The end of the Hurtigruten journey, and on to Inderøy!

We woke up to another great morning on the Hurtigruten. We spent the first few hours relaxing on the ship and then got off on the port before our destination, Sandnessjøen. We only walked around the town for a little while (the port call was only a half hour) and looked through a store, and then went back on the ship. A little under three hours later we disembarked in Brønnøysund. We walked down the gangplank looking for Jan Olav, but he was nowhere around; then again, our ship was about fifteen minutes early. I hadn’t really thought about it until I looked into it then, but Jan Olav drove almost 5 hours to pick us up! We sat on a bench for about 15 to 20 minutes and then he drove up. We were able to visit a lot on the four and a half hour drive back to his house. We took a shorter drive on the way to Jan Olav’s home that used a ferry to cross a fjord, he took the longer drive getting there because sometimes the ferry line can be quite long and he didn’t want to take any chance with it. I took over the driving duties with about two hours to go, and he explained much about the areas that we drove through on the drive; he also explained some of the driving rules, which were much appreciated.

[As mentioned in my first blog post, Jan Olav Agle has helped me out incredibly over the last many years as I did research for my family history book. If not for Jan Olav, this trip would never have even happened. His mother, Marna, was born and raised on the main Kvistad farm and when they were old enough, Jan Olav, being the eldest, took over his father’s farm, the Agle farm, and Jan Olav’s younger brother Torgeir took over his mother’s farm, the Kvistad farm. Meeting Jan Olav in person was great and something I have looked forward to for quite some time.]

When we arrived at his house it was already closing in on 9:00pm and we still had about an hour drive down to our cabin in Åsen that we were sharing with my parents. Åsen is about halfway between Inderøy and Trondheim. We chatted for a few minutes and then Jan Olav walked down to his mother Marna’s house (she lives in a house right next to his farm) and got her car. We were going to use Jan Olav’s car, the one he picked us up from Brønnøysund, but it was making a funny noise on the drive home and he decided to have us use his mother’s car instead. We then drove down to Åsen and met up with my parents in our cabin. The cabin was pretty new and was in great shape; I am a little nervous about the smaller cabin that David and I will move into when my parents leave on Wednesday. We had some dinner and then headed to bed after visiting for a short time.

We made plans to meet Jan Olav on Sunday, so that gave us Saturday to drive down to Trondheim and tour around. Saturday morning was beautiful and sunny out, so it made for a great day to sightsee in the city. We drove right to Nidarosdomen (Nidaros Cathedral) and parked right across the street. We then toured the cathedral, which was very impressive and massive. The cathedral started as a wood chapel in the year 1035, and the first stone addition was around 1090. It was added on to a few times as it grew and was completed around the year 1300. Fire, which destroyed half the roof on at least two different occasions, and neglect have been hard on it, but in 1869 they started 100 years of restoration and it was completely restored into what we see today. We also took the tour up to the top of the tower. It was 172 steps up a very narrow, steep circular stairway; not for the claustrophobic. (It was only created for maintenance, not for normal use.) When we got to the top we were able to walk completely around the outside of the tower and then we went back down the stairs; all in all it took about a half hour or so. Well worth the effort, as the views over Trondheim were spectacular. We then toured around the tombs and other areas of the cathedral, and then we went next door to the old residence of the archbishop where they have a museum of artifacts.

After touring around the cathedral and taking many pictures (pictures were not allowed inside, but we snuck a few in anyway), we then walked around town and ate at a sidewalk restaurant. The weather was really clouding up, but we kept touring after we ate. We wandered around and looked in a few shops and then worked our way over to the Old Bridge. It was a nice pedestrian bridge that connected to the old part of town where they had some shops in nice, old buildings. On the walk over we saw some lightning and heard the resounding thunder, but we pushed on. After we crossed the Old Bridge, it started to rain. We quickly took more pictures and then hustled back to our car amidst the lightning and thunder and rain. Luckily we made it back to our car before the downpour started. We then drove back to our cabin and spent the evening relaxing.

We did not have an exact time to meet at Jan Olav’s house, so we didn’t leave our cabin until around 9:30am, getting to his house at around 10:30am. He must have seen us coming up his driveway, because he was sitting on his back steps when we pulled up. After introducing him and my parents, we looked around his house and barns and then we walked up toward the back of his property so he could show us an old cotter’s place. It was very dilapidated, but still standing and it was interesting to see it and have Jan Olav explain the story about the man who used to live in it. It has not been lived in since around the 1960s or so. Jan Olav also explained how the road used to go right through his property, the “pathway” in which we walked, back in the days of horses, even before wagons were much in use. We then walked back to his house where we piled in the car and he took us on a tour of Inderøy. It was only going to be a quick tour to show us around, and then we could go back and take our time when we had time. This “tour” still took a few hours.

While my dad drove, Jan Olav pointed out many farms and popular areas. It was an incredible experience for me to see all of these places and farms that I have read so much about during my research for my book. I have also transcribed some of the old church parish records for the National Archives of Norway, so it was great to see the farms of the people of whom their records I transcribed. One of the stops was the “Farmer Dispute” rock monument that I wrote about in my family book; that was also great to see in person. After this we drove up to the Kvistad farm. Thee Kvistad farm. Although the old buildings are gone from our first Kvistad ancestors, it was still an incredible experience to be on the farm that our ancestors moved on to and purchase in 1719. There are still a couple old buildings that were built around the time that Jacob Kvistad/Questad still lived in Inderøy. (Jacob Kvistad/Questad was our ancestor who came to America after living in Hammerfest for 20 years.) We met Jan Olav’s brother Torgeir, who is not a very talkative person (but walked around with us and chatted a little), and we walked around the farm a little. He would be at work the next week, but he told us to come up and look around whenever we wanted. While we walked around a little bit, the two brothers pointed out to us some of the smaller Kvistad farms that were split off of the main farm over the years. We said goodbye to Torgeir and then headed off to the Sørteigan farm; one of the smaller Kvistad farms that was split off in the 1800s. The Sørteigan farm is the farm that Jacob Kvistad/Questad was born and raised. Once again, the house is not the original, but it was still a great experience to be where he was raised and walk the ground that he did. It might not seem like a great deal to most people, but to someone like myself, so involved in genealogy, it is most certainly a great deal; hard to explain. It was a little awkward when we arrived. Jan Olav had mentioned to Anstein Holmen, the current owner of the Sørteigan farm, that visitors from America were going to be coming and visiting (Anstein was also one of the people who purchased my book), but he never gave him a call in quite a while. Jan Olav and Anstein have been friends since their teenage years, so it was not too big of a deal, but it was still a little awkward when we just showed up. They were more than accommodating and had no problem with us walking around and taking pictures, and he didn’t mind if we came back again at another time to take more pictures. We took some pictures of his house and surrounding property, and we also took pictures of the view of the fjord from his house. It was an incredible view and we laughed about why Jacob Kvistad/Questad would have moved from here to go to the flat barren plains of North Dakota! After we left the Sørteigan farm we drove around a little more while Jan Olav pointed out a few more farms and other places. We then went and dropped him back off at his house and then went to tour a little on our own.

We first drove to the Old Sakshaug Church, built in 1184. The church was closed when we were there (we are hoping to find the church open one of these days), but we walked around it taking pictures of it. And there was a cemetery; I cannot pass up a cemetery. Because it is a small cemetery, many of the graves are “reused.” Because of this, there are not very many old tombstones. I looked through them all anyway and took pictures of anyone I thought might be related; something I will have to look back through at a later date. We then drove to the Mosvik Bridge, a large suspension bridge from Inderøy to Mosvik. I remembered seeing this when I was “driving” around Inderøy on Google Streets. We stopped off at a rest area and walked up onto the bridge and took pictures and, once again, enjoyed the view. We then drove back into Inderøy and went to the New Sakshaug church, built in 1869. We took pictures of the church, and once again I wandered through the cemetery looking for relatives. David and my parents were patient as I quickly went through the entire cemetery. It is a newer cemetery, but it still had a few headstones for some older Kvistads (and other relatives) that I took pictures of. It probably took me an hour or so to go through the entire cemetery, but it was a nice afternoon/evening to be outside. We then drove back to Åsen where we stopped off at a gas station deli to have dinner. Most places are either closed or close early on Sundays, so our options were limited. We didn’t mind; David and I have wanted to have hot dogs one of these days anyway! We then went back to our cabin and relaxed. My parents went for a drive to see more of the countryside, David went for a walk down to the nearby lake, and I decided it was a good time to sit down and write a new blog post before I forgot all that we have done.

Tomorrow shall be another exciting day in Inderøy!