Day 178: A Day at the Solstrand — Exploring Ole Bull’s Summer Home
Awoke at the Solstrand, which feels like a cozier, not-creepy, Norwegian version of the hotel in The Shining.
Teddy exercised and then I did. We each needed a break from our children.
I did the ice pool after working out! Getting in is sort of easy — you just keep putting one foot in front of the other — but getting out is hard! You’re suddenly paralyzed with cold and desperate to get out and it’s like a slow-mo bad dream where your limbs are heavy and hard to move. The sauna was welcome after…
We split up for school and had a cozy, good session. Willa and I sat in a nook on the ground floor by a sunny window overlooking the water.
The landscape is dramatic — sparkling water, a sky that’s constantly changing. It’s sunny and rainy at the same time, all the time. Sort of reminds me of Maine?
The grounds of this place are very nice, so we walked along the water’s edge to take it in. Saw dozens of orange jellyfish down in the water, cool pebbles for skipping, a lovely contemporary walkway with benches…
There’s definitely a cold snap this week. It’s in the low 50s when normally it’d be 65-70.
We ate a fairly miserable lunch at the hotel. Our kids are just being so naughty all of a sudden and it’s becoming very obvious that they’re doing it on purpose — we can see them getting a thrill from pissing us off, and they’re doing things they know will rile us up.
Quickly learning that every time we snap at them they win. Must remember this. Further thoughts at the end.
We decided to make an afternoon excursion to classical composer Ole Bull’s summer home/Lysoen Museum— a 20-minute drive away and 5-minute ferry. Not because we’re music people, but because the house just looked so awesome.
It was a lovely ride and the house really is stunning — an 1874 home designed with a mix of Moorish, Russian and Norwegian influences. Made entirely of wood. Not surprising, there’s no smoking or barbecuing allowed anywhere on the island.
Thought we’d cruise through the house on our own…but the visit came with a 25-minute seated lesson/lecture from a guide about the history of Ole Bull’s life. Not ideal for Willa and James to say the least but they survived and we let them use our cameras to take pictures of the room afterward as a reward.
The house is really spectacular.
Here’s some of the scene outside too:
After the ferry dropped us back, we stopped in a bodega-like grocery store for some sunscreen. Ended up buying a Norwegian candybar and…a hand-knit Norwegian sweater! There were a bunch of them hanging on wire hangers in the window, and they were so cute. The cashier said a lady in town makes them. Perfect! I got one.
In a (failed) attempt to calm the bad kids and their irritated parents down, we all went down to the spa/pool area. Had the opposite effect, since there are a lot of adults at this place trying to have a quiet retreat/spa-type experience and don’t want kids around — exactly the scenario that stresses us out. Teddy and I hate it when naughty kids are goofing off in non-kid places, so seeing our own kids do this is torture.
Willa and James were doing cannonballs, zigzagging from the pool to the jacuzzi to the ice bath, over and over — and at one point even collided with a guy trying to do laps in peace. Ugggggh.
It got worse: When we left the pool we realized we had no towels with us. I used some old towel from the floor of the ladies locker room for Willa while Teddy snatched a dry one off the back of a chair near the pool that looked discarded. As he did, the disrupted lap-swimmer guy shouted from the water that that was HIS towel and to put it BACK! Aaaaaah get us out of here!!!
We threw in the towel (!!) and ordered room service that night. We let the kids watch “Frozen,” since the fictional town of Arrendale was based on Bergen, where we’re headed tomorrow.
Side note: Willa must have watched that movie a thousand times when she was young but doesn’t really remember it at all today. James had never seen it. So it was like they were watching for the first time. Teddy and I got sucked in because it’s good.
We called it a night.
Misc:
We’ve agreed that we ask our kids to get on our level all the time — manners, calm, no whining, talk like a grownup, listen to the guide, do this, don’t do that — but only occasionally get on their level with games, silliness, etc. We need to do more to engage them, joke with them, play with them. A lot of parents do this naturally all the time — I’m in awe of them — but we aren’t those people and need to start trying harder! Anytime we do it, they’re better behaved. Ahhh, parenting requires so much energy!
