Is it what you drink or where you drink it on #beersaturday ?

The family and I have spent the post-Christmas/New Year period on holiday in Norway and I couldn’t recommend it enough as a place to visit.

A couple of drinking facts about Norway. Firstly, you can’t buy any alcohol stronger than 5% at the supermarket so that pretty much limits you to beer and alco-pops with your general shopping. Secondly, lots of smaller businesses including bars and liquor stores where you can get a more eclectic variety of beverages remain closed across the holiday period. Therefore, if you’re coming to Norway at this time of year, you’re largely stuck with supermarket lager and pilsner.

It’s not bad beer but it’s fairly limited in its taste and body. What makes it quaffable is the fact that after a day of walking, skiing and general sightseeing you feel that you’ve definitely earned a couple of cold ones and what better place to enjoy them than the jacuzzi back at our cabin.

It’s about minus 10 degrees Celsius outside but a lovely 39C in the Jacuzzi. The only challenge is making the 3 metre dash across the icy ground from the back door and of course making sure you’ve got everything you’ll need for the next hour or so (including sufficient beers) because you’re not gonna want to get out!

The good news is that there’s no problem keeping your 2nd beer cold! At this time of year the jacuzzi comes with its own natural freezer within grabbing distance.

In fact anything, including my wet hair, is liable to freeze solid if left out of the warmth for too long so I’m forced to drink up quick and take the occasional plung under water to defrost the top of my head.

The jacuzzi comes with Bluetooth speakers but I’m happy to just sit and look at the valley below while sipping my ice cold Hansa Pilsner.

You can see from the pictures above that it’s late afternoon and the winter sun, low in the sky, is kissing the tops of the surrounding peaks, turning them into gold. It’s a magical time and place and I spend just over an hour in the water until the sun goes down.

I head back into the cabin to cook dinner (we’re having shepherds pie) and enjoy a couple more beers. Is there anything better than having a drink while you’re preparing food?

As I’m frying up the mince, I hear an excited call from the Mrs and head over to the balcony. The sky is now pitch black, save for a few stars and the first signs of the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.

Over the next couple of hours we watch as the strength and vividness of the aurora grows.You can organise a lot of your trip in advance but with things like this it’s just pure good fortune to get the right solar conditions and a clear night.

I’d love to come back here in the summer to see the landscape transformed and to be able to sample a few more of the local beers as my understanding is that the Norwegians love a micro brewery too!

All images used are my own.