Where do we all live?

[Vandraren]

It's amazing to see how many different places people in this group come from! I love that! And how we are all connected by our love for North and South

I am something of a nomad, I come from a very populated area in Germany, but I have not lived there in 14 years. I've moved around in Scandinavia, mainly in the beautiful Skåne (Scania), but for the last two years I've been home in the South of Norway. It's very dramatic and scenic with great opportunities for hiking, but I certainly love deep forests and soft pastures more and hope to return there one day. Here are some pictures from our most popular attraction "Preikestolen" and the city center of Stavanger. It's a windy, rocky sort of place, with mild winters and cool summers. We get very little snow on the coast, even though the inland might have lots and lots of snow during the winter months.

[Forsteriaana30]

So beautiful place. I was in Norway 17 years ago and I liked here very much. I love mountains and there they were so beautiful and amazing. Those scenes which opens up from them and to them...adorable. Thank you for sharing your story and pics from place where you live. It's very nice.

It's amazing to see how many different places people in this group come from! I love that! And how we are all connected by our love for North and South

Yes, I'm still amazed from that. It's incredible from how much places we all come and sharing our love to one novel (and miniseries) which was wrote so many years ago. It's really amazing!

[MyWatchBegins]

Such beautiful scenery, Vandraren!
Thank you for sharing these pictures with us!

[Philipaholt]

Van that is utterly breathtaking.

[Vandraren]

So beautiful place. I was in Norway 17 years ago and I liked here very much. I love mountains and there they were so beautiful and amazing. Those scenes which opens up from them and to them...adorable. Thank you for sharing your story and pics from place where you live. It's very nice.

It's amazing to see how many different places people in this group come from! I love that! And how we are all connected by our love for North and South

Yes, I'm still amazed from that. It's incredible from how much places we all come and sharing our love to one novel (and miniseries) which was wrote so many years ago. It's really amazing!

So cool that you have been to Norway, Fossy (is that what they call you here? I still have to catch up )! Where did you go?

Your town in Latvia looks just wonderful! I would love to see Latvia and also Estonia one day. I imagine it to be quite forested, like in your pictures. I adore deep spruce and pine forests, the way they smell and sound and look. If it were not for my own private Mr. Thornton I would move back to the forests in Sweden tomorrow, but until then I really cannot complain about living where I do

[merry]

Hello Van! How lovely to see your beautiful pictures! It is stunning where you live.

Yes, we call her Fossy most people are 'shortened' , or given a little love-name as I like to call it. It's because I just could not get the letters right in 'Forsteriaana' anyway I think Fossy, or Fozzy for variation, is so cute, just like she is

[Vandraren]

Hello Van! How lovely to see your beautiful pictures! It is stunning where you live.

Yes, we call her Fossy most people are 'shortened' , or given a little love-name as I like to call it. It's because I just could not get the letters right in 'Forsteriaana' anyway I think Fossy, or Fozzy for variation, is so cute, just like she is

Thank you

Fossy actually reminds me of the beautiful movie "Ballet Shoes", where the three adopted girls get the last name "Fossil" for lack of a real name. I think Fossy is a beautiful nick-name! I am still a bit uncertain about Van, but I think I will get used to it It does have a cool ring to it

[Forsteriaana30]

So beautiful place. I was in Norway 17 years ago and I liked here very much. I love mountains and there they were so beautiful and amazing. Those scenes which opens up from them and to them...adorable. Thank you for sharing your story and pics from place where you live. It's very nice.

It's amazing to see how many different places people in this group come from! I love that! And how we are all connected by our love for North and South

Yes, I'm still amazed from that. It's incredible from how much places we all come and sharing our love to one novel (and miniseries) which was wrote so many years ago. It's really amazing!

So cool that you have been to Norway, Fossy (is that what they call you here? I still have to catch up )! Where did you go?

Your town in Latvia looks just wonderful! I would love to see Latvia and also Estonia one day. I imagine it to be quite forested, like in your pictures. I adore deep spruce and pine forests, the way they smell and sound and look. If it were not for my own private Mr. Thornton I would move back to the forests in Sweden tomorrow, but until then I really cannot complain about living where I do

First, yes, it's how they call me and you can call me liek that too. Second, well, it was so long ago that I don't remember anymore, but I remember that I was in Oslo and near to it. Maybe Lillehammer or around it. Yeah, I really don't remember.

Thank you very much for these kind words. It's so nice. Yeah, in Latvia, and in Baltic states at all, we have very much of spruce and pine forests and I love how they smell. It's wonderful. I have in my city Ogre also this forest and when I can I'm going to walk there and enjoy it. You really need to come to Latvia and Estonia too. I was in Estonia too a few times and I liked there very much. Also I was in Sweden too a few times also. Like in Norway, in Sweden also is so beautiful nature and mountains...I loved mountains there. You really lives in very beautiful place, Van!

anyway I think Fossy, or Fozzy for variation, is so cute, just like she is

And I like how you shortened it, merry. I love it very much. Thank you!

Fossy actually reminds me of the beautiful movie "Ballet Shoes", where the three adopted girls get the last name "Fossil" for lack of a real name. I think Fossy is a beautiful nick-name

Oh, I know that movie and actually I liked it. So thank you, Van. I'm really blushing now!

[TRavine]

It's amazing to see how many different places people in this group come from! I love that! And how we are all connected by our love for North and South

I am something of a nomad, I come from a very populated area in Germany, but I have not lived there in 14 years. I've moved around in Scandinavia, mainly in the beautiful Skåne (Scania), but for the last two years I've been home in the South of Norway. It's very dramatic and scenic with great opportunities for hiking, but I certainly love deep forests and soft pastures more and hope to return there one day. Here are some pictures from our most popular attraction "Preikestolen" and the city center of Stavanger. It's a windy, rocky sort of place, with mild winters and cool summers. We get very little snow on the coast, even though the inland might have lots and lots of snow during the winter months.

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Oh, those pictures are stunning, Van! I remember we talked about German being your native language too. That is so nice! Norway is beautiful. I really want to go there sometime. I think the furthest up I've been was Denmark. I bet it gets really cold there in winter. But it's actually one of the top contries I'd move to if, for some reason, I had to leave Austria. Where in Germany did you live? (Only if you want to share).

[OurCreature]

Vandraren, the pictures of the older houses in Stavanger remind me of the houses in the old part of Reykjavík in Iceland - the main difference is that in Iceland nearly all the roofs of the older houses are made of corrugated iron instead of roof tiles.

Here's a picture stolen from Google Streetview of the house where an Icelander first made me welcome in his home more than 50 years ago. The current owner clearly loves the house and is looking after it, though that pic is 10 years old. I'm in Iceland in June so I shall check it out. I'm sure it still has the original front door up the steps outside the house. The house counts as a listed building in Iceland - my friend Oddur used to complain it was like a lump of iron set in a diamond ring because he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do with it.

[Vandraren]

Vandraren, the pictures of the older houses in Stavanger remind me of the houses in the old part of Reykjavík in Iceland - the main difference is that in Iceland nearly all the roofs of the older houses are made of corrugated iron instead of roof tiles.

Here's a picture stolen from Google Streetview of the house where an Icelander first made me welcome in his home more than 50 years ago. The current owner clearly loves the house and is looking after it, though that pic is 10 years old. I'm in Iceland in June so I shall check it out. I'm sure it still has the original front door up the steps outside the house. The house counts as a listed building in Iceland - my friend Oddur used to complain it was like a lump of iron set in a diamond ring because he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do with it.

vesturgata.jpg

OurCreature, that looks stunningly like the houses here in western Norway. I suppose there has been a lot of contact between the countries over time, but I have never been to Iceland and I was not aware that houses looked so similar there I hope you will have a lovely stay there in June and can see the house I wonder why they used iron for their roofing, but there must be a lot of iron in Iceland, if that is what is easily accessible. I realize that I know shockingly little about Iceland

Oh, those pictures are stunning, Van! I remember we talked about German being your native language too. That is so nice! Norway is beautiful. I really want to go there sometime. I think the furthest up I've been was Denmark. I bet it gets really cold there in winter. But it's actually one of the top contries I'd move to if, for some reason, I had to leave Austria. Where in Germany did you live? (Only if you want to share).

Merry, I love Denmark! Especially in the summer <3 In Norway I really recommend Bergen, Hardangerfjorden and Sognefjorden. And Ålesund. Simply stunning! But there are so many beautiful places you could go. Actually we get very little snow in Stavanger, which is the case for a lot of the outer coastal areas in Western Norway. The "warm" water from the gulf stream is the culprit, but luckily it also provides us with some bearable summers, because otherwise it would be really cold over here. Just a few kilometers from the coast, in the mountains, we do get a lot of snow though! Norwegians are crazy about skiing, I prefer to hike Is it like that in Austria too, that the snow comes mainly to the mountainous areas? I have never been to Austria either, but I have an old friend from Vienna, who actually also comes from a few hours away like you. Haven't talked to her in a long time though, so I can't remember where exactly it was she came from. Maybe it was actually Salzburg. Mozart This reminds me, I still have to read your story about the original John Thornton! It has intrigued me for ages, but I haven't gotten around to it for some reason. I will do it today! I am originally from the larger area of Cologne/Köln btw

[Vandraren]

Vandraren, the pictures of the older houses in Stavanger remind me of the houses in the old part of Reykjavík in Iceland - the main difference is that in Iceland nearly all the roofs of the older houses are made of corrugated iron instead of roof tiles.

Here's a picture stolen from Google Streetview of the house where an Icelander first made me welcome in his home more than 50 years ago. The current owner clearly loves the house and is looking after it, though that pic is 10 years old. I'm in Iceland in June so I shall check it out. I'm sure it still has the original front door up the steps outside the house. The house counts as a listed building in Iceland - my friend Oddur used to complain it was like a lump of iron set in a diamond ring because he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do with it.

vesturgata.jpg

Btw, OurCreature! After we talked about Iceland I had to go back and check where you were from, and everybody else too, though I will never manage to remember where everyone is located. So many beautiful places! But I actually was super close to where you live/come from just this Easter. I went to England for the first time in my 33-year-short life, mainly London, but our first destination was the Historic Dockyards in Portsmouth. Not exactly next door, but close enough I wish I could have seen more of the area, I really loved Portsmouth. Would have loved to see Southampton too and the new forest, but we didn't have time, since I absolutely had to go to Alton to see Jane Austen's house What was funny was that we accidentally passed a house there, in the neighbouring village of Holybourne, that apparently used to belong to Elizabeth Gaskell. I later found out that she actually died there. It felt like such a coincidence, that she died such a short distance from where Jane Austen spent the last years of her life. And I certainly counted myself lucky that day to have seen not only one but two houses that had once harboured two of my all time favourite authors

[TRavine]

Yes, in Austria we have most of the snow up in the mountains. In Vienna we rarely get much at all. This past winter we had a bit of snow three times, but it never stayed longer than two or three days.

Where my parents live, in Upper Austria, we get a bit more, but still not as much as in even higher regions.

[OurCreature]

So in the Dockyard, Vandraren, you would have seen HMS Victory in its dry dock. The Mary Rose is in a special shed and I have never seen it, but I have been aboard HMS Victory.

As to the authors, I didn't know about Elizabeth Gaskell and Holybourne. The house where Jane Austen lived in later life is in Chawton, a village not far from Alton; when younger she and her family had lived in the vicarage at Steventon which is SW of a town called Basingstoke in Hampshire. Jane Austen died in Winchester in a house in College Street (literally next door to the public ie private school Winchester College) which is just south of Winchester Cathedral. Here's a picture of the house which I stole from Streetview.

And here is a picture of her tombstone in Winchester Cathedral, not all that far from the font IIRC. Not one word about her books.

[Vandraren]

So in the Dockyard, Vandraren, you would have seen HMS Victory in its dry dock. The Mary Rose is in a special shed and I have never seen it, but I have been aboard HMS Victory.

As to the authors, I didn't know about Elizabeth Gaskell and Holybourne. The vicarage where Jane Austen lived is in Chawton, a village not far from Alton. Jane Austen died in Winchester in a house in College Street (literally next door to the public ie private school Winchester College) which is just south of Winchester Cathedral. Here's a picture of the house which I stole from Streetview.

JA house.jpg

And here is a picture of her tombstone in Winchester Cathedral, not all that far from the font IIRC. Not one word about her books.

JA tombstone.jpg

Exactly, we saw the Victory, the Warrior and the Mary Rose. All of them impressive vessels in their time It was thrilling to go around on the Victory and listen to the stories about Nelson and Trafalgar. What an unimaginably bloody battle that must have been!
Yes, the house in Chawton was the one we visited, such a wonderful place and museum We stayed at the White Hart in Holybourne and walked all the way through Alton to Chawton, that's how we stumbled upon Elizabeth Gaskell's house.

Thank you so much for sharing the pictures! I knew Jane had died in Winchester, but we didn't pass through there unfortunately. It is very sad that circumstances were such that she died and was buried away from all her family, when they clearly had such tight family bonds. Her life in Chawton seemed to have been such a safe haven after the years of upheaval and moving around. Quite heartbreaking really that she died so young. But wonderful that the house is being preserved and open to visitors We found her mother's and sister's graves behind the church:

[Vandraren]

Oh no, the pictures turned themselves upside down

[merry]

Ha! I can fix it or get Pani to

I remember reading in Jane Austen's letters to Cassandra, that as part of her 'treatment' in her final illness, her doctor had prescribed a daily ride on a donkey. Which struck me as very sad. For poor Jane, who died so young and so uncomfortably, AND for the poor old donkey, although the weight limit for donkeys in the UK is 9 stone I believe so no more donkey rides for me which Jane was probably well below.

[Panikos]

Vandraren, I put the images up the right way. This board mostly handles it right, but it sometimes depends on the camera used to take them.

[Vandraren]

Vandraren, I put the images up the right way. This board mostly handles it right, but it sometimes depends on the camera used to take them.

Thank you so much Panikos

[TRavine]

Have some picutres that were taken around my home town in the past couple of years. Just came across them on my hard drive and thought I'd share.