(see larger picture here)
4 July - It's cold. The fire's lit. All over southern Norway there are reports of snow ploughs out clearing roads (some mountain passes are closed). The news has photos of heavily muffled and scarved holidaymakers building large snowmen. Here we're lucky — it was 3 degrees up by the tunnel yesterday — further inland it was -6.4. The coldest July weather since 1964, apparently. But we're off to Germany at the weekend!
You might remember that the very last item on December's belated "catch-up" page concerned a Norwegian navy frigate that managed to collide with an oil tanker while no-one was paying attention and then sank in what was thought to be safely shallow water, before sinking completely when it turned out that it was deeper than they thought. It was recently reported that the ship would cost some 12 to 14 billion kroner to repair, which is no cheaper than buying a new one. A few further details emerged today about the aftermath of the accident. The navy immediately sent in a report to the Government about the accident — by text message to a landline phone number, which meant that no-one got it. They followed that up with an email to the wrong email address — which they then carried on using, even though they were told "repeatedly" that it was the wrong address. All this is perhaps a new Norwegian defence strategy — no enemy would dare to risk the unpredictability of what might happen if they came too close?
For ten years, these pages have been dominated by happy, slightly zany stories — not only because they're more fun to read (and to write) but also because that is what life is like here, or at least, how it seems from the comfortably pleasant seclusion of Ørsdalen. So it's unusual to have two doses of negativity in succession — please blame it on the weather. The other story in today's news, then, is about the big regional government efficiency exercise, which has involved merging counties in order to cut down on bureaucracy and expensive managers. For instance, two of the four counties in Norway's west country are merging (and the new county is to be called "The West Country", to the accute displeasure of the two other counties in what is currently known as the west country). It has been revealed today that where the two counties that are merging formerly had 81 top managers between them, the new and less bureaucratic combined county has ... (I don't need to finish this sentence, do I? Anyone who's been around a bit knows exactly where this is going) ... 100 top managers.
5 July -
Lilly and Matt on a vist (Photos, left).
7 July - Now re-located to Germany for the summer! - After a final wedding on Saturday, we took the night boat from Stavanger to Hirtshals (photo from cabin just after leaving Stavanger), arriving in Neustrelitz in time for tea.
8 July -
6½-mile evening walk along the banks of nearby Lake Müritz, which Wikipedia tells us is "the second largest lake in Germany (after Lake Constance) and the largest lake located entirely within German territory". A few photos, right, including birdy ones for Pat and Joanna.
10 July - Back to more familiar ground, we decided this afternoon to walk all the way round Lake Rätzsee (where we keep the kayaks). Tim recalled this as a somewhat longer walk than the Müritz one. In the event it was 11½ miles — and as it's been rather dry the paths for at least half the distance were deep sand (so heavy going). Tracy's three photos begin with a cheerful green path, but become more preoccupied with feet the further we went. Just made it back to the starting point and a good swim in the lake!
University - Katie is delighted to report that she has got a place to study at her first choice of university (Stavanger), where she will begin in August. Congratulations!
16-24 July - an outing - This summer's outing has entailed a very long drive from Neustrelitz, travelling across Germany and through Holland, Belgium, France and (with sincere apologies to several people we really wanted to see and couldn't) a brief foray into the UK.
The main objective of the trip — and great pleasure — was to visit four family members (as well as a work visit for Tracy) — so thank you all for having us! Visits aside, the most memorable aspect of the actual travelling was the accommodation.
Our outward journey put us in two hotels, selected by the cut-price hotels website we use, which can lead to unpredictable results. The first one had a Fawlty Towers theme. The staff had a remarkable resemblence to the actors (in appearence more than in behaviour, thankfully), while the '70s features such as paper serviettes arranged under each object in the room (telephone, alarm clock and so on) and name labels on each table at breakfast time, all added to the retro feel. Cracked concrete steps and a general look of neglect outside didn’t help either. And yet the hotel was fine: the rooms were modern and comfortable and there was a wonderful and brand new pool, sauna, jacuzzi and fancy tropical shower area, all of which we had (unexpectedly) to ourselves both evening and morning. While we were there we ordered some books from Amazon to be delivered to the UK, which was vaguely ironic because they were despatched the same evening from Amazon's main European despatch centre at Bad Hersfeld, which was almost within sight of the hotel. The second hotel, just outside Aachen, had an even better pool facility (they do these things so well in Germany!), including indoor and outdoor pools (photo of outdoor pool at night), jacuzzis and a whole raft of saunas set in a large garden with sun loungers (many of which were Germanically reserved with a towel). The main geographical feature of the hotel was that a thin slice of Belgium runs past it. This is the Vennbahn railway track, a querk of the Treaty of Versailles which means that a 5-yard-wide strip of Belgium territory rambles around the German countryside.
Once in England we collected our hotel room for the next night (2 photos, left). This is a great invention: you undo a couple of straps and it pops up, ready for use, complete with double bed, lighting and storage space. Two minutes from car to bed. The only problem is to decide where to put it. We’ve spent two nights in it so far and got it wrong both times. The first night (in England) we pulled up in a secluded woodland car park down a county lane a safe distance from the motorway. It was fine (apart from stinging insects) until after dark, when we were treated to a succession of cars arriving (often in pairs), cruising up and down the car park, examining it carefully with full headlights, parking at odd angles in odd places and then leaving again. Dozens of them, until the early hours. We were bemused, until we later had it explained to us. Travel certainly broadens the mind. The second night we used it (just over the German border, on our way home), we decided to play safe and choose a camp site. It looked fine from the photo and was a few kilometres from the motorway, which should have been fine except that the few kilometres consisted of seven right turns, meaning that we ended up right beside the motorway, which was rather too noisy for comfort. The campsite was first-rate otherwise, though. So we’re learning and will hopefully get everything right next time.
But now we’re back in Neustrelitz and enjoying the warm weather with relaxing days on the water. Photo: Tracy walking on the water.
30 July - Berlin -
We're enjoying a visit from Jon and Sarah this week. Today included a train journey to Berlin, with a visit to a service at the cathedral and a look around a museum of the Berlin Wall.
Photos of the cathedral, right.
Caption competition - Going to church can be an exhausting experience for a priest. Please suggest captions for this photo.
Tracy seems to have started a fashion - they're all doing it now (see this photo).
Captions
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