The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
History
The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912
Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
Courts and courtiers; Europe -- Social life and customs
Dear L.,--You will wonder why you have not heard from me for such a
long time, but we have just returned from a trip to Norway. You know J.
is accredited there as well as in Sweden, and he has to put in an
occasional appearance, and we thought while he was putting that in we
would put ours in with it. Our party included Nina and Frederick.
For five days we careened over mountains and dales, driving, sailing,
riding Norwegian ponies, and always enjoying ourselves to the utmost.
One who has not seen the Norwegian _fjords_ does not know how beautiful
and picturesque the scenery is. You must come some day and see it for
yourself.
We reached Bergen the 24th of June, the longest day of the year. There
is no question of its being really dark, only between 1 and 2 A.M. you
cannot see to read. It is a lovely time to travel, because you can
travel the whole twenty-four hours.
Bergen is a very pretty town, with clean streets and nice shops. The
jewelry, silver, and fur shops are really quite wonderful, but--there
is always a thorn to every rose--the smell of fish pervades the town.
Go where you will, you cannot escape it. You don't wonder at this when
you visit the fish-markets and see the monsters which are brought out
of the deep every morning. They look like small whales.
Nina and I, with the energy of the American woman who knows what she
wants and knows how to get it, were determined to see Grieg in his
surroundings. We hired a carriage in Bergen and started on our
pilgrimage. It needed not only the energy of an American, but the
tongue of a Dane and the perserverance of Danaides. The Griegs live in
the most unget-at-able place that you can imagine, because he does not
want any one to get at him.
However, after driving for miles and worrying the life out of our
driver by poking him in the back with our umbrellas and asking him if
we had not arrived and when we should arrive, and such useless
questions, our poor tired steed climbed a long hill where the road
suddenly ended its course. We were obliged to leave the carriage and
make the rest of the hill on foot, only to encounter, on arriving at a
gate bearing these large and forbidding letters: "_Her boer Edward
Grieg, som önsker at vaere fri for folk._" ("Here lives Edward Grieg,
who wishes to be let alone.")
But Nina and I were not to be balked by such a trifle as Edward Grieg's
wishes, and with some difficulty we managed to unfasten the hasp of the
wooden gate. We expected to see a dragon or a ferocious bulldog fly at
us, but all was peaceful within, and we walked into the lair without
being molested, and marched boldly to the front door of the villa.
There Mrs. Grieg opened the door to us and was (she said) delighted to
see us. "And," she added, "how happy Grieg will be, too!" This, we
thought, was doubtful, but Grieg pretended to be very "happy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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