Greetings from Norway

[ombugge]

A few simple rules to live by in Norway: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19uQfZzkVZ/

And something to learn about the Norwegians:

15K views · 88 reactions | 3 Things nobody tells you about living in Norway...

[ombugge]

2.4M views · 26K reactions | Did You Know One Spot Connects 3 Countries? 🌍...

In Norwegian this is called “Treriksrøysa” and there are two of them.
Here is the one that marks where Finland, Norway and Sweden meets:

World’s northernmost three-country cairn

The actual northernmost “Treriksrøysa” is actually where Finland, Norway and Russia meet:

Treriksrøysa, the northernmost point in Europe where three time zones meet

[ombugge]

Now back to something more nautical:

28K views · 129 reactions | FERRY ABC: How to ride like a local 🚢 A – Just...

F – Feeling peckish? Most ferries have an onboard café serving small bites. The local favourite in Northwest Norway: the svele (a soft, sweet pancake) – or go savoury with a svinemør sausage.
G – Grab your snack, find a window seat, and enjoy the ride. This is your cheapest fjord cruise yet.

They forgot to mention that the kiosk is usually unmanned. You pay with your card, phone, or cash. Simple.
PS: Based on trust. Nobody watching, no camera.

[ombugge]

MAKE NORWAY GREAT AGAIN (MNGA)
We got there first:

OK, in North America, not counting the “Skrælinger” (Native Americans).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo

[ombugge]

Tromsø in the dead of winter, with polar night:

23K views · 809 reactions | Please don’t send this to anyone dreaming of...

Tromsø in the summer, with midnight sun:

[ombugge]

207K views · 3.1K reactions | Holmenkollen 🤩🇳🇴 | Spectacular Norway

More details about Holmenkollen ski jump:

Holmenkollen National Ski Arena

[ombugge]

The tiny Arctic island where travellers have found refuge since 1897

[ombugge]

Ålesund from an unusual angle:

Two large cruise ships in port is a very common event from late April to late Sept. (Sometime with a medium or small size cruise ship as well)

Here is a more common view:

[Jughead]

@ombugge

We got there first:

Er, no. You didn’t. Nice try but no toffee apple for you.

And once you got there … what then?

[ombugge]

Historic living history reconstruction based on the excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows, a Norse settlement in Newfoundland.

What Evidence is there for Norse Landings in North America?

[Jughead]

But were the Norse first? That was your statement (with distorted projection map too) I disagreed with.

Thule people (ancestors of Inuit) about the same time as the Norse c1000AD but earlier arrivals of Paleo-Eskimos (less advanced) c 3000BC.

[ombugge]

You are WRONG; The earliest Americans arrived in the New World 30,000 years ago: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-07-22-earliest-americans-arrived-new-world-30000-years-ago

[Jughead]

@ombugge

You are WRONG

No. I’m not. Your latest study (yet to be validated) dug up from the depths of Google does not identify the origins of their purported earlier arrivals as Norse. In fact it says it wonders who they were.

@Jughead

And once you got there … what then?

You have yet to answer that question. Did the Norse create a continent of great nations? No.

Your pretty pictures aren’t from 30,000 years old discoveries. Other (different) people had long been in N. America when that pictured settlement was created.

But cheer up. The Norse were certainly great seafarers and explorers, even if a little rough around the edges.

[Sand_Pebble]

I just want to go on the record to say I don’t believe the “Solution” of this “Greetings From Norway” thread has been found. That solution box was checked prematurely. Until @ombugge is taking his last offshore voyage, laying horizontal on a burning replica of a Viking boat this thread should stay open imo.

[ombugge]

Most likely my last “offshore voyage” will be just my ashes, heading out to be spread on the sea off Changi, S’pore.

Now back to the real Norway:

Per Gunnar filma 1000 villrein på Venabygdsfjellet

PS: Wild reindeers in the mountains of Southern Norway: Venabygdsfjellet | Hiking - Visit Lillehammer

[ombugge]

Now some maritime content from Norway.
The men behind the development of what today is the Sunnmøre maritime cluster:

My latest book coming soon in english. History matters — because it tells us what those before us did to succeed, their values, their culture. Our generation has lost a lot of that thread. But the spirit of these men lives on.

I have spent years tracing the genealogy behind the Sunnmøre maritime cluster, and what I found was not a collection of random entrepreneurs. It was one family — the Giske lineage — producing generation after generation of men who built the equipment that runs the world’s ships to this day. 33 profiles. Written by a captain, about captains, for captains, and others.

The senior captains among you will recognise som of these 33 names immediately. Not from history books — from the equipment on your bridge and on your deck, and in your engine rooms:
Thrusters — Brunvoll
Steering gear — Frydenbø and Tennfjord
Anchor-handling winches — Huse
Propellers — Liaaen
Air compressors — Sperre
Gearboxes — Finnøy
The X-BOW hull — Ulstein

As Anton Fredrik Aagesen Klaveness (1839–1904) who started as a shipmaster before he became a shipowner (A.F.Klaveness & Co. A/S) — one of many in this book who earned their command certificate before they earned their first krone as a founder.

Because the men who built this industry were not sitting in offices. They were standing watches. And we owe it to them — and to the ones coming after us — to know that.

Clan Giske — The Viking Island Dynasty Behind the World’s Greatest Maritime Cluster
Author: Jarle Johansen Giske

Link: Sign Up | LinkedIn

For those who may want to know more about Sunnmøre maritime cluster, what it means, who are participating, what they are making, or how they “cooperate when they can, compete when they have to” (or vv): The Maritime Cluster in Sunnmøre | News from Anda-Olsen

PS: The center for the cluster is a couple of hundred meters from where we now live, here in Ålesund:

Blue Maritime Cluster – Global Maritime Strategy and Innovation

[ombugge]

FAKE NEWS, Norway DO NOT want to buy America:

Norway Wants to Buy America | Hilarious Satirical Anthem

We already own a good bit of USA, that is enough for now!!

[ombugge]

Did you know that the Arctic Circle actually MOVE?:

The Arctic Circle in Norway Explained

[ombugge]

Familiar bridge from my young days:
The construction of the stone bridge over Skodje current in 1911 | Ålesund, Vestland:

The heavy stonemason’s hammer has almost become part of your arm, and sweat stings your eyes after hours bent over a block of granite.
Below you the Skodje current churns through the narrow sound and throws salt spray over the rock until you can taste the sea. It is 1911, just east of Ålesund, and your knees are shaking because the tide is about to turn. When it does, the calm water under the timber scaffolding will twist into whirlpools that drag everything down with them.

Out here the moon decides your working hours. Night or day, you wait for the short moment when the tidal stream slackens and nearly stands still. Then you heave blocks weighing several tons into place and wedge them tight before the forces return. If a pulley snaps, or the man on the guide rope slips on the wet rock, weeks of work vanish into the deep. Your fingers are already split by the cold seawater and worn raw by the stone.

There is no cement in this bridge and not a single iron bolt. It is held together by wedge-shaped stones cut so precisely that each one passes the pressure on to the next. One careless blow that leaves a surface uneven, and the load will slide sideways when the scaffolding comes down. That could send the whole 59-metre arch into the currents you are trying to tame. Up on the planks, with the wind off the Sunnmøre mountains tugging at your jacket, there is no room for a millimetre of sloppiness.

On the day the last keystone is driven into the crown of the arch, the whole site holds its breath. Every swing of the sledgehammer has to land true. As the stone sinks home, it presses outward with enormous force and locks the arch against the rock on both sides. Then the scaffolding is knocked away, and the span hangs alone over the deep, carried by nothing but its own stone.

The road still has to be blasted through more than a hundred metres of rock on Kasholmen with hand drills and dynamite, creating one of the county’s earliest road tunnels. When it opens in 1922, people can travel east from Ålesund with dry feet for the first time, no longer at the mercy of tide tables and open boats. For almost a century the stones carry everything from Model T Fords to heavy trucks, until the tall concrete Straumsbrua takes over the traffic in 2004.

The old bridge still stands beside it, open to anyone on foot. Lean over the parapet and watch the current race through the sound below, pulling the kelp into long dark streaks. Lay your palm on the granite and feel the hammer marks, still rough under your skin.

Somewhere beneath your hand sits the keystone they drove home that day, and down in the sound the tide is already starting to turn.

Source:

Facebook

Still there, now only open to pedestrians and bicycles. Popular photo motif:

Can You Believe These Bridges Are Over 100 Years Old?

[ombugge]

It’s windy in Ålesund today:

Her har folk i Ålesund trøbbel

Traffic operator Erling Drangsholt is clear in his speech that it is now irresponsible to open some of the closed bridges in the district.
– There are 38 meters per second in the throw now, and we have to wait until we have under 30 meters per second for half an hour. There is a safety margin.

• Most bridges and roads that are now closed will probably remain closed until the wind has really died down, says Drangsholt.

Source: https://www.smp.no/nyheter/n/kvRdWk/naa-er-det-38-sekundmeter-i-kasta

PS: 38 m/sec. = 76 kts.