This is a Teslar, one of the most best but relatively common electric cars in Norway at the moment.   This relatively unheard of car brand has only really taken off in recent years.

I was actually quite amazed how Norway has so many different electric cars driving around, that pure electric vehicles make up 13% of new car sales now.   I saw Nissan Leafs, Renault Zoes, VW e-Up and e-Golfs, and outside a government office there were two Peugeot Partner vans plugged into a street mounted charger point.   I used to drive a diesel version of this vehicle in my last work place and I never knew an electric version existed.

In Israel they had a good go at selling a electric vehicle using the Renault Fluence ZE model (which is a saloon version of the Megane mk III)  but the company who ran the system “Better Place” eventually went bankrupt and Israeli motorists for some reason stuck to buying crummy Mazdas instead.

The best effort Europe and North America has had at towards moving away from fossil fuel based vehicles and taxes of petrol has been the ever popular Toyota Prius hybrid electric vehicle which has a reputation of the dullest car in history despite its popularity, and hated by car enthusiasts.

I think Norway has had some electric cars for a while with some years before acceptance by the Norwegian people, I saw a few G-wizz and similar tiny plastic cars which look awful.   I spotted this vehicle which appears to be partly dismantled and few others in driveways which appear non-functional, maybe because of enormously high cost of a new battery assembly?

Interesting links on Norway’s electric car success
http://jalopnik.com/heres-why-the-tesla-model-s-is-the-1-selling-car-in-no-1651261025 

Norway – The city of Bergen – Days of the week – Norway and Judeo/Christian influence – Bergen’s fish market – Electric automotive Utopia – Bergen’s forest of Christmas

I found that Norway is the biggest exporter of fish in the world.   I thought it would interesting to see the history of how production of fish has changed over the years and its impact on the economy and society.

So on the bus ride into the city centre there was a fish market on the electronic screen.

This odd looking building on the top left, has a upmarket restaurant in the top wooden part, with a glass walled ground floor with an open fish market.

This isn’t a general type of fish market but really a smaller place to show case all the premium type seafood products.   Everything here is really expensive.

Live lobsters ready to take home, with rubber bands on their claws.

This place is great, but I was hoping there was a huge place to buy all different types of fish directly from the port.   It seems you have to go to Stavanger to do this, which is 2-4 hours drive away.

I found an interesting bakery in Bergen that has pastries with fish in them and breaded type fish products.  Everything in Norway is really expensive so I didn’t actually visit any restaurants beside a bar which did burgers.

Norway – The city of Bergen – Days of the week – Norway and Judeo/Christian influence – Bergen’s fish market – Electric automotive Utopia – Bergen’s forest of Christmas

This is from my August 2015 trip to Israel, this is one of the interesting things that had changed recently.   This vineyard and hotel was only built since I left Israel at the end of 2013.

Isaiah 27: 6
In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.

My good friend Peter drove us past this place as we went from a Israeli believer friend’s house past this place to a coffee shop close by which was also new, we thought it was a good time to get some coffee, play chess and chat.

The vineyard seems to have alternate white and red grapes, not sure if there is a reason for this.    The red roses are beautiful but are not just there to look pretty, these flowers give off a scent that keeps pests off the grapes, this is something new I wasn’t aware of.

Nativity scenes usually give people two very different ideas, tacky and naff or part of the very core part of Christmas to imagine a visual scene of Christ’s arriving into the world.    Was this horribly early?   No, actually I saw this first week of December.

Malta, which of course is a Catholic country actually takes this tradition very seriously, more than any other county I have visited (although I have yet to visit Italy)

As well as a complete scene, it seems you can instead buy all the bits separately, expanding your collection each year.   In this store, this place has the animals, figures and scenery next to a Nespresso machine and kitchen cleaners.

Best of all, are these nativity scenes which some local people can take up a whole garage!!

Notice the signs here and in others I have seen seem to make it clear what the object of it all.   🙂

Malta has people from other religious groups here, but hasn’t put any silly restrictions on celebrating a very important day.  Merry Christmas!!

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo