My parents will be here next week! I am really excited to see them! One of my top pieces of advice for anyone taking a sabbatical is to not buy a lot of new things before you go. This is especially true is you are going somewhere with climate that’s more extreme than what you […]

That’s right!  We had three days in Lillehammer, and you get three posts.  Consider it our gift to you (which means now you have to get us one).  More importantly, there’s a lot more to say about Lillehammer — which we loved — than just that we tried some sports. The cross country skiing World […]

Gavin and Allison Fall Down is a recurring series where we try Norwegian winter sports and recount our shortcomings for your amusement. This week: Cross Country Skiing. Previous editions: curling, ski jumping, bobsledding I’ll go ahead and say this up front: cross country skiing is way more fun than alpine skiing. Cross country skiing is what Norwegians just […]

Gavin and Allison Fall Down is a recurring series where we try Norwegian winter sports and recount our shortcomings for your amusement. This edition: Bobsled Previous editions: curling, ski jumping Among the most simplistic of the world’s sports are the sliding sports.  We’re up here, the finish line is down there, and we each have a sled.  The […]

This summer I spent a couple of days at the Tautra Mariokloster, a monastery on an island in the Trondheimsfjord. It was peaceful, quiet, and serene, and I loved it. I made the decision to return at least once a season during our time here. My trip in August coincided with the peak of the very […]

Our trip to Stockholm marked the beginning of the Scandinavian winter. Most November days have been in the 30s and 40s, but in the week leading up to our departure for Sweden, the temperature dropped (and stayed) below freezing. With the prospect of spending many hours outside each day, I was not going to take […]

Happy Thanksgiving friends!  On this trip we have learned a lot, and so we thought we’d bring you Norway’s best advice for a successful holiday: Stay away from controversial political discussions, like the sustainability of fish farming. Instead, stick to safe conversation where there is much agreement, such as the inferiority of the Danes. The […]

Here are some pictures of Northern Lights. We saw them last week from about 100 meters away from our apartment. Now that they days are getting shorter, I hope we can see them more often. (Today’s sunrise was at 8:47am and sunset was at 3:18pm — and there are still 5 weeks until the winter solstice!) […]