Lofoten

Norge

Lappland

Tromsø

Utakleiv

Å

One Saturday afternoon we drove down to Å and back. Å is at the tip of the Lofoten islands, where the highway E10 ends.

At the beach in Ramberg

Who would have thought that you would see jellyfish this far north?? Clearly I'm not a marine biologist :)

These are the racks that they dry all their fish on. Imagine the sweet smell :D

This is at the parking lot at the end of E10, in Å, more technically Å i Lofoten. Far in the distance you can see Varøy, a small island continuing the chain of islands.

We stopped for a picnic supper in Reine on the way back

excursions

Leknes Maranatha project

At the end of July our family and a group of Finns drove up to Leknes, in the Norwegian Lofoten Islands, to work on an SDA church. In this picture we're stopped for lunch in Sweden along the Torneträsk (Tornio lake).

This is my family crossing the Arctic Circle, somewhere in the wildernesses of northern Sweden.

Every morning Rauno came in and cooked porridge for us. I helped in the kitchen crew, where we washed the dishes and prepared all the food. Lunch was taken out to the work site to save time.

We stayed at the Opdøl school, about 5 km out of Leknes. From our windows we could see a lake and mountains on the other side. One of the mountains is Himmeltind, that has a radar at the top that kept turning round and round, glinting off the sun.

While waiting for their church to be finished the congregation met in different places. We met with them in the gym of the school we stayed at. One Sabbath we had potluck with all kinds of delicious foods. The dessert table was heavenly! The church members were all very warm and friendly. Laura and I decided we could move to Leknes, even if just for the music :)

This is Alf with one of their cows. They lived nearby and Laura and I went over to see his newborn calves.

One afternoon as we were cleaning up from lunch I asked Laura to throw me the car keys. She had great aim :) and the keys landed right in the middle of a pot of pea soup...

The outside of the Opdøl skole was a piece of art done by a local. These at first sight were big white Shire horses in a line, but on a closer look we also found a silhouetted line of people heading the other way. It was interesting.

This is a view of Leknes from up on the side of Himmeltind.

The church building on the first day. Our main goal was to do the roofing. The women also painted boards and cleaned up in the yard. Larry worked on the tower and most of the men were on the roof.

The view from up on the roof.

The grade of the roof was rather steep, but it was fun to climb around on.

That's me! down on the right, helping lift the sheet of roofing.

On the last day they worked all day and finished this whole side of roofing in a great effort. The last sheet we had to leave for the norwegians, because it required more work and the sun was already setting on us.

Here is our group (give or take a few)

...vroom

The country of Germany is rather well equipped with cars.. I couldn't help but admire all the new and good-looking ones that I saw. I also liked the roads, or more specifically the driving speed. Driving to Düsseldorf we averaged between 160-190 kph the whole way on the Autobahn.

This one (above) I thought was cool, because the finish is a matte.

Tanya's new bfriend ;)

This was a pretty individual.. We had to laugh at it though.. Someone had left a note on the drivers window saying "Did you also pay for two parking places??" I guess if you have a cool enough car and are a foreigner you park however you please.

horsepower

I loved this sign :) It says "Only for women" and the spots are one and a half times larger than normal parking places :) Very appropriate..

Düsseldorf

We went up in the Rheinturm where you could look out over Düsseldorf and the surrounding areas.

That was the Kirmes area that we were at the previous night. The river is the Rhein.

Even though I knew it was thick glass and safe, I was freaked out when I leaned against it for this picture. Distance to the ground from there would have been about 170m.

The riverside walk along the Rhein.

We ran into this parade and watched it go by. Never figured out what it was for. But it was looong.

Pretty horses

The real crocs!

heh... I found a dunkin donuts (which we don't have in Finland) and got 6 donuts, all different flavors. I think I finished the equivalent of 5 :) mmm... it was good.

Old Düsseldorf

Kirmes

Saturday night we drove out to Düsseldorf and walked around for awhile.

That night was opening night for the Kirmes, I don't know what they're called in English, we call it a tivoli. Anyways it's a big traveling system of rides and booths that comes every year to this place along the Rhein river.

The place was packed. Thousands and thousands of people crowding along the streets of this place.

Adam and I waited in line for almost 45 min for this ride, but I think it was worth it! It swings you up and around and you're never sure which way is up or down.

Gruga Park

This was a pretty park in Essen filled with all kinds of flowers and pathways.

This reminded me of the short video of that old guy playing chess by himself.

Tanya's new friend

You wouldn't believe all the roses in this place! Everywhere you looked there were some.

Deutschland

At the beginning of July I spent a week at Tatjana's house in Essen

The cool lighting in the metro station of Essen Hauptbahnhof

Eating a döner kebab in Köln. Mine had a bit too much spice in it and I couldn't finish it. Later we had one without the meat and spices and it was very good.

Kölner Dom, the big cathedral in Köln. It's the second tallest church in the world and took over 600 years to complete!

We visited the Krupp manor.

This is the Schloss Benrath where we walked through the gardens

FinEst Camp

Alina and I went to a Finland-Estonia Pathfinder camp in Sulbi, Estonia. Sulbi is located between Võru and Tartu in southern Estonia.

If Ronito is the cutest young man, this little lady on the left definitely is the cutest girl. Her name is Jessica and she is six years old and has the widest smile I've ever seen (except for maybe Cameron Diaz).

Alina searching for a scripture during the Bible sword drill.

The sauna cabin on an island in the middle of the little "jõgi jõgi jõgi..."

Noora tackling the ropes course

Lembit Uuk and his mother, who live nearby. I have been to their house when I was about 8 years old :)