Tuesday was another easy morning. My parents were leaving on
the Hurtigruten (David and I were leaving on Wednesday), and David and I
decided to not drive all the way to the North Cape. David and I wandered around
town for the morning and bought some groceries to take on board our trip the
next day. While waiting at the port we ran into Jonas (pronounced Yonas) (Liv
Hanna’s daughter Line’s son) and his friend Lars. We had met Jonas before at
dinner, but Lars was a new friend. They were both working at the port, and we
visited with them for a spell and had some great conversation. We then met my
parents and our cousins at the port and we all went on board for coffee and
visiting. (Anyone can go on board when the ship is in port. The stop in
Hammerfest was a little over an hour.) When it was time for the ship to sail,
we disembarked and waved our goodbyes from the wharf.
Our newly acquainted cousins were not let us become bored!
Ernst and Olav took us all over Hammerfest and showed us many of the areas we
did not know existed. They also stopped by another cousin’s house, who owns a
construction company, where we visited for a few minutes. We also went by one
of his construction sites, where yet another cousin was also working. It was
great for David and me to see the similarities and differences between our
construction practices. This tour that Ernst and Olav took us on was one of the
highlights of our time in Hammerfest; a bunch of guys out touring around and
shooting the breeze.
After our tour around town we went back to Ernst and Liv
Hanna’s for dinner. Liv Hanna and Marta made burgers and pizza (because/for me)
for dinner and then we sat out on their back porch visiting over dessert of
strawberries and cream. (Liv Hanna said that next time we come, I will eat
whatever she makes….no special requests!) Enough cannot be said for the
kindness and hospitality that they all showed us. We would have enjoyed our
time in Hammerfest, albeit maybe a little bored after the first couple days,
but it never would have compared to what it was because of all of our cousins
we met and how kind they were to us. Family is great!! We stayed visiting until
later in the evening when David and I left to go pack up our room for our
Hurtigruten sailing. I wanted to drive out and take pictures of the midnight
sun (the weather was beautiful all day), but I was just too tired and we had a
busy morning.
The Hurtigruten came into port at 11:15am and was to leave
at 12:45pm, on Wednesday. That morning at 9:00am we finished packing all of our
luggage and then drove over to Ernst and Liv Hanna’s because Ernst was kind
enough to agree to help us drop off our car at the airport and give us a ride
back into town. After dropping the car off we went back to their house to visit
over coffee and lefse. Their daughter Line came back after an appointment, so
we were also able to visit with her once again. We said our goodbyes and begrudgingly
had Ernst drive us back to our hotel. Five days is not enough time to do
everything we would like to do, especially get to know our extended family!
After Ernst dropped us off at our hotel, we packed up our
luggage, checked out of the hotel, and walked the few blocks to the port. While
waiting in line to check in to our cabin, Olav and Marta walked in the ship!
They wanted to be able to say goodbye again, plus Olav tracked down a couple
t-shirts from the company of the cousin we had met. David and I had both wanted
one, but we didn’t want to ask him for one, so when Olav brought them onto the
ship to give to us we were both very pleased! We walked around the ship for a
while and visited with them both before they had to leave. We hugged and said
our goodbyes, and then they went off the ship to continue their day. Once
again, enough cannot be said for the love, kindness, and hospitality that we
were shown by our family here. Like I said before, family is great and I love
them!
We had beautiful weather all day, and it continued as we
left the harbor. It was a great experience to see what it would have been like
for my great-grandparents to leave Hammerfest. Of course we were sailing in
much more luxury than they did, but it was still a neat way to leave
Hammerfest. After taking many pictures, we went to our cabin and made dinner
from the groceries we brought on board. Not too long after we left Hammerfest,
we sailed into some thick fog. The fog was making us fall behind schedule a
little bit, but I was not to be persuaded to not try and find the church when we
arrived in Skjervøy. This church was built in the early 1700s and was where our
first Holmgren ancestor to come to Norway was married. (Olaus Holmgren was born
in Sweden in 1727 and was married in Skjervøy in 1768.) We pulled into port and
they opened the doors at about 7:39pm. We were supposed to be in at 7:15pm and
leave at 7:45pm. I heard something about quarter to eight, but I didn’t think
they meant we would still sail at that time; they did! And we didn’t sail on
time, thanks to yours truly. I ran off the ship and made a beeline for the
church to take pictures; the church was very close to the ship. After taking
the pictures I went back to the wharf and saw many, many people still standing
on the dock. I wandered around to the other side of the wharf to take pictures
of the ship when I heard the horn blast. I still saw all the people standing on
the dock so I took a few more pictures and went back to the ship. I looked up
the gangplank and saw the doors shut, hmm. I walked up and tried the door, but
it was closed and locked. I rattled the door a couple times and then it opened
from the inside. The woman said that I was late and that when they horn blares
we are leaving port. Earlier in Hammerfest, one of our relatives (I don’t remember
which one) said that the ship would wait a few minutes and then leave, without
turning around to get a straggler. Thankfully they were right, they would wait!
I apologized and then sheepishly walked away with my head down, not making eye
contact. I was only 5 minutes late, and it must not have been too bad because
she didn’t remember me when we got off at the next port. But don’t get me
wrong, I contemplated what I would have done if I had been left behind. Later
in the evening, in a strange city in the fjords of Norway, not speaking the
language, and trying to find my way to Tromsø really fast to catch up with my
ship; not a pleasant thought.
The fog continued to be very thick on the sail to Tromsø, so
we went back to our cabin and took naps. When we arrived in Tromsø, my parents
(who were staying a few nights there) met us at the wharf and we walked around
town with them for a half hour or so. It was 11:30pm, so most places were
closed, but we were still able to walk around and see the downtown area because
it was still so light out. My parents went back to their hotel so David and I
just hung out on the wharf for a while. There were so many fish right next to
the dock and jumping out of the water that we wished we had fishing poles. We
could see a multitude of fish swimming around, so we watched them for a while.
(Sometimes we are easily entertained.) We then boarded the ship, way before the
departure time, because I wasn’t taking any chances; okay, we just didn’t have
anything else to do, but it sounds good. We then hung out for a little while
before going to sleep around 2:30am.
Our trip included breakfast, so we didn’t want to miss out
on a “free” meal, so we got up a little after 9:00am to be able to eat before
breakfast closed down at ten. It was a bit of an odd feeling eating breakfast
at a table with a bunch of strangers, especially in the morning when I am not a
talkative person, so we ate our breakfast fairly quickly and then left. David
got a cup of coffee and we just sat out in the lounge area and “woke up.” The
fog finally dissipated sometime around 11:00am or so, and we were then able to
enjoy the views of the fjords. Our lack of sleep, and the rhythm of the boat,
caught up to us and we both took naps; we were enjoying this relaxing downtime
of our trip to recuperate. I woke up and went back up to the deck in time to
see that we were traversing a very narrow fjord, a very impressive site! A
little while later, we pulled into Svolvær where we had a long port call. We
needed a little exercise anyway, so we walked around town for an hour or so.
Svolvær is a town at that north end of the Lofoten Islands, and we thought it
was a neat town that we could definitely stay a few nights in. Maybe on another
trip in the future. We then went through a few shops at the pier and then
boarded the ship.
For the rest of the evening we just relaxed in the lounge
seating area watching the views out the window, and occasionally going outside
and relaxing in the sunshine and taking pictures. Around 10:00pm we were able
to see a pretty nice sunset over the Lofoten Islands. We had just missed the
midnight sun in this area by a week or so, but the benefit is that the sun “sets”
for a long time. If you are a sunset lover, this is the place and time of year
for you! I took a break while typing this out and went outside at a little
after 1:00am; the sun was still “setting” and looked about the same, three
hours later!
The one downside to our journey on the Hurtigruten is that
their internet is very weak and intermittent. Such trials, eh? We have become a
very spoiled people; our grandparents/great-grandparents were steerage class
passengers in much worse conditions, on a much longer journey, in order to better
their lives. But this is not to say that we are not to enjoy the blessings that
God has given us. Anyway, our internet is very hard to connect to, and we can
only get it in a few spots on the ship (not in our cabin), so this post will
probably be continued at another time and posted then. It is now almost 2:00am,
but I will run up and see if I can get a connection and post it tonight,
otherwise it will be in a couple days. Tomorrow we arrive in Brønnøysund and
Jan Olav Agle will pick us up and drive us down to Inderøy. The Holmgren
heritage part of our trip is over, and now the Kvistad/Questad part shall
begin.
(Sorry, pictures are just too hard to try and upload with
these blog posts. Until I have much more time and energy, the pictures on
Facebook will have to suffice.)
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