Category Archives: Norway

The Andersens and Ny-Hellesund — July 31, 2013

On July 31 the Brunborgs drove us out to Høllen, a village in the municipality of Søgne in Vest-Agner, there to visit the Andersens in their award-winning restored home before joining them on a round-trip ferry ride to Ny-Hellesund, a small island with a big reputation.  Like many other Norwegians, the Andersens also own a hytte, but they had just arrived from a visit to Austria and were scheduled to depart for Denmark on the next day, so a visit to their hytte was not possible.  That was certainly no sacrifice for us; their Høllen home is a spectacular blend of old Norway and modern appliance.  After some coffee and some conversation and a quick tour of their house, we walked down to the pier at Høllen to catch the local ferry, which makes a number of stops at local islands.  Our destination was Ny-Hellesund, where a “Verftet” (shipyard) has been converted into a destination for tourists that features expensive lodgings and a fancy restaurant named “BØLGEN & MOI”, the 9th restaurant created by Trond Moi (chef) and Toralf Bølgen to bear their names.  We arrived to find that the fancy indoor restaurant was not open for lunch, but that service was available in several (windy) patios.  The prices reflected the upscale aspirations of the place; most of us ordered the fish soup, which costed 240 Nkr each but was indeed delicious.

After our lunch we ducked briefly into the interior of the restaurant, where we found innovative settings of the glasses and silverware.  We then explored the relatively-new trail that winds around the little island and offers some spectacular views of the surroundings.  Rain chased us back to the pier, where very shortly the ferry arrived to take us back to Høllen.  On the return, we took a very short side trip through a narrow cut that had us passing by monograms left by Norwegian Kings on Helgøya.

Back at Høllen we had coffee and strawberries before saying goodbye to Terje With and Mika, two remarkable people who found time in their hectic schedule to keep a two year old promise, and to do so with grace and class.  We are very grateful.

PS:  Two days later the newspapers were all filled with accounts of the visit of the Bill Gates family with the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway.   Where did they meet?  On the island of Ny-Hellesund and the Bølgen & Moi restaurant.  We missed them by one day!  (I bet they got to eat inside!)

Sail to Seim Hytte — July 30, 2013

In October 2011, we celebrated the 60th birthdays of Tove Brunborg and Barb in southern Spain.  We were joined by Barb’s friends Monica and Lynn, and by a number of couples from Norway.  On the last day of that celebration, the Norwegians presented to Barb an amazing gift: an invitation to host us in Norway at each of their “hytte” (cabins) on our next visit to Norway.  We are here now to take advantage of that incredible opportunity; each of the next several postings will be our account of those visits.

On July 30, the Brunborgs and Shipleys were taken by Terje Seim in his auto to Lillesand where we joined Rasmus and Kari Morvik on their sailboat while Terje drove back to his home. The goal of our sailing trip: pass along the skerries of southern Norway until we reached a bay near Randesund, where we would land at the seaside hytte of Terje and Kirsten Seim and experience some Norwegian hospitality.  It was a beautiful day to be out on the water; the enclosed photos only hint at the wonder of the trip. We also saw many attractive seaside hyttes, many interesting Norwegian water craft, and several pairs of wild swans.

It is common for boaters to stop at one or another of the rocky skerries for a break, and indeed we did so, stopping for a delicious lunch of cold boiled shrimp, which we peeled and ate on bread with mayonnaise.  For dessert we had fresh strawberries — abundant at this time of year in this part of Norway, but nearing the end of their season.  The sea bottoms are rocky here, so the usual method of securing a boat near a skerry is to take it alongside and tie it to the outcropping, an operation that is often facilitated by the presence of steel rods that have been pounded into the rock in order to create more-or-less permanent attachment points.  We chose a small island near Burholen that even had a picnic table.  Later we passed a rocky wall at Sunsodden where two Norwegian Kings had left their golden signatures.

When we arrived at the Seims, we were welcomed with small glasses of Cuban rum, an echo of the rums we served to the Seims and Morviks when they paused on a Caribbean cruise to spend a day with us on Tusen Takk II in the British Virgin Islands last March.  We enjoyed seeing the Seim hytte and the lovely area and enjoyed participating in the warm conversations.  Later, a yummy and attractive appetizer followed by grilled salmon with all the accompaniments.  Later still, creamed fresh strawberries for dessert.  Shamefully, I was too busy enjoying the meal to photographically document the main course.

When it was time to leave, Kari and Rasmus again boarded their boat, and the Shipleys and Brunborgs caught one of the many clean and efficient buses back to Kristiansand.

The first of our hytte visits had set high standards for the series!

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.