Pinse

May is a wonderful month in Norway its just filled with bank holidays. I therefore find myself sitting outside at 8am, nothing but blue sky, fjord and mountains to look at while childrens TV is playing inside. Good strong coffee is sitting beside me and once again its time to update this blog.

This weekend was especially special. The Friday was 17th of May, a public holiday as was the Monday  In effect its a 4 day weekend, in my opinion we should move more to 4 day weekends there fab.

In many aspects Trondheim is a bit like wales, the weather basically just sucks. Its generally a mixture between rain, snow, cloudy, grey or just down right dismal. But every so often there is a week of truly splendid weather. The last 4 days have been gorgeous with temperatures between 20c and 25c, and nothing but pail blue sky.

17th of May is a special day it the national day and its spent participating or watching children parades, eating ice cream and cake regardless of the weather and generally having a good time. This year we went to Hommelvik to look at the parades and then up to my daughters school to participate in the fun and games. This year was different though this year we had a Morgan! We drove to Hommelvik parked and was immediately set upon by a local reporter that wanted to take photos of the family beside the Morgan. Im really not sure why he wanted the family in the picture when the Morgan was there, its a bit like going to look at the Mona Lisa and then draping half of it in a tea towel but each to his own! Anyway the pictures where published in the paper along with one of me driving.

 

A couple of other picture that i took during the day...

After a long and hot day filled with ice cream the evening was spent lounging on the balcony enjoying the evenings with G&Ts and ice cold sangria.

The weekend was not yet over due to the superb weather we decided to have a picnic on the Sunday down at the local beach which is about less than a kilometer away. Even so blue sky and a Morgan demands a picnic be done in style. Luckily for my 40th birthday i had received a classic picnic hamper from my brother and sister and this was the perfect time to use it.

While everyone was outside i created a master piece that Gordon Ramsey would have been proud of, packed lots of cold drinks and fetched the new leather luggage straps that i had purchased from the Morgan factory visit. It was somewhat of a challenge learning how to use the straps but eventually the picnic hamper was attached and we where ready to go.

Unfortunately since there where 5 of us and our family seem to be incapable of going on a simple picnic without taking everything my wife followed in the electric car with folded chairs, blankets, balls, extra clothes, towels, mother-in-law and of course the kitchen sink. The kids and myself however enjoyed the open top drive in the Morgan




Eventually we arrived at the beach. Beach might be to strong award in the typical sense, its more of a mud/clay clear area with lots of stones. The water is murky and freezing cold however the nature in the area is staggeringly beautiful and the kids enjoy it. The picnic was set out the children disappeared into the water and everyone relaxed with cold drinks, fantastic blisteringly hot weather and some decent nosh.

Strangely the day ended much on the same note as the previous days. Grilled some food on the balcony, drank G&Ts and Sangria and tried not to worry that the concrete post holding the balcony up was actually broken in half, must get that looked at soon.......

Driven At Heart

They say only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. These words are lyrics to a well known song and describe to a lesser extent the eccentricities, courage and spirit of adventure of the English. It certainly describes Driven at Heart team!

Being English myself as well as a geeky engineer i was duly excited when waking up this morning to know that that 5 Morgans traveling from the Morgan Motor company to the North Cape in Norway would be arriving in my home town of Trondheim, Norway. Hurrah!!!

Checking the weather forecast was as usual depressing for mid Norway and i decided the unthinkable would have to occur. The hood would have to go on before venturing out into the Trondheim spring. In total fighting the mohair roof into place took a little less then an hour unfortunately the roof bars could not be put in the proper positions as the damn thing had shrunk to such an extent that even the will of god would have had difficulty getting it into place. Luckily we would be heading to Hell today so divine intervention could still occur.....

At 10am i squeezed myself in to the drivers seat. Getting in and out of the car when weighing 90kgs and being 1.8m is no simple task when the roof is on. You have a small hole to squeeze an over sized butt and stomach through without damaging any paintwork. In short order i was off to stjordal to meet the other Morgan owner in Trondelag, Karl. We had decided to offer a light lunch and coffee to the drivers arriving around midday. We met up and then proceeded to head to the rendovoux point, the highway check point for lorries and heavy good vehicles a little north of Trondheim.

Only 5 to 10 minutes later a magnificent sight greeted the eyes. Five Morgans pulled into the area including a 3 wheeler. The driver of the three wheeler looked suspiciously like the Stigs evil twin decked from top to toe in a black driving suit. Everyone hopped out of cars and good natured greetings where exchanged, the cars looked magnificent however the drivers looked like they needed intravenous caffeine drips . The journey North from England had been long and hard and the previous two nights had not ended until the wee hours of the morning. Only a few hours sleep had been had in the last two days. Despite the need for caffeine everyone seemed in remarkable good humor  In short order everyone squeezed back into the cars and we where off for our first destination, Hell station.

Hell is only really known for 2 things. Firstly is the station and the famous sign "Hell - Gods Expedition . The sign actually means cargo handling but due to the actually Norwegian words having a direct translation into English its always a good spot to park and take a picture. The second is Miss Universe 1990, who marketed herself as the Beauty Queen from Hell and incidentally also was a guest on Star-trek the next generation. Id like to reference the opening paragraph where i paraphrased that i was a geeky engineer at this point. Anyway enough rambling the cars looked fantastic and it was great to have my Morgan next to them.

Next we headed north for 2 kilometers to stjordal. We had obtained permission to park in the main square and had coffee, tea and rolls waiting. We arrived in a storm of engine noise and parked slap bang in the middle of the square causing quite a stir. People immediately converged on all the cars and started taking photographs oggeling them.

Everyone started munching the rolls and consuming coffee. It was great to hear the stories of the drive so far, the Atlantic road, driving over the mountains and fighting with gps systems. Meeting the entire team and having a short chat with each member was a great privilege 

A short time later roofs where removed everyone climbed back in there cars and revved up while stationary. The sound was pretty amazing and knowing Norwegian laws probably illegal.  We were off north and soon we had had lovely long windy roads beside the fjord. The clouds cleared blue sky appeared and the sun shined, a magic experience and the smile plastered on my face was from ear to ear.

After about an hour we pulled in and waved the team off further on there travels. I think we would have liked to travel further north with them but it was not to be and we had to travel back home. In total it was a 200km round trip so an excellent day of driving a remarkable machine.

In. the end there is only one way to finish such a great day, sitting on my balcony over looking the fjord with a cold beer in hand.

To everyone on the Driven at Heart Team it was an honor to meet you, thank-you for letting us share the experience even if it was only for a short time. Karl and i had a wonderful day with magnificent cars !