Norway - Fritzøe Skoge (23-Feb - 26th Feb)

Finally our first trip of the year - We headed off to Norway to meet up with one of our friends, Thomas.

He hosted us at a cabin in Fritzøe Skoger (Fritzøe Forest) just north of Larvik in Norway.

The trip

Overall the trip took us about 8 hours - we packed on Wednesday night (only just managing to get everything in the car) and then were up at 5:30 to leave the house at 6:30am.  We drove up to Strömstad (just north of Göteborg) - 4.5hrs driving,  and caught a ferry across to Sandefjord, Norway.

Our Ferry - The MS Oslofjord

The Strömstad terminal

Looking out over the water from Strömstad

Strömstad - looking out over the Kattegat

It was a little windy

The ferry left at midday and we got free tickets because we joined the Fjordclub (I'd give more details, but the first rule of Fjordclub is that we don't talk about Fjordclub...)  Not bad for 5 people and a car...

We booked a buffet lunch and while it was quite expensive, it was tasty.  After that we checked out the duty free store and then found a nice sunny spot in the aft and Kris fell asleep while the kids and I watched the ski-jump championships.

Thomas met us in Sandefjord and led us up to the cabins.  The cabin was located in Fritzøe Skoger, which was a on a small mountain so we had a decent amount of snow and ice.  The cabin we stayed in was part of a small group.  It had power but no running water - there was a 90m deep well with an electric pump and an outhouse toilet.  It was really comfortable and the log fire kept it nice and warm.  Thomas slept in a hunters cabin that was built somewhere around the 1600s.

Thomas' cabin

Looking out over the forest and another cabin

Our cabin - we had the left side and the right side was another cabin, which was occupied but we never heard and hardly saw them

My artsy cabin shot

The pump shed with the woodshed behind it

A cabin

Just below the cabin was a large lake that was completely frozen over - about 50cm thick with ice (enough to drive a truck on).  That was our aim for the second day, but today we just got settled, got wood and water and made some dinner.

Day 2 (24th Feb) - today the aim was to attack the lake with some ice fishing and ice skating.

The lake

Before we could ice skate we had some work to do.  The snow was a couple of inches thick, so we (well the kids) had to get to work with the shovel to clear enough to get to the ice.  Eventually I brought down the big snow clearing shovel and we cleared a decent area.

I managed to prove my city-slicker skills pretty well.  Thomas pointed out some tracks around the edge of the lake and asked if I could tell what they were from.  So I crouched down and looked.  They were roughly circular with an almost horseshoe like shape.  It had to be a deer, so I said as much.  When he finished laughing, Thomas explained that those marks were from snowmelt dripping onto the snow from the trees and the tracks he pointed out where behind them - fox tracks running around the edge of the lake.

Kris and Tomas on the ice

Clearing the snow - Kris created a 'snow mine' digging the snow onto toboggans, which the kids dragged off to clear

It was a beautiful day.  While it was -8 degrees, it actually felt warm in the sun

Alana and Thomas ice fishing

Alana trying to catch a fish

Kris and Thomas leaving tracks that I could identify this time

Kris ice fishing

Tom clearing snow

The snow clearing efforts

Dad helping

I even put on the skates, although I used Kristine's walking poles because I have no balance or coordination

Thanks to Thomas we got a video of us all skating (well thats a loose use of the term when i was on the ice) together - topped off with an epic fall from Alana.

The kids spent the rest of the afternoon tobogganing down the slope behind the cabin.  They took the GoPro out and got a couple of photos:

The area

Cabins

Eating snow

This one is a special skill - eating snow and tobogganing simultaneously

Day 3 (25th Feb) - Today we did some sightseeing.  First we headed into the centre of Larvik to an iceskating rink so the kids could get some practice (and injuries):

Driving down from the cabin

The drive

Alana skating

Tomas

The boys about to collide

Helping Cam who was a little less confident on the skates

That's still helping I guess

A nice family shot

 No animals were harmed in the making of this bog

Skating

A nice looking building in Lavik

Unfortunately the weather turned a bit worse and so we couldn't do a lot of the siteseeing (some of it involved walking on very slippery rocks). But Thomas took us out to a memorial hall for naval men lost in World War I and II.  It was a pretty cool building with an awesome view:

Side view of the memorial hall

Info sign - 3rd panel is in English

Front of the hall

The view - the pointed brown building was a World War munitions storage

The bay

The beach (the lighter water in to shore is ice)

Memorial Poem

On our way back we stopped via a very old church:

The church

The mounds behind the graveyard in the next shot are viking burial mounds.  The vikings came up the river here in their boats.  These are burial sites for the poorer vikings, those buried only in a longboat.

Graves and burial mounds behind

Driving back to the cabin

There was a beautiful sunset that night over the lake

Day 4 (26th) this was our final day.  We had to be back at the ferry terminal by 2:30 for a 3:20 departure.  We had another buffet on the ferry and arrived back in Strömstad at 6pm.  We managed to get home just after 10pm.

The view on the way back wasn't so great thanks to the fog

All-in-all it was a great trip.  We had fun in the snow and ice and got to see an area of Norway we otherwise would have missed. Thomas was a great host and it was awesome to meet him and get a chance to chat and catch up.

Now we slow down again for a bit until our next big trip - Scotland and England at the end of March.