Trinidad to Ogge, Norway — July 27-29, 2013

We flew out of Trinidad late afternoon on July 27, on an overnight flight to Gatwick Airport, London.  We then used trains to schlep ourselves and our luggage to London City Airport, where we caught a flight to Kristiansand, Norway.  Our good friend Lars Helge Brunborg picked us up at the airport, and took us to the Brunborg’s flat.  By this time it was near midnight, so Barb and I were tired puppies, having had little sleep in the last 24 hours.  When we finally arose on the morning of July 29, we joined Lars Helge and Tove for a typically Norwegian breakfast:  delicious slices of bread spread with one or two items chosen from yellow cheese, brown (goat) cheese, jellies, sliced meats, pickled herring, tomato slices, red pepper slices, cucumber slices, hardboiled eggs, mayonnaise, and other spreads.  Then we travelled some 45 minutes, for our first visit to the Brunborg’s relatively new cabin in the Ogge Gjesteheim, near Vennesla.  At the conclusion of our visit we had a delicious “lunch” at the Gjesteheim of salted lamb, boiled potatoes, and mashed rutabaga.  On our way back to Kristiansand, we passed by a famous source of bottled water:  the Voss company.  Surprisingly, the bottling factory bore no identifying signs — no proud banners — no self-promoting posters.  Wonder why?  Perhaps because the water that is packaged into expensive bottles in fact is extracted from a well, much as water is extracted from wells across the world.  In fact the same well is the source of water to the village Iveland.  But, to be fair, the aquifer being tapped is alleged to be especially fine.  To learn more, see here.