Day 180: Fourth of July Exploring Norway’s Fjords
Fourth of July in Norway! Thoughts on the holiday below.
We did our little school routine here at the Solstrand this morning — so lovely in this cozy place over looking the dramatic water.
Today was a daytrip day to check out what all the fjord hype is about.
We drove our rental station wagon a ways along winding, sometimes one-lane roads that hugged the coast until we reached the Hardangerfjord.
The scenery combined with the light is what makes this place so stunning. Steep mountainsides covered in these colossal out-of-a-storybook pine trees, forest floors of electric green moss and ferns, glacier ice atop peaks in the distance, and this flat twinkling expanse of water that sometimes looks deep blue and sometimes appears emerald green.
That alone would be pretty, but the constant coming and going of white cumulus clouds and gray rain clouds makes for breathtaking light.
I have to write all this because I didn’t really get great pictures. Arg.
Our first stop was the popular Hardangerfjord waterfall, which you can walk behind.
We shared a few hot dogs at the base as a snack — and in honor of July 4 — and then proceeded to climb the steep walkway up to the falls.
It was chilly out! We were pretty well bundled.
Quite a natural spectacle this was. The kids got a kick out of standing behind the water, watching it explode out over the cliff.
We took some pictures and enjoyed the view from the top for a bit before heading back down to carry on.
We drove on, loving the scenery. Because of the light, little white and red fisherman cottages along the shore look like they’ve got a spotlight on them, and stand out against ominous dark storm clouds. It’s the kind of light you see once in a while in New England, but the scenery that’s illuminated here is much more spectacular.
It felt like there was a postcard-perfect white wooden church around every corner.
A lot of the houses have sod and plants on their roofs, which Google tells us is a traditional form of insulation.
Our next destination was a roadside cafe for lunch, where we’d been told we’d find the world’s best apple pie. There’s an orchard up the hill.
We were the only ones in the place, and had a corner booth overlooking the fjord.
After our lunch of sausage, quiche and salmon, we ordered one each of the pies in the dessert case: The apple pie of course plus a raspberry cheesecake and an insanely delicious chocolate angel food/whipped cream/fondant cake.
We inhaled it all.
Out back of the cafe was a little grassy area with sandbox, tree swings and picnic tables. We parked there for over an hour enjoying the sporadic sunshine and the chance to let the kids just play and run for a bit.
They continue to be bad btw — specifically when it comes to not listening/outright ignoring us and some slight back-talk/sassiness from Willa. Their favorite thing to do is wrestle with each other like puppies, which is great at an outdoor park but terrible in a hotel lobby or at the breakfast table or in a museum. More below.
By around 4:30 we began the long drive back to our hotel, listening to a few kid podcasts as we went (an episode of Brains On about the history of salty snacks, a Story Pirates and episode of The Two Princes, a popular new series from Gimlet).
Teddy was driving and had to make two stops to combat drowsiness on the way home — one for a Coke and one to take off his jacket and do 10 pushups. The sugar crash from dessert was real, and those tiny roads required full attention…
Back at the hotel we all went down for a final dip in the many pools — and Teddy was on a mission to swim in the fjord. I talked a big game about doing it but totally wimped out.
To swim in the fjord you had to walk down two levels of stone steps that led out glass doors straight to a stone jetty/walkway. There was a ladder into the water at the end.
He took off his robe and — with all of us watching/recording — he went in!! Very brave. We were impressed.
He said it still wasn’t as cold as the icy pool inside (that one’s about 45 degrees, this was more like 55).
We swam in the warmed indoor-outdoor pool, then wrapped up and headed upstairs.
Once in the room, we fed the kids some fruit from a fruit stand we’d bought earlier and some slices of leftover pizza from last night. Teddy aka Guzzle Boy needed actual dinner so he took some rare Teddy-only time (I’m much more likely to take Margaret-only time than he is) and headed downstairs for a solo dinner in the restaurant. Said it was lovely.
Meanwhile I read some “Phantom Tollbooth” to the kids and called it a night.
Misc:
Kids are still rambunctious and especially hyper. We’ve decided that we need to be nicer to them and that our sometimes snappish, dismissive ways are not good at all. Terrible modeling. New effort underway to be patient and kinder all around, especially when they’re acting up. So hard when we’re together like this constantly. But necessary. A new, intentional approach is in effect. Starting…now! Be nice!
The US has its problems but it is still one of the best places on earth. Especially New York. Thing we have that other countries we’ve visited don’t:
- Diversity of people
- Diversity of geographic beauty
- A culture of entrepreneurship
- An “anything is possible” spirit (even when it’s not always true)
- Freedom from crushing bureaucracy
- Freedom of speech
It feels hard in our current political/cultural situation to admit things are “great” in America because it feels so terrible right now/truly horrific things are happening at our border and elsewhere. Saying things are good feels like I’m saying we can take our foot off the resistance pedal. We can’t!
Yet…I’m seeing firsthand how, compared to most places, the US has unparalleled opportunity and diversity at scale. (Plus, all those a-hole old white racists are going to die soon and any still alive in a generation will be voted out by an amazing wave of rising youth). Somehow, with a little distance and perspective, this July 4 I’m feeling…hopeful?
