Happy Father's Day!
We arrived in Amsterdam around 6:00 am and headed for the KLM Lounge for tea, croissants, and cheese/crackers. Here are a few photos from Schiphol Airport near the Lounge. I haven't figured out how to place two photos side-by-side! I'm working on these details!
Having wheelchair service for Mother throughout all the airports has been so helpful. Mother is picked up at the gate and taken where we need to go. In Amsterdam, we went from the plane to a special line to check passports (no long lines for us during this busy tourist season!) to the KLM Lounge and then to our own special bus to catch our last flight to Flesland (Bergen). The service has been great and our attendants have been so friendly.
The arrival into Bergen was beautiful! After we picked up our luggage, we were greeted by Asbjorn Skaar. Asbjorn is the former superintendent of the Kvinnherad Schools; he and I established the student teaching program in 2001 - a program that has now included more than 100 student teachers from Iowa State and Utah State. He visited Iowa in 2007 with a team of four other teachers and administrators and Utah in 2013 with Stein (& Elke) Schilling, the current student teaching coordinator for Kvinnherad. Asbjorn and Stein are the ones who recommended me for the Medal of St. Olav, which was awarded by H.M. Harald V, King of Norway, in 2012. We had the medal ceremony in Minneapolis just after Asbjorn and Stein visited Utah so that they could be part of the festivities.
Asbjorn drove us to Rosendal on a 'picture perfect' day - beautiful blue skies and sun. Having door-to--door service from Bergen to Rosendal was greatly appreciated as Mother and I would have had to wait seven hours at the airport for the next 'fast boat.' We arrived at Margunn & Toralf Malmanger's home around 3:00 pm. Margunn, a cousin on Mother's side, is the reason why we have the student teaching program. She was an elementary classroom teacher who introduced me to Asbjorn and 'the rest is history!' Kvinnherad hosts 6-11 student teachers each semester and Margunn & Toralf are my hosts when I supervise for one week each November and March. So, coming to Margunn's is like coming 'home.' She served us betasuppe and flatbread and then we took a much-needed nap.
We are approaching the longest day of the year; it is now 10:00 pm but looks like mid-afternoon. This is why Norway is known as 'the land of the midnight sun.'
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| View from the plane as we approached Bergen |
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| along the drive from Bergen to Rosendal |
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| waiting for the ferry at Gjermundshavn |
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| view from the ferry looking towards Rosendal |
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| ferry, which can transport about 50 cars |
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| coming into Rosendal along the Hardanger Fjord |
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| view of the Kvinnherad church as we entered Rosendal |
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| Asbjorn - our excellent chaffeur from Bergen to Rosendal |
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| View from Margunn & Toralf's - our 'home away from home' |
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