Teddy's Travels

Hi Kids,
I hope you had a great summer. Mine was super. Miss Elaine and I went traveling. You can tell from the picture -- I went to Norway. And that's a troll holding me. If you've seen the movie Frozen, you know about trolls.
We went to Norway on a ship. Here's a picture of the Captain showing us a picture of the ship.

We sailed up the coast of Norway, stopping several times along the way.

This is a picture of Elsa and Anna's home from the movie. I was told that the Disney artists used Akershus Fortress as a model for the castle. When we docked in Oslo, the capital of Norway, we could see the Fortress from our ship. I didn't think it looked very much like Arendale -- not enough towers. But it was still pretty impressive.

We took a bus to the Norwegian Folk Museum. One hundred and fifty old buildings from all over Norway have been brought here so people can see the way Norwegians used to live -- and dress.

These girls are dressed in traditional Norwegian costumes. They sang and danced for us -- and posed for a picture with me!

These buildings are over 300 years old. Do you notice something funny about the roofs? They have grass growing on them. Today some modern buildings are going back to that tradition. The sod provides good insulation -- it keeps heat in in the winter and out in the summer!

This church is called a stave church. It's over 800 years old. It's made completely of wood. Once there were over 1000 stave churches in Norway. Now there are only 28. What do you think could have happened to them?
Now churches in Norway look like churches in America. Some of them are very modern. Others, like this one in Kristiansand are more traditional. It's only 133 years old.

Many parts of the Norwegian coast are very mountainous with the sea filling up valleys close to the shore. These watery inlets are called fjords -- fee-ords.
We sailed into one of the fjords and docked so we could go up into the mountains. Norway has many impressive waterfalls. How many waterfalls do you see in this picture?

Back on the ship, I found a friend. His boy was from Belgium and didn't speak English so Miss Elaine couldn't talk to him. But he liked me and so did his lion!

We had fun on the ship. We loved the music and movies and great food. And every night when we went back to our room, our beds were turned down and a piece of chocolate was on each pillow. But, most fun of all, the room stewards made animals out of the towels. Every night we had a different one. One night it was a swan. Another night it was an elephant. But the last night on the ship was the best!

Everyone was very friendly. The Captain let me come up to the bridge -- where all the ship's controls are. What a great trip! His name is Captain Sybe de Boer and he did a very good job. Piloting a ship as big as a hotel can't be easy!