Maloy - Day Six

Another Rise and Shine day!!! Got to get up at 5:30AM this morning...I thought this was a holiday! Those of you that know me, know that if I'm not driving my kids to school, I'm sleeping in!!!

 

This is the boat we are travelling on...it travels all along the coast, North, stopping along the way to pick up passengers.

 

 

Ok, so this ship in the photo below was waiting for us to leave...on approaching it, I was thinking are we picking left or right, and lets choose quickly! We were almost upon it and then our Captain took the left side ;) This was the first of our narrow passages and we haven't even left the port completely yet!!!

 

 

 

But the Express Boat we are travelling in today (pictured above) leaves exactly at 8AM, end destination for us is Maloy although it makes several very quick stops along the coast to various places...this is a passenger only boat so we pull up, lower the ramp, let off and let on and then we are pulling out! If you are late, you miss the boat! If you aren't ready to get off...too bad...we are moving on :)

 

 

This trip is only 4 hours...that's right I said only! After yesterday's 7 hour train ride, this is a breeze ;) It was a little choppy and amazing that we run between such narrow channels too...but the advantage to all the stops along the way for us is that we can get an idea of the towns along the way too...

 

 

Some places don't appear to be towns so much as instead a cluster of houses...the weather is very overcast today and there are some sprinkling showers as well.

 

 

The terrain though has varied from hills and mountains with lots of evergreen trees to bare rock...Mom says it reminds her a bit of Scotland...for myself, some areas could easily be mistaken as the Gulf Islands...really interesting to compare and contrast and I think it's great that Norway has a lot of similarities to my home.

We arrived in Maloy at 12:40pm and we were met at the dock by our distant cousin Else..she speaks English and is a retired English teacher. Else's sister Berit and her daughter and two grandsons were also there to welcome us when we got off the boat!

It was wonderful to get such a warm welcome...the hotel was a brief walk from the dock so we stopped in to drop off our bags. Mom and I needed to get our rental cars so Berit's daughter Synnove drove us there. We had drinks and a snack at a cute little cafe which was a welcome treat seeing as we hadn't eaten since our 6:30am breakfast!

 

 

Isn't this a cute cafe? interesting decor and great view of the water...I had fish and chips, it was fantastic!

 

 

Did you notice this spot near the ceiling? Looks like it's got some nighttime entertainment possibilites up there!

 

 

Berit has a light dinner planned for this evening where we can socialize and enjoy each other's company. Meanwhile we found a florist and some beautiful flowers to give Berit in thanks, we also brought some various gifties for both Berit and Else from Canada...Maple Syrup, soaps, wool purses and lotion.

 

We are at the Best Western in Maloy...adequate rooms, we turned one into a triple and I took the cot ! it was nice and firm...thankfully I got something firm to sleep on...took one of mom's sleeping pills and slept like the dead again...gotta love those pills ;)

 

 

 

Our cousi Berit's place is situated up the hill on the side of the mountain...great location and fabulous view!!! It was raining and overcast today but the view is still fabulous! I didn't realize that Maloy is actually an island on it's own...this bridge carries you there from the mainland...

 

 

 

 

This is our cousin Berit and her daughter Synnove...

 

and here's Synnove's sons Adam and Benjamin...they were super cute and Adam was trying to teach his little brother to play chess...Benjamin has been learning but Adam is quite thrilled to beat him every game! Benjamin still wants to play anyways! So cute :)

 

and here's the feast that she prepared for us...

 

 

 

Dinner was delicious and it was awesome getting to chat with our family...even though language is a bit of a challenge for all of us, we are super grateful that the Norwegians have mandatory English lessons in school! So they are all mostly able to communicate with us just fine :) This photo below is of our cousin Else...my mom is on the left and my Auntie June is on the right...great photo!

 

 

Here is our cousin Peter, Berit's son, he was able to come by to meet us and have a visit. The best part of this trip is being able to meet our distant relatives here in Norway...something we wouldn't have likely attempted to do had we not decided to take this trip with my mom and Aunt...

 

 

Now, we have invited the family to join us at our Vacation House that we've rented for this coming week...hopefully they will be able to join us for some of the time if not most of it so we can have a chance to get to know each other better still :)

Hopefully we are going to have some WiFi access there. So we'll see about keeping up with these posts :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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