Stravanger, Norway Walking Tour with Guide

 On Tuesday, April 28, we stopped at Stravanger which is the main southern port of Norway.  It is a very old city with cobblestone streets and the highest concentration of original wooden buildings in all of Europe.

There were numerous guided walking tours offered so we found our native guide and followed her for two hours.  She spoke clear English that even Bill could understand so we liked her - a lot.  And followed...

We stopped at the national oil museum and learned plenty about how Norway gets its oil from huge drilling  platforms out at sea.

We walked around the old parts of town on narrow cobblestone hilly streets.

We saw the largest concentration of original wooden harbor houses in Europe.

We walked past a bomb shelter from World War II.

The old parts of the city were very hilly and many in our two-hour tour group skipped out early and walked back to the ship.  We stayed the entire time, kept up with the fast-walking native guide and loved the tour.  Cheap-skate Bill even tipped the sweet lady at the end.

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Eidfjord, Norway

 Our second stop on this big boat ride was further inland, by water, to a small mountain village called Eidfjord.  The weather again is cool, clear and beautiful.  The main attraction here, beyond the landscape, is a modern Scenic Norwegian Nature Center.  It is about a half hour ride by bus so Bill grabbed a seat to check it out.

The Nature Center from outside.

The sparkling rivers and streams up here have plenty of trout like these on display.

The Reindeer run wild in the mountains nearby and two bucks fighting better be careful....

...as this native hunter from the past is ready for more meat and clothing material.

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Norway in April and the Weather is Cool

 Last Friday, April 24, 2026, our friend Francis dropped us off at the Traverse City airport in the afternoon.  We then flew to Detroit, to Amsterdam, and then to Bergen, Norway.  Our flights were on Delta and Air France.  All the 11 hours in the aircraft seats gave Bill terrible back pains so he was ready to get to our ship - The Neptune owned by Viking.

We settled into our cabin on the ship and were delighted that our luggage arrived at our room soon after we did.  The ship is large holding 900 passengers plus it crew.  We are now about six hours ahead of Michigan and the weather is cool and clear.

On Sunday we passed up all the shore excursions and simply walked around Bergen and checked out a few of the shops and stores.  The currency here in Norway is the Krone which is worth about 10 cents of our dollar.  Many of the shops have beautiful wool sweaters.

We are now far to the north so it was no surprise that Bill was attacked by this type of bear!  

We visited a small museum in Bergen and saw where Vikings from long ago had lived.

This very tall Viking was kind enough to donate his ancient body to the museum for display,

We walked back to our ship and took a last look at the harbor that was very quiet on that Sunday.

Tomorrow is Eidfjord Norway.

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We Arrive Home to Quite a Mess

 On Sunday we got home around noon on March first..  We could get into our driveway but not the garage.  There is still about 1-1/2 feet of refrozen snow up here so we had to walk on top of it to unload the truck.

While Karen started to put items away in the house, Bill worked on making a path down from the driveway past the garage to the house.

After about three hours of trying to work through the refrozen snow he was exhausted.  Our snowblower would not work through the hard heavy crusty snow so Bill had to give up on that plan.

In the last week there had been rain, then below zero temperatures.  That caused the hardest shoveling we could remember.  So we called in reinforcements just to get the truck into the garage and Karen's car out.  (so she could go shopping for needed supplies)

Our friend and neighbor, Francis, came down to save the day.  It took him about an hour to clear off the heavy refrozen snow with his front bucket and rear rake.

After Bill took Francis to lunch he walked down through the garage to make a path to the house.  This path took Bill at least 2-1/2 hours or breaking up ice and shoveling.  This is the most difficult snow clearing we can remember.  

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Maple syrup activity comes next after Bill's last years sojourn in the hospital with heart surgery

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We Leave the Valley, the Trailer, and Texas

• On Thursday, February 26, 2026  we empty the travel trailer and load the truck.  We leave before noon as the temperature is climbing to 100 degrees.  (A lot different than Michigan as you will see in another post)
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• We drove north and arrived home on Sunday March 1.  We spent our third night in a motel near South Haven, Michigan because snow and freezing pavement forced us off the highway!
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• Our friends, Nancy and Phil,  sent us this picture taken Saturday evening showing our empty lot as our Cougar trailer is gone!  Miss Kitty, as Karen affectionately called her, is now in the hands of her new owner. 
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• The weather situation that we found at home in northern Michigan is much different with new challenges......

Across the Valley

We sold our travel trailer today and will be leaving the Rio Grand Valley tomorrow on February 26, 2026 for the last time.

Below are three pictures of here and there and this and that.

When the contractors need fill dirt for their current building projects they don't mess around.  These three trucks plus two more kept this crane operator busy all day as he dug into the bank below him to fill them up.

This old Thunderbird up on blocks could be worth some real money if restored properly in the future.  It has probably never seen snow or road salt.

We have written about this before in this blog but the fad has increased.  Old folks in our RV park are buying and riding electric bikes.  Here is the swimming pool parking area recently on a hot afternoon.  Ten electric bikes and none of the peddle kind.

Tomorrow we head north even though it is still very cold in northern Michigan.  Forecast for Mission tomorrow is 99  -  high tomorrow in Frederic is 29.

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A Farewell Trip to the Zoo

 On Monday we picked up the Smokers early in Mission and headed east to Brownsville.

The weather was bright and comfortable. This tiger was enjoying the sunshine.

Phil and Nancy had not visited the Gladys Porter Zoo before.  Karen and Bill were happy to drive and celebrate Nancy's birthday with them.

Brownsville has an excellent zoo as we have blogged before a few years back.  By the looks of this sign at the zoo aquarium - we assume the zoo management had not received the memo from the White House or were just too busy to change their sign.  (Hint: Gulf of America?!)

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