Thursday 28 July 2011

Bombs away!

First off, here's something stupid that we did this morning with Olaf and Daddy (video by Jacob)...

Yesterday daddy and Olaf went for a run which was supposed to take 20 minutes unless they found one of Olaf's "high quality gravel roads." They must have found one of those high quality gravel roads because they were gone for about 40 minutes and Daddy said the only thing missing was a loaded canoe compared to their last crazy trip together. After that we stayed at Olaf's apartment until after lunch then we started by going to the Holmenkollen ski jump.

Holmenkollen and Vigeland Pics!

Here is the ski jump people go at about 130 kmh - ski jumping is a huge sport in Scandanavia. Olaf said that about 100,000 people would watch it each time it was open. As you can see it was made with no support (except at the base) near the top.
This is what the skiers see before they get knocked out. There are no bathrooms at the top because they wouldn't need it.  Daddy would crack more than his snowboard helmet if he skied down there and who knows nobody has ever tried snowboarding down here.

Here are some more handstands at Vigeland Park. At the park there are 212 statues on the left there is the fountain on the base there is men holding up the bowl. On the right is an obelisk with people the bottom person must have died a few times and the pile must have also tipped a few times while posing.
The sculpture on th right is daddy's favourite with the two babies on one arm one on the other and one on he's foot. on the left is me and Olaf with the park behind us.


On the left is a picture of daddy trying on Olaf's Monoslippers and on the right we are all having dinner together on Olaf's new furniture. We brought the heat from Greece because it is the hottest day of the year and Olaf forced daddy to put sunscreen on him because he made up an excuse that he was going to be holding his big expensive camera all the time.

Daddy's Note: (Please send in comments directly from the blog here to anything you see on the site. Zachary works really hard to keep it updated, and we would love to hear from all of you about anything you see!)


Daddy's Note: In Scandinavia, cross country skiing, ski jumping, and biathlon are like hockey in Canada in terms of popularity. At Holmenkollen, there is also a ski museum, outlining the history of ski jumping and the development of skis through the ages. Part of it is a hall of fame for Norwegian skiers, with this whole display shown here of personal skis from famous skiers. Being the open society that Norway is, none of the skis are kept locked away under glass. There were also displays of different types of skis, and the boys were amazed at how the snow jumping skis are over 3 m tall. Another exhibit showed the history of Norwegian royalty and skiing.
The plaque and skis belong to Bjorn Daehle, who won more Olympic winter medals than any other athlete in history during the 1990s. 

5 comments:

  1. So about those bathrooms. They really do need one at the top for when your first look down and another at the bottom with shower facilties for after you have done the run. I am a bit leary about the "high quality gravel road" claim about the 40 minute delay. I suspect there was a herring and gelato stand near by... I am still taking in the man statue imagery as well as trying to decipher the artist's intent. Are the babies attacking this man? Why is he completely naked staring at his own genitals? Is the baby at the man's foot about to be sent into orbit via a swift kick into baby buttocks? Are the two babies in his left hand in fact human shields with the other baby in his right hand acting as a weapon? Monoslippers? Well - that explains the poor furniture design. I'd like to see how much furniture gets put together when one has their feet encased in a giant geometric pillow. About the guy who died a few times at the obelisk. Was he a Norwegian Zombie? I ask because Zombies are the only people I know who can die and come back more than once so long as they have human brains to eat. Which might explain what happened to the brain of the monoslipper designer... Or the brain of the furniture maker. I hear there is a Viking Island near Oslo. Maybe Olaf can teach you how to pillage and torch small villages. Those are skills you can combine with the Magnum 45 Speak Gun Andreas taught you how to use. And if you learn to ski jump you will pretty much have J2 comando training pretty much in the bag. oxoxoxox

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  2. Zachary, is that YOU jumping off the big rock? How many times did you do the jump? Did Jaybob also do the big jump?

    Too bad it is not the middle of winter while you were visiting this area. Then you would be able to be amongst one of the 100,000 people watching a ski jump event. That would be cool. That's more people than sitting in the stadium watching the Superbowl every February. I hope they have enough bathrooms for the spectators.

    I, too, had problems trying to figure out the Monoslippers. Looks like some sort of torture device to me. I think Olaf got ripped off and should ask for his money back. I have no comment about the statue. I don't get it at all?!?! Looks like you can get spaghetti everywhere in the world! Even in Norway....but what about the herrings?

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  3. that was me being crazy the most famous sculpture at the park was the "screaming baby" and I don't know if the person on the bottom is a zombie.

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  4. I am following your excellent adventure as I check in on your blog each day. It is quite interesting.

    At this time of year, at that latitude, I imagine that the sun does not go down , if at all, until very late, and then up very very early. This will be even more the case in Finland, I imagine. In other words, hardly any dark at night.

    On the other side of that, in winter, the night will be very long and the day not so much.

    As you are all very athletic, you will doubtless go cross-country ski-ing.

    Now that you, Zachary, are eleven, and Jacob is nine, you must be getting taller and taller. At least your pics kind of look that way. Almost like young men.

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  5. Jaybob, I didn't realize that the video had your voice on it. I guess that's officially your first blog entry! Good for you. Maybe you can post more video blogs if typing and writing is too difficult for you at this point. You can do video blogs to introduce all of us to the sights and sounds of Norway...and then Finland. Maybe you can give us an introduction to some popular foods in Norway!

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