Trondheim (Nidaros) to Santiago de Compostela

[lovingkindness]

In my heart are the highways to freedom,
In my soul are the words of the Lord,
and I will always be,
I will always be
a Peregrina to the end.

Lovingkindness

 

[jl]

Thanks for the photos - I am looking forward to making this part of my journey in about 4 years tiem! Janet

 

[LTfit]

Hi LovingKindness,

Do you have an estimated date of departure and will you be posting your route?
Good luck with your preparations!
Cheers,
LT

 

[jl]

At this stage, all I know is that in approximately 4 years time I will begin my journey. This will be my retirement present to myself. I want to walk for a year - just to see how far I get, but am currently looking at how I can incorporate St Olav's Way into my journey, and also the Polish Camino from Olstyn to Prague. I have yet to decide whether I will end in Rome or in Santiago. Having walked 2,000 kms last year in 86 days I am estimating that I can plan a journey that will cover around about 8,000kms. I have also decided that I would like to walk the whole way if possible - not catching trains / buses etc unless it is a ferry because I have to get across the sea. Apart from doing a couple of things like walking the VDLP next year I will have a lot of work to do to plan this. A visa alone is going to be a big problem and have just started the laborious process of finding out how I can do that - and be able to stay in Europe for a year or a bit more.

Maps have been ordered, the Cicerone St Olav's Way arrived this week and so I feel as if I am beginning.

Hope your walk is going well. Cheers, Janet

 

[lovingkindness]

Day One: Trondheim to Sundet Gard

 

[lovingkindness]

Day Two: Sundet to before Skaun

 

[lovingkindness]

Day Three: Skaun to Snoten

 

[lovingkindness]

Day Four: Snoten to Olskastet hut

 

[lovingkindness]

Day Five: Olskastet hut to near Rennebu

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day six: before Rennebu to Sundset

 

[CaroleH]

Thankyou so much for sharing these beautiful, beautiful photos. Another camino that needs to be checked out!!
Regards. Carole

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Loving Kindness, these photos are just beautiful. The Norwegian colours are so stunning. I hope things continue to go well for you, and look forward to seeing and hearing more.
Margaret

 

[LTfit]

Hola Livingkindness,

Wow, totally agree with all of the above!!I It looks like the weather is on your side, hope that it stays that way in the coming days/weeks/months!

The pictures are so vivid, I can almost feel and smell the surroundings!

Thanks again!

Abrazos,
LT

 

[lovingkindness]

thanks. -L

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 7: Sundset to Oppdal

 

[jl]

wow - thanks for sharing the photos. can't wait to see this for myself! Hope things are going well, Janet

 

[giorgio]

Thanks so much for sharing , please continue !!!!
Giorgio

 

[peregrina2000]

Incredible. What an amazing journey, and what beautiful pictures. I hope you will also fill us in occasionally with some of your written observations -- I love the photos, but I love reading your reactions and descriptions as well!

Buen camino, Lovingkindness, Laurie

 

[norway]

Hei du! Dette var jammen imponerende! Å gå helt fra Trondheim - du er virkelig en pilgrim!
Det skal bli morsomt å følge deg videre! Min bragd er ikke av ditt kaliber - jeg har gått Frankrike (fra le Puy til St. jean pied de port) men kun 14 dager av gangen pga jobben - forresten en helt vidunderlig vei! I 2007 gikk jeg St. Jean p d port til Santiago 5 uker - ifjor El Camino Aragonès og iår - starter på tirsdag- skal jeg gå El Primitivo - så som du ser - pilgrim i relativt små porsjoner - men pilgrim er pilgrim enten kort el langt - og jeg nyt er det! Nydelige bilder!

Da gleder jeg meg til å følge deg videre! Gerd (Norway)

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 10: the Hjerkin Railway Station

Hi there everyone. All's well in this peregrina-pilegrim's world. I am happy and content. Until today I have felt staggeringly tired and much in need of quietness and solitude. For the moment I have fled the world and am searching the inner paths, those deep places of calming darkness, the places where my spirit finds hiding and a resting space. For the past little while I have not had the energy or the desire to communicate. But today I feel differently, today I feel curious and ready to engage again. Many funny things have happened along my way and I frequently find myself asking Why, Why to everything. But most of all I am asking, When did this particular pilgrimage begin? When I can answer this I'll fill you in. For now, here's some news from along my way:

It is Day 10 of my great adventure and I have just discovered the wonders of refugiums a la Norwegian Railways. What fantastic facilities -heated waiting rooms, endless hot water and sometimes a padded bench to sleep on. Now that the temperature has dropped to zero degrees at night I have decided on the following priorities for accommodation: 1st choice: railway stations, 2nd choice: barns, lofts or any kind of sheltering over my head (natural, derelict or otherwise); 3rd choice my tent; 4th choice: houses (very expensive). I am having a great adventure, enjoying solitude, and in awe of the natural beauty of the fjells I am crossing. The tundra, the flora, and vast emptiness of this isolated place appeals very much to my mood. I crave the quiet and solace of open spaces.

ps. I get lost nearly every day. Following a route backwards creates interesting problems but it's fun solving them, even if it adds hours and many extra kilometers to my day. Sometimes the detour is more beautiful than the official way.

'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not faint, they shall walk and not be weary.' Isaiah

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day 11 Dovrefjell (Hjerkinn to Furuhaugli)

 

[ivar]

Fantastic photos!!! ...I hope you enjoy your walk.

...don't know what I am doing in Santiago... Norway is beautiful!

God tur, buen camino!
Ivar

 

[lovingkindness]

Thanks, Ivar.

Day 15 Nord Sel to Otta
Today is Day 15 and for the first time in 13 days I am not wearing wet weather gear. Taking photos has been a challenge -do I risk drowning my camera for the sake of art or should I play 'safe' and keep it bundled tight within the innards of my pack hoping that my selective memory retains something of the images passed. In the rain I often feel like a fishing enthusiast, the kind who endlessly speaks of the 'big fish that got away'. The shots I do manage to capture never seem as fine or as evokative as the fleeting ones I wanted but couldn't capture in the mist, the sleet and hail. What I'm left with at the end of a drizzly day are disconnected glimpses, a few colourful moments when the heavens forgot to sorrow and the sun took time to appear.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 12 Furuheugli to Fokstugu Fjellstue

 

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[lovingkindness]

Day 13: Fokstugu Fjellstue to Dovre

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 14: Dovre to Nord-Sel

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 15: Nord-Sel to Otta

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 16-18 resting in the fjords

 

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[jl]

Lovingkindness, have just come into the library to look at your post (can't see your photos on my antiquated system) and am just enthralled by your beautiful photos. Thank you for taking the time to share them with us! Buen camino Janet

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 21 or is it 22?
(Somewhere below the arctic circle, somewhere beyond, in the valleys of heaven)
Thanks for your nice words JL. Solitude, fresh air and the intense beauty of the Norwegian wilds are leaving me a little undone. I seem to be drifting into silence, to a space where the need to reveal myself to others has paused. When I set off on this journey I thought that I would be flooding cyberspace with words, chattering non-stop to this forum and others about all that I experienced. Instead I am in retreat, offering pictures and pretty scenes as a substitute.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

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[nellpilgrim]

Hi Lovingkindness,
Those images are an exquisite 'substitute' and certainly more than enough to keep us going... for the time being!

Bonne route

Nell

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is not Norway, but it is way north!

http://www.greatoutdoors.com/published/ ... kungsleden

 

[lovingkindness]

Thanks you 'guys' and , hey, I like the quote, falcon.

Day 25 in the woods and other places
One thing you can’t escape on a journey like this is the weather. Wherever you are it finds you and in your sleep it traps you, it marauds, it lulls and harasses. At 3 am this morning it began to rain, and I ought to know because ‘bang on’ 3 the plastic tarp above my head began to rattle and the moss beside my feet to swamp and all I could think about was misery. I found this little shelter high up in the woods and couldn’t resist sleeping out. Stripped saplings frame its open-air entrance and branches the sides and in the clearing out front a deer and fawn briefly paused but not long enough for me to take a ‘shot’. Two nights back I hid out in a wood pile and the previous night in an old school (with permission) but today, day 25 I have reluctantly chosen convention and paid for a good night’s sleep because once it begins to rain in Norway it precipitates incessantly and mournfully. It goes on for days and weeks and days and, who knows, for years and all I can say is Thank God for Gortex and Compeed -which is an excellent remedy for torn trousers.

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day 26 by Lake Mjosa

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 27 Bemused
At this very minute I am resting lavishly on white seersucker and crocheted lace, eating marzipan with coffee and amusing myself by playing two-part and three-part inventions on a well-tempered grand piano. I’ve just had a photo shoot, pondered the true meaning of pilgrimage, and now am worried silly and sick, scared that I have revealed too much, dishonoured my family... or worse, betrayed the secret society of sempre peregrinas who live humbly as stoics beyond ‘the box’, who would rather embrace suicide than find themselves transported by car.

For the second time since Trondheim I have hitchhiked a few metres, I have lost my way at dusk and descended to the E6 only to find it treacherous. For this lapse, I am desolate.... but for my current circumstances I am well pleased: For one night at least I will not be hiding out in a dilapidated barn, finding solace in immaculately kept railway stations or living on liver-paste, tinned fish and wild berries. No. For the next exquisite moment I will be cradled in an abode of Kings, of old families with ancient dwellings ...courtesy of my fantastic brother and his Norwegian colleagues. I am in a house. I am altered. So here’s a big kiss and a hug for all those big brothers out there who love their little sisters so kindly and for the hospitable, homely kingdom of Norse where a skinny pilegrim is brought in out of the murk ...and all the cats are fed kindness.

-a recipient of much love.

 

[William Marques]

Those lake pictures on days 16-18 are like a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallelan. Wonderful.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paint ... ke-keitele

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 27 ps Nell
Hey, Nell. Thanks for giving me an amazing incentive to keep on the trail. I have just perused your blog, entry Nov. 2009. All that food -photo after glutinous, vein-clogging photo, enough to fuel a famished peregrina's dreams. I can't wait. -Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Those lake pictures on days 16-18 are like a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallelan. Wonderful.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paint ... ke-keitele

pps
Hey, William, how about that! -l

 

[CaroleH]

Contrast between shelters, day 25's humble tarp and sticks, day 27's gentile lace and polished wood . . . . . . priceless.

We "pilgrimed" out once and stayed in a parador. . . . . didn't tell our fellow pilgrims till much later. . . . but it was delicious.

Love your words, the photos and what you are doing, Lovingkindness. Thanks for sharing.
Buen camino.

 

[RestlessRose]

Following your journey avidly. I had considered myself a bit of an adventurer, and had traveller to some far corners but I would not have the courage to take on the journey you are now on. Simply awesome! And so love the pictures. Beautiful.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us.

Buen camino


ps Big brothers or small brothers, brothers' love are special. Enjoy!

 

[nellpilgrim]

Day 27 ps Nell
Hey, Nell. Thanks for giving me an amazing incentive to keep on the trail. I have just perused your blog, entry Nov. 2009. All that food -photo after glutinous, vein-clogging photo, enough to fuel a famished peregrina's dreams. I can't wait. -Lovingkindness

Sorry for making your mouth water Loving Kindness but walking into Santiago at the end of our Camino we just couldn't stop admiring all the gorgeous displays of food, and that expression of joyful largesse matched what we felt in our hearts .........that we were stuffed full of happiness (as well as with as some pulpo,jamon iberico, Tarte, pimientos de padron, ... )
Wishing you the most abundant bon appetit Lovingkindness not just at your end point but all along the way.

Nell

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 29 Gjorvik to Hof Kirke
A sauna. I have just broiled myself for 20 luxurious minutes at high heat and gone to hell, been fed scrambled eggs and peppered steak, apple cake and plums and then been invited to give an impromptu address to a group of avid church councillors. I am the first pilegrim to come seeking shelter, to arrive unannounced bedraggled and weak at the newly opened community/church complex in Hof. The pastor and his congregation have been dreaming and preparing for this moment, and other moments like me, for the past twenty years. They have worked exceedingly hard and now have a gymnasium, a sauna, a commercial kitchen and halls to complement their 12th century kirke, and added to their immediate wish list is pilegrim accommodation. They want to be involved, to be part of this new Norwegian phenomena –pilgrimage. I am the second pilegrim to use the sauna and will definitely not be the last to be fed on their kindness. Pastor Lasse describes this place as the House of Possibilities, or something like it -a place half way between dreams and actuality, and soon, he anticipates many more pilegrims will come. So here I am content and comatose on a sofa, too relaxed and safe to ever want to move again, and exceedingly glad that I ignored my first choice of accommodation -the dusty half empty shack 50 meters down the road.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day 31 a difficult day
10 am - 4 pm Crying, weeping and tears. 30 days of effort and I’m tired. Every foot step is an effort. I don’t want to be a pilegrim anymore.
6. 15 pm: more of the same, then……as I was passing by a nice man invited me in for coffee, saying that twenty years ago when he had hitched his way down New Zealand he had continually been fed on cakes and hospitality, that in NZ he found no rules, and that all the grey-haired ladies drove Morris Minors and were more English than the English. I think that things in NZ have changed mightily since then, but this man’s urge to reciprocate hospitality has made me very glad…and after coffee came poached salmon, noodles & pesto and salad with conversations cooked by his wife and apple cake by his cute daughter. So, maybe I do still want to be a peregrina after all, now that I have enough energy to drag my feet up the hill.

Accommodation Day 30: the odour of cows, the bells of sheep chewing in their sleep and, open to the elements, to the early morning mist, the rain and stars -the wooden floor boards of a dirty porch.

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 32
I seem to have departed Norway and arrived in peregrinas heaven. By some quirk of fate, some benevolent hand, I now find myself in 5 star Utopia. Last night I slept on the bare wooden boards of an open-air porch opposite a stone church. Tonight it is a luxury hotel, or, should I say, the manager's guest lodge down by a lake, gourmet dinner and breakfast provided. I arrived in ------ a few hours ago and went to the hotel, prepared to squander half my savings just for a decent night's sleep and the chance to email and surf the internet. The hotel had no vacancies but the manager took pity and decided that I could do with a little respite. He whisked me off to a beautiful wooden house, said use everything as I please and handed me a gigantic medieval-looking key to lock myself in. So here I am, happy as a well fed tick, drying my clothes in the sauna, and about to enter the world of dreams on a lavish, fluffy white bed.

And that’s not all. This morning when I arrived at a hotel for breakfast the hostess declined my money saying also, please have a shower and do please take lunch. She told me of a girl friend who had walked all the way from Sweden to Trondheim, sleeping out in the woods and in parlours for the soon-to-be-buried, in little funeral houses found beside churches in that part of the world. My life has turned curious but I don’t think I have the courage for that.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

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[jl]

Thank you again for sharing, lovingkindness. I had to chuckle about your host who hitched in NZ. 35 yrs ago I was a YOUNG (now grey haired and ?!) woman learning to drive in one of those Morries! We had a string attached to the fuel pump so that when she glided to a stop we didn't have to hop out of the car and lift the bonnet - instead we just tugged on the string and she started up again! Ah - memories - you will have so many of them from this journey - go well. Janet

 

[sillydoll]

Your descriptions of your exerpiences are only surpassed by your beautiful photographs - thanks for sharing - and suerte peregrina!

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 34
I have just eaten a huge cheeseburger, Norwegian fries, salad oozing a fat-filled dressing and iced cream cakes with coffee and now all I can think about is, how soon will it be before I can repeat the same thing all over again? And squashed in every pocket and space within my over-stuffed too-heavy pack are more carbohydrate laden, chocolate and protein filled treats. I am hungry. No matter how much I eat every day, and it seems to be escalating hour by hour, I am still ferociously hungry. For the past few days every thought outside of sleep has been food. No amount of education, disciplined creativity or previously successful controlling action has enabled me to rise above this urge. And suddenly I am remembering the craziest things, aspects of childhood, moments buried so deep that their reappearance is startling.

‘NO BIBLE, NO BREAKFAST’

As a teenager my sister had these words plastered to the wall in stern black. Every day they glared down at me inducing guilt, hunger and unwillingness. And every day I thought that soon I would repent, but not just now. And here I am, today, no different. I saw an opportunity to eat and took the fastest route possible, forsaking two medieval churches, a pretty walk by the lake, and several hours of scrambling over roots and tracks and farms. I took Norway’s equivalent to the Spanish meseta, a lengthy cycle path parallel to the E 16, a glorious flat shortcut, and spent the rest of the day eating and reading, holed up in a room, too warm and too replete to care.

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 35 leaving Sundvollen

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 35
As I went strolling by, down an ancient sandy lane to Bergen, a lady with glorious long hair came passing. She said, you really must come and stay at my house. It really is too nice a day for all this mortification and struggle. Then she whisked me off to a farmstead where we idled the day with conversation and cakes, sun bathing, playing with cats and dogs and feeding her fine-bred ponies. But before we reached this place of repose she decided I needed a detour, to see the beautiful paintings, the hand-woven tapestries and folk art of an elderly aunt -and also a bonifide Picaso, a lady in blue with contorted clothes and squared off face. Then, deciding that I looked half-starved, although I insisted I wasn’t, she dropped by a local store and purchased enough food to fatten up three voracious peregrinos, two refugees and a couple of gangly teens. I don’t think I will ever reach Oslo. Benevolence is dragging me back, the concept of Home is overwhelming. I’m walking less and less, sleeping more and more and soon will have forgotten what ever it is I set out to do.

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 36 and then Oslo
……and I was led wildly, beautifully astray down a tree-lined lane infused with emerald air and golden sweetness. I followed an arrow, a yellow slash of paint which wove a cock-eyed round-about trail all the way to østeria. I lost myself willingly somewhere in the suburbs of Oslo, and many hours later, after following a river to the sea and a cycle path to the first cheap hotel I could find, I arrived in Oslo.

-Lovingkindness

 

[ivar]

Fantastic!!

I really enjoy reading about your walk...

Buen Camino!
Ivar

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 37 Oslo Domkirke: the end of St Olafs Way (in reverse)

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Days 38-40 Oslo Moments
I was offered a job the other day and for a perverse moment I almost said yes. English opera is soon to be loosed in Oslo and someone frantic about authenticity, about accent and diction overheard me speak. Had he been an Englishman, a South African or from Down Under he would never have made this mistake but being from somewhere else he couldn’t hear the difference between my raucous antipodean twang, with all the vowels squashed and swallowed and the pitch rising at the end of every sentence, and good old Oxford English. He thought I was British. I almost said yes out of revenge, to thumb my nose at the god of musical perfection, that ruthless unsatisfied tyrant rarely pleased even at the most exquisite, sweetly turned phrase. But I didn’t. Instead I said I was walking to the ends of the world, seeking a place called ‘Home’ and nothing at all, nothing even as fabulous as this golden offer would divert me. Besides, Norwegian is both lyrical and beautiful so why not give ‘Peter Grimes’ to the world with a Scandinavian inflection?
-Lovingkindness

 

[jl]

Thank you for sharing stage one of your epic journey with us lovingkindness! I have enjoyed every word and every photo. bon courage, Janet

 

[Anniesantiago]

Oh my gosh, this has been a wonderful post! Thank you so much!

I'd love to see a photo of YOU, peregrina!
Who is making these fantastic photos?

 

[lynnejohn]

I too wanted to remember lovingkindness - here's an earlier picture from Members' Photos.

post41900.html?hilit=lovingkindness#p41900

lynne

 

[alexwalker]

Lovingkindness,

Your thread has inspired me to look much more into the way of St. Olav. I made a post here earlier:

miscellaneous-topics/topic9489.html

Lynnejohn: You signature is SO true.

 

[lovingkindness]

Thanks, everyone for the positive feedback. -L

Days 42 & 43 in the woods and other places
Last night as I slept in the darkening gloom, on leaves and dry needles in a towering wood, near a lake where frozen vapours drifted at dawn and an icy chill kicked me in the back, I pondered. I tossed and turned wrapped in my mountaineering tent, beneath an emergency blanket inside my duck-feather below-zero mummy-bag, and I decided that being a girl scout and joining The Famous Five was a very fine thing but how much longer could I stand it? I’m a tropical girl not an ice queen and frozen hands and frostbitten feet make me weep. And later, the next day when I lost my way and returned three times to the exact same point, I considered some more. But then Providence and good sense attended my way. A dog and a lady appeared and led me through the woods and soon I found myself at a psychiatric ward for dangerous criminals and demented fellows and then another lady pointed the way. And after a while, a long while on tarmac I arrived at the Heggedal Station and there, true to form was once again blessed by The Norwegian Railways, or so it seemed. I was sitting there eating eplekake og kaffe and a woman came up to me and asked, where are you going? She said, I’m sure I saw you the other day out walking. Would you like to come and stay at my house? And she escorted me up into the mountains to a fabulous two-story newly built log house with astonishing views. Then for the rest of the day she spent time printing out Google maps to ensure that I never get lost again. And her au pair cooked Filipina chicken curry with rice and I was very happy.

 

[alexwalker]

eplekake og kaffe = Apple pie and coffee :wink:

 

[LTfit]

Hi LovingKindness,

I posted at the start of your adventure but just want to let you know that 40+ days later I still look forward to every entry. You are so descriptive and the photography is just wonderful!

You're a gutsy lady and I continue to wish you a safe journey.

Send me a PM if I can help in any way when you head down to The Netherlands.

Cheers,
LT

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 44 to 47 Heading south

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

(Days 45-47 cont.) In the Land of Trolls
In the land of the trolls there are inhabitants so kind that they willingly bare the burdens of others mile upon mile, hauling onerous weights through boggy peat and slippery terrain, up rocky inclines, through treacherous wallows into the darkling woods where only a local can find their way and pilgrims are frequently lost. Without bidding they have entered my world, shouldered my pack and for days guided my feet in a sure path, sharing local lore as we go whiling the hours from one ancient gathering place to the next. I have stumbled upon a pilgrim-friendly society and now find myself being passed from one ‘safe house’ to the next.

And it all began back in Oslo in a shady bar in an old part of town near where pilgrims sometimes meet, where a set of instructions and sketchy maps were left for me by a medieval enthusiast. From Tønsberg to Oslo there are a number of very old churches which early pilgrims are said to have walked to on their way north and, rather than take the ferry directly to Denmark, I decided to dally and see for myself. What I didn’t account for were the regional trolls who with great abandon had ripped up stands of trees, dug out roads and disrupted certain lightly marked trails so that, even had I been a fairly capable map reader, which I’m not, I couldn’t have found my way. But here I am, miraculously on track having seen the exquisite interior of Gamle Skoger Kirke and various aspects of Røyken, Bragernes, Botne and Sande kirkes courtesy of others. And now I’m taking a day off, resting in a rustic dwelling with open fire, wooden boards and tongue-and-groove walls, in the light of candles about to eat home-made bread with great dollops of raspberry jam and brown Norwegian Gudbrandsdalsost (1863).

-Lovingkindness

 

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[jl]

How very generous people have been Lovingkindness. You must feel very blessed. Keep posting and safe journey, Janet

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 49 turning leaves
Thanks, Janet. I feel my life has become a tale. Overnight I have aquired an assistant eager to search out the most fascinating historic routes for me to walk and determined that I not sleep in the bushes again. While I'm out in the rain he's busily tracking down pilgrim-friendly accomodation. And now, for the past two days I have had the curious company of an archeologist, a man full of tales and interesting facts about Nordic mythology, vikings, and the Iron Age. As well as knowing local pilgrims' trails he can tell which plants in the forrest are edible and medicinal and at a glance estimate the age of an ancient tree. Lately this camino seems to have gained a mind of its own, to have taken command of me, and instead of daily planning and plotting my course I feel as though I am being lured and enticed into following something hidden, something already established . Perhaps my perception will change once I've left the nordic woods and had the whimsy frozen out of me by the North Sea.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 50 Horton to Tonsberg via Borre National Park

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day 51 Tønsberg

 

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[lovingkindness]

Day 53
The other day I met a man on a curious Way to Jerusalem. He follows a fantastical lamb with a glowing lamp and a tiny little girl. His pilgrims guide is a Norwegian tale which begins in an Oslo toyshop and every year he walks and dreams and has the occasional adventure. It will take him twelve years to get there.

And he sang beautiful prayers with his wife as we sat at table dining on Norwegian balled-meat, potatoes and sauce. And I liked that.

I follow a different guide and another route and am having my own miraculous adventure but with all this fine food and homely care the bones of Saint James have begun to wail -Go South, go south you silly girl, flee the icicles at dawn, rest your heart on my golden robes and don’t forget His call: You are a peregrina and not a pilegrim so stop this hankering north. Living on berries will rot your resolve so head off, go south and go forth.

Tomorrow I set sail from the land of the mighty Vikings and I am sorry.
-Lovingkindness

 

[ksam]

Lovingkindness, thank you! I've spent the better part of an evening looking at this entire thread and going thru your pictures. What a wonderful trip. Please, please...do continue, I'm really looking forward to more. You make me want to get a flight tomorrow and head for Norway! Danke, Karin

 

[Debinq]

Hola Lovingkindness

Seems to me -taking into consideration all that natural beauty and very attractive Norwegian material culture reflected in your photographs - that you had every reason to 'hanker' and stay in the North!

Very much look fwd to seeing more in your forth-coming blog pp. as you head South - you have an extraordinary eye for natural - and 'man-made' exquisiteness - thanks for sharing it

que tenga suerte!

buen camino

Peter

 

[lovingkindness]

Hey, Ksam and Debinq, thanks. -L

Day 53 heading for Larvik from somewhere beyond Tønsberg

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

Day 54 Larvik, my last day in Norway

 

[lovingkindness]

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[Anniesantiago]

I can't wait for "Part Two!"

Beautiful!

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 54 (cont) Leaving Norway

 

[jprogers]

Hi there Lovingkindness

I have so appreciated these photos and reports from your walk and I am enjoying all your writings and photos that are all so beautiful. It is such a lovely country and you have such a talent for capturing it.
Thanks Jill

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 57 The North Sea Trail, Denmark

Hello, there. I am now in Denmark and for the next few days will be walking along The North Sea Trail from Hirtshals, enjoying serenity and the changing sea.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

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