Welcome to Voss!

The view from our AirBnB
(Martha's photo)

 We woke up to a...very rainy day with low clouds.  This was the view this morning from our AirBnB. We are not in Voss proper but around the mountain in Bavallen. This is a ski community, full of little cabins. In the winter, you can walk out your door and ski. The water you see in the middle is a lake, which feeds a river, and that feeds the big lake in Voss. It is very green, in many shades, and the view is captivating. 

While the kids slept in I gave Sue a quick tour of Voss so that she would be able to find her way around. 

Lilah, Maren, Itsani, Sue in gondola car.
(photo by Martha)

Then it was back to the house, wake the kids (at 11:30AM!) and have brunch. Then out to the gondola! The Voss Gondol was completed in 2019, and goes up to Hanguren; Voss proper sits along one side of this same mountain. The gondola station is next to the train station, so it is very easy for travelers, tourists, and skiers to get up the gondola quickly. Voss sits at just 54 feet above sea level. Hanguren is at 2,690 feet above sea level. One gondola. Think about that. :) The ride up is steep, the view normally magnificent...but the cloud cover was very low. It was raining. You really could not see much.

Playing at the Hanguren Restaurant.
(Sue's photo)

When we arrived at the top we went to check in with the manager. He wasn't there, and the waitstaff told us to just go ahead. So, there came our first show in Norway, with three whole listeners other than staff. Well, you've got to start someplace, right? It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We needed to play together and go through a lot of stuff, and this was seriously low stakes, so we were able to go through many of our tunes. We discovered some that need some work, and we will do that on Tuesday. We made a schedule change for Tuesday - keep reading. 

We sent the kids out to walk, which they wanted to do, and Sue and I stayed at the restaurant to do some planning. 

Gråsiden from Hanguren
(Lilah's photo)

While out, the clouds started to lift, and Lilah got this picture of Gråsiden, the mountain that I wrote a tune about. It is my touchstone! They were gone for about 45 minutes and came back with muddy shoes and big smiles. I call that success! 

Meanwhile, Sue and I decided that it was not a good idea to go to Bergen on Tuesday as the kids were too tired, and we really needed rehearsal time.  We swapped our open day, Saturday, with Tuesday. We would stay in Voss on Tuesday, and on Saturday, when the weather would be better as well, we would go to Bergen. 

The view going down on the gondola. 
(Maren's photo)

As we left, the clouds lifted quite a bit. Maren got a great shot from the gondola as we went down. You can see the lake, the left end of Gråsiden, but the town of Voss lies over the edge and down below. Remember, we gained 2000 feet. It is a very steep gondola once you go over that edge you can see. 

On the way down the clouds came away even more from the top of Gråsiden, 

On the way down there was a nifty view of the mountain, whith it and clouds reflected in the lake below. It was so beautiful! 

Gråsiden and clouds reflected. 
(Martha's photo)

We decided that because we were a) very tired and b) changed which day we were going to Bergen and c) we still had a lesson with Arne Anderdal to go, we would go out to dinner. So, we went out to Peppe's for pizza. 

Lilah takes her turn being Farkle-icious. (Martha's photo)

 

 

Peppe's has good pizza, that is for sure, and you can get any pie in a gluten free version. But, the service is always cheerful but very slow. Very. Slow. So what do you do while waiting? Well, we thought the answer was to play Farkle. So out came the dice tray and the dice, and off we went. Here Lilah is taking her turn. But really, the star of the show was Sue. She has incredible luck with dice! 

Dinner finally came, and then we went over to the Academy to meet Arne. As always, it was a joy to see him. I love hearing him play, and watching him teach. I learn a lot from that. 

The kids chose a Vestlandspringar first.  It was peppy, but not too note heavy, easy to grab and to keep. We also played some "Arne tunes" (things I learned from him and taught my students) together, and that was fun. He was really happy to hear them, and that makes me happy! We started on a rull too, and will likely finish that in our next session with Arne. 

Time to head back to the house, brush teeth, wash faces, and hit the sack! We are still all exhausted. 

- Martha