A Glimpse of Norwegian Life in a Small Town

I have some very good news to share! You may remember that my luggage was lost at the very beginning of our trip. It wasn’t even showing up in the system. But, after 5 weeks of being “lost” my suitcase was found and returned to me. Everything was intact – not a thing missing. So thankful for that. Although most it it was replaceable, it’s hard for me to find clothing (maybe because I really dislike shopping?) but there was this one little tin that holds my bobby pins that I was really sad about losing. It was given to me by my oldest son when he was about 8 or 9 for Mother’s Day. But I have it now in all its dented glory and I’m glad of it.

I was remarking yesterday that the writing about our trip is taking longer than it took to actually go on it! So far we’ve been to a multitude of airports, the DR Congo where I was amazed by the chaos of the driving system, went to see the construction of a Message church that will seat 25,000 people, went to a African Congolese wedding, visited 2 different churches on Sunday, experienced some uneasiness when trying to depart the DR Congo, was reunited with my daughter and niece in Holland, and spent the day seeing beautiful Holland with its historic and charming towns before flying to Norway.

And that is where we pick up today.

Our original plans were to drive directly from the Oslo airport car rental lot for our destination – a little town 2 hours south of Oslo. Unfortunately, the car rental agency had closed even though they said they would stay open for us up to an hour past closing, thus we were forced to rent a hotel room for the night.

The next day we had to hit the road early since we missed getting to the home of our Norwegian hosts the night before.

The town we were heading for was Nevlunghavn.

Nevlunghavn is a quiet and charming coastal town located directly next to the Atlantic Ocean, which you will see from looking at the map.

The streets are narrow and the houses are mostly all white and have that coastal look. So charming!

Except for this one….

Which we were told was a UFO that was left behind. But I have my doubts. What about you? 😉

What a restful spot.

The Norwegian mailbox.

This rock captures my imagination.

How and when did this massive boulder land here when there are no others close-by?

The center of the little town

To have a wooden boat, you must really love it. Every winter, it needs some tender loving care to keep it looking this nice.

See the Norwegian flag flying from the rooftop?

The people are very patriotic and many if not most of the homes will have a flag flying.

Standing at the top of a hill next to the Atlantic Ocean near where Hitler had bunkers during WWII.

On a different walk…

A Viking grave. I was so excited to see something from the Viking times!

We were told that the battle here on this shore helped establish Christianity in Norway.

Do you think wind might be a problem here?

 Churches like this were not uncommon.

Interesting steeple.

 Our friend took us to the church where her and her husband were married. It was built by the Vikings, torn down and then rebuilt again, I think in 1882.

What would be the purpose of such a small door? To keep those with weapons out?

There was a little cemetery on the same grounds as the church. Our Norwegian host pointed out a few of the tombstones that she thought were interesting.

This particular one stated that he was a singer in the church.

Next post I want to show you the domesticated side of life in a few Norwegian homes.

See you there.