Sometimes meeting people is the best part of it!

Yes, Rosendal we should write about! What a great experience that was! At first we didn't even plan to go there, but Hanne and Ingve were so nice to invite us after our call on Facebook, and we just couldn't refuse (and are very glad we didn't refuse)!

Ilan and Gwyn were very happy they could play with Vilje and Live (who are the same age) and we were very happy to socialize with Hanne and Ingve (really good company), sit by the fire and drink beers (or water ;-)).

On the 17th of may we were invited to celebrate Norways national day, which also was quite an experience: nearly everybody was dressed up in costumes belonging to the region of Norway they came from, there was a fanfare and everybody walked in procession to the party-area where everbody ate ice cream and played games. Ofcourse there also was a lottery and Hanne won three plants of which Vilje gave one to Ilan to cheer up the caravan :-). Let's see if it survives the whole holiday. 

Unfortunately we had to leave after two nights and a short visit to Rosendal Baroniet, but luckily we didn't have to say goodbye (yet) because our next stop was the riding school in Stend were Hanne participated in a driving competition that weekend. What a welcome coincidence! 

In Stend Therese gave us a very nice spot to park the caravan on the school-area. It was close to the competition-ground but also very private. We were able to follow a lot of the competition that weekend and also went on a trip to Bergen, where we took the Fløibanen train into the mountains, with a great view on Bergen. In Bergen it was really crowded and we were told that it was because of the great weather: everybody went outside, because in Bergen they are used to 360 days of rain per year ;-), so they want to catch all the sunlight they can! Speaking about the weather... Since we left on the first of may we only have had 1 day with a bit of rain and all the others days have been warm and sunny, which we think is quite amazing and extraordinary! We feel so lucky!

On monday the 21st it was time to go further again, but not without having watched a bit of the last competition day (one of Hannes horses became overall-2nd by the way!) and saying goodbye to Hanne. We really hope to see this lovely family again, either in Norway or at our place in Sweden!

Our next stop was Dyrdal gard camping in Gudvangen, from where we took a very nice ferry-trip through the Nærøyfjord to Flåm. Flåm is wel known for it's train-trip into the mountains. Although it is way too expensive, the trip itself is very beautiful and the waterfall (where the train stops so you can go out) is overwhelming (they could have skipped the dancing men with red dresses and blonde wigs though!). 

After the train-trip Gijs drank a local beer at the Ægir Bryggeri Pub, which is expensive but recommendable because of the great taste, the nice viking-style pub and the very friendly bartender. Because we didn't want to spend another two hours on a ferry (and a lot of money) we chose to take the bus back to Gudvangen, but unfortunately it had just went when we arrived at the busstop. We decided to take the next bus (two hours later) and eat dinner in Flåm at the Toget Cafe, which was very good and the prices were ok (for Norwegian standards....). When we wanted to take 'our bus' we were unpleasantly surprised by the fact that dogs weren't allowed on the bus. Sh*t, now it seemed we were stuck in Flåm... Our only options were to take the last ferry back (hurry, it goes in less than 10 minutes!) or call a cab. We chose the cab and it took us 'home' in less than 20 minutes and more than 600 crowns. Next time we will do our homework a little better...

The next day we arrived at Tones place in Oldendale. Ilan and Gwyn played a lot with Tones middle boy Emil who is 13 years old and really great with kids. More about that in our next blog.