...the long-awaited new buggy has landed! Been fancying one of these for a while now, so I'm well chuffed. All the more so because we got a really good deal on it (well, for Norway...) because it's the end of summer and who the heck would be daft enough to buy a cabriolet with winter looming...?! It comes with a set of winter wheels, so bring it on I say. Unlike the hire car, it has a manual box...concentration levels will need to be stepped up!
So, 5 weeks in and we're still firmly in holiday/tourist-mode. Spent last Saturday on a cruise up to Lysefjord to see the Pulpit Rock. Weather-wise, we couldn't have gotten a better day and the scenery was just stunning. The Pulpit Rock (or Preikestolen) towers 600m over the fjord and can also be reached via a 2-hour hike (keeping that for next year). There's a crack between the plateau of the rock and the mountain and legend has it that when seven sisters marry seven brothers from the Lysefjord area, the rock will fall into the fjord and create a huge tidal wave, destroying all surrounding life. Gulp!
The boat got close enough to the waterfall to collect some of the water in a bucket, which we all got to sample - I'm thinking you wont get much purer than that although, if I'm honest, I would have preferred something stronger. You can take the girl out of Orkney...
On the way out of the harbour, we passed the oil museum which as you can see has a very impressive design and even has its own lifeboat and ROV. We're saving that one for a winter's day.
On the home front, Mulder has decided to take the path of least resistance and morphed into a house cat. The level of attention from his new neighbours is proving too much for him at the moment and he's resorted to delivering the death stare from the safety of the balcony instead. I'm hoping he may yet "man up"...watch this space.
Norwegian lessons have been procured and will start early September, really looking forward to that. Mike gets a couple of lessons a week at his work and is currently well ahead of me on the language front...that certainly wont do! The aim is to quickly get to the point where we can converse/understand each other regardless of whether any native Norwegians can! The problem I foresee is that (like any other language/country) there are so many different dialects, that people say the same word completely differently, depending on what part of Norway they come from. Bit like Aberdeen -v- Kirkwall -v- Eday. You get the drift. It'll be fun, no doubt about it.
And the cruise ships just keep on coming...
Hade!
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