Anya wasn’t feeling well enough to walk to the bus and travel for 40 minutes to the Stavanger International Church, so we had a bit of a reflection on the names of God for our Sabbath.
I added a nice walk on a beautiful day. There is a cliff nearby, which I see out our southern window. I figured out on Google maps how to get there and explored it. The picture is evidence of my journey and the view and the beauty of the day. Norway has such a love of the outdoors that any unfenced and untended land is open to the public, even for camping for one day! Beyond one day, you need the permission of the land owner.
On my walk, I moved on and explored the park close by with a frozen pond. There is a gym, swimming pool, several football (soccer) pitches (fields), and the Sandnes Stadium, where the professional football club, the Sandnes Ulf, play (http://www.sandnesulf.no/).
We live across the street from three tall apartment buildings which are part of a senior center. So, I ended my walk on the trail around these buildings, going up over a hill on the west side with another great view from the top.
It sounds like half the town left for winter break to go skiing. This is great skiing time, and people are serious about skiing here. After all, they say that Norwegian mothers give birth to babies with skis on! One of my PhD colleagues was mentioning–incredulously–that his nephew’s friend didn’t have skis. It would be like me being incredulous that one of Anya’s teenage friends doesn’t have a cell phone! No wonder this tiny country of 5.1 million has the most Winter Olympic medals than any other nation! (FYI: The population of Washington State is 7 million and the whole USA is over 320 million.)
| WINTER MEDALS | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL | ||
| 1 | Norway | 118 | 111 | 100 | 329 | |
| 2 | United States of America | 96 | 102 | 83 | 281 | |
| 3 | USSR | 78 | 57 | 59 | 194 | |
| 4 | Germany | 76 | 78 | 53 | 207 | |
| 5 | Canada | 62 | 55 | 53 | 170 | |
Source: http://www.olympic.it/english/medal/id_winter.htm
The evening ended with an invitation to walk with Tina’s family over to her mother’s home for sweet buns. Her mother, Randi, is the administrator at the Stavanger Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in Norway, completed in 1150! See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger_Cathedral. Randi is also a gracious host, and the sweet buns were wonderful! This is a tradition on the Sunday before Lent starts, enjoying decadent sweetness before the fasting of lent.
It was a cold walk home with a wicked wind, but I had prepared well, remembering my reflective vest for the dark of night.