Voss wind tunnel and other adventures

Enjoyed a leisurely start to the morning and after breakfast we decided to brave the cold and have a walk into the centre of Voss. We didn’t end up heading off until about 11am – it was -11 degrees at this time! The walk down the hill into town was very bracing and we had to watch out for slippery patches of ice – as Lauren discovered when she took a tumble at one point – but landed on her bottom in the snow so wasn’t injured. It felt even colder once we got into town so we had a walk along the main street and then went into a shop of outdoor clothing and ski gear to warm up. I bought some wool socks for the girls and I, as we are struggling with cold feet – our boots are obviously not as warm as Ian’s and even with 2 pairs

of socks our feet are still getting really cold. If nothing else they will be a souvenir of Norway for us. Thought about getting some better gloves as well but decided we would wait and see if we still needed better once we get to Amsterdam – if it is not so cold there then our current gloves will suffice. Once we had sensation back in our hands and feet we headed out into the cold once more. Had a look around a local art gallery and then went into a gorgeous little café for lunch. The food was as delicious as the building was quaint and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Silje met us there about 1pm and we sat and had a hot drink and dessert before heading off again.
Next stop was the supermarket for some Norwegian chocolate – which is apparently really good – and the liquor shop for more wine. In Norway you can buy anything that is less than 4.7% alcohol – beer - in the supermarket but anything stronger than this – wine, spirits and higher alcohol beer – must be bought from the liquor store.

Headed home to change clothes because we were then going to the Voss wind tunnel to have a go at indoor skydiving. This was heaps of fun. It took a little bit to get the hang of how to position your body in the wind tunnel but the instructor Trude was excellent and by our second go we all had got the hang of it and managed some reasonable flying without Trude needing to hang onto us. At one point I went quite high up into the tunnel and was starting to wonder how I would come down but as soon as I thought this I changed my arm and leg position and down I floated.

Back home Ian and Edward decided to have a go on the PlayStation together while the girls relaxed. I went out with Silje and her mum to watch Maddie’s music class perform their end of year show case of solo’s and duos. Maddie played her sax in a duet with her teacher and a trio with 2 other students and did an excellent job. Mark arrived home from work soon after we got back from the music performance and we settled into a night at home – lasagne for dinner and lots of laughs together.