Vee Skull Purr Go Kart! (We're going to go kart)

 We woke up in the morning to have breakfast at Lena and Sverre's house, er huset! Aaron was really excited to eat pickled herring (blegh) as well as caviar paste that came out of a tube, much like toothpaste. At breakfast, we gave Thea some new converse shoes, something that she is very fond of. In America, they only cost around $50, but since they're an import, they cost at least $100 in Norway! Yikes!

 We tried to go to a music museum, but you could only go through on a tour. Oops, forgot to see that rule before we left. Instead, we went to the botanical garden. It was a little boring, seeing as most of the plants were pine trees, but Norway does have a LOT of peonies, one of my favorite flowers. The honey bees were happy and we tried to take their pictures.

We then went to the folk museum. We were able to see Norwegian buildings from 1906 as well as the ski museum. Skiing is Norway's national sport, says Sverre. Alexander was a little bored of the museum but we were able to tell him that Spiky (his new toy from Lennert) wanted to see the sights and he instantly changed his mood. I even had him pose with Spiky so we can remember him. (I keep asking Spiky if he wants to go to America and he tells me yes)

 After a LONG day of museums and trying to find food, we went to the go kart track. (Yeah for Alexander) It was a LONG wait (2 hours) and very poorly managed. It was run by one KID (a teenager hipster type, greasy hair and zits combined) when it should've been run by 2. He hated his job which was obvious as each person would ask him things and you'd see him roll his eyes and sigh. He also left for about 5 minutes to have a phone call, probably with his girl friend. Everyone who was waiting for their turn was more qualified, sighing and frustrated with the whole endeavor. It looked like Sverre was ready to tell this teenager which way was up! We didn't have to sign any waivers or show identification. They let kids drive at the same time as the adults but at a much slower speed. (20kph vs 50kph) Aaron actually bumped a random kid into the wall and he limped while crying all the way to his parents. Aaron felt really bad but I had to remind him that you take a risk when you drive, even go karts. The kid was fine in the end, as his mom was a nurse and able to make sure that he was fine. In America, we would've been sued. Well, actually in America, you wouldn't be allowed to drive unless you had signed something and there would be at least 2 people managing the karts.

We went to Christina's again for dinner and what did we see in the newspaper?! A story of a Norwegian girl who 2 days ago had gone to the same exact go karts and couldn't reach the brakes and broke her hip! Guess we're not the only ones getting in accidents there.

PS Aaron STILL feels bad but after reading my blog, he keeps laughing, so maybe he's over it?

Learning to Speak

 Today was a beautiful day....for going to a cemetery. This is the view from Lena and Sverre's house in Trondheim. Not bad, right? I finally made it to the Norwegian Jewish cemetery. I didn't have to go the last time I was in Trondheim because Freda had already gone. It was really neat actually. The family knew most of the people buried there. It was like a family reunion.

 Aaron read two of Grandma Freda's poems, one about putting people to rest in the graveyard and one about springtime. It was a very sweet and moving moment. It felt like even though her body is in LA, her soul is here in Trondheim among her other family members. RIP Freda! Also among Freda are both of Aaron's great grandparents and his great great grandparents.

 We then went to town via the old bridge and took the Royal residence tour. We couldn't take pictures inside (boo) but Aaron kept mentioning how interesting it was to see a palace made of pine. I really enjoyed the Queen's room. It was bright pink and looked like a room from Versailles, wallpaper like that from the old red room.

We then had taco night at Lena and Sverre's house (chicken instead of beef, good choice) and I learned about 40 Norwegian words today! The picture above is the sunset at 11PM.  I hope I don't forget my Norwegian but I think it's inevitable.

Thank you-takk    ceiling- tak    cousin- sis keen barn     pig- gris (grease)     pineapple- anandas
yarn- garn     house- huset      mom- mui      dad- far     grandma- muir muir/beste muir
grandpa- far far/beste far        ice cream- eese kreme      fat-fate        like- likken       I-yeah
yes-yah      no- nei        cake-kakke      best-bestes       town-beyen       teddy bear- bamski    
nose-nesse      lips- lepper       teeth- tetter       siblings- sis keen      children-barn         olives-oliven
mushrooms-champignon       cheese-ust (oust)       ham- skinke        salad- salut         waffle-vaffel

Back to Norway we go...

 Today we left London for the airport. It was quite an adventure. We left our hotel at 7:30 AM, went to Paddington, took the train to Victoria station, and from there we hopped on the Gatwick express. Gatwick airport has some of the most consistent security lines just so you know. I wish the USA would take note. When we arrived in Trondheim, we were picked up by Sverre and Thea who then took us to the grocery store and we got to peruse the expensive groceries. We had dinner that night at Christina's house (fish soup) and met Leonard and Rick. 

Everyone was in good spirits and the food was delicious. I don't even really like fish all that much and I ate it all. Leonard, Liev, and Lennert all posed for a picture. Since Freda is no longer with us, Liev is the eldest from our family (80 years old).

It was a nice night. From left to right, top row: Leonard, Liev, Lennert, Sverre, Thea (13), Joachim, Christina, Rick. bottom row: Stina, Lena, Aaron, Alexander (9).

Off to Court We Go

 We woke up this morning and hauled our butts to Paddington station to catch the Hampton Court express. Since I'm a huge Henry VIII fan/buff, we had to make a stop here. The castle was actually lived in by Henry but was updated and built on by William III. It was neat to see little bits of each queen somewhere in the palace. There was a stone crest for Anne Boleyn, a crested ceiling for Jane Seymour, etc. Supposedly, one of the hallways we walked through is haunted by Katherine Howard, though we didn't encounter any ghosts. We thought the audio tour here was painful, eventually ditching it and just zipping through. The castle was missing most of its furniture, and the furniture there was there for us to sit, so I knew that none of it was old. This made me sad. They also had men dressed up as Henry and Brandon. It felt like a cheesy theme park in a way. We saw the Tudor kitchens and it made us want pasties.

 Henry VIII was pretty rude to his wives, having this painted during his marriage to Catherine Parr. It's of Jane Seymour and Prince Edward. I love the whole story of how he believed Jane to be his true love since she was the only one to give him a son. After Hampton Court, we came back to London and went to the Old Operating Theater Museum. When I first read about the place, I thought it was an old working theater. Oh no, it was an OPERATING station. A place for amputations and the lot. It was pretty nauseating yet interesting. They had forceps for both the vagina and the anus. There was a station where you could learn how to make pills. We saw a picture of a broken shin bone which was reason enough for an amputation in the early days. This was all before anesthetic and ether mind you.

 You would not want to be sitting on that operating table 100 years ago. They had pictures (illustrations) of people being amputated on whilst being restrained. However, they were restrained by other people. How scary!

 Going to London is not complete without checking out King's Cross station and trying to go to Hogwarts. Aaron didn't want to pose, so I did it myself. It was a quick photo op and nothing more. After Hogwarts, we went to the British Library, home to the Magna Carta and other old pieces of literature. We saw a manuscript for Harry Potter and a copy of Sweeney Todd from 1850. I also saw Bernard Shaw's handwriting on a copy of Pygmalion. The particular page was when Eliza first asks for lessons and starts crying because "I haven't got 60 pounds! " Another piece of work there was the original Jekyll and Hyde. Oh, and the start of the lyrics for "All My Life" by John Lennon. It was amazing to see the lyrics while hearing the song and knowing that someone had to create that piece of work.

We finished off the night by doing the Jack the Ripper walking tour. It was interesting for me, not as much for Aaron. We didn't really see that much because much of London from 1888 was bombed and changed. It was raining and my shoes and pants were soaked by the end, but I'm glad we did it. The guide was very enthusiastic and treated the victims like victims, not referring to them as hookers, but rather mothers, sisters, etc. An interesting take on the unsolved crime.

Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered...

 We heard much about torture this morning since we went to the Tower of London. We took the hour long Beefeater tour and he had great pleasure scaring the snot out of the children in our tour group. We learned about how the Tower of London had an escape rate of 1 in 42, making it a pretty crappy jail. Speaking of crap, he gave us a funny little story about the moat being the toilet for the entire tower. Sounds like it would've smelled the WORST. We were afraid of long lines for the Crown Jewels, but once again we lucked out and there really weren't any queues. We didn't do any dungeons, so torture devices weren't seen by us, but we did see the burial site of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

 After the Tower, we walked to the Tower Bridge and did the little museum inside. We zipped through it since time was really not on our side today, but we did get some nice views of the Thames. We also got to see the engine rooms (no longer operational today) which were quite massive.

 Next on our day's list was the Shakespeare Globe tour. I was saddened to learn that this was not in fact the real Globe. We did however pass the original site of both the Globe AND the Rose Theaters. Sad that neither is around anymore. I didn't like how the tour guides kept referring to the theater as Shakespeare's Globe when in fact, he was never around to see this one. It was amazing to sit inside. It really felt like we were seeing a show from back then. Of course it helped that there was a rehearsal going on for Richard the III. They were in tech rehearsals (opens in 3 days) so they were in Elizabethan costume and still calling for lines. Mark Rylance was performing the lead. I was bummed that we couldn't take pictures inside (due to the rehearsals).

 We walked over the Millennium bridge to St. Paul's. We were able to sneak in to hear the choir sing. Amazing acoustics inside that church. We're going to return on another day so we can actually do the tour. We weren't able to take pictures inside here either! What gives, London?!

We capped off the night with Matilda the Musical. I had been bugging Aaron to take me ever since we bought the London tickets. I know that he was a little skeptical at first but we were both loving it. The Trunchbull antics were spot on from the book. The first act was better than the first and towards the end, a piece of the set fell and the show had to be paused for about 5 minutes.

After the show, we went to some random Chinese restaurant and Aaron claims to have had some of the best dumplings in soup he's ever had. London has quite the night life. We walked into a casino and lost 10 pounds to roulette and slots. Aside from the crappy weather, I quite like it here. I know Trixie would thoroughly love the lower temps.

Speaking of Trixie, Aaron made a ridiculously stupid joke the other day.

What are Trixie's favorite foods in London? 1. Fish and Trix 2. Trix and Chips 3. Furry Curry.
What type of drink does Trixie like? T (tea)

On the other side of the pond...

 We took a red eye to London this morning. While we're pooped, we saw a lot. First stop for us after dropping off our bags was Big Ben, House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. I was sad to find out that you can't actually go see Big Ben. The faces of the clocks are 23 feet long and the minute hand is 13 feet. Already the weather was bothersome. It's all about overcast and rain, no joke. It's summer and the high is around 65. I also had no idea that Parliament was connected to Big Ben.

 Also nearby was the London Eye, but since it was a crummy day, we didn't want to not see a spectacular view in our bubble. Maybe we'll do it another day. We then headed down the street to Westminster hoping there wouldn't be much of a wait. Lucky for us, it was less than 10 minutes to get in. Westminster was amazing. Not only was it gorgeous and old, but I found it interesting just to see who's buried there. I was shocked that they would put Elizabeth I buried on top of Mary I and they hated each other. (They didn't even really mention Mary) Any room we walked into that didn't have a number for our audio guide tour, we'd turn to each other and say "it's nothing really" in a Grandma Freda voice. We couldn't take any photos inside (bollocks) which bummed me out since there really were some fascinating pieces of art on the crypts. One in particular was death in the form of a jawless skeleton coming out of a crypt that looked like Sweeney Todd's bakehouse!

 After Westminster, we found a pub for a quick bite of fish and chips. I can already tell that London is not the place for healthy eats. Not that you CAN'T eat healthily, but it's more fun to eat all the tasty bad stuff. After lunch, we headed to the Churchill War Rooms. When WWII ended, the bunkers were sealed and everything was left as is until they were reopened in the 70's. It was pretty fascinating because all the linens, furniture, and maps with pins were left as they were when Churchill was last there. We were very tired by this point so we didn't spend more than 45 minutes there, but it was very dark and claustrophobic feeling down there. Any Churchill buff would go nuts there.

After the museum, we went to dinner with Mogy and his wife Lisa, who is 4 months pregnant right now. We had a lovely time, but didn't stay out late since we need to adjust to London time.