Norway 2025

Or NORGE in Norwegian.

Eight days (six nights in six hotel rooms) and miles of bus, ferry, boat, and rail travel all over Norway.

We left 3/5/2025 and had a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. Then a 2 hour flight to Oslo.  

Highlights include:

1. Tour of the building where they present the Nobel Peace Prize then a tour of the Nobel Peace Prize Center.
2. 13th century Viking church.
3. The Fjord Sognefjord boat ride (Nærøyfjord and Aurlandsfjords)
4. The train ride up the mountain in Flam.
5. Bergen where we went up to the top of the mountain and stopped to have a hot dog made of reindeer meat.
6. Buildings in Stavanger.
7. Horse drawn surrey ride (with the fringe on top).

Then on 3/12/2025 Another two hour flight to Amsterdam and another 9 hour flight to Tampa.

For its size Norway is a huge supporter of Ukraine giving them $15 billion from a population of 5 million – $3 billion per million people – ten times what the US has provided.(European countries have provided $132 billion in aid  and the United States has provided $114 billion from a country of 340 million) –
not including Norway’s

  • Donations of equipment from the defense sector.
  • Donations of equipment acquired directly from the industry.
  • Training and education of Ukrainian personnel.
  • Donations of equipment acquired through international cooperation and funding mechanism
Our trip took us from Oslo on the east boundary around to Bergen on the west coast down to Stavanger and back to Oslo. A lot of rugged country. Gasoline at $7 a gallon means expensive travel.
Me in front of a trol.

First (on 3/6) was Oslo

Frognerparken (it did not look like this, it was somewhat brown and white in the winter).
Some of us 17 person travel group.
Our guide for the day. in front od some of the 200 statues in the park.
Famous angry baby statue.
Eileen in front of the little girl statue our guide said had eaten the icecream the little boy wantd.
Man juggling four babies, we saw a painting of this in another city.
Sculpture of the end of life.
Even the gate was a sculpture.
Sculptures of beginning to end of life, it took 14 years to construct.

Next in Oslo the City Hall where the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded and over to the Nobel Center for Peace.

City Hall, the cold air fogged the lens!
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel (shown above), along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature.
Walls of City Hall with murals of events, storys and myths.
Queen, the King had to wait for years to marry her.
Senate chamber.
Nobel Peace Center
A real gold Nobel award.
My replica: It says "ALFR NOBEL NAT MDCCCXXXIII OB MDCCCXCVI" Born 1833 died 1896
"PRO PACE ET FRATERNATATE GENTIUM" - FOR PEACE AND BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS

The monetary award for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is 10 million Swedish kronor (SEK), which is equivalent to approximately $1,000,000 USD

Store with the replica medals.

Downtown Oslo pictures:

Eileen up in the fort overlooking the harbor. Åsgardan
A horse in the fort?
Coming down from the fort.
A statue of FDR near the Oslo Harbor: President Roosevelt helped Queen Marthe and her three children - today one is the king of Norway - escape Norway when the Germans invaded Norway. Also, they came and lived at the White House shortly afterwards with the crown princess and the president becaming friends. After WWII, both the princess and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated the statue as a thank you for this American president's help and kindness toward the Norway and the Norwegian royal family.

On the bus toward Geilo and the train and boat. 3-7-2025

Typical white house and red barn, red paint was cheaper.
On Hemsedal Highway
Grass on roofs. A sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log houses in Norway and large parts of the rest of Scandinavia.
Approaching Flåm
At the end of the train ride we watched as a heliocopter delivered material for the construction of a house!
An AIRBUS!
His second load that we watched was windows.
The two guys that received the windows who were at the house with the blue plastic.
One crazy road that guys ride bikes down!

Ready to get on the electric boat to sail the Fjord in FLAM

Flam, the end of the railroad , and the port for the electric boat.

Then off to Bergen 3-8-2025

Bergen, Norway
German Navy accepted, now US Navy not welcome due to Trump.
Old fire house
Celebration dress.
Seated
William Shakespeare
Den Nationale Theater statue with theater masks.
Viking
After a year and a half of restoration, the iconic statue of the Roman god Mercury has returned to its rightful place atop the Sundt building in Bergen. This is a key milestone in the full rehabilitation of the Sundt building, which will once again become a landmark in the heart of the city.
Riding up the Floibanen funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen!
View from the top
Eileen eating her raindeer meat sausage. My sausage was stolen by some birds!!
Sausages $8.53
Golden King Crab legs, $209.90 per kg ($95.41 a pound) Things are expensive here.
Live rare Golden King Crabs
3-9-2025 
Sunrise at the ski resort we stayed at.
Breakfast.
Eileen ready for another cold day exploring (solid ice in that walkway!).
Our bus driver being careful to not slide!
Sheep watching us as we were waiting for the fog to lift and let us travel via ferry.
Terland Klopp is located in Gyadalen valley. A reportedly Viking bridge over to a farm across the river.
Proprietor in tux and top hat ready to take us on a horse drawn carriage ride. Note the falling snow. He also provided us with a cup of steaming hot cider!
Two fine horses to take us on the ride.
The hotel from a knoll while pausing for the cider.
Some of many old tools in the shed. (a scale to weigh grain or hay)

March 10, 2025 on the road

Takes up the entire road on curves!
Tesla charging stations, 40% of all cars in Norway are Tesla's.
Heddal Stave Church (Bokmål: Heddal stavkirke, Nynorsk: Heddal stavkyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Notodden Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Heddal. It is the church for the Heddal parish which is part of the Øvre Telemark prosti in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark. The wooden, triple nave stave church was built in a long church design around the year 1197 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect. The church seats about 180 people. It was rebuilt in 1950.
Sticks were used to direct the water from the roof away from the foundation
Viking carving at the end of a ridge pole!
Cross at the end of another ridge pole.
Cross with a rooster at the top of the church!
On to Stavanger 3-10-2025
Outside the Norwegian Petroleum Museum
An amazing complex museum. They have received $900,000,000 in royalties that are sitting in a bank!
Life raft
One man submersible
Oil platform model (partial, it is huge!)
New life raft.
Gnome on a house.
Neighborhood trash container (underground)
Trash container pick up.
Public pay toilet on street.
The town of Notodden
My refrigerator magnets.
My tee shirt.