Geology trip to Andøya

In September we helped organize and joined a trip to Andøya with Young in Statoil, the Young professional network in Statoil. We went to look at the only outcrops of Jurassic age on the Norwegian mainland if you ignore the fact that Andøya is an island (it is the rocks in the picture that we are standing on). We had a great trip with an overnight stay in Bleik, a BBQ and unfortunately some cold temperatures and rain. But we did see the outcrops, the casing of a well that was drilled on the beach a long time ago and some flowers.

Visitors

    

In summer it was time for visitors again, from the Netherlands, Norway, France and Germany .

With Peter and Sally we walked the longest and highest ti-på-topp, with amazing views and also some snow at the top. With 115 we did the shortest ti-på-topp after a nice evening in town.

Mirjam and Dieuwke we dropped far in the Lofoten on probably the nicest day of the whole summer.

Tim helped cut the neighbours tree into smaller pieces

Marijke en Hans started and ended their Northern-Norway holiday with us.

Gerard, Marie-Odile en Nicolas joined for the Big Moose BBQ

Esther en Ralph dropped by during their trip in Scandinavia.

Kornelius came to visit for the second time, now bringing his brother with him.

It was great to show so many people our beautiful hometown and surroundings. Thank you all for visiting!

Big Moose & Big BBQ

Douglas and Tore came up with the idea to have a big moose and big BBQ party. Over forty guests came to cut up their own piece of elg meat to grill on the bbq.  Eight kilo of elg and 3,5 kilo of chicken combined with a lot of festive spirit and good temperatures made this the best BBQ in Harstad so far this summer.

Festspillene end of June

Festspillene i Nord-Norge is a big cultural happening in Harstad during the summer. The colourful pictures were made in a large inflatable dome at the festival. Of course we also had the midnight sun, which gave some very nice evenings, and our tulips were in bloom.

Paris,

Just back from the USA, we took the Thalys to Paris after a friend got married in the Netherlands (Paris is very close if you are in the Netherlands compared to in Harstad...). We were staying at a friend’s place close to the Sacre Coeur. We stayed away from the tourist stuff and just spent lazy days of walking round the city and eating in small restaurants one dish before having another dish at the next.  A great weekend!

One month in the USA

Douglas and Claartje both went to the US. After Douglas took part in a field course in Utah, Claartje came to Denver for a seventeen days holiday in the USA. After renting a car and buying at tent in Denver we set out visiting several beautiful national and state parks along the way. Among these parks were Rocky mountains National park, NM Colorado national Monument (NM), Arches NM, Escalante Grand Stair Case, Capitol reef,  Zion and Bryce Canyon. We stayed two nights at the Circus Circus hotel and one night at the MGM grand in Las Vegas and spent the days and nights walking the strip and seeing Santana play his magic on a guitar and a great performance of Cirque du Soleil. Done with Vegas we then went on to Hoover Dam, Snow canyon, Grand canyon North Rim, we visited the cave dwellings at Mesa Verde and traveled through mining and Navajo country, up Black Canyon back to Denver. After 28 days in the US Douglas flew back to 'Home sweet Harstad' as Claartje continued for a 7-days geological field course. toped off with a night in New York.  America is amazing!

Weddingpictures in the snow

Two days after the Norwegian wedding party Claartje and Douglas got dressed up again for a majestic photo shoot in the snow in Harstad. The photographer was Rudie van der Meer and he made really great pictures! We are very very pleased with the results! Dank je wel Rudie!