We spent the last two days in Norway - and wrap up our cruise tomorrow in Bergen Norway. The country has been beyond amazing - so beautiful. We were talking today about how to describe the beauty - and immediately we thought of the First Nations word we learned while in Canada - Yoho - meaning in awe and wonderment. Perfect.
First some context about my family ties to Norway. My mom's dad (Walter Rasmus) is 100% Scandinavian. His dad (Willie Rasmus) was born in Illinois but both parents immigrated from Sweden (south Sweden that was part of Denmark for a long time).
The name Rasmus is actually a shortened version of Erasmus which means beloved. That feels so appropriate to me because there is so much love across the entire Rasmus family. His mom (Christine Dale) was also born in Illinois but both parents immigrated from Norway.
My mom's great grandparents on her grandma's side were both born with 50 miles of where we have been traveling in Norway. How fun to have a picture of them with my great great grandma and her sister.
Although I am not sure if we still have relatives in the area, it is really cool to see the country and learn more about the history. That is one thing we have realized with this trip - you can see and feel connections to ancestors from long ago when you visit where they lived and learn more about their culture. It's very cool.
So back to our visit. Yesterday we were in Stavanger. It reminded us a lot of Alaska. There are cobblestone streets lined with wooden homes built in the 17th and 18th centuries in the old town area. It was so quaint - and walking the streets I kept imagining past ancestors walking the same streets or something very similar.
This picture was looking at the old town from our ship - it almost seems fake to us - but we can attest it was very real. Craig said it reminded him of the village display his mom does at Christmas :)
We took a cruise to see more of the sights including the famed Pulpit Rock. It was really beautiful. Here are some pictures from the boat.
Crazy hair - it was windy!
We passed by a waterfall - beautiful.
We stopped for some coffee and waffles - very yummy and more great views.
Look - we went to the "beach' in Norway :)
After the tour we went for lunch in town - and discovered a restaurant that seemed appropriate for this trip "Around the World in 80 Days" :)
Today we were in Eidfjord - absolutely stunning. It often reminded us of British Columbia in Canada. Here's the view we woke up to this morning.
We took an all day tour that allowed us to see a lot of this region of Norway. It was really amazing. My ancestors were from the Hordaland region and we saw a lot of that area. So very cool. In this case, I think the pictures do much better than the words - so here are a ton of pictures.
More random trolls around Norway :)
Yes - the actual outdoor temperature as shown on our train.
A glacier...
Houses with grass roofs - yep - it's a thing here!
We wrapped up the day with a very nice dinner on the ship. Here's our view - what can you say other than Yoho.
Hope you are finding Yoho each and every day. Here's to enjoying the ride.
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