Walking streets, towers and donut shops

I have this theory about climate and cultural identity.  The hardier the climate, the more nationalistic the people seem to be.  Go to maritime Canada and every night at the bar they sing rowdy songs about their homeland like "Here's to Nova Scotia..."  Similar in Norway, although not really in song, but in their common belief in community service (dugnad) and a strong cultural identity.  Norwegians are proud to display their local heritage and the girls often wear their beautiful national costume (bunad) to weddings as well as on national day.  I loved this picture of mother and daughter celebrating National Day up in the Arctic with me.   People in climate-based "paradise" don't really have the same survivor spirit.  They haven't hibernated through the dark, cold winter nights.  They often want to escape people, carve a nitch apart, rather than come together.

So what will we carry back to the states with us? Besides lots of memories, friends we will never forget, I guess we had a lot of togetherness.  We weren't overly scheduled. When I wasn't dragging the girls on some hiking or ski trail, we spent a lot of time just at the house, reading lots of books, guitar for me, GIlmore Girls :-), the Wii just dance and mario was a hit, laughing with nigahiga and other internet icons, 3 to 13 and oh heck, needlepoint.  Because eating out is more of an event and very expensive here, I cooked nearly every dinner at home.  I got involved with their school as secretary of the parent committee -- the first time I had the time to volunteer for the schools.  It was also amazing to see the committee filled with half or more fathers rather than just mothers (dugnad is alive and well).  The girls did a lot of schlepping to bus stops in rain/hail/snow.  They spent time at the Torg with their friends shopping at the same 10 common stores (H&M, Ginatricot, Bik Bok, Falkanger,dinsko, Nille, etc..) that seem to be replicated in every block throughout the city centre (some sarcasm but largely true).

The kids here keep lists of how many countries they've been to visit, whereas in the states it seems to be how many of our 50 states you've been through (and mostly on long tedious car trips).   Since arriving in Europe, the girls have checked into:

 - Iceland (overnight on our way in and we didn't see much, but I guess we can count it)

 - Norway  

 - Germany 

 - Denmark  

 - Sweden (Åre ski vacation)

 - Italy

 - Switzerland (Zuruch, we spent the night on our way home and had fondue in old town, so it counts)



Girls on walking street of old Zurich



What defines a town in Rhode Island is the donut shop and nail salon (sarcasm with a grain of truth).  The two things that define a European city or village is the cobblestone walking/shopping streets with no cars, old churches and a tower.  We have visited walking streets in Trondheim, Ålesund, Åre, Munich, Odense, Zurich, Firenze, Lerici, Kiel (girls) and the longest in the world or Strøget in Copenhagen.  I experienced a few more on my seminar tour of Europe including Liverpool, Bremen, Oldenburg, Tromso, Longyearbyen, Ischgl.



Pisa, Munich, and Copenhagen from towers



We've also scaled towers with worn stone steps winding up and up and up, including  the leaning tower of Pisa (which made me seasick coming down in leaning spirals...urghh), Rundetårn in Copenhagen, Peterkirche's tower in Munich, and of course the famous Tyholt tower in Trondheim (via elevator) but they serve beer at the restaurant on top.  Of course, we couldn't have achieved those high heights without the hiking and cross country ski training...viva la Norway.