They picked us up at 10am in their mercedes (is it just me or are there a lot of nice cars over on this side of the world?) and we headed back to Oslo (I sure have been travelling a lot these past few days!). Our first stop on the tour was the famous Holmenkollen Ski Jump which is this tower that extends 60 meters above the ground that guys in sexy licra suits jump off (if i was wearing their suits, I'd jump off too!) to reach distances of over 135m! We did a simulator version of the thing and I have to say, they've got balls! (No really, you can see them when they're wearing their suits...).
We even got to climb up the tower and see where they set off from and on the way were privileged enough to meet Roger Ruud who won the championships here in 1981. He's something of a local legend I think and must be famous cause he's even mentioned in Wikipedia! Plus they filmed us and we might even end up on some doco about him, haha.
From here it was off to lunch at a nearby historical building ____ whose food was thankfully not quite so historical. In fact it was a beautifully fresh slice of marinated salmon that was served up to me along with some delishious cream of lobster soup. Brilliant spot for lunch!
Then it was time to see some real Norweigan ancestory. Now if I ask who sailed around in big ships with dragon shaped figure heads, raping and pillaging whole viallges and in general making mahem, all while looking cool in big horny helmuts, long braided hair and shields and swords to match; would you have any idea who i was on about?
Yep. Thought so. The aboriginis.
So we went to a museum where three of their ships were shown which had been excavated from around 1000 years ago. We also discovered they actually did more than just run around looking like cows and killing people. They were brilliant wood and metal workers and could run a pretty nifty farm if asked to do so too. They even discovered North America first!
Then, with darkness approaching we headed back to the islands passing by the frozen sea on the way (way cooler than it sounds) and also their house - they have an awesome house situated atop a little hill (Norweigans call them mountains) and because Terje is a carpenter by hobby, he also has an awesome little work shop where he makes hand crafted knives.
Then when we got back to Knut's, I learnt they hadn't even known Erin (I'd assumed they'd met the last time she was here) and so they'd offered to take two almost complete strangers for a tour of the city where they grew up! Now that's a nice couple of people!
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