Below Freezing

You have just returned to Sweden from a vacation in the Canary Islands where the temperatures were in the mid-20's (that's 70+ degrees for you Yanks). It's cold. Colder than usual for the West coast of Sweden. The ground is actually frozen. So, where do you go? Well, North, of course. To Norway. To attempt a little skiing. Of course. We've never claimed to be sane. Photos of the trip can be found here.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel in the foothills northwest of Oslo: the Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica. It has some of the best views of Oslo and the surrounding area. And, it had a big fireplace which made TJ happy.

Did I mention that it was cold outside? At one point, it was -18C (which is around 0F). C-C-C-Cold. We observed an interesting cold weather phenomenon that occurred in low-lying areas. The surfaces of all objects, both natural and man-made, were coated with ice crystals.



It was a beautiful thing to see. From the inside of a warm Volvo. Okay, we did get out to see it up close and personal. Very cool. As a side note, as we went to pick up the dogs at the kennel a few days later, we observed the same phenomenon in the areas East of Göteborg. My guess is that a moisture-heavy valley fog or low clouds is responsible. And, I'll believe this until someone tells me otherwise.

Now, our idea was to try and do some skiing. We had read the ski reports which indicated there was snow at the resorts around Oslo. Just not a lot of it. This turned out to be the case. So, we (I) reasoned that cross-country might be a better option than downhill. TJ was a novice. And I had not been on CC skis for over 10 years. Those were our excuses. It was not pretty. Funny, but not as much fun. Unless you call bruise-producing spills fun. The trails were practically ice. Poor TJ did not get a good introduction to cross-country. And, I, well, I apologized a lot. And fell almost as much. Though, we did have some fun sliding down a large snow hill without skis.


We squeezed in a day trip to Lillehammer and then it was back to Göteborg. Where, surprisingly, it was still cold. But, not for long.