NORWAY
Sunday , October 30, 2011
Time to pack up and leave our beautiful Hotel Victoria.
In The Moment
Morten and Solveig decided to take us out to a special seafood restaurant on our way to our Sunday venue in Grimstad.
Our Special Restaurant
A Table Set for Four
A Happy Couple
Another Happy Couple
Delicious Lunch
Delicious Dessert
We arrived early at the venue and enjoyed some great Norwegian coffee.
Coffee Bar
It was a low key evening, and a wonderful ending to our tour.
Old Friends
They all wanted to hear one more song, so I sang them one of my favorite songs, “Callin’ Me Home”.
Callin’ Me Home
Then it was off to our hotel, hug Morten and Solveig, and do our final repack for our flight back home.
Kragero - Saturday, October 29, 2011
Slept in till 9 a.m. grabbed a quick breakfast from the buffet, and then it was time to go walkabout the city of Kragero. Our time in Kragero was coming to an end. We had nothing to do all day so we walked around town taking pictures until Morten came to meet us and walked us up to his house for lunch. Solveig had prepared a beautiful Norwegian salmon meal for us, but all too soon it was time to drive to the venue, which was all of three minutes from our hotel. Pictures tell a thousand words so here are the photos of our day. They'll tell the story.
A Sunny Day in Norway
Going Walkabout
Walk about in Kragero
Corner Shops
Harbor View
Hardy Norwegian Roses
Narrow Streets
Norwegian Wuthering Heights
Kragero Architecture
Kragero Houses
Kragero Boats
Kragero Tranquility
Walking to Morten's
We're Nearly There
Lunch is Ready
So Where Do You Want Me to Sit
Sound check
Set that sound
18 Candles
Early Comers
Starting to Fill Up
Full to Overflowing
Introductions
Doing What He Does Best
We are stardust, we are golden
Our Hotel Lobby
Friday, October 28, 2011
It’s a slow rainy day. We’ll be leaving around 4 p.m. for a two hour drive to Kristiansand where I’m performing in a club. The show starts at 9 p.m. so it’s going to be another early a.m. arrival back in our hotel.
Morten and Solveig picked us up at 4 p.m. We stopped along the way for a late lunch/early dinner and arrived at the club around 7 p.m.
The Club
Our soundman had everything ready for me so it only took about ten minutes to dial in,
Dialled In
while Mari set up her little store.
The Little Store
I ducked into the dressing room while the people started pouring in off the street.
Dressing Room Backstage
People People Everywhere
Morten & Solveig
Show started right on time and I walked out on stage filled with mixed feelings about the evening. The club normally has punk rock, heavy metal rock n roll bands, and here I was, just me and my acoustic guitar, but right from the first song, the audience climbed on board for the ride and what a night we had!
Rapt Audience
After the show it was all hugs and handshakes, while we all shared a few brief moments trying to squeeze as much relationship as possible before we had to leave for our two hour drive home.
Afterglow
It was an overcast evening but no rain so we had dry roads all the way home. I thought I would go to sleep, but I was so energized by the show that I stayed awake and was part of the conversation that went on mostly between Solveig, who was driving and Mari, who was sitting next to me in the back seat. Occasionally Morten and I would get a word in edge-wise, but not very often.
Got back to our hotel at 2 a.m. and spent nearly two more hours answering emails before we collapsed into bed. What a wonderful day!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Today is a day off and this evening we’ll be celebrating Morten’s 50th birthday.
Mari and I took a little walk around town.
Walk around town
Guess Who?
Of course, she had to find something for our grannies as Makielah’s 12th birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks,
Mari’s Shop
so I sat on a bench in the plaza and how incredible to see people out and about bumping into friends, standing and talking and then someone else will come along and join them in their conversation. Here in Kragero people seem to have all the time in the world. They love to laugh and share their lives with each other.
Morten picked us up around 4 o’clock in the afternoon and took us to a meeting place where cars started showing up, full of people.
People Everywhere
Then with about 15 cars in tow, off we went to a secret place. About half way there, we pulled off the road for a moment to a parking area where another 15 cars were waiting. Everybody was honking at each other and waving. We just rolled on through and they joined the line. Our first stop was a little roadside cabin that looked like it was closed for the winter,
Roadside Cabin
but they did a special snack for us all – 80 strong – of foot long Norwegian wieners wrapped in hot dog buns or potato tortillas. You could choose between mustard or ketchup. I chose mustard.
Norwegian Wieners
They had a firepit outside where we stood around eating our Norwegian hotdogs and drinking cold apple cider.
Firepit
They told us not to each much because this was just a snack. The main meal was coming.
Back in the cars, we drove, drove and drove some more. I thought, “How funny is this? “ Every day we spend hours on the road driving from one concert venue to another and here we are on our evening off spending hours driving, driving, driving to some secret place out in the woods. We left the blacktop highway and hit a dirt road for about two miles. By now it was dusk and everyone had their headlights on. We were in the lead car with Morten and his wife Solveig.
Suddenly we arrived at Gunnar’s Verksted Cinema Fantasia www.cinema-fantasia.no
Gunnar’s
Gunnar is a true industrial artist.
Industrial Art
He has acres filled with the most wonderful machines all put together in such a way as to create industrial art.
A Mushroom?
I could have spent days looking at what he has gathered – everything from granite mining and cutting tools with huge slabs of granite just sitting around waiting to be sliced, airplanes, tractors, motorcycles, computers, typewriters – old and new, stacks of old televisions and old radios, magazines from the sixties, gears, transmissions, lathes and drill presses, shelves and shelves full of miscellaneous items that all somehow seem to make sense in this industrial art gallery. We commented that if an extra-terrestrial ship ever landed on earth, they should land here at Gunnar’s Gallery. They would need to go no further to learn everything they need to know about humanity.
After a 25 minute cinema show in a room that tilted and moved in such a way as to enhance what you were seeing on the screen,
Cinema Show
and an excursion through acres of art,
Our Excursion Transport
Inside our Transport
Preparing For Our Art Walk
Walking Through Acres of Art
we wound up in a huge teepee type dining room with a fire pit in the middle,
Teepee Dining room
where we had our dinner – roast beef, au gratin potatoes, delicious fresh green salad with olives, red onions and tomatoes.
Delicious Dinner
Everyone was laughing, singing, line dancing, and giving speeches about Morten, our birthday boy, who turned 50 that evening at midnight.
Speeches
The Birthday Boy
Songs for Morten
Songs with Morten
Songs with Morten and Solveig
The evening ended in a great display of Gunnar’s photography projected on an outdoor water spray fountain. How beautiful to see images unfolding in the mist of water spray – very ethereal.
Ethereal Mist
Got back to our room at 1 a.m. totally frizzing with joy and goodness from all the love and friendship we had experienced. You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of friends they have. Morten and his wife are two very loving and loved people.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
We had a two and a half hour drive ahead of us to Langesund, but before we left town we stopped by a national radio station where I had the greatest time talking with Janne Ateigen on NRK Sorlandet radio promoting the next four shows.
Janne
Dag & Morten Waiting
Getting Set Up
Tell ‘Em All About it Barry
Then off we went into a rainy day where once again I slept nearly the whole way.
Rainy Day
Svein, our host for Langesund, met us for an early dinner and then took us to his home where Mari and I both crashed for about an hour of good sound sleep waking up just in time for a cup of coffee and the most delicious piece of homemade cheesecake we’ve EVER experienced.
Then it was show time once again, so off we went to the venue. This was another church building with an excellent sound system. They had rearranged all the chairs bringing in little round tables, with a burning candle on each one.
Little Candles
Great Venue
Home Again
I felt like I was singing at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena. The place packed out and what a fun evening we had.
Langesund Wild Life
After the show we had a lovely snack with the staff, then it was another 40 minute drive up to Kragero on a dark rainy night on wet, windy roads to our Hotel Victoria that we’ll be using as a base for the next four days.
Hotel Victoria
As we’re typing this blog, we can hear the seagulls just outside the rail of our balcony working the morning tide.
Our Balcony View
Barry on our Balcony
Tuesday, 25th October, 2011
After a hot shower, a shave, clean clothes and a wonderful buffet breakfast, we were feeling pretty good. Our host, Morten met us in the lobby at 10.45 a.m. and off we went to the train station for a three hour train ride to Algard.
Kristiansand Train Station Outside
Kristiansand Train Station Inside
What a train ride it was. It was whisper quiet.
Tickets Please
Welcome Aboard
The chairs were like lazyboys.
The lazy boys
The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We rolled right out of the overcast cloudy weather into beautiful sunshiny blue skies.
Cloudy overcast
More cloudy overcast
Still cloudy
Grey day, grey grey
All the leaves are gone
Here comes the sun
Yep, here comes the sun
It’s All Right
Our Algard sponsor, Ole picked us up at the station,
The three boys
and took us to his home where his wife, Malfrid and son, Andreas were waiting with a most delicious meal.
Our Algard Family (Ole & Family)
Then I went down for another nap getting myself ready for the show that night.
The venue was a beautiful wooden Baptist church, which is used for civic events because the acoustics there are the best in the city. Quick sound check and a cup of coffee and people started filling up the room.
Beautiful Venue
I told my stories and sang my songs straight through for almost two hours and they called me back for one more song.
One More Song
No-one wanted to leave. We hung around for another hour just talking with folks about the music , sharing the adventure of our lives, them with us and us with them.
Hanging out
Then it was off to the train station for another three hour, whisper quiet train ride back to Kristiansand.
1.30 a.m. Kristiansand Station
Our ride “home”
It was 2 a.m. by the time we walked into our rooms, but we were so energized by the evening, the show and the people, that we couldn’t go to sleep so we got into our email and before we knew it, it was 5 a.m. when we finally turned off the light. Problem was, we had a 9 a.m. wake up call.
Sunday 23rd, October, 2011
The flight to Amsterdam was long and wonderfully boring, just the way we like flights to be. No excitement please when you’re six miles high.
Boring Flight
By the time we arrived in Amsterdam (9 hours ahead of California), it was already Monday morning.
Schiphol Airport
The four hours at Schiphol went by in a flash as we sat at the gate dozing off, waking up and then dozing off again.
Boring
Before we knew it we were on the flight to Kristiansand, Norway. I don’t know about Mari but I was asleep before we got off the ground and didn’t wake up until the wheels hit the runway.
We didn’t have any Norwegian money and there was no place to exchange our US currency. We asked everyone working there at the airport and they had no advice for us. We thought, “Well, how are we going to get to town.” When out of the blue, a tall, wonderful man and a beautiful lady stepped out of the crowd. He shook my hand and put his arm around my shoulder and said with his Norwegian accent, “Barry McGuire?” I knew we were saved. I gave him such a hug, “Thank you, thank you.” “We’ve come to pick you up,” he said. He introduced himself as Dag and his driving companion Berit.
They took us straight to our hotel where we checked in and crashed.
27 hours later
Where’s my room?
It was 3 p.m. when my head hit the pillow and I slept for a solid 15 hours until 6 a.m. Before Mari went down, she reorganized everything in our suitcases, got her cd store sorted out in a roll-on suitcase, then she went unconscious for 14 hours.
Previous days
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the past 18 months tours
