More Inderøy; Land of our Questad/Kvistad Forefathers

We had a leisurely Monday morning. We were going to tour around Inderøy before meeting at Jan Olav’s for dinner at 7:30pm. We didn’t leave our cabin until around one or so and drove by the Old Sakshaug Church first to see if it was open, nope. This is the church that Jacob Questad (and the Kvistad relatives before him) was baptized in and confirmed in. (And our Kvistad ancestors were buried at.) It is located just past the driveway to the Kvistad farm, so we then went up there to take more pictures of the farm and to hike to the top of the Kvistad-Våtta. The Våtta is the highest point of the Kvistad farm, and one of the highest points in all of Inderøy, where there is now a radio tower and paths for people to walk up. As soon as we got there we parked the car and started walking up the gravel road to the top; of course this was probably the nicest day, warm, and we were going to dinner and then to an outdoor play. We were all quite sweaty on the hike, but it was still something I have wanted to do. One reason is because there was a geocache at the top with the Kvistad name in the title that I wanted to find, but also because I wanted to be able to just walk around the farm of my ancestors. It was probably a little over a mile up the hill, and it was a nice walk up. (And yes, I found the geocache!) The walk down wasn’t too bad, but the insects were quite annoying!

When we got back down to the main farm we walked around taking pictures of the house and outbuildings. Jan Olav’s brother Torgeir works in the morning and then again in the evening (they both work on dairy farms), so he was home when we stopped by. He came out and visited a little bit, mainly with David, as we ran around taking pictures. After this we said goodbye and thanks to Torgeir and then started to drive into town for some lunch. As we were driving by the Old Sakshaug Church on the main road my dad looked up and saw that the door was open! He slammed on the brakes, we made a u-turn, and quickly drove back up and around to the church. There were a few other people inside the church and a woman was playing the organ. She told us that they were holding a service that night, so she was practicing playing for it. (They occasionally have services in the old church during the summers.) We walked around inside and took many pictures and enjoyed being in the actual church building that our ancestors attended church in, were baptized in, confirmed in, and had their funeral services and burials at. It was beautiful inside and our time inside was made extra special by having someone play the organ while we were there.

After we took all of our pictures and spent our time in the church we drove down to the water and ate at a restaurant that had a deck overlooking the fjord. We were trying to eat light, because we were going to dinner about four hours later. (I didn’t even finish my meal!) We relaxed a little bit after eating and then walked through a few shops. We still had quite a bit of time, so we decided to drive around the “Golden Road.” This is a road that drives around Inderøy and has many different shops and farms with some kind of “store” in them; whether it was a candle making shop or a dairy farm selling ice cream. Most of the stores were closed, but we saw some beautiful landscape and farms. We stopped off at the best marina in Inderøy and took some pictures. There was one large, old wooden sail boat sitting in the harbor, it was a very nice boat. We still had some time so we drove to a nearby town, Steinkjer, just to see it. This was the town I was originally going to stay in when I was first planning my trip, because it was close to Jan Olav’s, but the Gullberget Campgrounds won out. After driving through Steinkjer we drove back down into Inderøy and went to the mini mart for coffee (obviously not for me!) and relaxed for about ten minutes before heading up to Jan Olav’s house.

I was a bit nervous and skeptical about the dinner. Jan Olav’s mother Marna was going to fix us a traditional meal for the Trøndelag area; sodd. I am always nervous to try new dishes, but this one was just beef and mutton in a soup/stew, so I was fairly confident that I would like it fine, or at least be able to eat it without any problems. (Am I sounding hopeful?) Jan Olav had told us before that his mother wanted to make sodd for us, so we had looked into the meal before leaving, so at least we knew what to expect. I was also a bit nervous to meet that many more new people. Besides Marna, Jan Olav’s sister Ingunn and her husband Gunnar were going to be there. Only a couple people, no big deal. We pulled up to his house and it felt like a million people were there. In reality there were only two more people than we expected, but when they were all sitting outside around the back door it seemed like a lot of people. Ingunn and Gunnar’s two sons also came for the meal. We were introduced to everyone, a big hug from Marna. We had said “hello” multiple times through Jan Olav’s and my emails over the years, so it was great to be able to meet her in person as well.

Because it was such beautiful weather we all ate outside on Jan Olav’s deck. The view of the fjord is spectacular! We only had about two hours before we had to leave for our play that night, so we ate almost immediately after we got there. The meal was different, but actually quite good. It was mainly mutton, with a little beef, in a broth; not really a stew, but not a soup either. We also had carrots and potatoes that we added to our mutton and beef. With the seasoning, it almost had a sausage type of flavor. After a couple helpings of sodd, we visited for a bit before having dessert; strawberries and cream. I took a little more ribbing about not liking coffee (it happened multiple times in Hammerfest), but they let me off easy. Right before dessert, Jan Olav’s wife and two of his children came over. It was great for me (as well as the others) to be able to meet them. I have heard about them and said “hello” to them many, many times over the last years through Jan Olav. We didn’t really know what to expect with this new group of relatives, hence one of the reasons we only had about two hours before we had to leave, but we all wished we had more time. It was hard to leave in order to make our play; but the play was one of the deciding factors for the timing of our trip to Norway.

I have read much about the kings of Norway and the Battle of Stiklestad, which took place on July 29, 1030, where King Olav was killed. The Battle is probably the most famous one in all of Norwegian history. One thing that always intrigued and interested me in the history of this battle is that a man named Torgeir from the Kvistad farm was mentioned in the history books. Not only was he mentioned, but he had words with the king before the battle took place, and before King Olav was killed he killed Torgeir during the battle. There is no known connection with our family and this Torgeir, but because he was from the same farm that our family eventually owned, it has always held a great place for me. There is some controversy about the actual date of the battle, but it is written in the history books as having taken place on July 29, 1030. Therefore, the reenactment takes place at that time. They actually have several plays for about a week before, but the finale takes place on July 29. This is the day that I planned our time in Inderøy around so we could go to the play on that day. Jan Olav attended the play with us, so David and I hopped in with him and my parents followed in their car and we headed to Stiklestad. (Stiklestad is close to half way between Jan Olav’s and our cabin, so he drove separately so we wouldn’t have to drive him home; the play didn’t start until 11:00pm.) When we got to Stiklestad it was crowded! It is a very popular play, it was July 29 and the finale showing, it was beautiful weather, and this was the first year for the play to be at night, so it was packed. Our seats were center stage, about seven rows up; perfect. We also had the best weather on our whole trip that night; perfect. Even though the play didn’t start until 11:00pm, we didn’t even put our coats on until close to the end of the play. Remember, we are still pretty far north, so with the clear skies it was still twilight throughout the play, so it set a really neat setting for the play. Although we didn’t understand the dialogue, except for a few humorous parts (including one about Torgeir of Kvistad), we were able to get the gist of everything. After dinner, Marna gave us a synopsis of the play and Jan Olav explained a few things during the play, so we followed along fairly well. (My parents also bought a program with another synopsis in English.) The play lasted until close to 1:00am and it was fantastic! The acting, the symphony, the singers, the lighting; it was a great night. After the play we said goodbye to Jan Olav (the last time my parents were to see him) and we drove home to our cabin, because of traffic getting out of Stiklestad we got back around 2:00am.

Martha Carlson let us know that my great-grandfather Chris Holmgren’s brother Jakob was buried at the Nidaros Cathedral so we wanted to go and find his headstone. Tuesday was our day to go back down to Trondheim to look at other churches and try to find headstones for other family members (on the Rostad side of the family) and my mom wanted to go to a restaurant with a rotating floor that overlooked Trondheim. Because we were up so late on Monday night, we took our time getting out of bed on Tuesday morning. We drove down to the Nidaros Cathedral and because it was so busy with their Olav’s Festival, my dad dropped David and I off at the cathedral to try and track down Jakob Holmgren’s gravesite and he and my mom would try to find a parking spot. The museum told me to walk down a block from the cathedral to the offices where they are the caretakers of the cemetery at Nidaros. David waited for my parents and went and found the office. The woman who helped me said I was lucky that she could find his gravesite, because they do not have the greatest records and do not have all of them searchable. I went back to the cathedral and found everyone (ok, I found David and my dad, and together we had to go searching through all of the fair booths to find my mom) and we went off to find the headstone. The office gave me a picture of the headstone and had showed it to me on a map, but it still took us a little while to find it; the picture was from many years ago and the background had changed. But in the end, we found the headstone, took our pictures, and went on our merry way. We walked back to the street where my dad had parked the car, and as we were walking up the street I saw a car that looked illegally parked to me and I said to myself, “Who would park their car there?” Lo and behold, my father did. Guess what, my dad also got an expensive souvenir, too! The parking ticket was something we joked about and laughed about the rest of the day.

We then drove around to three different churches where our Rostad side of the family attended. Two of the three churches were built around 1900, so they are too new for our ancestors to have used those actual buildings, but it was still neat to go and see them and the areas. I searched through every cemetery, but like before, there were very few old headstones. I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but things work a little differently over here regarding headstones. After a person is buried, they only have rights to the plot for a limited amount of time. After this, the family has to pay rent to keep the headstone in place. This is the reason for there being so few old headstones. After looking at the churches we drove back into Trondheim and went to the Tyholt Tower, where the Egon Restaurant has its rotating restaurant at the top that completes its rotation in one hour. We enjoyed a great meal and, by the time dessert was done, we had completed the rotation. The weather turned quite stormy during our meal and we were able to see a nice lightning storm from the top, but the rain made the trip back to Åsen a little less enjoyable. After we got back to our cabin, my parents and I took a scenic drive out to an island to see it and the old ruins of a cloister. It was small, but neat to see. We then drove back to our cabin for the night.

Wednesday was the day my parents were to leave and our joint trip was to end. David and I were also to change cabins to a smaller one for the remainder of our time in Åsen. This was also our last chance to make it to the Inderøy library, which closed at 2:00pm and wasn’t going to be open again until after we left. Our smaller cabin was ready around 11:00am so we moved our belongings over, said our goodbyes to my parents, and headed for Inderøy. We arrived at noon and Jan Olav met us there about 20 minutes later. Good thing too. My lack of Norwegian had me looking all over and Jan Olav pointed me to some interesting books and articles. We stayed there until the library closed at two and then Jan Olav went back home and David and I drove around Inderøy a bit before heading back to Åsen. We then drove to a mall, about 20 minutes away, and wandered around a bit and then ate dinner in one of its many restaurants. We then drove back to our cabin and relaxed for the rest of the evening. It rained hard nonstop all day, so it was a great day to go to the library and stay indoors.

[Earlier I was telling David how hard/tiring it is to write this blog, then after finishing it we had a good chuckle. I wrote everything important about Wednesday in one paragraph; David said that we needed more days like this and it would make my writing the blog easier J ]

Well, more exciting stuff planned for the upcoming days!