After a two hour flight from Berlin we landed at the ultra-modern airport located near Oslo. We were greeted there by Hege who was the third foreign exchange student that we hosted. She lived with us during the 1994–95 school year.

Hege, all 6’1” of her, remains as a bubbly and full of life today as she did 25 years ago. (Here is 25 years ago)

We will be guests of her family for the next four nights. This is Christine standing next to Hege and Jan’s 15 year old son!

She, her husband Jan, and their three children plan on visiting us in Missouri later this Summer. Every member of the family speaks fluent English, however the children seem to make fun of their father’s English which they consider to be less than perfect. We disagree!

Hege and Jan are both teachers in a nearby elementary school. They both have a pleasant lighthearted demeanor that must endear them to their students. Hege has explained that she is assigned a class in the first grade and then follows that class as their teacher for the next seven years. She becomes very close to the class members as if a member of their own families. I asked Hege if she ever had students that she found “challenging“. “Of course,” she replied, “it just means that I have to try harder.” I have no doubt that she does, and successfully.

Norway has approximately the same population but twice the land area (5.2 million and 149,000 sq miles) as the state of Missouri (6 million and 69,700 sq miles).

Norwegians enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world, ranked sixth worldwide in per capita gross domestic product (USA is 11th), and 1st in the International Human Development Index (USA 10th) which seeks to quantify factors such as the delivery of healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, nutrition, life expectancy, and personal freedoms. Our 30 minute drive from the airport to Hege’s home community visually confirmed these statistics.

We are approximately 400 miles from the Arctic Circle, the farthest north thus far on this journey. We are also nearing the summer solstice. Therefore, it was still “daylight” at 11 pm and it never did get totally dark. At 2 am the brightening skies forced me to get up and pull down the blinds.

Today is a “chill out“ day so we are doing laundry, catching up on a little reading, and I’m trying to figure out how to make my iPad “cooperate“ again. I am currently typing this on the annoyingly small screen of my iPhone. No pictures today, but I hope to remedy that tomorrow when we travel into Oslo to tour the sights that might include the Viking Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum, dedicated to Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 voyage from Peru to Polynesia on a pre-Columbian raft.

We have 10 nights to go before we are home in our own bed.

Peace Everyone! Pete

After a two hour flight from Berlin we landed at the ultra-modern airport located near Oslo. We were greeted there by Hege who was the third foreign exchange student that we hosted. She lived with us during the 1994–95 school year.

Hege, all 6’1” of her, remains as a bubbly and full of life today as she did 25 years ago. We will be guests of her family for the next four nights. This is Christine standing next to Hege and Jan’s 15 year old son!

She, her husband Jan, and their three children plan on visiting us in Missouri later this Summer. Every member of the family speaks fluent English, however the children seem to make fun of their father’s English which they consider to be less than perfect. We disagree!

Hege and Jan are both teachers in a nearby elementary school. They both have a pleasant lighthearted demeanor that must endure them to their students. Hege has explained that she is assigned a class in the first grade and then follows that class as their teacher for the next seven years. She becomes very close to the class members as if a member of their own families. I asked Hege if she ever had students that she found “challenging“. “Of course,” she replied, “it just means that I have to try harder.” I have no doubt that she does, and successfully.

Norway has approximately the same population but twice the land area (5.2 million and 149,000 sq miles) as the state of Missouri (6 million and 69,700 sq miles).

Norwegians enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world, ranked sixth worldwide in per capita gross domestic product (USA is 11th), and 1st in the International Human Development Index (USA 10th) which seeks to quantify factors such as the delivery of healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, nutrition, life expectancy, and personal freedoms. Our 30 minute drive from the airport to Hege’s home community visually confirmed these statistics.

We are approximately 400 miles from the Arctic Circle, the farthest north thus far on this journey. We are also nearing the summer solstice. Therefore, it was still “daylight” at 11 pm and it never did get totally dark. At 2 am the brightening skies forced me to get up and pull down the blinds.

Today is a “chill out“ day so we are doing laundry, catching up on a little reading, and I’m trying to figure out how to make my iPad “cooperate“ again. I am currently typing this on the annoyingly small screen of my iPhone. No pictures today, but I hope to remedy that tomorrow when we travel into Oslo to tour the sights that might include the Viking Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum, dedicated to Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 voyage from Peru to Polynesia on a pre-Columbian raft.

We have 10 nights to go before we are home in our own bed.

Peace Everyone! Pete

This was our last full day in Berlin. I am writing these “Thoughts” in the early morning hours of June 11th. There are 11 nights of this journey yet before us, 4 in Oslo Norway, and 7 in Iceland. Yesterday afternoon at a local cafe we met our friend from the recent Portuguese Camino, Stanislaw Mowinski, together with members of his family.

It was a wonderful reunion that integrated our recent friendship with “Stanley” and our decades long friendship with André.

Before that meeting we toured the Berlin Neues Museum. Built between 1843 and 1855, it is located on Berlin’s “Museum Island”. It was heavily damaged during World War 2. It’s restoration was finally completed in 2008. The museum houses a remarkable collection of prehistoric, early history, and ancient Egyptian artifacts. The iconic 3,350 year old bust of Nefertiti is the most treasured object on display.

Although photography was allowed throughout most of the museum, it was forbidden in the chambers that housed the bust and very ancient documents. Those documents included early Christian writings, 5,000 year old Egyptian papyri, and even a tablet from the 4,000 year old “Epic of Gilgamesh”, believed to be the world’s oldest surviving work of literature.

I was allowed to photograph the working models that were excavated from the workshop of the artist that sculpted Nefertiti. They appear incredibly modern in their form and detail, in spite of being over 3,500 years old!

The following image of the bust of Nefertiti is an internet image.

I was captivated by the extent and quality of the collection. Among the statues were 4,000 year old poses that conveyed the most natural of modern relationships.

Our tour ended and we adjourned to a nearby cafe and then on to André’s home where we rejoined his wife Asuka and daughter Helena. We enjoyed dinner with the family and then said our goodbyes.

A series of seemingly insignificant events brought André into our family. We all agree that those events altered the course of our lives, and continue to do so today.

As a gentleman said to us at the start of this journey, “In Life there are no coincidences.”

Peace Everyone. Pete

PS. My iPad has essentially shot craps. I have posted this note using my iPhone. Writing narrative, downloading pictures, transferring and then organizing the pictures on the website is very difficult with the small device. If I cannot get my iPad to behave then it is quite possible that this will be the last posting before we arrive home.

This was our last full day in Berlin. I am writing these “Thoughts” in the early morning hours of June 11th. There are 11 nights of this journey yet before us, 4 in Oslo Norway, and 7 in Iceland. Yesterday afternoon at a local cafe we met our friend from the recent Portuguese Camino, Stanislaw Moritz, together with members of his family.

It was a wonderful reunion that integrated our recent friendship with “Stanley” and our decades long friendship with André.

Before that meeting we toured the Berlin Neues Museum. Built between 1843 and 1855, it is located on Berlin’s “Museum Island”. It was heavily damaged during World War 2. It’s restoration was finally completed in 2008. The museum houses a remarkable collection of prehistoric, early history, and ancient Egyptian artifacts. The iconic 3,350 year old bust of Nefertiti is the most treasured object on display.

Although photography was allowed throughout most of the museum, it was forbidden in the chambers that housed the bust and very ancient documents. Those documents included early Christian writings, 5,000 year old Egyptian papyri, and even a tablet from the 4,000 year old “Epic of Gilgamesh”, believed to be the world’s oldest surviving work of literature.

I was allowed to photograph the working models that were excavated from the workshop of the artist that sculpted Nefertiti. They appear incredibly modern in their form and detail, in spite of being over 3,500 years old!

The following image of the bust of Nefertiti is an internet image.

I was captivated by the extent and quality of the collection. Among the statues were 4,000 year old poses that conveyed the most natural of modern relationships.

Our tour ended and we adjourned to a nearby cafe and then on to André’s home where we rejoined his wife Asuka and daughter Helena. We enjoyed dinner with the family and then said our goodbyes.

A series of seemingly insignificant events brought André into our family. We all agree that those events altered the course of our lives, and continue to do so today.

As a gentleman said to us at the start of this journey, “In Life there are no coincidences.”

Peace Everyone. Pete

PS. My iPad has essentially shot craps. I have posted this note using my iPhone. Writing narrative, downloading pictures, transferring and then organizing the pictures on the website is very difficult with the small device. If I cannot get my iPad to behave then it is quite possible that this will be the last posting before we arrive home.