Photos from our Oslo-Fjærland-Ålesund-Molde-Bygdin-Oslo trip

on the road to Fjærland

Fjærland and its fjord

Fjærland fjord

Fjærland Fjordstue Hotel

Supphellebreen glacier arm

Supphellebreen glacier

Ålesund

Molde

Molde

View from Trollstigen area

the mountain road to Geiranger

View of Geiranger from Utsikten Hotel

the winding mountain road leaving Geiranger

Bygdin Fjellstue Hotel

Oslo-Fjærland-Ålesund-Molde-Bygdin-Oslo

It has become a pattern with us that we vacation every other year in Norway. Two years ago we drove to Rjukan and stayed there for a few days before ending up in Notodden for the blues festival. This year we decided to drive to Ålesund and Molde, as I have always wanted to see these cities. I have heard a lot about Ålesund and how I had to visit it. Molde is known as the city of roses and jazz. It is internationally famous for its annual jazz festival; this year, Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock were among the invited performers. We arrived in Molde a week prior to the festival’s start, a smart idea given that most hotels are fully-booked during the festival week and we would not have gotten a room anywhere.

We left Oslo early on a Monday morning (July 10^th) with the aim of making it to Fjærland the first day. We drove via Kongsberg and Geilo; the drive on the Fjærland Road took us through some lovely areas. Fjærland itself is a small town, but an incredibly lovely one on the Fjærland Fjord. We stayed at the Fjærland Fjordstue Hotel, run by Bård and Linda Huseby. We really enjoyed our short stay here, and can recommend this hotel. It is truly picturesque, situated right on the fjord, with a lovely terrace overlooking the water where one can sit outdoors and drink coffee or have a beer. The dining room also overlooks the water. We spent one night at the hotel, enjoyed a walk around town before dinner, and then a very good dinner afterward. I took some lovely photos of the fjord and the surrounding mountains on the morning of our departure.

On the advice of the hotel owner, we decided to check out the Supphellebreen glacier arm, which is not far from the hotel. We drove out to the edge of the arm and walked to the body of water that lies beneath the glacier arm. It is amazing to see something like this in person; I have never seen a glacier up close before, and was surprised to observe that the ice in the glacier had a bluish tinge. I took some photos, and then we drove on. At my urging, we decided to check out the Haugabreen glacier as well, but that turned out to be a rather nightmarish drive up a gravel-covered dirt road with a 20% incline in order to reach it. My husband is a good driver and his Porsche managed the trip up and down again, but I would not want to repeat the experience any time soon. I don’t have the nerves for steep narrow roads with no protective railings. I kept wondering if we would end up going over the edge. As it turned out, we made it to the top, but found out that we would have to walk a bit in order to reach the glacier, so we decided against doing that since we had a long drive ahead of us to Ålesund. On our descent, we met a large dump truck carrying gravel coming up the hill. There was no way we could pass it, and we could not back up as it would have meant backing up the hill from which we had descended, so the truck had to back down, and it did. I was impressed by the truck driver who took it all in stride. I would have been a nervous wreck.

We made it to Ålesund by late Tuesday afternoon and checked into the Brosundet Hotel, also right on the water. This hotel was also quite nice; I liked the fact that both breakfast and dinner were included in the price, also that the kitchen staff provided cake and coffee during the late afternoon before dinner. The dinners were standard fare—turkey wings the first evening and lamb stew the second evening—but it beat having to find an open restaurant (many restaurants close in July in Norway—right during the height of tourist season, which makes no sense to me at all). Those that were open were quite expensive; main courses were in the forty to fifty dollar price range. Overpriced, in my opinion. Ålesund is a quaint city, with many old stone buildings (a big fire in 1904 destroyed most of its wooden buildings), but there were a fair number of buildings in need of repair and renovation. It did not strike me as a wealthy city, but I could be wrong. While we were there, the annual boat festival got underway, and we enjoyed a flyboarding exhibition that was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen (see video in the next post). Otherwise, we walked around the entire city and out to the Aquarium, which is also known as the Atlantic Sea-Park (Atlanterhavsparken). The aquarium is well-worth visiting; it is right on the ocean, and has large outdoor open pools for seals, otters, and penguins. The large indoor open pool holds a variety of fish, manta rays, lobsters, starfish, and anemones.

We left Ålesund for Molde on Thursday morning, and arrived in Molde around lunchtime. The weather was very nice, so after we checked into our hotel (Molde Fjordstuer Hotel) we took a long walk around the city, ate lunch and then hung out at the hotel until dinnertime. This hotel was modern and quite stylish and I enjoyed staying here. It would be nice to visit the city again at some future point during the jazz festival.

We left Molde for Bygdin on Friday morning, with planned drives up Trollstigen and through Geiranger. I’ll let Wikipedia’s description of Trollstigen suffice—a serpentine mountain road,  narrow with many sharp bends, and although several bends were widened during 2005 to 2012, vehicles over 41 feet long are prohibited from driving the road. I’m very glad my husband is a good (and confident) driver and that his Porsche could make it up Trollstigen and then down and up the road to Geiranger, which was equally serpentine and a bit nerve-wracking in my opinion. We stopped to have coffee at the Hotel Utsikten (literally the View Hotel), which had breathtaking views of the Geiranger Fjord. After that, we drove on to Bygdin through mountain country, and arrived at the Bygdin Fjellstue Hotel in late afternoon. The nice weather was conducive for walking, so we took a good walk before dinner. We stayed at this hotel for one night (we stayed here before in 2002, my first trip to the mountains in Norway), and managed a walk along Bygdin Lake on Saturday morning before we left for home.

We were quite lucky with the weather; most of the time it was sunny and fairly warm. There was only one evening/morning in Ålesund when it rained heavily. Although there was a lot of driving on this trip, it was endurable because we drove along many scenic routes (my husband’s plan) rather than standard (often mind-numbing) highways. It’s no wonder that Norway is considered to be a beautiful country; this trip merely confirmed that fact. 

(I'll post photos in my next post, as well as videos of the flyboarding performance in Ålesund).

Summers and the ice-cream man

I suppose everyone has their own memories of the ice-cream man when they were growing up. For those of us who grew up in Tarrytown and who loved the long summer days playing outdoors, it meant a daily visit from Eddie the ice-cream man in his white truck; he worked for the Good Humor Company. He would drive into Tappan Landing Road, make a U-turn at Henrik Lane and park in front of the 26 Tappan Landing Road apartment building. There would be a line of children waiting to buy ice cream cones, popsicles and sandwiches from him. It was always exciting to watch him reach into the truck’s freezer to retrieve what you had asked for. In my case, it was a toasted almond dessert bar; they were heavenly (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114453/toasted-almond-dessert-bar-good-humor). More favorites were the strawberry shortcake dessert bar (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114303/strawberry-shortcake-dessert-bar-good-humor) and the standard ice-cream sandwich (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114441/giant-vanilla-sandwich-good-humor) (not a giant version but just the regular-sized one). I think Eddie enjoyed handing out his ice-cream products as much as we enjoyed receiving them. Of course nothing was for free; but I don’t remember that we paid more than about 50 cents for what we wanted. Nowadays we’d pay much more.

Here in Oslo, I am reminded of Eddie the ice-cream man each time I hear the ice-cream truck play its familiar song. The Oslo ice-cream truck tune is just the opening riff from the theme music to Norge Rundt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadPQ9XIF4M) but it is so characteristic. You can hear it a mile away and recognize it instantly, knowing that the ice-cream truck is in the vicinity. I purchased some ice cream from the ice-cream vendor recently--ice cream sandwiches and Lollipop popsicles (http://isbjornis.no/?page_id=172 --also called saftis med sjokoladetrekk), both of which are very good. Even though it is many years ago since we were children, it is nice to have those memories of summer, and nice to know that ice cream trucks are not a thing of the past. 

    

Wish we could fly like this for real

Love the song, but love the video even more. I'm waiting for the day when science makes it possible for us to fly like this.....how incredible that would be!

Gobbledygook or Newspeak in Modern Workplaces

From time to time I write about the modern workplace; the well will never run dry when it comes to finding ideas to write about when it comes to such workplaces. I am especially interested in public sector workplaces, since they seem to embody (or aim to embody by design) the worst business philosophies and ideas that crawl out from under the slimy rocks where they’ve sprouted. Modern workplaces in Norway and elsewhere often adopt such philosophies and ideas uncritically and put them into operation without much discussion or rational consideration. I’ve written about them before, e.g. New Public Management, which is (fortunately for us) on its way out after its decade of tyranny. Ask most employees if they’ve been comfortable in their workplaces that uncritically adopted this philosophy, and their answers will be a chorus of No’s. 

The uncritical adoption of bad business philosophies into modern public sector workplaces goes hand in hand with the language of gobbledygook to support and defend them. If company leaders don’t want their employees to know what it is they are being subjected to, then gobbledygook is the language they use. Let’s call it Newspeak for modern workplaces (with apologies to George Orwell). It can be defined as a language that makes no sense whatsoever, either to its users or to its unfortunate listeners. Its aim is to create a smokescreen so that employees become confused or left in the dark about what is really going on. If you have ever been the recipient of emails that make no sense whatsoever, if you’ve asked a question and gotten a ‘non-answer’ that passes for an answer, then you have experienced gobbledygook. If you attempt to make sense of the enormous bureaucratic system around you, e.g. how to deal with the billing department, you will be met with a wall of people, all of whom are cc-ing each other in the myriad of emails sent back and forth to answer one tiny question—how do I bill so-and-so for the service performed for them. One tiny question is ‘non-answered’ by at least six or more people, none of whom can or will take responsibility for providing a substantive answer. This is cowardice by design, inbuilt into a system that is itself designed to dilute out responsibility so that no one can be taken for any wrongdoing that could arise down the road. How would anyone be able to track the countless email paths, conversations, etc. that are attached to one miniscule billing situation?

In this vein, it was interesting to read the remarks of a Norwegian leader (of a public sector workplace that deals out money to researchers) concerning his organization’s philosophy, translated here from Norwegian:

When the sectoral principle so strongly influences Norwegian research funding, it is all the more important that XXX has a real opportunity to create synergies of funds given with different logics, then we can create win-win situations where we can deliver both on goal A and Goal B for the same money.

For God’s sake, what does this mean? And it’s not the translation; it was just as difficult to understand the meaning in Norwegian. This is how we are ‘talked to’ on a daily basis, from leader’s commentaries to emails that makes no sense or that provide no answers whatsoever. This is what we face at every turn. Meaningless pronouncements with bloated language that create a world of nonsense. Nonsense—literally, non-sense. Lewis Carroll would be proud (the author of Alice in Wonderland for those of you who wonder, whose Alice fell down the rabbit hole into a world that made no sense). It would be alarming if it wasn’t comical. It is no longer comical in my opinion. This is how many public sector workplaces operate on a daily basis. I pity those employees who prize speaking clearly and getting the job done as their goals. It is nearly impossible to cut through the jungle of gobbledygook on the way toward those goals. 

White roses

Roses add beauty to any garden. We have a lovely pink rose bush in our allotment garden that was there already when we took over the garden, and last year I planted two climbing white rose bushes, one on each side of the garden arch at the entrance to the garden. Last year, they settled in and started climbing, but did not bloom. This year, they have climbed a lot and have bloomed incredibly. Lovely beautiful white flowers.....

Today's rainbow

We've been having a fair amount of rain lately, and every now and then the sun comes out after a rain shower. And then a rainbow appears, like today's.......

And a close-up view:

The garden is finally starting to take off

After a fairly rainy first two weeks of June, the weather has improved to the point where the garden is finally starting to take off. The sun has reappeared and that means warmth and longer periods of light. The strawberry patches are going to produce a lot of strawberries this year; I have never seen so many flowers in a strawberry patch as I have this year. And the black currant, red currant, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and mulberry bushes are also starting to produce berries. My corn plants are developing thicker stalks and growing taller, the pumpkins are growing, the bean plants are doing very well, and the snap peas have attached and are growing up along the trellises I made for them (I learned how to make them from twigs from an online gardening site). And in the greenhouse, the tomato plants are big and healthy, and the sweet pepper and cucumber plants are also doing well. I've only grown tomatoes once before, and that was indoors in our apartment, with limited success. I am enjoying working in the greenhouse; on chilly or cloudy days, it's a nice place to be. And so far, the slugs have not found their way into it, probably because it gets so warm and dry in there that it's not optimal for them. I'm hoping it stays that way.

The flowers I grew from seeds are also growing, but slowly. I planted two hydrangeas this year, and they seem to be doing ok so far, although I read that they need a lot of water. I planted sunflowers for the first time, and they are also starting to grow taller. I also planted pansies, more lavender plants, and more grass (mostly to fill in the bare patches here and there).

Here are some recent photos:

pansies

hydrangea

hydrangea

tomato plants

our lovely rhododendron that we rescued last year from a garbage heap

corn plants top left, string bean plants top middle, pumpkin plants in the foreground

our lovely rosebush next to the rhododendron, and the bird bath in front of it

another view of the pumpkin patches

check out the strawberry patches near the garden arch and how many flowers there are

my sugar snap peas growing up the trellises 

more tomato plants

another view of the garden

the greenhouse--you can see the tomato plants inside

Fra ”Melkespannet” til ”Capricorn” – en 32,5’ racer fra Otto L. Scheen Jr.’s hånd

by Trond Stokke, styremedlem Furuholmen Motor Yacht Club

Historien om denne 32,5’ raceren med V-bunn og skarpe vinkler i overgangen fra underskroget til fribordet, skarpe slag, starter i midten av 50-årene. Otto Scheen tegner denne båten for Tom Wilhelmsen, som ble bygd i 1955-56 hos Hans Berg-Olsen (bygg# 423, senere kalt ”Capricorn”). En lignende blir bygd for Fred Olsen i 1957 (bygg# 427) som ble kalt ”Hudibras”, denne heter nå ”Orkan” og eies av Torbjørn Lensebakken. Begge disse ble nye utrustet med 200Hk Gray Marine motorer. På den tiden var turbinmotorer populære for ymse formål, og Boeing hadde en marinisert variant med giring passende for marine/propell-drift. Wilhelmsen fant etterhvert ut at denne motoren med høy ytelse/vekt forhold (ca. 1 Hk/kilo) kunne stå for fremdrift i runabouten eller plattgatteren, som hun også kan kalles. Som tenkt, så gjort (Bilde 1). I 1961-62 blir 2 båter til bygd over samme lest, også hos Berg-Olsen, en til Tom Wilhelmsen (bygg# 445) og en til Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (bygg# 446). Begge disse skal ha blitt utrustet med turbinmotorer som nye, 300 og 400Hk respektivt. Basert på Berg-Olsens byggelister må det være feil når Gøthesen opplyser i ”Motorbåten” at Tom Wilhelmsen fikk bygd 2 båter med gassturbin, på henholdsvis 30’ og 34’, og at det ble bygd en 34’ for Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk.

Bilde 1. Testing av ”Melkespannet” utenfor Bygdøy.

Skrog og konstruksjon.

Når Otto Scheen konstruerte denne båten, her kalt ”Melkespannet” eller ”Capricorn”, siden det siste var det navnet hun hadde når jeg var på besiktelse i 1998, la han vekt på at skroget skulle tåle høy fart. Scheen hadde akkurat returnert fra et 2-årig opphold i USA hvor han studerte design hos Sparkman & Stevens i New York. I løpet av sin periode i statene signerte han bl.a. en 53’ commuter for tobakksfabrikanten R.G. Reynolds.  Byggingen av Capricorn ble påbegynt i 1955, og muligens fullført i 1956. Bilde 2 fra 1962 viser Tom Wilhelmsen (til høyre) og Hans Berg-Olsen poserende foran Wilhelmsens andre og lignende 32,5’ (bygg# 445) og båten som ble levert til Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (bygg# 446).

Bilde 2. Hans Berg-Olsen (t.v.) og Tom Wilhelmsen foran Wilhelmsen's andre båt og Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk's.

Underskroget er av dobbeltplanket mahogny, 7+12 mm, og dermed stivt. Skroget er konkavt over vannlinja i front for å ta unna spray fra baugen, glidende over mot type tumblehome/barrel-back mot hekken. Det er ikke bare skarp vinkel i overgangen fra underskrog til fribord bak mot hekken, men til og med en utdragning av underskroget, som gir noe av samme effekt som en steglist (Bilde 3). Knekken i spantene vises tydlig i Bilde 2. Mot front fungerer lista mer som en spraylist. Det er ikke step i undervannsskroget. Bilde 4 viser plantegning av ”Capricorn”, antagligvis ble samme brukt ved bygging av ”Hudibras”/”Orkan”, Wilhelmsens andre båt og KV båten.

Bilde 3.

Bilde 4. Plantegning.

Bilde 5. Luker til motor helt akter.

Når jeg traff henne, hadde hun en big-block GM V8 med V-drev, så tyngdepunktet var behagelig langt bak uten at båten dyppa rumpa dypt i vannet ved stillstand (Bilde 5). Det kan virke fra bildene som GM 454 motoren og  Boeing turbinmotoren var plassert omtrent likt i båten. 

Jeg var og så på Capricorn i 1998 i Stockholm med alvorlige hensikter om å kjøpe båten. Mer om det senere. Det var en båt å bli forelsket i! Under prøveturen viste det seg at båten skled gjennom vannet så det var en nytelse. Planingsterskelen var lite utpreget, Capricorn kom sakte og rolig ut av vannet fra 10 knop og opp mot 20. Dette skyldes antagligvis den forholdsvis spisse vinkelen på V-bunnen. I 25 knop oppførte båten seg glimrende, det var ikke antydning til at baugen gravde og styrte, hvilket ofte kan være tilfelle for plattgattere med tyngdepunktet lenger foran. (For eksempel graver min nåværende båt ”Foxy Lady” med baugen i 20 knop.) Bilde 6 gir et inntrykk av hvordan Capricorn skjærer gjennom vannet.    

Bilde 6. En nytelse å kjøre Capricorn!

Motorer.

”Capricorn”, også kalt ”Melkespannet” på folkemunne, ble altså utrustet med en Gray Marine 200Hk orginalt. Gray motoren ble byttet ut med en Chrysler 275Hk i 1958. Jeg har ikke funnet ut av nøyaktig når Wilhelmsen fikk satt inn turbinmotoren, men det må ha vært helt på slutten av 50-tallet. Turbinmotoren var en Boeing 502 10c Turbo-Mariner turbinmotor (Bilde 7). Denne veide ikke mer enn 285kg (625 pund) med girkasse og det hele, hvilket gir en meget gunstig effekt/vekt ratio enten vi regner 260Hk (Popular Mechanics november 1961) eller 300Hk (Boeings spesifikasjoner). Overføring til propellakslingen gikk via et V-drev, for å få tyngdepunktet langt nok bak. Det karakteristiske tilnavnet ”Melkespannet” fikk selvfølgelig båten på grunn av avtrekket som stikker opp fra turbinmotoren (Bilde 1). Turbinmotoren skal ha fungert bra, men det sies at båten måtte taues ut Bestumkilen til utenfor Killingen før motoren kunne startes. For ikke å skremme vannet av folk og fe... Boeing oppgir et forbruk på 32 gallon/time ved full effekt, så drivstofforbruket var nok heftig. Fordelen var at man kunne fore motoren med bensin, diesel, eller omtrent hva som helst som kunne antennes i nødsfall.

Bilde 7. Boeing 502 motor.

Det er uklart når turbinmotoren ble byttet ut med en vanlig stempelmotor igjen, det kan ha skjedd i forbindelse med at ”Capricorn” skal ha blitt overdratt til Niels Werring Jr. i 1961. Berg-Olsen stod også for ombygging av overbygning og inredning  for Werring. Ombyggingen har ikke eget byggnummer hos verftet, men er nevnt på linja under byggnummer 446. (Niels Werring Jr. var partner i rederiet Wilh. Wilhelmsen.) Turbinmotoren kan også ha blitt byttet ut når båten eventuellt havnet i Sverige en eller annen gang på sent 60-tall (?). Sannsynligvis har det sittet flere forskjellige motorer i ”Capricorn” frem til 90-tallet. I 1998 var motoren en General Motors big block (454CID) med 370Hk fra tidlig 90-tall. Også denne hadde V-drev. Selger oppga en topphastighet på 35 knop, 5 knop mer enn med Boeing turbinmotoren. Selv om jeg ikke fikk testet båten i full fart, føltes det som motoren knapt hadde fått opp dampen når vi gjorde 25 knop.

Historikk og hvordan det gikk med båtkjøpet i Stockholm i 1998...

”Capricorn”, eller ”Melkespannet” som hun het på folkemunne rundt 1960, ble altså tegnet av Otto Scheen og påbegynt bygd for Tom Wilhelmsen hos Berg-Olsen i 1955. Den svenske selgeren Jan Abelin, visstnok eier nummer 6 i rekken, opplyste om at båten ble overtatt av Niels Werring Jr. fra Tom Wilhelmsen i 1961. Dette kommer også klart frem fra Berg-Olsens byggelister, siden hun som nevnt ble ombygd på den tiden. Jeg har ikke funnet ut hvem som kjøpte båten av Werring eller når det skjedde, men det skal ha vært 3 eiere mellom ham og Abelin. Sannsynligvis var flere av/alle disse svenske, da ”Capricorn” visstnok skal ha satt fartsrekord over Vänern, men også gått til bunns ved Smögen ved en annen anledning. Jeg angrer på at jeg ikke spurte Otto Scheen om tidlig historikk og andre detaljer mens han var i live.

Jeg skylder leseren en forklaring på hvorfor jeg ikke endte opp med båtkjøp i Stockholm i 1998. Prøvekjøringen gikk veldig greit en stund, som nevnt over gikk båten alldeles nydelig i vannet. GM motoren hadde ingen problemer med å dra ”Capricorn” opp i plan, og jeg hadde ikke halv gass en gang ved cirka 25 knop. Bare fryd og gammen m.a.o., inntil det tok fyr bak i motorrommet... Det viste seg at selger hadde skrudd sammen rustne risere og eksos i en fei før vi skulle teste båten, så det lakk eksos både her og der som sannsynligvis hadde antent olje eller bensin som fløt rundt. Vi fikk slokket brannen ganske raskt, men ikke raskere enn at politi, brannvesen og det meste hadde blitt alarmert. De kom med båt, biler på land og helikopter (!) Jeg skjønte raskt at dette ikke var noe alvorlig problem, det var nok bare at selger var lite hissig på å bruke penger på nye risere når båten skulle selges. Vel tilbake på brygga gikk jeg nøye gjennom alt treverket. Skroget virket meget solid og uten råte. Overbygningen derimot var tildels ganske råtten og moden for utskifting. Med en prislapp på 200kkr og utsikter til 100kkr til for ny overbygning, skygget jeg banen. (Til sammenligning betalte vi 165k for ”Foxy Lady” samme år.) Det er også begrenset med fasiliteter ombord i ”Capricorn”. Det er soveplass til 2 på et par benker i kabinen, men ikke stort mer. Det er (var) heller ikke toilett eller vask ombord. Sånn sett har jeg fått en mer andvendbar båt i ”Foxy Lady”. Men hvilken nytelse det hadde vært å grise plastikkbåtene i fjorden med en 50 år gammel Scheen-konstruert mahogni  båt!

Jeg vet ikke hvem som kjøpte ”Capricorn” i 1998, eller om hun faktisk ble solgt i det hele tatt på den tiden. For noen år siden sa ryktene at hun var tilbake i Norge igjen, nærmere bestemt i Østfold. Siste nytt er at hun skal ligge ved Ullern Båtforenings brygge. Jeg gleder meg til å se ”Capricorn” igjen, gammel kjærlighet ruster ikke.

Forfatteren ønsker å takke Anders Johnsen for hjelp med å få ut opplysninger fra Berg-Olsens byggelister. Videre en takk til Torbjørn Lensebakken for opplysninger om ”Hudibras”/”Orkan”.