Life's a Stitch

25 (!) years ago, eldest daughter Elina participated in a three month high school exchange program in Germany. At her school in North Vancouver she met one of the German students, Lotta. Since then we have hosted Lotta’s sister, Betty, and become friends with her parents, Ingrid and Ulrich. Our family members and friends have visited each other in both countries, and a visit was long overdue. 

One day’s outing included getting together with their friends, Maria and Gerherd, whose daughter also visited us in Canada. We met up at Schloss-Erbhof in Thedinghausen where there is an arboretum, museum, and the Romance Restaurant. 

The story, a tragic love tale of love, condensed: the Lutheran archbishop meets woman on the estate of her husband. The year before he dies, the husband bequeaths the estate to the archbishop in return for favours. In 1619 archbishop builds a castle for the widow, who happens to be his mistress. After moving in she dies in the following year. 

The next stop was Verden, a quaint town on the Vesser river, to visit two churches in different styles. We started with the dom, the Cathedral of St. Mary and St Celia, built between 1290 and 1490 in the Gothic style.

 

It is home to the statue of the “petrified man.” Legend says the sexton embezzled from the church and when he had to appear before the bishop and authorities he swore his innocence while invoking the devil to prove it. There were three howls and evil laughter and the devil appeared, grabbing the man and hurling him through the cathedral wall where he turned to stone halfway through.

St. Andreas, a Romanesque church built in the 900’s was our next stop. We always appreciate the simplicity of this era.

A final stop was the cafe at the Schröder Obstplantagen, an organic orchard with a tiny coffee shop, but plenty of outside tables. We ordered three different apple cakes. 

With the first bite came the deluge of a sudden thunder storm. We were able to run to the shop and sit at its only table where we met the manager who had stories to tell about her family’s experiences in Canada. She was so cheerful despite the impact the rain was having on her business. Two more pieces of cake arrived at our table and the rest of the pot of coffee. 

The rain let up and she took us on a tour of the property. Her son let her know that she needed to be working instead of socializing! She was working, just not what he had in mind.

It was a long, but satisfying day of getting together with long term friends (notice I didn’t say “old” friends), sightseeing and learning.

After so much touring we took it easy for the remaining time in Norway, planning the next stages of the trip, running a few errands in the nearby mall, walking around the local lake, which of course included geocaching.

 

We said goodbye to our fantastic hosts and guides, Svein and Ragnhild, hoping to meet up again to travel together. 

We flew to Hamburg and took three trains to visit our former student, Helga and her family, in Detmold. Helga homestayed with us 20 years ago in North Vancouver, and she and her husband are both teachers. They now have little Lukas (enjoying his first doughnut). Consider his options, smile for the camera or basque in the delight of his first donut deliciousness?

Helga arranged for us to be guest presenters for a grade 9 class regarding life in Canada. Not something you normally do on vacation, but it was fun.

 

We visited Detmold’s Hermannsdenkmal, a monument to a chieftain of the Cherusci tribe, who defeated three Roman legions in the nearby forest in 9 AD.

 

Another historic site, close to Delmold is the Externsteine, a sandstone formation used over the centuries as sacred sites. We had a nice walk, climbed lots of stairs and even found some geocaches. 



Now it was our turn to homestay, at the lovely house of Helga’s parents. The garden and artwork particularly left an impression on us as well as our host’s hospitality. And one item really fascinated us. The 

“eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher,” which translates to “eggshell predetermined breaking point cause.” A true example of German engineering. 

 

Our last night together we had a barbecue on the patio. 

The next day we moved on the Bremen. 

Two nights in Vinstra included a visit to Ringebou’s stave church and series of art galleries in former farm buildings.

Our trip to Lillehammer, home to the 1994 Winter Olympics, was thwarted due to closed roads from recent catastrophic flooding. 

The return trip to Alesund, on the Geiranger scenic highway, completed our circle tour. The first stop was in Grotli, home to another stave church.

 

Here we learned that every waterfall in Norway was named for Svein’s family 😉as his surname translates to waterfall. For the equivalent of $24 Cdn you could zip line over the small falls in a matter of seconds. I’ll pass. 

The other expensive item was a bit shocking. We’re used to carrying coins to use public restrooms. It generally assures they’ll be clean and stocked with appropriate paper products. In Grotli the washrooms cost the equivalent of $3 Cdn ($2.20 US). You’d think this might encourage unsanitary behaviour (in at least half the population).

 

We stopped by the campground of my dreams. Set next to the river, they built a pool in the rocks.

 

 

The clouds cleared in time for the drive up to the Geiranger Fjord viewpoint at the top of the mountain. Spectacular!

 

Driving down felt like being in the cockpit of a plane.

Geiranger, most photographed fjord in Norway.

We took the ferry back from whence we came, the town of the famous strawberry cake, and were a short 45 minutes from home.

Our second experience on one of Norway’s spectacular scenic routes, this time on the Geiranger-Trollstigen (the troll’s path) Highway. 

 

Stop #1 was outside of the village of Valldall for world famous strawberry cake.

Then on to Gudbrandsiuvet gorge. 

Across the road is the spectacular Juvet Landscape Hotel, with simple but luxurious cabins built to blend with the land. Many have this spectacular view.

The scenic highway took us to the Trollstigen viewpoint, which was the highlight in terms of breathtaking views.

 

 

Yes we drove down those hairpin turns without guardrails, only stones to keep us on the road.

 

We arrived at our friends’ hillside cabin in Vinstra. This is the view followed by  the painting I gave them as a gift, based on a photo of the house taken last winter.

 

We are the guests of friends, Svein and Ragnhild, who live in Alesund (if visiting make sure you get the pronunciation correct, it is not A as in Allison, but O as in Owen). Svein’s knowledge as a teacher, history buff and former tour guide made for fascinating tours. Iffy weather was in the forecast so this day we travelled close to home. 

 

We visited the Alnes Fyr lighthouse visitor centre, and took in an exhibit of well known Norwegian artists. 

Sitting in the area that translates to “the rolling stones.”

 

Charming 18th century home owned by our hosts’ friend. 

Norway is known for its tunnels built to connect communities previously only accessible by ferry or boat or to provide easy passage through difficult terrain. There are more than 1000 in the country. Compare that to Canada, the second largest country in the world, with only 475. On the way to our next stop the 2+kilometre tunnel was unique, as it was only one lane, but turn outs were provided in case of oncoming traffic. 

12th century church in Giske, on the Norwegian pilgrim route.

We found Norway to have a great combination of interesting history, beautiful scenery and delicious food. After big breakfasts, we sometimes opted for “lighter” lunches in the form of (waffles). These are sweet, thin and much lighter than what we know at home, and are served with a variety of jams and whipped or sour cream. 

Another Norwegian delicacy is brown cheese made from goat or cow whey, boiled until the natural sugars carmelize. It tastes cheese with a hint of dulce de leche.

And tonight’s dinner was our favourite. Svein made Norwegian cod with delicious bacon butter sauce, yes you read that correctly, butter with bacon fat and chunks of bacon. Heavenly.

Come back, the best is yet to come, although it is hard to beat bacon butter sauce.

We’ve been lucky to have a reliable supply of house sitters enabling our ability to travel. Recently we flew to Alesund (pronounced Olasund), Norway to visit friends:

Since 2019 we planned on visiting each other, but a pandemic got in the way and plans were cancelled. Last year they came to Canada and this year was our turn to visit their idyllic country. Despite having our flights cancelled twice by KLM, resulting in a rescheduled trip that was two days longer than planned, the three flights were on time and we ended up with seats together in a row of two.

 

We were especially appreciative that the weather cooperated so we could enjoy the sites including two of the Norwegian Scenic Routes. You would need many trips to see all 18. These highways include elaborate visitor’s centres, walkways and adequate parking, all free of charge. It also seems there are geocaches at each spot, making it especially appealing to me. Not so much for the anticacher. 

 

The Atlantic Route:

On the way we experienced the Norwegian ferry system, much different from our BC Ferries. As they are considered part of the highways (as ours are supposed to be) the ferry to Molde ran every 20 minutes and were fast (a 35 minute voyage) and quiet, as they are electric.

We visited the fishing village of Bud:

Approaching the visitor’s centre, we crossed the bridge that looks like it ends midspan.

Looking out toward the rocky North Atlantic:

To be continued…

 

But the good thing is that it’s been camping time. Our last trip was river themed, a circle trip through BC on the Similkameem:

down into WA with two locations on the Columbia River. Beebe Bridge Park:

Wapanum State Park:

then to OR on the Deschutes, where we went white water rafting and I had painting time on the shore:

 

The painting:

Our final destination, Cle Elum, WA on the Yakima River:

Please excuse the delay in posts, when camping, we often have no cell reception and limited wifi.

Time to catch our breath. We’ve been home for seven weeks after making up for lost time travel-wise. Before we retired, eight years ago (!) I made a list of goals, and during this period at home we accomplished two: Spanish and Mahjong classes. 

 

If I had had this teacher in college, I might be speaking more Spanish than restaurant menus. I’d say we did well until the irregular verbs, which will require memorization, quite the ambitious goal at this age.

 

The Mahjong class in our town always has a waitlist and I was thrilled to get the last space. I played Hong Kong/Chinese rules years ago and was pleased that this was the same.  Now that I’ve graduated I can join the weekly game sessions.

 

C’s birthday at home gave me the opportunity to perfect, after many tries over recent years, a low sugar pavlova. 

 

Artwise, it’s been a successful time, having finished two commissions and selling one of my larger paintings at the show I mentioned in my last post. And C, not to be outdone, shipped off a commissioned river table. I almost slipped and wrote undone, as he was close during the frustrating moments working with the wood’s natural and milling induced inclusions, the nature of the beast. 

We even found time for crabbing on our town’s dock. I’m sure we got one of the only males (can’t keep the females) of legal length left in that bay.

And the evening we caught none, we enjoyed the sunset:

Presently tense might be more grammatically correct. T minus five days until my month of June solo show at Pelican Rouge in White Rock, a cafe that showcases local talent. I’ve overcome the fear of exhibiting at shows, it’s the amount of prep work involved that has me tense. We’ve forfeited the dining room table in favour of a matting and framing station. 

 

Some recent artwork, not in the show, includes a commissioned cat portrait, a kitty who sits like a human, lol:

A meeting of three artistic minds. I finished this painting from an outstanding photo taken by my niece who lives, works and plays in the Sierra Nevadas. 

Her creative Uncle Chuck joined in with a bull made from a rock picked up at our local beach plus copper salvaged from our former house and a 1970’s dehumidifier, perched on the fireplace mantel he made from local fir. 

 

It's hard to believe we have been home from South America for five months and that it took me this long to finish posting that adventure. Today we had a reunion lunch with a couple we met on the tour, who were also picking up the painting I did for them of Iguazu Falls. Many good memories shared.

In the past five months we've travelled to California for Christmas, Bali for my birthday and Edmonton for Easter. Making up for the travel time lost during covid, we’d missed the best travel years of our retirement. I will continue to write about these adventures albeit delayed.

Here is our Edmonton Easter dinner for 15:

It felt like the good old days aka the before times.