More Norwegian Roads – E16 Down The Nærøy Fjord Valley

Driving along E16 in Norway, through the Nærøy Fjord valley, a world heritage site.
From European Roads on Youtube

Read Full Post »

The Atlantic Ocean Road Or The Atlantic Road

The Atlantic Ocean Road or the Atlantic Road (Norwegian: Atlanterhavsveien) is a 8.3-kilometer (5.2 mi) long section of County Road 64 that runs through an archipelago in Eide and Averøy in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. It passes by Hustadvika, an unsheltered part of the Norwegian Sea, connecting the island of Averøy with the mainland and Romsdalshalvøya peninsula. It runs between the villages of Kårvåg on Averøy and Vevang in Eida. It is built on several small islands and skerries, which are connected by several causeways, viaducts and eight bridges—the most prominent being Storseisundet Bridge.

The route was originally proposed as a railway line in the early 20th century, but this was abandoned. Serious planning of the road started in the 1970s, and construction started on 1 August 1983. During construction the area was hit by 12 European windstorms. The road was opened on 7 July 1989, having cost 122 million Norwegian krone(NOK), of which 25 percent was financed with tolls and the rest from public grants. Collection of tolls was scheduled to run for 15 years, but by June 1999 the road was paid off and the toll removed. The road is preserved as a cultural heritage site and is classified as a National Tourist Route. It is a popular site to film automotive commercials, as it has been declared the world’s best road trip, and been awarded the title as "Norwegian Construction of the Century". In 2009, the Atlantic Ocean Tunnel opened from Averøy to Kristiansund; together they form a second fixed link between Kristiansund and Molde.

Text from Wikipedia

Read Full Post »

Kvikk Lunsj – The Ultimate Norwegian Hiking Snack

 

No more hiking without Quick Lunch

Quick Lunch was almost born as outdoor chocolate. The reason why Quick Lunch was outdoor chocolate, is said to be that Johan Throne Holst, Freia founder, along with a business associate a few decades earlier got lost in the woods. His companion complained that the Throne Holst had brought chocolate on the trip and this was something Throne Holst apparently never forgot.

“Health and strength”

The shape of the new chocolate was tailor-made for the ultra-modern sports garment in the 30s, namely the anorak. Besides, chocolate is easy to carry and easy to eat, and took the contemporary nutrition issues seriously. It was actually said that this chocolate had the same nutritional value as one egg and two slices of bread with butter.

The chocolate that wishes you a good trip

Quick Lunch is the Norwegian outdoor chocolate. It has always encouraged consumers to embark on a trip and provided good advice. In the 60’s there were mountain codes printed on the packaging, and to this day the back of the Quick Lunch has been used to convey travel tips, information about attractions and where to find The Norwegian Trekking Association’s cabins all over the country.

Did you know?

When Quick Lunch was launched in 1937,  chocolate was well established as nutrition during strenuous physical exertion. Chocolate was in fact an essential provisions as polar hero Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911.

The very first batch of Quick Lunch was made with dark chocolate. It was anything but a success. Fortunately, there were some who insisted on trying again, now with light chocolate and the rest is chocolate history.

During and after the war, between 1941 and 1949, the production of Quick Lunch stopped partly because of the lack of sugar and the quality of the flour.

When Norway hosted the Winter Olympics in 1952, incredible 10 million Quick Lunch chocolates  was sold!

Ten pack that you can use as a lunch box when you’ve emptied it

Few if any Norwegians are without an out-door memory connected to Kvikk Lunsj. It is indeed the ultimate Norwegian hiking snack, I never head for the woodlands around Oslo without a few in my knapsack and neither did my dad when we went hiking when I was a kid. Kvikk Lunsj is one of the few things that follow most of us Norwegians from the cradle to the grave – Ted

Related articles

• Fjords, tunnels and chocolate (becauseidonthaveamortgage.wordpress.com)
• Easter rituals (tysnespix.wordpress.com)
• A trip to the Viking museum (hmtjr.wordpress.com)
• Freia, A Little Piece Of Norway (retrorambling.wordpress.com)
• Surviving in Oslo (tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com)
• Norwegian Traditions (europeantimes.wordpress.com)

Read Full Post »

Travelling People

We used to have them in Norway too, until the government decided sometimes in the fifties that it was time to put an end to it. They ordered the police around the country to take their horses and slaughter them. This was normally done right there by the road side while the owners watched. It is a part of my country’s history I’m deeply ashamed about and I blame it on the old-school social democracy’s love of mediocrity and the principle of forced equality.

I saw an interview with a man of the travelling people who was a small kid back then and he told that the only time he ever saw his father cry was the day the police slaughtered his horse.

It is strange that so many of us find it so hard to accept people who chose to live their life on the outside of the mainstream – Ted

Read Full Post »

Landscape and Marine Views of Norway by Photochromic, ca. 1890-1900

Published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, these prints were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. Like postcards, the photochroms feature subjects that appeal to travelers, including landscapes, architecture, street scenes, and daily life and culture.

Images and text found on vintage_everyday

Read Full Post »

Norway Celebrates The First Ever Banana Arriving In The Country

This photo with the title as above was among the photos in a post called “These 60 Rare Photos Will Destroy Everything You Knew About The Past” posted on Distractify some 3 hours ago. But honestly, I know we are a small country with merely 5 million citizens and even fewer back when the photo was taken, still I think you would need more than 12 people to call an event a celebration.

On the other hand, a song from just after WWII called “Når det kommer en båt med bananer” (When there comes a boat with bananas) is still played on the radio from time to time, so yes, we do love bananas in Norway – Ted 😉

Read Full Post »

Oslo’s Town River “Akerselva” 1929

Inger Munch: In the summer of 1929 my brother, Edvard Munch suggested that I’d take some pictures of the different houses we had lived in at "Grünerløkka". I did so, and went up to "Brekke" and "Kjelsås" farm where we lived during the summer of 1875 and 76. While doing this I got the idea of taking pictures along the whole of the "Akerselva", from where it starts to where it runs in to the Oslo fjord. As my brother spent some years of his youth in no 7 "Fossveien" some of his earliest paintings are from this part of Oslo.

The two pictures above is the first and last of the pictures Inger Munch took that summer. You can see the rest of the 68 picture HERE Ted

Read Full Post »