The Adventures of The Henriks

Accipiter nisus (Sparrowhawk, Spurvehauk)

2012-01-20T16:57:00.004+01:00

Accipiter nisus (Sparrowhawk, Spurvehauk)

Accipiter nisus (Sparrowhawk, Spurvehauk)

While I was preparing the Friday Taco Dinner, I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw this beautiful female Accipiter nisus, known as the sparrowhawk.

Accipiter nisus (Sparrowhawk, Spurvehauk)

The hawk was sitting on a pine branch looking for the small birds to prey on. However the sparrows, tits and woodpeckers where long gone when the sparrowhawk arrived and after about 10 minutes on the branch, the sparrowhawk took off and flew away.

Accipiter nisus (Sparrowhawk, Spurvehauk)

Occasionally this small bird of prey visit the trees outside my house. The last time I saw one, was sometime during the summer of 2011. Notable is that I've only been visited by female sparrowhawks.
"Where tha dogz at?"

Living in a tree

2012-01-15T19:42:00.000+01:00

January 15th 2012

Have you ever wondered how it would be like to live in a tree, high above the ground? We were curious about exactly that.

The "Lerk" Treetop Hut in Brumunddal, Norway

About 2hrs drive north of Oslo, you'll come to the Brumunddal "Tree Top Huts".

The "Treetop Hut" concept, has become popular, since the first commercial hut for rent was raised some 2-3 years ago.

The sitting group inside the treetophut. The stairs was some way in the way of making the best of the living room space.

The kitchen includes a sink, gas oven and a fridge. All you need to make it comfortable.

The living room seen from the kitchen area of the treetop hut

The separate bedroom. Doublebed.

The loft view which house 4 persons. Nice view from the window in front.

The wood storage and other stuff

The treetop construction seen from above

Almost at the top

The stairs up to the treetop hut

The storage facility, including kindeling and fuel (wood) for the furnace.

Morning view of the balcony, Sunday January 15th 2012

We had booked the hut in October 2011, and due to the popularity of these huts, we got it for a night on 14th to 15th of January 2012.

At the moment there are three different huts. The oldest is the "Furu" (pine) hut. Then comes "Gran" (spruce) and the hut we stayed in: "Lerk" (larch).

All huts are winter isolated and has everything you ever want and more. Inside the hut, you'll find sleeping space for up to 8 persons, there is a fridge, a bathroom with bio toilet and shower if you need that, and a furnace in the living room. The sleeping area is split into a separate bedroom with a double bed, comfy enough for two persons.

Above the living room, there is a loft where you can fit 4 persons and from the loft you'll have a fantastic view of the wilderness outside.

The outdoor balcony has benches and a table, an outdoor furnace and several bird feeders. The birds comes in a flock to eat the bird seeds.

Winter scenery near the treetop hut. Bring your cross country skis or a sled to have fun in the snow.

The treetop hut has a solid contruction

The treetop hut in Brumunddal, Norway

Quiet sunset view from the balcony of the treetop hut.

Playing with the white balance, creating the greenish look.

The ghostly evolution of man with the treetop hut in the background

View from the balcony on Saturday 14th 2012

The balcony view on a cold night. Long shutter time, ghostly people

TheHenriks and Lars cooking up some nice fire heat on the balcony.

See through the window view of the living room

TheHenriks to the left enjoying a cold beer in a warm hut (31.1C) in a cold night

The living room

The living room with the stairs to the loft. The living room table was attached to the stairs and the stairs was attached to the roof

Wild animals at your doorsteps

Most common birds are the "Coal Tit" (Periparus ater, Svartmeis), "The Willow Tit" (Poecile montanus, Granmeis), "The Eurasian Bullfinch" (Pyrrhula pyrrhula, Dompap), "The Great Tit" (Parus major, Kjøttmeis), "The Eurasian Nuthatch" (Sitta europaea, Spettmeis), "The Blue Tit" (Cyanistes caeruleus, Blåmeis) and "The Great Spotted Woodpecker" (Dendrocopos major, Flaggspett). There are also squirrels (4-5 of them) feeding only a meter from you. This what you can called "getting close with nature". On a lucky day or in "the season", I guess you can come across a "Moose" (Alces alces, Elg), "wild reindeers" (Rangifer tarandus, reinsdyr), "the red fox" (Vulpes vulpes, rødrev), "The European Pine Marten" (Martes martes, mår). On a seldom occasion you can come across a wolf (Canis lupus, ulv).

During the winter, kilometers of cross country ski tracks are available just outside the hut.

During the summer you can use the bikes at the hut and bike for hours in the woods. There were also a couple of canoes and a small pond in front of the hut. However the canoes must be more for fun then wilderness adventures. I would say it like this; you don't come here to paddle canoes, this is just a bonus. The pond is dammed up bu two streams and in the summer season you can see ducks.

The livingroom/kitchen with the bathroom and the separate bedroom to the right

The balcony of the treetop hut, approx 8m above the ground

Welcome to the treetop hut

Expensive but fun

We enjoyed the stay in the Treetop hut, but it's always like this when you have fun, the time flies. But it's a bit expenssive if you don't fill up every bed space. For two couples it's expensive. Weekends are more expensive then during the rest of the week. If we were rich we would stay another night, but then we probably could afford to build a treetop hut ourselves.

We paid about NOK 2400 for one night from Saturday to Sunday. I love the idea about being in a tree.

The constructions of the huts are solid. The owner and the builder is well educated in probably all that has to do with trees and treeconstructions. We got to meet the owner Frode on Saturday and he gave us good info about the trees and the surroundings.

The coal tit on the birdfeeder

Something we could do again

The stay was pleasant and something we could do again, but maybe in a different season. If the "Furu" or the "Gran" hut was to be available in the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix, Orrfugl) week, last week of April, then I would be very interested.

So if you want to experience something different from everything, visit a treetop hut. I did and I loved it.

The treetop hut seen from across the duck pond

The Eurasian Bullfinch

Nice place to go cross country skiing

External link: http://tretopphytter.no/statisk/3/

Best regards

The Henriks

Happy New Year 2012 from TheHenriks

2012-01-01T20:07:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year 2012

"Don't make promises you can't keep"

Töcksforslåta

2011-12-22T18:50:00.000+01:00

Töcksfors the movie
by TheHenriks
December 22. 2011

Historien om Töcksforslåta

Historien om ekteparet som skal til Töcksfors for å handle mat, alkohol og tobakk. Stedet Töcksfors ble valgt av den grunn at dersom svenskehandel er "Harry", så er nok desverre Töcksfors det mest "Harry" av alle grensestedene hvor svenskehandelen foregår. Det begrunnes med at stedet mer avsidesliggende enn både Nordby/Svinesund og Charlottenberg. Sistnevnte steder er et mer aktuelt sted å besøke siden de ligger mer gunstig til i form av lettere tilgjengelighet. Svinesund ligger omtrent 1t20 min fra Oslo. Töcksfors ligger omtrent 2t i kjøretid fra Oslo. Charlottenberg dekker Øvre Romerike og Hedmarkbyene. Töcksfors forblir lilleputten og derfor mest "Harry".

Sangen ble skrevet i forbindelse med en fest jeg skulle delta på i Kambo ved Moss. Jeg viste at de fleste som skulle på denne festen, måtte opptre eller bidra med underholdning. Derfor en lørdags morgen hentet jeg inspirasjon ved at jeg hørte på dansband hits. Musikalsk sett er jeg langt unna å være fan av denne musikkgenren, men ønsket utfordringen og begynte å komponere sangen. Før stedet Töcksfors ble valgt, hadde jeg planer om å kalle sangen "Sarpsborg". Mine venner kommer fra Fredrikstad og det et som kjent et lite hatforhold mellom Sarpsborg og Fredrikstad. Jeg hadde også en ide om å kalle sangen "Danskebåten" eller en "Color Magic", men det ble "Töcksfors".
Jeg prøvde å finne en "it" faktor og med denne sangen er saksofonet det fremtredene instrumentet som gir sangen en dansbandkarakter. Saksofonstrofen kom ganske naturlig og da var det bare å fylle ut sangen med resten av instrumentene.

Fremføringen av sangen på Kambo, "live", gikk veldig bra. Jeg har fått mye positiv feedback og ønsket derfor å lage en musikkvideo. Idene var at kollegaene og jeg skulle spille rollene i musikkvideoen. Men, siden ingen ville kle seg ut som dame, så måtte jeg finne en annen måte å lage musikkvideoen. Det betød at jeg tok frem fargeblyantene og tusjpenner. Jeg ville lage en tegnefilm og så etter gode animasjonsprogrammer. Hvorfor ikke heller lage musikkvideoen av modelleire. Jeg er litt usikker, men jeg lurer på om det var min kollega Lars som førte meg inn på den banen?

Jeg raidet Clas Ohlson for nesten all modelleire de hadde. De har jo ikke slikt hos Panduro, for det var der jeg prøvde først. Så var det hjem å eksperimentere med å lage forskjellige figurer og etter ca en uke var figurene laget og jeg hadde filmen klar.
Jeg har fortsatt to sanger igjen som jeg skal poste på bloggen min. Først skal jeg lage musikkvideoer. Sangene "Sminkedokka" (Polka) og "Ingen Prest på Fest" (Hip-Hop) er sanger jeg også fremførte på festen på Kambo.

Gjenstående videoer skal bli enda bedre. Töcksforsvideoen var kun et eksperiment og når de andre kommer snakker vi "serious shit" folkens. Gled dere :)
Hilsen
Henrik aka TheHenriks

Fjellsjøkampen, October 21st - 23rd 2011

2011-10-23T11:21:00.003+02:00

Fjellsjøkampen, Akershus, Norway

With TheHenriks Outback Posse

Weekend from October 21st-23rd 2011

Hiking to Fjellsjøkampen has become an annual event for the posse. It was a great weekend.

TheHenriks is ready with the "bow saw"

Autumnly colors in the beautiful Fjellsjø area

"The Field" and "TheHenriks" in a spooky mood

"The Field" and "The Henriks" in an evening parley

Nice temperature in the comfort zone of the camp fire. This is the first time I had to complain about being to hot on a hike during this time of year.

A photo from the "game camera", infrared. Mr.GSP has joined the posse.

"The Field" and "TheHenriks"

Nice camp fire

Vis Camp Fjellsjøkampen Oct 2011 i et større kart

Cut flowers

2011-10-21T08:46:00.003+02:00

Test

A crossroad in Norwegian history

2011-07-28T20:35:00.003+02:00

Remembrance of the fallen on July 22^nd 2011
"We shall meet hate with more openness, solidarity and love" -Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

An ocean of flowers

Stockholm July 2011

2011-07-24T21:09:00.002+02:00

Dedication to the July 22nd 2011 victims
In memory of the most horrible terrorist act in modern Norwegian history, I want to honor and dedicate this blog post to those who lost their life, to those who got injured and to the families of those who up close were affected in this inhuman act of crime. I will also dedicate this blog post to my proud country Norway, who in a time like this, can unite and stand together and fight for the only values which are important in life.

This incident has affected me so much and I'm so sad in my heart. I know that those families who have lost their love-ones or in any other way has been hurt, suffer a much greater sadness then my grief.

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Stockholm

Day 1
Monday July 18th 2011
Departure day for Stockholm

seats on 1st class

We live not far from the railway station at Lillestrom, a suburb to Oslo. The Central Rail Station in Oslo has and is still closed for maintenance, which making Lillestrom Station sort of a main station for trains heading north and east.
We figured that a trip on the train from Lillestrom to Stockholm was the best alternative for us visiting the capitol of Sweden. The tickets were bought on Internet and the train company we were going with was the old previously monopoly train company of Sweden - The SJ company.

We had bought seats on 1st class, because the price for these tickets compared to 2nd class, was practically the same. The difference in price for the tickets to Stockholm on 1st and 2nd class constitutes the price of a cup of coffee on the train. The tickets from Stockholm and back home, was about 10 cups of coffees in difference between the two classes.
It's much more comfortable to travel by train, compared to the other alternatives like plane, bus or car.

Good and roomy seats

The distance Oslo - Stockholm is operated by SJ and it's IC trains. The exterior look of the train is vintage or old in other words. But they have renovated the cars and are now more updated to Y2K standards. They have installed electrical outlets which is useful for connecting your laptop, smart phone or any other item in need of charging it's battery or just save the battery while travelling. It's not yet (July 2011) WI-FI onboard the IC-trains.
The interior was as expected. Good and roomy seats with enough space for your legs.

However if you are really tall or want to stretch you legs out, this may not be possible, since the front seats block your way for doing so. But there are other ways to stretch your feet, like walking around on the train for instance. You can buy coffee, sandwiches, salads, sodas, candy or beer on the train. The price is high, but not as high as on Norwegian trains.

planes were for rich and wealthy people

Travelling by train is also a green way to travel, but the alluring idea of travelling on a train, is the vintage feeling you get. Being a 70s generation, this way of travelling gave me flashbacks to how it was when travelling on trains was the only alternative for the "man from the street". Back then, planes were for rich and wealthy people. My old man was also the chief architect of the train cars from the 70s to early Y2K before retiring, so trains has been a part of me, practically my whole life.

The train ride took more then 6 hours from Lillestrom to Stockholm C. We left Lillestrom at 4.12pm and was in Stockholm at 10.20pm.
From there we walked about 5 minutes towards Sergels Torg (square) and found our hotel, the Scandic Sergel Plaza. I read the reviews of this hotel on tripadvisor.com and it was mixed, so my expectations was not sky high. But after checking in and seeing the room, I was satisfied with the huge room and its facilities. We ordered room service food, the cheddar burgers with fries, which in my palate was almost worth the price of Euro 53. (Damn, that was a lot of cash for two burger menus with fries).

Day 2
Tuesday July 19th 2011

It may be a bit hectic at some times

Hotel Scandic Sergel Plaza is situated near Sergel Torg (Sergel Square), actually only 38m away according to my GPS. Arriving with train you can either walk from the Stockholm Central Station in two ways. The first is way is to exit on Vasagatan (Vasa Street) and walk up to Klarabergsgatan and then keep east until you reach Sergel Torg and make a right at the square shaped passage and you'll find the hotel there.

The other way which is less stairs, is to exit on Vasagatan, turn right and walk to Vattugatan and walk eastwards (left) up Vattugatan until you reach Brunkebergstorg. You are now at the dead end of the street and you'll see the hotel on you left side.
The hotel Scandic Sergel Plaza is a big hotel. This means there are lots of tourists walking in and out from the hotel. It may be a bit hectic at some times, but if you have stayed in a hotel near Times Square, New York City, (like The Milford Plaza) the feeling would be the same.
We booked a double room (room 256) and got a big room. There was plenty of space for everything. The big 32" LG screen with lots of free channels, (NRK Norway, RTL Germany, DR1 Denmark, BBC, Discovery and a Finish, Italian and a Spanish channel).
There were lots of outlets, which some hotels seems to lack. Here you would have at least 10 outlets to charge any of your electrical devices.
The beds were a bit hard. You have good storing capacity in the closets. There is a huge desk and a sitting group with a sofa, table and chair.

The breakfast can be good and bad

The bath room was also big enough, with a bath tub with shower and more.
The cleanness was about average or less. I looked under the bed and there were dust. There was no mini-bar / refrigerator. The WIFI was good. The corridor from the elevator to the room, felt like on those ferries/cruise ships going from Norway to Denmark, and on one occasion I had sea legs walking down the corridor, this may off course be from the alcohol I drunk.

The breakfast can be good and bad. This depends on the time you visit the breakfast hall near the reception desk. If you come after 9am, you get left overs. The food we got was good, but the dissapointing thing was that lots of food articles were not refilled when it was empty. You may also find troubles finding a place to sit. If you come 7am you will find plenty of food and a space to sit. But still there may be something which not refilled, like milk and must keep without it during this breakfast. My general opion about the breakfast included was 4 of 10. (10= being the best).
This hotel is ranked with 4 stars. I think the stars come cheap in Sweden, because compared to Artemide Hotel in Rome and Marques De Pombal in Lisbon which has the same rank of stars, we expected more. The Sergel Plaza can't be compared to the Artemide or Marques in no way, it's just not that good.

Dancing Queen

But if you’re in this hotel for the location of it, then it's a treat. I don't think it gets more central then this. You are close to everything in less then five minutes walking distance.
On the first day of exploring Stockholm, we walked first down to Gamla Stan (Old Stan :).
We walk down the Regeringsgatan, passing the Gustav Adolfs torg (roundabout), continuing over the bridge Norrbro, having the Riksdagshuset (Parliament) on the right hand side.

We then passed the Royal Castle then went up the busy and narrow Västerlånggatan. Västerlånggatan has a lot of different shops, where you can buy souvenirs, clothing’s, food and lots of other stuff. We stopped for a beer on Järntorget. The bear was not top notch. We then walked down to Skeppsbron and walked on the pier enjoying the views. Later we walked up the Royal Castle and Slottsbacken and saw the changing of the guards, which happens every day (except Sundays I think) at 1215pm. The changing of the guards was spectacular with a Marching Band in front followed by soldiers. But this military parade hit it's anti-climax, going from macho military style to "Dancing Queen" by ABBA at the end of this daily ritual. This off course happens when you let women in the army...(just kidding :)

Action speaks louder then words

But there also may be some truth about it, because one of the guards was blocked by a tourist photographer, she asked him to move from her way. He did not comply and she was forced to call a nearby guard to remove him. I mean, what kind of guard are you, if you can't do the job you are set to do? The other guard who came to the female guards rescue, wasn't Mr. Nice-Guy. He just grabbed the tourist in the arm and pulled him away. No talk, just action. This means off course as the saying: "Action speaks louder then words".
We the walked up to the city and had lunch/dinner at Jensen's Bøfhus. This huge steak house restaurant was the perfect place for a guy who doesn't want pork, but beef. However the illusion of a great steak housed was fast shattered and it didn't live up to my expectations of a good steak house. They didn't even have Entrecote (Sirloin). The meat was mediocre but the 0.75l glass of Coca-Cola was big. Jensen vs Big Horn in Oslo are two different leagues. I would almost say two different sports, metamorphic speaking. If you want a good steak, go to Oslo and visit Big Horn Steak Restaurant.

Thorminator

After lunch we went up towards Olof Palmes gata and went across Sveavägen and the crossroad of Tunnelgatan. This is the location of where the most famous and beloved Primeminister Olof Palme was shot and killed during one February day in 1986. There is a memorial plaque on the pavement. We then walked up Sveavägen towards Adolf Fredriks Kyrka (Church) where Olof Palme you'll find his burial place.
We then walked east and through the park called Tegnerlunden, before heading downtown and stopping for a beer at and outdoor bar at Norra Bantorget. The we walked back to the hotel and got the news that Thor Hushovd, aka "the Bull from Grimstad", aka Thorminator had won a hard and difficult stage of Le Tour De France (Cycling). In 2nd place came another Norwegian, Edvald Boasson Hagen and in third a Canadian with paternal Norwegian grand fathers. It was a great Norwegian day in "Thor De France".

Day 3
Wednesday July 20th 2011

All lot of things happens underground in "StockTown"

We woke up late enough to get the reduced breakfast buffet. But I got two cups of coffee, so it wasn't all bad.

Today we first went to some Shopping malls/Department stores. First we went to Gallarian, then we visited NK (Nordiska Kompaniet). The NK department store is also known to the killing of the minister Anna Lind.
Compared to Oslo, Norway which can offer a couple of malls and department stores, Stockholm is tremendous. It looks like there is a mall or department store on every corner in downtown Stockholm and I believe you can walk undreground from the one center to the next one. All lot of things happens underground in "StockTown".

After this we did stumble across TGI Friday at Kungsträdgården. We had the famous "Mudslide" and a beer. At the mens toilet, they had ice cubes in the pissoir. I hope this was the mens room and the pissoir, otherwise someone won't be to happy with their drinks :)
After leaving TGI Friday, we caught up with the daily miltary parade, walking down Kungsträdsgårdsgatan.

the famous "Mudslide"

We followed them down to the docks of Strömkajen where we bought tickets for one of the sightseeing boats. We chose a 2hr trip and got to see lots of bridges, places and Stockholm from the sea/river. While other cities offer hop on and hop off bus rides, Stockholm also offer the same on water.

Stockholm is a very beautiful city and you can find a lot to do if you spend some time here.
Back at the hotel we checked the results of todays stage of the TDF. It was another great day for the Norwegian Vikings with Edvald Boasson Hagen winning the Alp mountain stage. With only two contestants in this year TDF, the results are overwhelming with 4 stage wins (2x Boasson Hagen, 2x Hushovd and 7 days in the yellow jersey with Hushovd.
Later that evening with visited NK and Åhlen's department stores and ended the night with an awful dinner experience at Restaurant Bamboo City. We ordered the "number 2 specials" and after waiting over 45 minutes on the desserts, we just asked for the check and left.

This place was like something would expect if you visit McDonalds and the cleanness of the place could be better.

Day 4
Thursday July 21th 2011

great stay in Stockholm

The train left at 8:29am and this day would be enjoying the view from the train from Stockholm C to Lillestrøm.
The train trip went much faster back home then to Stockholm. It feels like it always does so. This ends the holiday season for 2011 with 3 great trips abroad. We were lucky with the weather with average 22c and sun the days we were in Stockholm.

We had a great stay in Stockholm and I would rank this as the best capitol in Scandinavia for tourists. Oslo and Copenhagen don't reach up to what Stockholm has to offer. But when it comes to nature, nothing beats Norway. Conclusion would then be: Go to Stockholm if you want a fun and great Nordic City experience, but if you want the whole package with fantastic scenery, landscapes, mountains, fjords etc...come to my country Norway.

Signing of
Best regards TheHenriks

Birds of June 2011

2011-06-24T20:30:00.003+02:00

Birds of June 2011

It looks like the baby birds have left the nest. The birds are back for sure. This means Tree Sparrows, Bullfinch, Hawfinch, Greenfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker are the most common guests on the bird feeder. It has been almost a year of seriously feeding the birds and I know a lot of birds by their sound.

To obtain good food is more difficult during spring and summer and the prices are steap. I devote a lot of time to make sure the birds are happy and keep coming back. The Red Squirrel is a frequent guest every day. I have at the most four squirrels visiting at the same time. Some birds and the squirrels stick to the sunflower seeds, while others like Tree Sparrow and Tits stick to the fat food. The Nuthatch is also still the first to come when I have refilled the bird feeders.
I know when the Green Woodpecker is in town. This birds is louder then a rooster on steroids.

New birds of the season is the doves/pigeons. I have daily at least a couple of Wood Pigeons sitting outside my window. The Wood Pigeons are similiar to the Stock Dove. The main difference is that the Stock Dove is free of the white ring on the neck and other white spots. The Stock dove is also a bit smaller in size.

I also had a visit from a couple of Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) the other day. This bird is rather rare in my neighborhood.

Also a lots of baby birds have made their first appearance on the food feeders. They are so cute and fluffy.

The best summer wishes
from TheHenriks

June 2011

Lisbon (Lisboa) 2011

2011-06-10T11:57:00.000+02:00

Lisbon, day 1

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 1^st 2011. Wendesday

2hrs in these pygmy seats"
"

My day started at 3.30am. Today’s program is drive, fly, change flight, fly, bus, Lisbon.

We started on Oslo Gardermoen Airport and self checked in our luggage there. We got our boarding passes only for the transit stop in Brussels, which meant we would have to get new boarding passes for Lisbon in Brussels. We flew with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to Brussels and TAP Portugal from Brussels to Lisbon.

The SAS plane was old, period! The seats where probably designed for the size of an average man in the 16^th century. We were stuck like herring in a barrel. After approximately 2hrs in these pygmy seats, we arrived on time in Brussels. Thank God for that. We could now just lower our shoulder, sit down and relax with a pint of Jupiler. Great beer from Belgium! Why we didn’t fly directly with TAP to Lisbon, is still a huge question mark? We learned from this experience to always fly direct if possible.

"You would think they speak just an itsy bitsy different from the Spaniards, but then you would be seriously wrong"

We got our boarding passes for Lisbon at our check in gate in Brussels. However, we did not get seats next to each other, which was a big drawback. We both got aisle seats and Ranveig sat two seats in front of me. The seats on TAP were normal size and good to sit on, but we had a delay of approximately 30 minutes in Brussels. Around 2.30pm local Portuguese time (GMT+1), we had planted our feet on Portugal soil.

The airport is extremely close to the city center of Lisbon, about 6km. We took the Aero Bus from the airport and embarked on the stop at the grand roundabout on Pombal de Marques.

By now I had already given up on being the Portuguese smooth talker. Damn this language is hard to speak. You would think they speak just an itsy bitsy different from the Spaniards, but then you would be seriously wrong. In my ears, Portuguese sound like a mixture of Russian and Greek with some Spanish words. You must also put in a lot of work to bring out the smiles from the Portuguese people. Maybe the reason is the poor economy which they struggle with? Poor economy for them means great value for us. Where else in Europe can you get a pint of beer for less then Euro 1.50? Not any country with this great climatic.

"Talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat"

I knew right away that we would be like barons in this beautiful city. To make it clear, the taxi fair cost one day Euro 5, we gave a Euro 5 tip as well, because we felt the ride was worth that.

Talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat, meaning the smile the cab driver gave us after that. In Norway you would have to pay Euro 5, just to getting into the cab. Lisbon is extremely cheap to travel in.

They have a good network of communications and the distances from one place to another are actually really close by. If you don’t mind walking the hills, up and down, you can see everything by foot. However, bear in mind that the heat in the summer month can be a challenge and we were not actually in the summer time, the first week of June. The average temperature was around 25 ºC. (77 ºF). The climatic was dry and I don’t think you would experience the same humidity as in New York City during a hot summer. Make sure to put on high SPF for your pale skin, because you can easily get that red sausage look all over.

"Hotel The Marques de Pombal"

We checked in at our hotel – The Marques de Pombal. The check in clerk at the hotel wasn’t drowning us with smile and happiness, but he did his job. We got our room key and a city map. The piccolo guy brought our luggage to our room (110).

Our room was as expected, clean and just enough space for the both of us. The room had a mini bar, a 30 inch flat screen with numerous of TV-channels, a bath tub, and queen size bed and more. The good thing with Portugal is that they don’t dub the TV-programs. The programs are subbed.

After relaxing and settling in for an hour or so, we decide to explore the city. I rigged my camera with the JoboGPS, a GPS receiver logging the photos I shoot to the GSP position where it’s taken and we left the hotel. The main avenue Liberdade was just outside the hotel. We were only 100m from the nearest operating Metro station, which was on the roundabout of Marques de Pombal.

But today we just wanted to walk a bit. We followed the Avenida Liberdade downtown. Lisbon is a photographic city deluxe. It has narrow streets, cable cars, old buildings and lots of tagging on the walls everywhere. We could be without the tagging, but Lisbon is capitol “numero uno” when it comes to tagging. Tagging isn’t art, it’s just ugly!

"lot of drug dealers offering hashish, marijuana and cocaine"

Our first stop was at a small street café called the Imperial or something. It was on avenue Liberdade number 16. We had a meal and a jug of “Sangeria”. The food was alright but the “Sangeria” was great!

One thing about Lisbon, which I haven’t experienced in other cities, is that there are a lot of drug dealers offering hashish, marijuana and cocaine. I don’t know if I look like a drug user, I sure hope not. The drug dealers are not the kind of stereotype figure of someone who sells drugs, (meaning if there is a code for that). They are normal Portuguese youth who just stops you on the street, pulling out a piece of hashish from the pocket, saying: “Hashish, marijuana and cocaine?”

During this trip I lost figures on how many times I was offered drugs. I started of kindly saying no, but in the end it got annoyed and where more aggressive in my “NO’s”.

We walked around downtown Baixa, before walking back to the hotel and spending the rest of the evening in our hotel room.

Lisbon, day 2

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 2^nd 2011. Thursday

An ideal way to see the city is to jump on a”hop on and hop off” bus. Lisbon is no exception.

There are 3 different bus companies, the Yellow (Carris?), the Red Gray Line and the Red Lisbon Sightseeing.

"Don’t Portuguese people eat vegetables?"

We got up to a nice breakfast in the dining room in the cellar of the hotel complex. Though this hotel can’t compete in any way with the Roma hotel Artemide, we could pick the normal stuff from the buffet table. It was ham, cheese, two containers of hot food (eggs, bacon and sausage) and some jams of various kinds. There was a Nespresso machine and a coffee machine serving Cappuccino, Caffe Latte and regular coffee. For cold drinks you could get various fruit juices. (Not freshly squeezed I must remark).

On thing we would not get, was salad, cucumbers, tomato or other vegetables. I don’t know what’s up with that? Don’t Portuguese people eat vegetables? What would you get if you order a salad in Lisbon; just a fork?

We got what we expected at the breakfast buffet and after breakfast we headed out to explore the city on a double-decker bus.

The weather was nice this early morning. With temperature of 20 ºC around 10 Am.

We walked up to the Marques de Pombal roundabout, which the busses are lined up. This would be on the opposite side of the Liberty Avenue. This again means the side where the huge green park is on.

"this area is called Parque das Nações”

For Euro 15 you would get a two day pass on the Lisbon Sightseeing. This would be just enough for the both of us. The best thing about these sightseeing busses is that you would not need to do that entire forehand reading about what first time visitors should see.

We drove through the whole route and ended back on Marques de Pombal. The Lisbon Sightseeing bus company has two routes: The Red line and the Blue line. The Red line gets you to all the major attractions; downtown, Belém and more. The Blue line takes you mostly to the aquarium, The Oceanarium. Well on the location where The Oceanarium is situated you find a lot of activities to do. This area is rather new and it was built for the Expo 98, this area is called “Parque das Nações”.

We only visited the aquarium and the Vasco da Gama shopping mall.

The aquarium was huge. But have you been to one aquarium, you have probably seen them all. The most fun about the aquarium was the window floors.

After spending an hour at the aquarium, we headed for the big shopping mall Centro Vasco da Gama. Save on to your shopping receipts, because they may give you discount cards if you trade them in at the information desk.

We went back to the hotel after this.

Later this evening the city of Lisbon was getting red. The Norwegian football supporters were really making noise in the Baixa area. We were a part of the supporters and we were mainly in Lisbon to see the game between Portugal and Norway on the Luz stadium.

Tonight we were going to spend the night with friends.

We walked down the Avenida da Liberdade towards the Baixa. Some blocks in the Baixa area are closed off for traffic, pedestrians only. However the Portuguese are friendly in the traffic.

I was off course again offered drugs from the drug dealer’s sweaty pockets. No thanks!

The two star rated restaurants flourish in this area. Don’t expect any special treatment, extras or vegetables for that matter. We sat down in one of these restaurants. But among friends, a beer or two would be more then enough to keep you satisfied for a very long time.

After some hours and beers we headed back home to the hotel.

Lisbon, day 3 Friday

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 3^rd 2011.

"We could easily have ended up in Alfama for that matter"

We are the kind of travelers who don’t plan too much or schedule a whole days program of what to do. Today we felt like going to Belém. We could easily have ended up in Alfama for that matter, but since we had one more day on the “hop on & hop off” bus, we would give our day to Belém. Today it was really hot. I had normally covered myself with SPF 30 lotion and SPF 50 on the nose, forehead and cheeks. I don’t want to get sun burned and I am way past the “being tanned” factor. My skin was born pale and that’s what I am.

We jumped on the first bus taking us to Belém, this would be the red line on the Lisbon Sightseeing bus.

The bus would stop about 50m from Belém Tower and that was what we planned to see.

The Belém tower is fortified and also on the UNESCO World Heritage It dates back to the early 16^th century. The style of architecture is called late Gothic or Manueline style. The Belém Tower is situated on the Tagus River. (Rio Tejo).

I had to climb to the top and enjoy the view from there. There is only on staircase leading to the top, so it can get a bit tight if someone is going up meeting those who are coming down.

I met a school class on my way to the top.

From the top you have a great view of the Belém area. You can see the The Christ statue (Cristo Rei) on the other side of the Tagus River. The monument of Discoveries is about 200m away. You see the whole Belém and more from the Belém Tower.

Later that evening was another night with our friends. Everything was like yesterday. I was again offered drugs a numerous times, the food was simple and the atmosphere and beer was nice.

Lisbon, day 4

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 4^th 2011. Saturday

Game day

"But the cable car was full, so we ended up taking a taxi to the top. Good choice!"

Today or more precise is game day. Portugal is meeting Norway on Luz stadium, in the north of Lisbon. This shows, because 4-5000 Norwegian supporters are in town.

Some start early, really early with the drinking. They would probably get drunk and sleepy way before the game, which starts at 9pm (CET+1). The hot weather doesn’t help them. But that’s how Norwegians are. If you give a Norwegian an opportunity to drink beer on a hot day, you won’t find no in his or hers vocabulary. Compared to the beer price in Norway, you would get almost 6 beers for the same price here in Lisbon. Do the math, no wonder Norwegians get drunk. But that’s how it is in Portugal. Everything is extremely cheap compared to Norway and probably most other European countries.

Today we were going to Alfama and Castle of São Jorge. We planned to jump on a cable car and go all the way up to Castle of São Jorge. But the cable car was full, so we ended up taking a taxi to the top. Good choice!

We paid the entrance fee and walk around in the castle for an hour or so.

This is one of the best views of the city you can get in Lisbon.

"They should re-name the joint to Horrifico de Paco"

Later we walked down to the Baixa and met up with friends at the most worse service minded restaurant in the city. Talk about bad staff. Luckily for us, we didn’t order anything but a couple of beers. This took about 15 minutes. Foods combined with drinks would take an hour plus and you were not guaranteed to get what you had order. I surely will avoid restaurant “Tereriro do Paco” at the Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio), near the river, next time I come to Lisbon. It got so bad, that one staff member argued with another and our waiter was annoyed of having us here. They should re-name the joint to “Horrifico de Paco”.

Today you could re-name “Rua Augusta” to “Viking Street” or “Rua Noruega”. It looked like all the Norwegian supporters were on this street drinking their asses off. It is in moments like this I am proud to be Norwegian or maybe not. But there is seldom trouble when Norwegians drink. This is also the impression I have of the Portuguese people; they are never hostile, even if they seldom smile too much.

I don’t fancy getting drunk anymore, so we headed back to the hotel to relax before the game.

At 6.30pm we left the hotel and met up with some friends at the subway station on Marques de Pombal. We took the metro to the Luz stadium had a few beers there and went inside the stadium. “Estádio da Luz” which it’s called is translated in English to “The Stadium of Lights”. It’s the home stadium of the football club Benfica and was built in 2003 for the European Championships in 2004 in Portugal. It hold more then 65000 people and today it would be almost full.

The game was as expected. Norway had did their homework and played good defensive football. However Portugal won 1-0 against Norway today, though Norway blew a couple of 100% chances to score.

Lisbon, day 5

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 5^th 2011. Sunday

I love both birds and plants, so this was a good day for me"
"

Today we ended up in the streets of Belém. The was a flee market near Praça do Império. We didn’t buy anything. We passed the The Hieronymites Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) on our way to see the tropical garden of Jardim do Ultramar. This exotic garden has plants from all previous Portuguese colonies.

The garden had also some beautiful birds, like swans, ducks, geese and a rooster.

I love both birds and plants, so this was a good day for me.

We accidently met some friends on a restaurant next door to the Ultramar gardens.

Was a lucky coincidence or what? Non of had planned to go to Belém today,

but here we was in the same restaurant isolated from the main road.

Lisbon, day 6

Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal

June 6^th 2011. Monday

Leaving Lisbon and Portugal

We woke up, had breakfast and took the Aero-Bus to the airport. We had lots of time and more would come when our flight was delayed with two hours, due to bad weather in Europe.

We were going the same route back home, in transit via Brussels.

The funny thing was when we arrived at the airport, the direct flight for Oslo was called. We both thought the same, why aren’t we on that plane?

"where we’ll go next, only God knows"

Even with the two hour delay, we made the connection to our other flight from Brussels to Oslo, with about ten minutes.

That ends the Lisbon 2011 for us and where we’ll go next, only God knows. But we can now pin another place on the map with “been there, done that”. Thank you for paying interest to this article and I hope you’ll have a nice day.

TheHenriks

June 2011

Facts:

Hotel room: Clean, as expected in size. 32" TV, bath tub and shower, minibar with small selection (good to store your own drinks).

Beds: Vergy good, hard and firm

Breakfast: Ok, not more or less, just enough

Dinner: The best food experience we had in Lisbon

Location of the hotel: Very good. Extremly close to the Metro and Hop on and Hop off bus stop.

Taxi: Very cheap

Beautiful month of May (2011)

2011-05-22T11:13:00.001+02:00

I think May is the finest month of the year. For us "Northern's", May is the month of revival of life. Here are my photographs for May 2011.

"Nuthin' but love"

Sunset April 2011

2011-04-19T21:32:00.000+02:00

Sunset
April 19th 2011

April is normally a good month to photograph the sun in Norway. The sun ain't strong enough to damage the camera equipment, so you can get pretty good sunset photos this time of year.

Birds of April 2011

2011-04-19T21:28:00.000+02:00

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla/ Bjørkefink).
April 2011, Norway

Many of the regular birds have now left the turf and gone by their own busniness. Some of the winter birds still is to be seen on the bird feeders.

"Ol'Henriks Fly In" is still popular among the birds and every now and then tits, sparrows and woodpeckers come to feast. My selfmade "fat specials", which is like lots of

birds goodies covered in fat is out for the season. I can't make it anymore, since the temperature is to high for it to be firm. But I promise you this; next season the cute

birds will get more then they can eat. Next season will be the year of Caligula for the birds, a real orgie in carbs and fat.

The bird of April is about a bird who's just returned from he's winter holiday. Spring is here and so is the Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla/ Bjørkefink).

Birds of March 2011

2011-03-26T16:40:00.003+01:00

The Birds of March 2011

Finally it's spring. The lust for sun can't be greater after barely surviving a seriously long winter, which started in late October 2010. The days are now longer then the nights, and this makes me so happy. I'm sucking in all the sunshine there is.

Black Bird / Svarttrost / Turdus Merula (Male)

Black Bird / Svarttrost / Turdus Merula (Female)

The first signs of Spring is the return of the Black Bird. I was lucky to have both male and female outside my window. Another proof of Spring is when the Green Woodpecker calls out for his bride.
Just like a Rooster on steroids, he make sure I wake up around 6am every morning, weekends is no exception.
The Green Woodpecker is loud, no doubt about that.

Green Woodpecker / Grønnspett / Picus Viridis

The Great Tit (Parus major) (Norwegian: Kjøttmeis) is still a regular guest as it has been during the whole winter. So is the Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) (Nor:Spettmeis).

The Great Tit / Kjøttmeis / Parus Major

Eurasian Nuthatch / Spettmeis / Sitta Europaea

Black Bird / Svarttrost / Turdus Merula (Male)

Black Bird / Svarttrost / Turdus Merula (Female)

Black Bird / Svarttrost / Turdus Merula (Male)

Bullfinch / Dompap / Pyrrhula Pyrrhula

A regular guest the whole Winter

Great Spotted Woodpecker / Flaggspett / Dendrocopos major
A regular guest the whole Winter

Eurasian Jay / Nøtteskrike / Garrulus glandarius
A regular guest the whole Winter

Roma Day 4

2011-03-20T19:18:00.000+01:00

ROME DAY 4

Thursday, March 17th 2011

The only plan for today was to visit the Holy See and the Vatican City State. The weather forecast predicted a mixture of rain and sun, and this was prove to be correct.

We got on the Yellow Bus (Roma Cristiana) at the stop on the Repubblica. I just can't get over that we only paid Eur17 for 2 days.

The bus took us passed the Colosseum, along the riverside of the Tiber before entering the Vatican State. Upon the arrival at the destination, the sun came through.

Just before walking inside the perimeters of the Vatican, we were stopped by a irish speaking fellow, who wondered if we wanted to take a guided tour. We hesitated at first, mainly because this would take so long time.

But seeing the queued line to get into the museums the guided tour suddenly seemed very reasonable, even if it would cost us more then we had hoped to spend on this sight.

We paid for 2 persons Eur90 (+Eur20 deposit for a transmitter with headphones) and the tour lasted about 3hrs. This amount covered the guided tour and the entrance to the Vatican Museum. The St.Peters Basilica is free of charge. If you take the tour, make sure you have cash, since they don't accept credit cards.

The tour started with approx.30 minutes of introduction and the history of the Holy See.

We were handed headphones with a transmitter. There was some static noise now and then. It may be because the tour guide Daniela either covered her sender or she stood in a position where the signal was blocked.

We first walk straight to the middle of the St.Peter Square and got the 411 on this area. We saw the bedroom and office of the Pope and the window where the bullet that hit John Paul II was built in.

Then we walked outside the Vatican Walls to the office of the tour guide. Here we did pay for the tour. From here it was a short distance to the main entrance for the guided tours to the Vatican Museum.

Upon the entrance of the museum, we had to pass through a metal detector. Large umberellas had to be left in the museums wardrobe.

Inside the museum, we walked up an escalator and spent about 30 minutes in front of a few picture displays, where tour guide Daniela told more history about the paintings of the Michelangelo.

Later we walked through the whole museum and got all the history behind it.

We ended in the Sixtine Chapel. This is the only place where you are not allowed to take photos. We respected that.

Leaving the guided tour we went in to the St.Peter Basilica. Amazing building complex.

We took the bus back to the Repubblic.

Roma day 3

2011-03-20T11:21:00.000+01:00

ROME DAY 3
Wednesday March 16th 2011

Todays plan was to jump on a "hop on and hop off" bus.

It was raining heavily and this night there had been ligthening and thunder.

After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we walked to Piazza Della Repubblica to find the right coach for "the hop" on thing. Most of the companies offering the "hop on and hop off" has gotten poor critics by the tourists.

I had to do a search on the Tripadvisor to find one coach with positive feedback. Luckily there was one company standing out and it was the Roma Cristiana. They are the ones in yellow busses.

I was a bit sceptic at first, but since it was raining so much, there wasn't much else to do. We found a Roma Cristiana yellow bus and bought a ticket. The ticket cost only Eur17 per person and you could us it for two days. (I'm not sure if this is the normal routine, but we were in Rome at Low Season, but still I don't know why the EUR 17 covered two days).

If you also are lucky to travel two days for the price of one day on the yellow bus, there are no better alternatives.
The Roma Cristiana bus was all we expected from this sort of sightseeing. I would say, don't blame the bus company, blame the traffic. The traffic in Roma is similar to a bowl of spaghetti, but that's ok.

The bus ride took us around the city. We went for the whole tour. It took about one hour or so and there was no delays to mention. So thumbs up for the yellow busses served by the Roma Cristiana company.

We left the bus at the same location where we started and walked across the Republicca roundabout and passed our hotel Artemide on the Via Nazionale. We crossed the Via Nazionale and walked up the four fountains road and just kept straight ahead until we were on the Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti).

Ranveig suddenly had a bunch of roses in her hand. Not for free, even if it seemed like it.

We walked down the steps and continued toward the Trevi Fountain. There was this gelato (ice-cream) parlor, where we had to stop. We then continued to a shopping mall before heading towards the Pantheon.

We ate pizza at a restaurant called Trattoria Della Torre Argentina. Ranveig had the Hawaii and myself I went for the Red Martini.

Later we finally came to the Pantheon. It wasn't too crowded and so I got a lot of nice photos.
There were some camera teams on the location, and when I was photographing the tomb of Rafael, they wanted me to be in their "movie", and I was too polite to say no. So there went my 15 minutes of fame. I hope someone (millions) can appreciate my acting skills :)

Leaving the Pantheon we took the yellow bus back to the Repubblica and stopped for a beer at the Flann O'Brien, next door to the hotel Artemide.

Then we called it the night.

Tomorrow, we shall visit the holy state.

Roma Day 2

2011-03-19T18:04:00.004+01:00

ROME DAY 2

Tuesday, March 15 2011

I got up around 7am and the sun was shining outside. Today's plan was to see the Colosseum. We had a great breakfast at the Artemide Hotel. This hotel is really worth it's rate value. Great beds too, hard and firm.

I only came to Colosseum to see where the legendary fight of all fights took place. I only wanted to see the location where Bruce Lee kicked Chuck Norris' ass

We had the hotel clerk point out the fastest way down to the Capitol and Colosseum. Colosseum is actually a nick name, the correct name is the Flavian Amfi Theatre. The Colosseum name derives from a bronze statue located not far from the building Colosseum. During the middle eval ages, Colosseum was referred to the coloss, the huge statue. This statue was later melted down, beacuse someone or maybe somewhere was short of bronze, and then the building adapted the name Colosseum, which most folks call it today. But the correct name is The Flavian Amfi Theatre.

The Colosseum was supposed to be washed and cleaned up around 2009. The money spent lasted only for 4 entrances and rest of the building is black from all the pollution. The Colosseum is a ruin and part from this building has been used in other buildings, like the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vactican state.

During the time when the Colosseum was used by the Romans, it was in different colors. The stone used was not marble, it was a lighter stone, similar to the marble coming from a nearby city called Tivoli.

The Gladiators came in two groups. The professional and the the group of slaves, prisoners of war and thieves. The benefits between the pro's and other group was huge. The professional Gladiators lived in glory and only participated in about 3 games during the year. They where often former elite soliders and looked upon as idols for the general Roman population. The other group consisting of POWs, slaves and thives had to fight 3 times a month and could reach their freedom after 17years of Gladiator serivce.

The game day was normally animals before noon and man vs man after noon. For the romans this free show would be like being at the zoo, a sports game and the cinema/theatre at the same time. There were even female Gladiators. The animals was normally killed.

If you watch the movie the Gladiator with Russel Crowe, you see men and females sitting next to each other. This is not correct. Due to the Romans very liberal way of living, they didn't want to mix up the "hanky panky" with watching the game. This was too hazardious so the men sat comfortable on marble seats and the women was placed on the top seats of the amfi theatre. The comfort for the ladies was no where near the comfort of the mens seat. The ladies seats where like wood benches in the church.

It took only 20 minutes to fill up the arena and the same time to clear the arena. This was very fast considering the arena could hold about 72.000 spectators. The best seats was closest to the fighting floor, which was of wood filled with sand on top.

The best seat had the emperor. He also decided the destiny of the gladiators. Thumbs up and down, was never used. It may derive from the gesture of the emperor. A closed hand meant death, while the oposite, an open hand meant you got to live.

I only came to Colosseum to see where the legendary fight of all fights took place. I only wanted to see the location where Bruce Lee kicked Chuck Norris' ass in "The way of the Dragon". (Meng long guo jiang (1972)).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068935/

We paid Eur 25 per person for an organized tour with a guide. I don't know if that was expenssive or not, but we felt we got our moneys worth because of what we learned.

We took some photos of the Capitol and had a beer at a nearby restaurant/bar and then went back to the hotel for a siesta.

We had dinner at the neighbor irish pub (Flann O'Brien), next door to Hotel Artemide.

Later this evening we wanted to explore the neighborhood of where we stayed. First we walked up to the roundbout of Repubblica. Snapped some photos of the fountain and the surrounding buildings, like the basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli.

From Repubblica we walked to "Via XX Settembre" and downwards to the Quatro Fontane (four fountains). Later we stopped at the pharmacy near Santa Maria Maggiore, which is not to far from the Termini Station. We had a beer and a gelato before going back to the hotel. We passed the Teatro dell'Opera on the way back to the hotel.

Roma Day 1

2011-03-19T13:08:00.001+01:00

ROME DAY 1

Monday March 14th 2011

Rise and shine, it's 4:30 am in -1C cold Norway. It's time to go to Rome. We took the car and drove to Gardermoen airport. It was snow and rain together so the visbility was low. Arriving at Gardermoen about 1 hour later, it was the usual process of eating, waiting, checking in and so on.

We travelled with the low price airline company called Norwegian.

I can't remember the captains name, but I sure remember the co-pilots name, Harald Martin Brattbakk. Yes sir, that's right, the co-pilot is one of the best Norwegian Soccer Players of all time, a real deadly attacker. He's one of the best soccer players in Norway. With Harald Martin Brattbakk behind the wheels, I knew we were in good hands and everything was going to be fine.

Arriving at the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport,we took the Leonardo Express Train into the city. 30 minutes on the Leonardo Express train we arrived at the Termini Station in the city of Rome. From there we walked to the hotel Artemide (approx.10 minutes walk) on the Via Nazionale. The location of the hotel is central to the most of the attractions in the city. Hotel Artemide scores high on tripadvisor.com

Plans now is to see the Trevi fountain and get some food.

We mapped out the route to Fontana Di Trevi on the map and walked. The fountain is a popular sight and "millions" of people where gathering around this big fountain this evening.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for dinner at a pizzaria restaurant and had calzone.

Fiumicino (FCO)

Birds of February

2011-02-15T16:19:00.002+01:00

Accipiter nisus

Sparrowhawk/Spurvehauk

Norway, February 15th 2011

Birds of January - Hawfink (Kjernebiter)

2011-01-31T21:25:00.001+01:00

Coccothraustes coccothraustes
English: Hawfink
Norwegian: Kjernebiter
January 2011

Photo collage series 003

2011-01-23T20:47:00.000+01:00

Photo Collage Series 003
January 22nd 2011

Yet another collage of photos.

2011-01-23T13:31:00.000+01:00

Photo collage series 002
4.5 hours in 45 seconds.

This photo collage took 4.5 hours to shoot. I took one photo each minute and then compiled the photos into this movie. This is from Norway in mid January. The temperature changed from 0 to 3 C during the photo shoot. (Normally this time of year is about -15 C). The cold will return in a few days I think. You can see the trees turn from white to green, due to the warm temperature.

January 22nd 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPOvZL96wRI

Photo collage 001

2011-01-20T20:31:00.003+01:00

The Photo Collage Series part 001
January 20th 2011
By TheHenriks

This video was shot with 1 frame per 2 minutes.

Birds and animals January 2011

2011-01-13T19:18:00.001+01:00

Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad

2010-05-29T19:28:00.000+02:00

May 29th 2010

Jangling på vollane i Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad

Back again...

2010-05-17T21:44:00.000+02:00

May 17th 2010

After a long time away, I'mm back with some new photos. Today, I took a hike down at the muddy islands (delta) of Lake Øyern, near Lillestrøm.

Since it's the Norwegian constitution day, I should probably have visited Oslo to photograph the parade there. But the weather was unstable, so I decided wait out any rain. Around 2pm, I went down to Lake Øyern and took these photos.

It's amazing that it was so quit on the lake. Afterall, there are 3 major rivers with normally some current, coming into lake Øyern. Maybe the those rivers did what I didn't do? Maybe they went to see the parade in Oslo.

DAY SEVENTEEN: The Beach and sightseeing with Jonathan

2009-11-04T12:48:00.005+01:00

The West Coast USA Trip
Starring: Henrik Røsnes and Trond Kampenhøy
Date: October16th to November 3rd. 2009
Destination: California, Arizona, Nevada

Photo above: Surfers in Santa Monica

DAY SEVENTEEN

The Beach and sightseeing with Jonathan

Sunday November 1st 2009

I got up early as I always do. Trond woke up pretty early to. We had breakfast around 8am at our hotel The Delfina Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica. I guess the hotel profiled themselves high on the "best health" issue, because everything on the breakfast menu sounded to me "real healthy". It was not just like an "omelette", but "herb omelette" or something like that. By the clock was 9am we were already on the Santa Monica Beach.

Photo above: Healthy(?) breakfast at the hotel
We walked the 5km on the beach from Santa Monica to Venice. A few people, not to crowded were already on the beach. Some were tanning, others were running and some were surfing. I guess it was the Sunday routine on the beaches in LA.

Photo above: Santa Monica pier early morning

Photo above: Santa Monica

Photo above: Lunch on Venice Beach

Photo above: Funny writing on the wall in Venice Beach restaurant.

Photo above: Running on the Venice Beach

On Venice Beach, we stopped at the long pier and walked to the end of it. Then we went for lunch. Damn, I think we should have chosen a hotel closer to Venice Beach. Much more varity of people, restaurants and more. I guess Halloween would have been more fun here. We stopped at a restaurant close to the pier at Venice Beach. We had the cheeseburger. It was a funny writing on the restroom from men. Just above the pissoir it was hand writed: "What are you looking at? The joke is in your hand" :) Funny, hihihi.

Photo above: Life guard rescue tower on Venice Beach

Photo above: Surfers on Venice Beach

Photo above: Venice Beach

Photo above: Seagull on the pier of Venice Beach

Photo above: Venice Beach pier

Photo above: Venice Beach

After the lunch, we walked the promenade from Venice Beach to Santa Monica. We passed the famous place where all the bodybuilders are. There weren't many of them there today. We saw some really good skateboarders, some of them preteen kids, who really had skills. But in these time with focus on safety, I wonder why some of the kids didn't wear protection gear? We saw some "freaks" too, so I guess the Ol'skool rap group Whodini, were right when saying "the freaks come out at night". (Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLYC7ltxOrk ) But we also saw the freaks in daytime too :) Bikers, rolleskaters, fortune tellers, street hustlers and the whole nine yard were represented on the promenade. Venice Beach is more vivid then more dull Santa Monica, where nothing really happens. So if you should go anywhere in this area, I would recommend Venice Beach.

Photo above: Butterfly ornaments on Venice Beach

Photo above: Halloween pumpkins (curcurbita) on Venice Beach

Photo above: The muscle center on Venice Beach

Photo above: The basketball court on Venice Beach

Photo above: Souvenir shops on Venice Beach

Photo above: Venice Beach

After more then 10km of walk we were back at the hotel. We had plans to meet Jonathan, a cool dude we met in Lone Pine a few days earlier. He was living in LA and had some cool spots to show us. Later in the evening we went from our hotel in Santa Monica to Downtown LA, Union Station.

Photo above: Venice Beach

Photo above: Venice Beach, this guy really had a bad fall with this attempt.

Photo above: Venice Beach

Photo above: Squirrel outside the hotel.

Photo above: Venice Beach pleasure

I guess most international or maybe also domestic visitors, don't get to see this wonderful building, the Union Station that is.

Here is how Union Station is described on Wikipedia

Union Station in Los Angeles, California, which opened in May 1939, is known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States, but even with its massive and ornate waiting room and adjacent ticket concourse, it is considered small in comparison to other union stations. It was formerly designated the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT), but its current owner, Catellus Development, officially changed the name to Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS).

The facility served as a backdrop for the 1950 film Union Station, which starred William Holden and Nancy Olson. Many television shows and motion pictures have incorporated the station as a backdrop, including Blade Runner, Speed, Can't Hardly Wait, Star Trek: First Contact, Pearl Harbor, The Italian Job, The Island, Drag Me to Hell and the Fox television series 24.[2][3]

Union Station is located opposite L.A.'s historic Olvera Street.

Jonathan took us across the street to see the Olvera Street.

Olvera Street is in the oldest part of Downtown Los Angeles, California, and is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Many Latinos refer to it as "La Placita Olvera." Circa 1911 it was described as Sonora Town.

Having started as a short lane, Wine Street, it was extended and renamed in honor of Agustín Olvera, a prominent local judge, in 1877. There are 27 historic buildings lining Olvera Street, including the Avila Adobe, the Pelanconi House and the Sepulveda House. In 1930, it was converted to a colorful Mexican marketplace. It is also the setting for Mexican style music and dancing and holiday celebrations, such as Cinco de Mayo.

Luckily for us it was November 1st, which is the "All Souls' day". The day when some Christians celebrate and honor the dead. In spanish it's called Día de los Muertos or de los Difuntos.

Photo above: Venice Beach

Photo above: Venice Beach

It was a massive party, with the traditional Mexican music represented, with percussion and trumpets. Kids mainly had half of their faces painted as a skeleton.

We left the Olvera Street and took Jonathan's us to a new open restaurant called the "Würstkuche". ( http://www.wurstkucherestaurant.com/ ). This area was not so far back a slum, but today it has become a trendy and hip place to visit. I guess most tourists don't come to this part of LA, so if you're planning a visit, you should visit the restaurant Würstkuche and try the rattlesnake sausage menu. Not because it's healthy, but because it's hip. They have great German beer there too.

Photo above: Downtown LA

Photo above: Downtown LA

After having hot dogs for dinner, we went further east in downtown LA and ended up on the address 515 W 7th St, Los Angeles. On this location there is a bar on 2nd floor called Seven Grand and I swear that they probably fix you the best Cocktails in LA. They didn't have any bartenders, but Grand Masters in mixing cocktails. It was fun just to see how they created that special cocktail for you. I guess the dilemma is when the joint is over crowded and the hey use a couple of minutes to mix you a drink. But the drinks were pure divine. Check out Grand Seven, when you're in town. (http://www.sevengrand.la/ )

Photo above: Downtown LA, celebration of the day festival

Photo above: Downtown LA, hip restaurant

Photo above: Trond (left) and Jonathan at the classy Seven Grand

It was getting late and both Jonathan and us had to rise early the next day, so he took us back to Union Station were we departed. Thanks for a great evening Jonathan, it was fun to meet you again and get some insiders view of the city. If you ever come to Norway, we'll both bring our cameraes and head out on a hike.

That was pretty much it of the last vacation day on our USA West Coast trip.

DAY SIXTEEN: Halloween in Santa Monica

2009-11-04T10:40:00.005+01:00

The West Coast USA Trip
Starring: Henrik Røsnes and Trond Kampenhøy
Date: October16th to November 3rd. 2009
Destination: California, Arizona, Nevada

DAY SIXTEEN

Halloween in Santa Monica

Saturday Ocotber 31th 2009

A noteable change is the temperature as further south you go. We felt that all the way from SF to where we're at here in Santa Barbara. Here in Santa Barbara late October, it's hot, like 72F in the morning.

Photo above: Highway One before passing Malibu

Photo above: Santa Barbara

Photo above: Santa Barbara

We had breakfast at the Sandpiper Lodge Motel where we're staying. They only had muffins and cereals. So we chose a pack of cereal and some milk. After that we left room 123 and drove to the Santa Barbara Zoo. We were there at 10am and I guess they were just opening the joint. Not all the animals were "forced" out on display for us humans. I guess for them, the show must go on! We strolled half of the zoo before we skedaddled. We were hungry so we drove down to the beach, not so far from the Zoo, (only a few blocks away). We stopped at El Torrito, the place we got positive familiar with in Monterey. Had had a plate of Taco and Trond had Tortilla. There are alot of oil rigs visible from the beaches in Santa Barbara.

Photo above: Santa Barbara Zoo

Photo above: Santa Barbara Zoo

We left Santa Barbara and headed for LA. We drove most of the way on the 101 South. In Camarillo, like 30 minutes from Santa Monica, we stopped at the Camarillo Premium Outlets. I have so much clothes at home, so for me this was a detour. But Trond needed so clothes, so he got some really good bargins at this outlet.

From Camarillo we drove highway 1 via Malibu before coming to our hotel Sheraton on 530 Pico Blvd., in Santa Monica. We got room 603 with a balcony and not the grand view, but with a view anyway. The room was great. We had to valet park the car.

Photo above: Santa Barbara Zoo

Photo above: Santa Barbara Zoo

It was Halloween night in the city. Lots of people dressing up and shit. We wanted to see if there was a party around. So we walked down to the Santa Monica pier, according to hotels.com only 800m away. Trond doubted this measurement, but he claims it more then 800m. If you can go through buildings, Trond would agree it was about 800m.

At the pier we stopped at Bubba Gump for a dinner. I had my favourite dish, The New Orleans Shrimp, while Trond had a mix of shrimps cooked or fried in different ways.

Absofuckinglutely yummy :)

We had a few beers and watched the baseball game between the Yankees and the Phillies. The Yankees pulled that one off.

Here is something you probably don't know. The word "Yankees" most likely derive from the to dutch male names Jan and Kees. Most of the first settlers in New Amsterdam (NYC) came from Holland was called Jan and Kees. The British therefor called them all in short for Jankees, which became Yankees.

Photo above: Oil rigs seen from Santa Barbara

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at another bar and returning to the hotel for a final beer for the night. I've been consuming a lot of beers for the last 16 days. I gotta slow down now. Too much drinking. Smart, which I am, I drunk a bottle of water before turning in.