Hey all. Though it doesn’t seem like it to me, my summer travels are almost half over. Here’s a quick summary of the trip thus far, and a look forward to my plans for the next month.
On Tuesday June 9th my parents and my sister, Solvejg, flew over for a visit to Trondheim! Bjorn stayed home to work for the summer. They stayed for three days, seeing what I had been up to over the semester, and doing some hiking in Bymarka, which I didn’t do enough of on my own. We then traveled south by rental car, visiting relatives in Soknedal and exploring the mountains and glaciers of the Luster Fjord in southern Norway (see the map). From Oslo we flew to Copenhagen, Denmark, rented another car, and drove south to Nakskov, Lolland, where our family spent a semester in 2001. There we visited many relatives and friends, and did some biking and sea kayaking. After that we flew from Copenhagen to Paris and worked our way down through France by car. Our destinations were Provence, the Riviera, and Chamonix, in the French Alps.
It was great to travel with family, as everything had already been planned out and I was able to just tag along. We did some great hiking, in the fjords of Norway and the alps of France, as well as some swimming in the Riviera. Last Tuesday, the 30th, my family drove back north to Paris and a flight home, dropping me in Geneva, Switzerland on the way. Thus begin my solo travels. From Geneva I took a combination of train, bus, and cable car to Gimmelwald, a tiny village up in the Swiss Alps. Which brings us to today.
The future is less certain than the past, but I do have a broad plan for the next five weeks. I’ll be in Switzerland for about a week, relaxing and hiking in the mountains, and then I’ll head south west to Spain. The European Juggling Convention takes place in Vitoria, Spain from the 4th to the 12th, and I’ll be there from the 9th on, seeing some amazing jugglers, and hopefully learning a lot. From there I’ll make an arc back up to Norway, stopping in Barcelona and Austria to visit friends, and Italy and Germany for sightseeing. On the 29th of July there is a festival in Stiklestad, just north of Trondheim, celebrating St. Olaf’s death there in battle. My relatives who live in the area have tickets, and so I’ll make it back up to Norway by then to see them and go to the festival. My flight leaves from Trondheim on the 5th of August, so for the remaining week I hope to keep going north, to Tromsø and the Lofoten islands, before returning for the plane ride home.
I’m not sure I will be writing any more on my trip, so have a wonderful summer wherever you are. I look forward to exchanging stories and photos when I get back. Until then, ha det godt!
hilsen Trygve
