Halden, Norway

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Here we are home in Norway.  Halden is a fine little city with much to offer in the southern part of the country.  In addition, we have easy access to Sweden to shop for food and other things at European prices!

We in Halden are very proud of Fredriksten Fort since 1666.

Fredriksten

Hjelmkollen

We live in a block of 38 apartments.  Our apartment has 3 rooms plus kitchen, and they are big and pleasant.  As I am writing this, they are building  new and bigger balconies for each apartment which are enclosed by glass sliding windows.  It will be like an extra room most of the year except winter when it gets too cold outside.  I think that mom and dad are happy that they will be finished in April 2007.

Although we live in the city, we have forests and fields right outside the door!  It is very nice from my viewpoint.  All the other dogs leave messages /telegrams for me outside which I can read (smell) whenever mom or dad takes me for a walk.  We also meet many other dogs in person; some I like, but there are others which I avoid.  I am a little too old to play with them!

We don’t live in the middle of the city.  It takes us about 20 minutes to walk down to the harbor.  At least that is how long it takes dad and I to walk there!

Dad likes to go to the 'REKEKAFE' (shrimp cafe) during the summer.  To sit by the boats and have a cold beer and chat with some folks who are fishermen and have been out to sea, like dad’s life in the past.  I also think it is very cosy there.  The people who work there always bring water for me to drink, and I always find some good left-over food under the tables.  Mom enjoys herself there with shrimp and mostly coffee since she drives the car there and obeys the rules! (not to drink and drive)  Before, they also had a cat there which I enjoyed chasing around, but now it seems to have moved.  I miss it.

Another place I also like that mom and dad take me to is a little café up by the fort.  There I usually get to eat a waffle or some cake!  I can also run all around on the beautiful grass lawn and chase crows and ducks!

Around Halden there are many fine places to visit for fishing or just to take a walk.  Mom has a lot of places she likes to go to find mushrooms in the autumn, and I love that because I get to run in the forest .  Maybe she should teach me how to find the special “kantarell” mushrooms that she likes.  Up til now it is only dad who helps her. Mom has already taught him, why not me too!

Think - In the summer they bought a tent and other camping equipment and took me with them to camp out in Setskog.  It was very beautiful there and we had the tent pitched right down next to the waters edge (a lake).  Dad fished and fished, but the only thing he caught was a very small pike (about 10 cm!)

When we tried to go to sleep, there were some young kids who thought it was fun to throw pine cones at our tent.  They kept us from sleeping for quite awhile.  I laid inside mom’s sleeping bag and was afraid to bark and act tough.  They eventually stopped, and we finally got to sleep very late. I think there will probably be more trips next summer.

Dad has tried fishing in many places around Halden - but there haven’t been very many fish dinners for us yet!  The best was when dad caught a beautiful trout (about 30cm) and mom smoked it in a little oven especially made for that.  It tasted so good to them that I didn’t even get one bite for me!