Cold and beautiful

We have had great weather the last two weeks, cold but sunny (yes, the sun returned some time ago). We are outside every day walking, skiing and sledging.

We found some moose traces in the snow and ploughed trough kneedeep snow around a lake. Lots of fun! 

There were also beautiful northernlights above Harstad at several nights!
Unfortunately at the moment is it warmer and raining, so all the snow is dissapearing...should be back next week though!

Love,

Douglas & Claartje

Having fun in the snow.

New snow, lots of fun and nice views!

Love Claartje & Douglas

Kuwait!

Kuwait Towers

View from one of the Kuwait towers





Watertowers



always wear your seatbelt!

 

Kuwait freedom tower and a very old mosque

Douglas on a camel

Camel farm on Failaka Island


Bullet holes in the bank on Failaka Island

Camel races, not people but robots on top of the camels!

After 6 months in Norway it was time for a holiday. A trip to the sun, a trip to Kuwait.

In Kuwait we saw a lot of things. We visited the Kuwait Towers, the Grand Mosque of Kuwait, drove along Arabian Gulf Drive, took the boot to Failaka Island, went to the Camel races and we toured around Kuwait University, the Avenues and the old souk. Douglas also took a ride on a camel at the camel farm on Failaka Island. It was a great week, thank you Brian for being our tourguide!

Now we are back again in cold Norway. Good to be home again!

love,

Claartje & Douglas

Snowscooter racing

With the darkness nearly over and the sun coming just over the horizon it just gives us a couple of spars hours of sunlight. So it’s time to have some fun and go out and about and have a look at the spectacular snow landscape and the magnificent ice waterfalls. A friend visited us in Harstad and we went Snowscooter racing on a local island. He even got to see the northern lights.

God Jul/Merry Christmas/Zalig kerstfeest

Our first Christmas in Norway is very nice and relaxed. We have a small christmas tree (a living one, strange Dutch people that we are!), with homemade cookies in it! Enjoyed a great meal yesterday, went skiing this afternoon and will have another good meal tonight.
Hope you all have a great Christmas too!

Love,

Claartje & Douglas



Mørketid/julebord/santa lucia

Christmas started here at the first sunday of Advent with lighting the lights in the tree in the city center and gløgg (kind of gluhwein) for everyone in the office. At the 4th of december we had our Julebord (christmasdinner) from Statoil. It was great fun, with nice traditional norwegian christmasfood, a pepperkake hus, a lot of dancing and a small afterparty in town.



Afterparty in the Metzo!



To get even more in the Christmas mood Claartje joined the 'Juledekorasjonskurs' of Statoil and made a nice christmas decoration. I only made one of these three actually, but it was fun!

Our sledges have arrived and fit into our car perfectly. We have found a nice long path going down, where we can sledge really fast! We just have to look out for all the cross-country skiers (langlaufers) on the same path...

The mørketid has started a couple of weeks ago, so the sun does not show above the horizon At the start there as not much difference at all, but by now it is really dark most time of the day.There is however a very special light for a long time each day, where dawn and dusk flow into each other. The snow does help to make it all more light in general. This picture is taken at about 1 in the afternoon.



At the 13th of December Santa Lucia (girl with the crown of candles) is celebrated here in Norway. Children from the local kindergarten came to the office to perform a song for us...very cute!


Love Claartje & Douglas

Last of the sun.

       

At the end of November it was cold but still we decided to go outside and enjoy the snow and the last of the sun. We have walked up the Gansås toppen on saturday and the Samaåsen on sunday, enjoying the views of the sun as it just is touching above the southern horizon.

Northern Lights!

Last Sunday, when Douglas was in the Netherlands, there were very nice Northern lights in the skies above Harstad. I made a lot of pictures, here is a selection of the ones where the camera has not been moved too much...Douglas brought me back a tripod, so from now on all pictures should be ok!


It is really nice to look at the beautiful lights in the skies. The only disadvantage is that it is very cold when they appear (clear skies = cold night!).

Love,

Claartje