A Tale of Two Rivers

There are two rivers that have wound their way into my mind and heart over the years---the first is the Hudson River in New York State where I grew up and the other is the Akerselva in Oslo Norway where I live now. Both are beautiful rivers that wind their way through city, town and countryside alike. The Hudson River, over 300 miles long, starts in upstate New York at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains and ends in the Upper New York Bay, which is the New York harbor area between New York City and New Jersey. The river narrows at some points, other times widening so that you could believe it was more like the narrow part of an ocean than a river. The Akerselva river flows through the city of Oslo, having started its journey at Maridalsvannet in the forest area north of Oslo. It empties into the Oslo fjord. Compared to the Hudson River, it is not a long river at all, only about five miles long.

The town I grew up in, Tarrytown, is one of the small towns located on the Hudson River. The Tappan Zee Bridge crosses the river at this point, connecting Tarrytown with Nyack at one of the widest parts of the river. The bridge is a landmark like the George Washington Bridge. On a clear day, you can see the George Washington Bridge and the New York City skyline from the Tappan Zee Bridge. The river has been known to freeze in the wintertime, although it does not do so each year. I can remember my father talking about this happening when he was a child (he grew up in Tarrytown) and how the townspeople could walk all the way across the river to Nyack if they wanted to. I remember when I was around sixteen or seventeen, the river partially froze that winter and I was able to take some really nice pictures of it. It was amazing to see how the ice was pushed up in some places like small icebergs. I don’t remember it freezing much after that. There was always a lot of activity on the river—barges, tugboats, pleasure boats, cruise ferries to Bear Mountain and West Point—all on their way to upstate NY or back to Manhattan. I remember as a child being out in a very small motorboat together with my uncle and my family; it was not a pleasant experience because the boat was too small, we had to sit completely still, and none of us had life vests on even though they were probably there in the boat. Looking back on it, it seems so foolhardy to have done that. Yet knowing my stubborn uncle, he probably insisted to the point where my parents gave in rather unwillingly. It never happened again. During the summertime when we were children, my mother would take us and some friends to Kingsland Point Park on the river, where we would make a day of it swimming, picnicking and lying on the beach to get a tan. It was also interesting to watch the male lifeguards flirt with the teenager girls and I always wondered what became of some of those people. Did those summer flirts lead to romance and a future together? As we and our friends got older, we hung out at Rockwood Hall State Park on the Hudson River, which was the former estate of William Rockefeller given to NY State by the Rockefeller family. Part of the local folklore would have it that it was haunted in places by the spirits of the Indians who used to live there. I can remember being there with my sister and a good friend early one evening, walking around, and suddenly experiencing the feeling that there was something else there with us—an electricity in the air, a feeling, a coldness. We did not hang around there very long after that. It was an odd experience because we all felt it at the same time, and we had not been talking about spirits or any such thing when it happened. In the autumn, if you looked across the river, the Hudson Palisades were always there in the distance. They were not real mountains, rather more like steep cliffs falling down to the water, but in the autumn the leaves on the hundreds of trees on the cliffs would turn beautiful colors, so it was incredible to look across the river and see that foliage. When I come back to NY now, usually during the summer months, I often stay with my friend Jean who lives upstate. For the past four or five years now, we have been attending the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, which is held on the Boscobel Estate (http://www.boscobel.org/main.html), also overlooking the Hudson River. It is a fantastic experience to sit in the audience tent and watch the actors and actresses run about on the sweeping estate lawns, making their entrances and exits. The plays usually start when it is still light out, but then darkness descends, and the stage lights illuminating the tent come on, giving the place an eerie-like glow that is usually quite in keeping with the tone of the play at that time, whether it be comedy or tragedy. In other towns along the Hudson, such as Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, and Riverdale, to name a few, the waterfronts have been developed so that there are now lots of different restaurants and shops to visit. It was not like this when we were children. The waterfronts were often shabby, old, dotted with factories (with many broken windows), garbage areas, small marinas, rundown buildings and weary-looking men hanging about them—in short, they were not very appealing places to walk around in or look at. I remember taking the train from Tarrytown to Manhattan when I went to school there, and it was always interesting and sometimes disconcerting to look out the windows at the life along the river. The town waterfronts look very different now, all changed, and mostly for the better in my opinion. Of course it is now almost impossible to afford an apartment in the newly-built complexes on the river, so this is the flip side of the coin of improvement and development. When I am back in NY, I still enjoy taking the train ride from Manhattan to Tarrytown or Irvington—it is a beautiful ride that always makes me feel like I am coming home. If you want a book that presents the Hudson River in all its glory during all the seasons, I recommend The Hudson River: From the Tear of the Clouds to Manhattan (http://www.amazon.com/Hudson-River-Tear-Clouds-Manhattan/dp/1580931723) by Jake Rajs. Some of his photography is breathtaking.

The Akerselva river is not a long river as I mentioned earlier. Nonetheless, it weaves and winds its way through some lovely scenery and areas of Oslo. It is a people-friendly river, with bicycle and pedestrian paths that allow one to follow it all the way up to Maridalvannet and all the way down to the fjord. If you walk north along the river, you will come to Nydalen, which is a complex of apartment buildings, shops and businesses that blend in nicely with the river and its small waterfalls. I often think how nice it would be to work for one of those companies that have buildings there—one could sit out along the river and eat lunch during the summertime. The Nydalen subway station boasts an escalator ride down to or up from the train platform that will enchant you—the escalator ride, called the Tunnel of Light, envelopes you in a rainbow of colors that change and glide into each other accompanied by a kind of mood music that creates a truly memorable experience (http://performative.wordpress.com/2007/01/21/tunnel-of-light-nydalen-metro-station-oslo/). There are many people picnicking in the parks along the river in the summertime. If you walk south along the river, you will pass some idyllic spots perfect for taking pictures. You will also come upon a part of the river where salmon and trout swim upstream—we have stood from the bridge and watched them flopping about and trying to swim up the waterfalls. We don’t really know how far up the river they actually manage to swim. The city of Oslo has used some money to renovate formerly rundown areas along the river, and these now are populated by restaurants and galleries and coffee shops—again a change for the better in my opinion. I have taken numerous photos of the Akerselva river during all four seasons and I never tire of photographing it. I always seem to find new idyllic areas that I have not photographed before. The Akerselva river has now become a part of my life in much the same way as the Hudson River—captivating me with its beauty, hidden spots, bird life and constancy.