there. He has since lost his dad to Alzheimer's, so these were happier days.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Ohiogal]

1. Nice photo! Everyone looks so happy.

I had the good fortune to travel with friends by road up the coast to Hammerfest, Norway, many years ago.

Beautiful country.

[DFW]

2. I'm envious!

I never made it farther north than Bergen, though I did make it to Kiruna in Sweden to see the midnight sun.

[Ohiogal]

4. I can't believe I've been someplace you haven't, DFW!

I remember that it was July and we pulled over to the side of the road to make snowballs. Four of us in a Fiat. How lucky I was to be able to do that!

i never did see the midnight sun, however, so you're still one up on me!

[DFW]

12. Oh, there are lots of places I haven't been!

I have a lot of making up to do!

[Ohiogal]

8. You made me dig up some old pictures ...🙂

My friend, her mom, and me on the road to Hammerfest. I am in the middle.

I was about 19 years old



Getting out to see the snow in July, I am on the far right



Sorry picture quality isn’t that good!

[Glamrock]

9. What a cutey!

Woof woof!

[kiri]

10. Moose, largest member of the deer family

It is not a moose, as Americans use the term. It is a reindeer, related to North American/Alaska caribou.

The word "deer" derives from Teutonic "tier", German for animal, often largish and hoofed. Originally in early English, deer meant any animal from a dog to a rein-deer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Not so sure about that -- reindeer antlers tend to curve forward, and these don't.

It could be a moose, (Alces alces), which in Europe is called an elk (elg), but it's not the same as the North American elk, which is also called the wapiti (Cervus canadensis), which this clearly isn't.

[Brother Buzz]

14. Looks like a Norwegian moose to me

[DFW]

17. Norwegian version of "Northern Exposure?"

And when he said "don't be a pussy," he used a decidedly more vulgar version than the translation indicated!

[Brother Buzz]

21. I understood it was an unlicensed spinoff from the Sopranos

Moose didn't exactly roam the street in Lillyhammer, like Northern Exposure, but moose have been known to pop into restaurants in Lillehammer to have a look-see.





I'm bummed they didn't do the promised season four. I even heard Stevie had finished the script when they pulled the plug.

[DFW]

23. That first photo looks like the rest of what is in my photo! n/t

[hlthe2b]

3. Nice!

Oh, and I believe that is a reindeer, DFW... Or once was.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Someday I want to take the Hurtigruten cruise all the way to Kirkenes,

where you really can see Russia from your house. It's veldig dyrt, but I really want to do it.

[DFW]

13. EVERYTHING in Norway is veldig dyrt!

They are awash in north sea oil money, don't use the euro and don't belong to the EU. The Switzerland of the north. Its nickname is "Stickersjokk."

[Aristus]

6. I'd like to visit Tromso someday.

On Google Earth, what I imagine must be the submerged remnants of the German battleship Tirpitz are visible just offshore of Tromso. It might be interesting to see them.

[DFW]

15. That is way up the coast

I'd like to see Tromsø too, not to mention everywhere north of there. But I still have my day job, and refuse to give up my annual down time on Cape Cod, so it's not in the cards for the near future for me.

[riverwalker]

7. My great grandfathers fishing grounds

When researching him in the Norwegian census, he was off “fishing at Nordkapp”. They lived on Kaagen, near Skjervøy.

[DFW]

16. That is indeed up there!

Kågen is linked to the mainland by tunnel, not typical for a place that far away from main population centers.

[Dem2theMax]

18. When I die,

I would like to come back as DFW. You have the most interesting life! I am green with envy. But I absolutely love it when you share all of these things with us.

[DFW]

19. You might want to ponder that one more closely before you submit your application

Sure, I tend to focus on the positive side. Just my nature.

But there are the long working hours, the health problems, the fights against bureaucracy, corruption, organized crime, delays in trains and planes that mess up my month sometimes, Europe's lousy weather, and the wear and tear that working 21 days without a break can bring.

If you're willing to put up with all THAT, then go ahead and have that heart to heart with St. Peter, the Buddha, or the Great Spirit, or whoever it is you expect to meet when the time comes

[Dem2theMax]

20. Maybe I could just come back for the fun parts?

But if I came back again, hopefully I would be younger than I am now, and I might be up to that challenge.

I would have to be given a better brain the second time around. I can barely do English, and I'm guessing you speak at least 10 other languages!

[DFW]

22. Well, 8 and a half really

The half being Schwyzerdüütsch (Swiss German), and only the versions spoken in Zürich and Basel. Go even as far south as Bern and I'm lost.

Otherwise, French, Spanish, Catalan , Italian, Russian, German, Swedish and Dutch. Spend as much time on the road as I do, and you'll pick them up by pure exposure and absorbtion. Actually, if I hadn't painted myself into a corner jobwise, I would have been taking it easier by now, too. I have great job security, but am stuck, since I can't find a replacement.

For that matter, I should take to heart a saying a wise old Frenchman once told me: the cemeteries are full of people the world just couldn't do without (les cimitières sont pleins des gens indispensables), of which he is now one, by the way.

[Dem2theMax]

24. Eight and a half. I was close.

I have to ask, is this what you had actually planned for your life, or did this job sort of create itself as you went along?

I know that we don't know the particulars of your job, but what you do share with us is absolutely fascinating to me. I live what I like to call a very small life. And that wasn't what I had planned for myself, but health circumstances made it such.

If I were younger, and healthier, I would find a way to follow behind you, and learn your job to become your replacement. You sound like you've earned some time off!

I can say that I have been lucky enough to have been to a few of those countries you mentioned above. How I wish I could go back to them, and spend a lot more time there.

[DFW]

25. Perceptive question

Answer: anything but. I absolutely made this up as I went along. If you had told me when I was 21 that I'd actually marry the woman of my dreams and get to make up this job chapter by chapter as I saw fit, I'd have asked you what controlled substance you had been abusing, and then told you that you were doing far too much of it for your own good.

[Dem2theMax]

26. That is a wonderful answer.

And it made me smile a whole lot!