I'm here...

...and I've been shopping already! I'm sure you're not surprised. The flight was uneventful--a typical 7 hour trip in a two by two space. At least I had an aisle seat. A sat with a nice lady headed to South Africa from Chicago. She said they came for a two week visit and that was 21 years ago. She was very helpful about the airport in Amsterdam since she had been through there several times. She still had another 9 hour flight to South Africa though.

Becky and Howard met me at Kristiansand Airport which is not as large as Raleigh County Airport. They had scheduled rest time for me, but I wasn't sleepy at first. I did take a one and half hour nap in the afternoon and made myself get up. We had a nice Appalachian dinner of soup and cornbread and fresh plum jam they had made. I did get a good's night's sleep from about 10 last night to 9 a.m.

Got up to a Southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy with grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage--and more jam. Off we went to town for some window shopping. I picked up things for Rowan and Gabe but put them down in case I found something better later. But, I do have Rowan a surprise gift ordered. We also looked at shoes--my favorite shopping. Guess, what Becky is as big a shoe hog as I am. So we are disappointed we won't be able to get to Copenhagen for some serious shoe shopping. I showed her my boots that I had bought for the trip and she pulled a pair out of a bag that she had never worn that were the exact shoe in a different color!

We did browse a couple of bookstores. They have children's books about Norway geography and the Norwegian troll legends written in various languages. I suspect Gabe and Rowan will get a book in English and Norwegian so they can compare languages when they learn how to read.

It was raining this morning so we didn't get to/have to ride the bicycles to town. Howard dropped us in town and then met us later for lunch. We then had lunch at an Arabic restaurant. Yes, I know. Here I am in Norway and I haven't eaten any Norwegian meals. But Howard and Becky both agree, not missing much. I will try some pastries I'm sure before the trip is over. I'm sure I'll at least have a salmon meal or two. What I did have was a wrap type sandwich in a better (more like pita) bread with chicken, lettuce, and some spices that was called a Kyllingschwarma. It was served with hummus and some plain old fashioned American french fries. (Kylling means chicken.) I'm not doing too bad a job of reading some of the words. I figured out red onion on the menu!

We did take a tour of the grocery store. It was strange seeing the Jolly Green Giant and that being the only words on the can I could read. They have some Kellogg's cereals, but not the same as in US. I saw some tiny tiny bananas here. They were about 4 inches long. A great idea for Kroger: Pot fresh herbs and sell them growing in the pots as they might be at the nursery. A 4 inch pot of basil was about 5 dollars.

We are getting ready for our little event this evening. The little get together was nice. About 15 people from Howard's work. One was Dutch, on was Iraqi, another from Denmark and several Americans: two from NC and two from Texas. Christin, You would have liked the decor of the hostesses house. Very European--clean lines and a lot of white. The kitchen had a built in coffee,expresso,cappucino machine.

Tomorrow we will go to free day at the zoo if it isn't raining. Monday we head out to central Norway for the outdoor stuff. Wednesday is the glacier walking, I do know that.