Insights from my World Travels
As we snaked up the mountain to HaukÃ¥sen airport for our flight to Oslo, a lump formed in my throat, a clear expression of the anxiety I had developed before the flight. Fun story (I apologize that some of you in Sogndal have already heard it): I’ve endured a somewhat forced fandom of the National …
Today's entry will be a little more reflective and less of a play-by-play structure, but I do want to acknowledge that we spent the early afternoon in the company of Bente, Trude, Erik, Jermund, Torvald, Sigrid, Therese, and Bjørn where we were, for the last time on this go around, wined and dined (coffeed and …
I arrived in Norway with little room to spare in my luggage, but one souvenir for which I am always happy to finagle space is coffee. I observed on an earlier trip to MENY, one of the local grocery stores, that Sognefjord Kaffibrenneri keeps a well refreshed stock of recently roasted coffee on the shelves, …
After our arduous circuit yesterday, my dad and I had earned some rest--and we took it, heavily diverting from our normal breakfast schedule this morning. Suspecting I had a day full of food ahead of me, I took it easy on the eggs and bacon. (My premonition would prove correct, as we will later see.) …
Unless the predictions prove untrue, today was our last tango with sunshine in Sogndal. As such, we had reserved the day for a long drive across one of Norway's many scenic roads over the mountains. Our sights were originally set on Gaularfjellet, which branches off from nearby Balestrand, but we changed targets to Vikafjellet after …
Our social meters beginning to redline after some days of back-to-back house visits, my dad and I made the necessary decision to lay a little low this morning and knock off some low stress activities that had been on the backburner. The harbor in Kaupanger is one of the many ports of arrival for visitors …
With just under a week remaining for our stay in Sogndal, we have entered a reality in which time must be thoughtfully budgeted, especially in conjunction with weather predictions. As we attempt to reserve any remaining days of sunshine--a historically limited resource in Sogndal--for road trips and sightseeing, the leftover time quickly fills with appointments …
Jostedalsbreen--the Jostedal Glacier--is the largest glacier on the European continent and cuts across a large swath of mountain just an hour north of Sogndal. The evolution--and, more recently, the quickening liquification--of the glacier plays a critical role in the natural ecosystem of the surrounding Jostedal valley. One particular example of this is memorialized along the …
Oh, how I've longed to pen that title. Four years ago, as many of you reading have now heard, I wove a tale of tragedy through the mountains of Sogndal. I had accepted an invitation from Geir to take a walking journey up the steep slopes, fully unaware of the physical gauntlet it would entail. …
Generally speaking, when traveling, I prefer to seek new experiences rather than repeating the same ones I've had before. But, of course, there are always exceptions to this rule, and we had the opportunity to retrace our steps today to a place my parents and I remember with particular fondness (and a few inside jokes) …
Where the Waterfalls Mean Home 