Langesund was first established as a customs center in 1570 and was a major site for the exports of timber. It did not gain town status until 1765. The name Langesund translates directly to “long sound” or perhaps more accurately translated, “long strait” due to Langøya (literally Long Island) forming the roughly 2 km long strait between the island and the mainland.

The Federation had strong administrative support from the local stamp clubs in Porsgrunn, Skien, and Stathelle in putting on this show.

Numerous clubs, societies, dealers, and postal administrations were present. Postal administrations present included Norway, Faroe Islands, and Åland. Posten Norge put on two first day events, one for Friday May 31, a series of two stamps exploring flora and fauna under water (NK 2120-2121) and the second for Saturday June 1, a series of four stamps celebrating the summer festival season in Norway (NK 2122-2125). A variety of NORDIA-specific postmarks and cachets were available for the occasion both from Posten Norge and from the local clubs.

Auction houses Postiljonen of Sweden and Skanfil of Norway were also present. Skanfil held the official live auction on Friday evening.

Societies present included the aforementioned local clubs as well as Oslo Filatelists Klubb, Bergen Filatelist Klubb, Norwegian Postal History Soecity Norwegian Postcard Collectors Society, Norwegian Railroad Mail Society, and Norwegian Ship Mail Society.

Hallvard Slettebø was the Norwegian commissioner, with Ebbe Eldrup representing Denmark, Ari Muhonen, Finland, Gísli Geir Harðarson, Iceland, and Rikard Azelius from Sweden.

The show was officially opened at noon on Friday by Jon Pieter Flølo, mayor of Bamble municipality, Halvor Fasting, Stamp Director for Posten Bring, the Norwegian postal service, and Odd Runar Aslaksen, who chaired the planning committee.

The Federation held their bi-annual meeting with the election of the individuals who will lead the organization for the next two years. Frank Gilberg who has served as President for the past several years handed the baton to incoming President Øistein Bøe. Several other clubs held meetings, including the Royal Philatelic Society London.

There were also several presentations, including a presentation by Georg Størmer and Jonas Hällström on Nordisk Filateli’s new book “Norwegian Classics“.

The exhibition was held in Skjærgårdshallen, an indoor soccer arena, with great lighting conditions and astro-turf, which were friendly on the eyes and knees respectively.  Over 500 frames were exhibited. While the majority of exhibits were focused on nordic countries, there were also numerous frames dedicated to philately from other parts of the world. Detailed results can be found on the Nordia web site at nordia2024.no

The Palmares dinner Saturday night was very well attended and took place in the conference center of Skærgården hotel. I was seated between Kristian Aune, President of the Bergen club, and Øyvind Refsnes, editor of Norsk Filatelistisk Tidsskrift. These two gentlemen who I have corresponded with for some time but who I first met in person here are so fascinating to talk to that I honestly did not pay much attention to the food being served. The food and wine were delicious but I failed to register more details, being in such excellent company.

NORDIA wrapped up Sunday afternoon. With HANFIA coming up in Copenhagen this October, we don’t have to wait long for the next Nordic stamp exhibition.

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In 2015 I signed up for Worldloppet. Worldloppet is a worldwide Nordic ski marathon series. The premise is pretty simple: Finish 10 ski marathons in 10 different countries on two different continents in your lifetime and you become a Worldloppet Master.  Worldloppet was founded in Sweden in 1978. “Loppet” means “run” or “race” in Swedish. The famous Swedish ski marathon Vasaloppet was likely the namesake.

Each country where Nordic skiing exists has one qualifying race.  This year I decided to try to knock out two races on each side of a week. It turned out that this would be possible in Estonia with the Tartu Marathon on February 18 and Finland with the Finlandia Hiihto Marathon on February 26.

I flew from Denver to Helsinki, Finland on February 16 and met my nephew Alexander who had flown over from Norway to do the Estonia race with me. We took the Tallin boat from Helsinki to Tallin and made the two hour drive by car to Tartu. As it happens Tartu is the host city for the Mare Balticum Stamp Show in July of this year. With a focus on the marathon, we did not have a chance to explore any philatelic connections while in Tartu. The Tartu marathon was a great experience. At 63 KM it is one of the longer Worldloppet races, though by no means the longest (that distinction goes to Vasaloppet in Sweden at 90 KM which I completed in 2020). It had been raining with mild temperatures in Tartu in the days leading up to the race. On the race day the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. However, the ski tracks had suffered, and they were very icy. This led to a very fast course, and I finished in a respectable 4 hours and 35 minutes.

With a few days to spare until the next race, I flew back to my hometown of Oslo, Norway, a mere hour flight from Helsinki, to spend some time visiting friends and family and to recover before my next marathon. As luck would have it, I was able to attend my first in-person meeting with Oslo Filatelist Klubb (OFK) who happened to have their bi-monthly meeting the evening I arrived. I have been a member of OFK for several years but typically only visit Norway during Christmas and summer, outside of the regular meeting season. It was great attending and meeting several members in person for the first time. They have a new meeting space as of 2024, in the Ice Skating Museum, inside the Frogner Stadium Ice Skating Arena. Next time I plan to visit the museum during opening hours as it looked like they have some amazing displays.

The next morning, I made my rounds to pick up auction lots accumulated over the past few months. I got a little worried when Skanfil rolled out a big moving box on wheels. How was I going to get all this content into my suitcase and back to the US? Fortunately, it all consolidated well. While I had to leave behind a few empty albums, I was able to get my new acquistions safely back home. I also visited with Erik Olafsen at Oslo Frimerke og Myntauksjoner as well as Hans Solbakken with Samlerbørsen, picking up lots from their latest respective auctions. It is great to see that there is no shortage of stamp auctions that are well attended with competitive bidding. One of my favorite auction object types are the “leftover-lots” where you don’t know exactly what you are getting. The excitement of going through a box full of surprises is comparable to how I felt at Christmas Eve as a child. These lots did not disappoint.

On Thursday February 22 I flew back to Helsinki, got my rental car and drove the 100 km north to Lahti. Lahti is Finland’s ski capital, dominated by their modern ski stadium and triple ski jumps. As with Estonia, the rain was pouring down, and I was somewhat concerned about the skiing condition. Fortunately, most of the Nordic countries have received unusually large amounts of snow this winter, so Lahti’s trails were able to withstand the rain. On Friday I had the opportunity to tour the Lahti Ski Museum which is highly recommended for those interested in skiing history. Particularly impressive to me, was a ski dated to approximately 6000 years ago. They looked a bit heavier than my modern carbon-fiber skis, but probably better suited than mine for hunting moose in deep snow ca. 4000 B.C.

While waiting inside for the start on Saturday morning, I spotted a table with some distinguished looking gentlemen. It turns out they were there representing the Lahti Stamp Club, offering commemorative covers from the ski marathon, as well as ski-related postcards and stamps.

I finished the 62 KM race in five hours and six minutes. The wet snow made the course a bit slower than the Estonia race. It was a beautiful course circling through a mix of forest, open spaces, and small communities surrounding Lahti. Start and finish was at the Lahti Ski Stadium. Food and drinks were provided at food stations every 10 KM or so. All nutritious except when at the last stop I chugged down what I thought was a Finnish energy drink. It tasted like beer because that is exactly what it was.

After the race, did I rush to try my first sauna in the motherland of saunas? Of course not. I rushed back to the Lahti Stamp Club booth where I purchased the commemorative cover and some postcards.

I have a habit of carrying a few “good luck stamps” in my fanny pack on these marathons. With me on this race my stamps included the four Norway stamps from the 1966 Ski World Championship. I subsequently donated these to my new friend who in turn gave me a nice commemorative cover from the 1978 Lahti World Championship.

One more semi-philatelic connection: When you sign up for Worldloppet you get a Worldloppet passport. Upon completion of each race, you get a rubber stamp in your passport. While not postmarks, they look like postmarks and are just as fun to collect and gives a sense of accomplishment.

So, there you go. Skiing and stamp collecting may have more in common than you think. These were my 7th and 8th Worldloppet marathons respectively. Only two more to go.

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