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Author: Hanneke

I started my first blog when I left the Netherlands (my home country) for an internship in Alaska in 2004, to keep my friends and family updated on my adventures over there. Little did I know it would be more than 13 years before I'd move back to the Netherlands! I spent a year in Toulouse (France) before starting a PhD in meteorology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) in 2005. That's when I started this current blog, first in Dutch but I soon switched to English. I really enjoyed life in the UK, and was actually planning to stay there after my PhD, but "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" and I ended up moving to Tromsø in Northern Norway in 2009. Tromsø is a photographer's dream, surrounded by spectacular mountains, with the light ever changing from the midnight sun in summer to the dark days compensated by aurora-filled nights in winter. I learnt Norwegian and got a job as a weather forecaster - I got thrown in at the deep end, doing radio interviews and speaking with fishermen with way-too-strong dialects straight from the beginning, before I was anywhere near fluent in Norwegian :D I survived though, and slowly started to do some research on the side. I got more and more involved in research projects and in August 2015 I moved 2000 km south, to Oslo where I started working 100% as a researcher. A year after moving to Oslo, I met Michiel at a music festival in Brussels :) and we started to travel very frequently between Oslo and Rotterdam, where he lives. You can't do that forever though, and I soon realized I found the perfect "excuse" to finally move back home, something I had been considering many times before. So since July 2017, I'm living in Rotterdam! I'm actually taking some time off before finding a new job, and I'm looking forward to lots of adventures in the near future - so stay tuned!
Bygdøy Sunset

Bygdøy Sunset

Happy 2017! Here’s to lots of love, good health and fun adventures 🙂

I have a lot of photos waiting to be posted, but for now just a series of photos I took today. It was a grey and foggy day, but the clouds were supposed to clear in the afternoon. I took a gamble and cycled to Paradisbukta on Bygdøy in the hope of a nice sunset. I got so much more than I was hoping for – AMAZING colours, and such a beautiful place to watch it from. Enjoy 🙂

Sunset from Bygdøy - this is what it looked like when I arrived

Soon it started to look like this - wow!

I wasn't the only one admiring the sunset

Beautiful colours in all directions

Wow...

I couldn't stop taking photos

And of course in Norway there is always someone having a campfire and grilling sausages!

October in Oslo

October in Oslo

Some photos taken in and around Oslo earier this month, when Michiel was visiting me 🙂

The Royal Palace at sunset…

The Royal Palace at sunset

In front of the palace with Michiel :)

On Saturday we went for a walk in Oslomarka, starting from Tryvannshøgda and ending at Holmenkollen. The weather was beautiful, and there were still some autumn colours left…

Autumn in Marka

Michiel in the forest 🙂

Michiel in the sunshine

At Skjennungen…

Skjennungen

We had a nice break at Skjennungstua with some very tasty cinnemon rolls. After that we continued our walk on “blue paths” (blåstien, hiking paths with blue markers, they don’t follow the dirt roads and are of variable quality 😉 ).

The path, or rather, collection of tree roots ;)

The clouds were quite special that day, and I noticed there was some cloud iridescence – rainbow colours in the clouds.

Cloud iridescence! Although not that visible in this photo...

At first I thought it was just an effect of my sunglasses, but it wasn’t! This zoomed in photo shows it more clearly…

Zoomed in it's easier to see the cloud iridescence!

We walked past Frønsvollen (which I first visited with Marie a year ago, see here). It is such a nice place…

Frønsvollen

Especially with the open views. The mast on the left is Tryvann, where we started our walk.

Frønsvollen panorama, with our starting point (the mast at Tryvann) on the left

My car was parked at Holmenkollen, so we continued down the hill. We took a path which wasn’t even signposted, but suddenly this view over Oslo opened up – fantastic!

Surprise: suddenly we had an amazing view over Oslo

For the last part of the walk we followed the roller skiing trail (yes that’s a thing, and really popular too!).

The view from the roller ski track

We walked past the Holmenkollen Chapel at sunset – so pretty…

The Holmenkollen Chapel at sunset

On Sunday we watched the very orange sunset from the roof of the opera house…

A very orange sunset from the opera house

They are building a lot around the Opera, a new library and the new Munch museum – lots of cranes!

Panorama with a lot of cranes, they are building a huge new library and the new Munch museum here

We also went inside the Opera, I love this building 🙂

Panorama inside the Opera - amazing building!

Great weekend! 🙂

A walk near Fredrikstad

A walk near Fredrikstad

In early August, I visited Marie and Pål in Fredrikstad for a weekend. We planned to go for a long walk on Saturday, but it rained like crazy for much of the day. After a lot of cups of tea the rain finally stopped, and Marie and I went for a walk not far from Fredrikstad.

It started out cloudy, and we thought these views were about as much as we could hope for 😉

Cloudy views at the start of our walk

We found lots of chanterelles in the forest!

Lots of chanterelles!

We both took lots of photos, as usual…

Marie at work

And going for a walk with Marie always means I get some photos of myself 😀

Photo by Marie

The clouds kept clearing, and it actually turned into a very sunny afternoon – how nice!

Sunshine! And slippery rocks...

Nice views down to a boathouse and boat.

Bay & boathouse

We followed the coast, where it was usually easy to walk on the rocks.

Beautiful coastline

The heather was already starting to bloom, so pretty!

Pretty heather

Marie while we took a break for drinks and snacks 🙂

Marie enjoying the views

This way please!

This way please!

You can tell where the wind usually comes from around here…

You can tell where the wind usually comes from around here...

Some of the rocks look like submarines!

Submarine or rock? :)

Beautiful bay, with two sandy beaches nearby.

Beautiful bay

We turned back into the forest from here, past this dreamy cabin…

Dreamy cabin in the forest, straight out of a fairytale...

Through the pretty forest…

Through the pretty forest...

Very pretty views on top of the hill, with bare rock, flowering heather and beautiful trees.

So pretty with all the heather!

Apple trees near a house we passed…

Apple trees

Pretty country road close to where we parked the car.

Country road

What a beautiful walk, especially with the unexpected sunshine! And when we got back, Pål had made homemade pizza, perfect way to end a perfect day 🙂