NORWAY...LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Norway...land of the midnight sun...land of Ibsen and Grieg...land of wild reindeer. But, mostly...land of great fjords.

I had visited Norway back in 1988, when I was on a round-the-world modeling junket for GQ Magazine. I had learned to speak fluent Norwegian, as well as Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic...all related but minutely different...when I was attending the Nassau County School for Boys. Many of the other teenage male models were shocked when I placed a dinner order at a restaurant in Norwegian...but not Petter Nordstrom, who came from Konigsberg, a suburb of Oslo.

In the middle of summer, one of the most shocking sights (if one is not used to it) is seeing the sun just skimming the sky as it "sets" in the west then skirts the horizon to "rise" in the east. This is because the sun never sets during the spring and summer. Also, it never rises during the fall and winter...henceforth, Norway goes through six months of daylight and six months of night.

One of the most beautiful sights is this fjord and lake...one of hundreds throughout Norway. The mountains are always topped with snow and mostly unclimbable. To attempt it without the proper equipment means certain death to even an experienced climber.

The water in Norway is untouched by the outside world, clear and blue. No wonder when Edvard Grieg and Henrik Ibsen left Norway for even so little as one week, they could not wait to return. I'm hoping that, someday, I can return here.

For those who know Norwegian, attending church on Sunday morning is no different than attending it anywhere else in the world. This stave church...so named because it is built with staves of pine from below the ground to the steeple...is one of thousands throughout the countryside. Synagogues can also be seen in Norway, though the Jewish religion is not as common here as it is in other countries in Europe.

Only the most daring person in the world would ever attempt what this young woman is doing. The rock she is standing on is caught between two cliffs almost two miles above the river which empties into the lake seen below it.

I may be daring enough to perform actual martial arts in films or on TV...but I'm no fool!