Farewell Norway; Farewell to the Motherland!

Monday morning was decent weather; it was cloudy with a few sun breaks. Because the weather was fairly good, and the line was short, we decided to go up Fløibanen, the funicular that goes up on the mountain overlooking Bergen. We got to the top and saw a magnificent view of the wharf and old town Bergen. You could also see a lot of the newer city as well. We walked around on top for a bit and took pictures and then wandered in the gift shop. When we came out it had started to rain; and the rain did not stop until Tuesday night, literally. We decided to go back down the funicular and we went through many of the shops on the wharf for a few hours. We went back to the hotel for a rest and then went back out for dinner. After dinner David stayed in the room and relaxed and I went out in the rain and found some geocaches. At least my rain jacket works! I walked around the city in the wharf area for 2-1/2 hours and then went back to the hotel for the night.

Tuesday we awoke to another day of rain. We wandered around the shops again and then walked around some different parts of the old town area browsing in different shops. One in particular was a unique shop. No other way to say it except junk; two store of it! But one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I am just glad that I had no way to bring anything home; otherwise I would be the proud owner of even more junk! We wandered through his store, and then he went and opened up his other store across the street and we wandered through it. He had some fascinating things, but he had so much stuff that it was all piled up on top of itself. No way to even look through most of it! We went and ate at a hot dog stand that I had seen the day before; I had a regular dog, but David had a reindeer dog. He said it wasn’t too bad. We walked around behind the famous wharf and looked in a few more shops that had not been open the day before. Because our time in Norway was coming to a close, and I didn’t know how “touristy” Stavanger would be, we decided that we better buy our souvenirs now. We knew pretty much what was out there from wandering around most of the shops, so we each bought a couple trinkets and then headed back to the hotel.

After drying off a bit, we headed out for dinner. We wandered around for a long time, just looking at all the places again. We wandered into the regular part of town, but did not find anything we felt like eating. We eventually made our way back to the wharf and found a local restaurant. (We did not want to eat at an American chain restaurant again!) I had chicken BLT sandwich and David had a fish dish (I can’t remember the name), in a roundabout way, similar to lutefisk. Except for the soup/broth it was in (which he didn’t really care for), he liked the fish. We were leaving early the next morning, so we went back to the hotel to pack and try to get to bed early. That never works for me. On the bright side, the rain stopped and the sun peaked out a couple times!

It was clear and beautiful Wednesday morning. Go figure. We walked around the wharf to the ship terminal and boarded our boat to Stavanger. This boat is a commuter boat and it pretty quick. There were about 5 stops or so before we arrived at our destination; a 4-1/2 hour boat ride along the coast and through the fjords. When we arrived we walked to our hotel from the terminal and checked in. We then ventured out to do a little exploring. We wandered through some small side streets/alleys until we came to a pretty big courtyard and park area. There were quite a few street vendors and a multitude of people milling around. Then we noticed that a cruise ship was in port. (This was a different wharf terminal than the one we arrived at.) As we walked along the wharf we noticed another cruise ship; then another; then another; then another! There were five large cruise ships in port and a couple smaller ones. No wonder there were so many people around! After walking around exploring the wharf buildings a little while, we went back to the main area and just sat people watching and enjoying the beautiful sunshine! It felt like forever since we had seen it. I was getting hungry, so we went into the local 7-Eleven (I swear there are more in Norway than at home) and got a snack and then went to a different section of the courtyard and people watched for a while longer. We then walked back to our hotel, stopping off at the grocery store to pick up snacks for our hike the next day, and relaxed before we were going to head out for dinner. After an hour or so, we went out to dinner; we didn’t want to think too much, so we just went to Burger King down on the wharf. Fancy. We then took our time walking back to the hotel for the night.

Preikestolen. Wow! Enough said. We got up on Thursday morning and decided the weather was pretty good, so we decided to go on our hike. The weather was supposed to be better on Friday, but we didn’t want to chance it to our last day, so I packed up my camera gear, snacks, etc into my backpack and we walked down to the ferry terminal. We lucked out and the ferry was there when we got there, so we were able to walk right on. It took about half an hour to go across the fjord and then we waited for the bus to Preikestolen. We didn’t have as good of timing for the bus, so we had to wait for a half hour before it came. But we lucked out again, because, for whatever reason, the bus driver did not charge us the fare to get there. Sweet, it saved us about $15.00! The bus ride was another half hour, where it dropped us off at the base camp for Preikestolen.

Preikestolen, which means Pulpit Rock, is a rock formation that juts out into the fjord, 1,932 feet up! It is about 82 feet by 82 feet square with a large crack across it; no problems, right? I didn’t think I would have the guts to actually put my feet over the edge, but I figured I would at least be able to lie on my stomach and look over the edge. Not only is it almost two thousand feet up in the air, but it doesn’t go straight down, it actually angles back under you! We started up the hike from the base camp and the first part was a steep, gravel path. We switch-backed a couple times and came to a really rocky part. We had to climb over boulders to continue on the path; which didn’t really get much better! There were a few parts of the path that went through some wetlands, and they had wooden plank walkways through these areas. Then it continued on with very rocky, steep terrain. It was very tiring going up, but I knew the hike back down was going to be havoc on my knees. We were just hoping that the view, hike, and experience would be worth it. It was.

We finally got to the top; about 2.5 miles and taking a little over an hour to hike the 1,150 feet in elevation change. The view was spectacular and very jaw dropping! The weather had clouded up a bit, but by the time we had driven to the base camp it started to clear off. Because of the nice weather, it was very crowded. We took a few pictures and then walked out on the rock. (I never really even paid too much attention to the large crack across the ledge until someone asked about it later. The view took all of my attention; and the fall hazard!) We worked our way out to the ledge and sat and soaked it all in. David put his feet over and sat on the edge, so I had to take a couple pictures. I lay on my stomach and worked my way out to the edge and peeked over. It was a long way down! I took a couple pictures looking down, but without anything else really in the picture, the depth and perspective is lost. We people watched a little bit and then worked our way over to the popular corner.

David walked out the edge and I took some pictures, and then I walked out and he took some of me. Then I sat down, scooted out to the edge, and put my feet over. That was a bit nerve-racking! David took some pictures of me sitting on the edge and then I scurried back to safety! I was leaning back and looked pretty nervous in the pictures, because I was. I am not really afraid of heights, but come on! this was a two thousand feet tall cliff I was dangling my feet over! We then sat around relaxing on the rock, taking pictures, and people watching. Then we hiked back up and over Preikestolen and took more pictures. We sat around for awhile, ate a snack, and just enjoyed the moment.

We were at the top for a little under two hours before we started the hike back down. I had to stop off and find two geocaches along the way, but we were both pretty tired on the way down and didn’t really stop anywhere along the way. There were many people hiking back down and it was pretty much a single file line going back down. Probably good because it made me keep a steady pace and keep my eyes on the trail. We got back down to the base camp and had a forty minute wait before the next bus was going to be there. That was fine; I found a bench and sat down. The bus picked us up (unfortunately, we had to paid the fare on the way back) and dropped us off at the ferry terminal just as the ferry was coming in; perfect timing again! We arrived back at Stavanger and walked the few blocks to our hotel. It was closing in on 7:00pm so we walked out and ate dinner and then went back to the hotel to rest our weary bones. It was a very rugged hike (at least for my poor body), so we just relaxed in our room and watched a little TV before going to bed.

Friday was our last full day in Norway. We were pretty tired so we slept in; David made it to breakfast, but I did not even try. Around eleven we wandered out and roamed the streets of Stavanger. We walked down to the wharf and again and then walked through their famous “Old Town” area. We then wandered back into the main area and went through a few shops before heading back to our hotel to relax once again. We went out to eat dinner at a small, local restaurant and then wandered back to our hotel. While David packed his luggage, I walked around town for an hour or so trying to find some geocaches. I only found a few (there were too many people at some of the locations), but I walked two to three miles wandering around some neighborhoods and parks. The weather was sunny, so it made for a great walk. Plus, my calves needed some stretching out; there are still quite tight after our hike. I went back to our room and packed my bags and then decided to finish writing this blog post. I am not sure how much time I will have/want to spend writing in the next day or so, so I better just finish it now and post it. Tomorrow we leave the Motherland and travel down to Ireland. We have absolutely nothing planned for our time there, so we will see what we end up doing. I am imagining that Norway might be the place where I have the most things to write about, especially meeting so many relatives, but hopefully I still keep writing this blog. Until next time, which will be written from another country, have a good day (or night)!

Farewell to Inderøy!

[Picture placement is about worthless in this blog, but I still tried to add some.]

Thursday was our completely free day; nothing planned whatsoever. So we decided to drive to Sweden; one to say we have been there, and two so I could get a geocache in another country. The drive was only a little over an hour or so away from our cabin, so it was a nice drive and we passed a really neat place to stop on the way back. We drove over the border and I found a geocache right away. I wanted to find at least two, so we drove a short distance and I went up into the hills to find it, only to be stopped by too much water. We then drove a few miles up the road to the top of the mountain and I went out to find another one. There was still a lot of water, but I was able to miss most of it; on the way there. My feet were soaked through by the time I got back to the car. But I found another geocache, so it was all worthwhile. We then drove back to Norway and stopped at the actual border. There was a sign that we took pictures of and also of the actual rock monument marking the border. They have open borders, so there was nothing we had to stop at. There was a customs place, a couple miles into Norway, but no one was manning it when we were there, so we just kept on driving. We stopped at a neat waterfall to take pictures, and then continued on to the place we saw before.

The top of the mountain in Sweden

Standing on the Norway/Sweden border

There was a suspension bridge over the river that we crossed and then started walking up the trail. There were a couple paper signs at the trailhead, but we couldn’t read them. Luckily we never found out what they meant. We walked down the trail and came to the place we had seen from the main road. The trail turned into a walkway that was made of rebar and wood that hung on to the side of the rocks. This walkway wove in and out following the rocks, up above the river, until it ended up at another smaller suspension bridge that crossed over a waterfall, partway up the falls. It was a great view and we took many pictures of it and the impressive walkway. We then worked our way back until we found a branch in the trail that went down to the river’s edge and we went down and took more pictures. There was also a nicely built lean-to type building with a fire pit that we stopped and looked at. After we were done taking pictures we hiked back to the starting bridge. We took more pictures, screwed around with filming a video clip of us walking across the bridge, and then we went back to our car and headed back to Åsen.

David walking on the "pathway"

The first suspension bridge

The bridge over the waterfall

A neat picture of the swirling water in a still part of the river

We stopped off at the mall on the way back for some dinner. The mall does not look that big from the outside, but it is actually quite large. It has 170 stores and 22 restaurants; in what felt like the middle of nowhere! So we went and ate at the same restaurant we ate the day before and then headed back to our cabin. On the way we stopped off at the store and picked up a couple boxes to mail items home. We placed the couple books we each had from Hammerfest (gifts from Liv Hanna and Ernst) into the box and then stuff the rest of the room with clothes that we hadn’t worn or didn’t need any more. We packed quite light for our trip, and we didn’t even need all that we brought! We spent the last few hours of the evening relaxing before retiring for the night.

Heffi (Kvistad) and Sverre Lilleeng

For Friday Jan Olav had made plans for us to drive down to Trondheim and meet Heffi and Sverre Lilleeng. Heffi was a Kvistad and wrote a book about her family many years ago. She let me use some of her research in my family history book, so I have had a little contact with her over the years, mostly through Jan Olav. Heffi and my grandfather Alfred were third cousins; a little distant, but not that far! Heffi also gave me a picture she had of my great-great-great-grandfather Lorents Wittrup Pedersen Kvistad; probably my greatest family heirloom.

Jan Olav drove down to Åsen and together we all went to Trondheim. I didn’t think we would be there that long, but we ended up visiting for about 4 hours. Heffi is 87 years old and Sverre is 91 years old, so we didn’t think they would be up for too much visiting. But I really wanted to meet her and visit with her. She was very excited to meet us and hear more about us. She has a copy of my book, and I think she has studied it intently! Obviously she loves genealogy, but she was also a teacher so she is very studious. Our family is the first Kvistad family she knows of that emigrated to the U.S. and uses a variation of the Kvistad name. There were other Kvistads who moved to the U.S., but they dropped the Kvistad name and used Pederson instead.

Both Heffi and Sverre have minds as sharp as anyone I know! I think Sverre was a teacher of some kind in his working days, but he has also authored many books. One book was about WWII in Norway, and this book was just published in 2011! We talked about his experiences during the war, with were quite impressive. There are many things that we see in movies and on television, and even people we know who fought in the war, but he is the first person I have ever visited with who can remember Nazis parading down his town’s streets! Sverre imitated them marching down the street and giving the Nazi salute; it was actually quite humorous. We could tell that they were starting to get tired (we were too!) so we politely said that we had to leave. David and I both wished we could speak Norwegian, because we could have visited with them again for many hours just listening to their stories! Sverre spoke some English, but quite often used Jan Olav to translate, and Heffi spoke quite a bit English, but was a little rusty and had Jan Olav translate a few words when she got stuck. They were two very impressive individuals and it was an honor to meet them and be able to visit with them.

After we said our goodbyes, them waving to us from their front porch until we were out of site, we headed back to Åsen. We dropped Jan Olav back at his car and then we went into our cabin and grabbed our boxes to send home. We stopped off at the store and mailed our packages and then we headed back to the same mall and ate at the same restaurant for the third day in a row. Are we creatures of habit?? It was fairly late by the time we got back home, so we just started preparing for our departure on Sunday. We knew we had a long day planned for Saturday, so we wanted a head start on our packing.

Saturday was our last day in Inderøy; what a way to end our time here! Jan Olav’s sister Ingunn and her husband Gunnar invited us out for the day. They were going to bring us out to climb the Skarnsunddetbru (Skarnsund Bridge). This bridge is a concrete cable-stayed suspension bridge (the longest of its kind in the world for two years) that is 3,310 feet long, with its longest span at 1,739 feet. It has two 499 foot tall concrete pylons that hold up the multitude of large diameter cables. I saw this bridge while researching the area for our trip, so when driving around with my parents, I told them we should go and take pictures of it. We went and took many pictures of the bridge and enjoyed the view. I didn’t really want to tell Ingunn and Gunnar that we had already been there, so I just left it at that and we could go out and see it again. They were also going to try and see if we could go out on the oldest wooden sailing ship in the world that is still in use; the Pauline (pronounced Poe-leena) built in the 1860s. This was the neat old sailboat that we saw in the harbor with my parents a few days before when we were out exploring Inderøy. Gunnar told us to meet them at their house around 11:00am and we would go from there.

The Skarnsund Bridge

The Skarnsund Bridge

David and I showed up at their house a little apprehensive; we weren’t exactly sure how the day would go. We had met Ingunn and Gunnar and their two sons, Andre and Espen, at dinner on Saturday. We were only with them a short time, but we really enjoyed their company and they were very outgoing. So, we were apprehensive about how the day would go, but not about the company we would be enjoying. When we got to their house we went in and visited for a short time, and then Gunnar said we should get our day started! He handed us each a pair of gloves for climbing the bridge and he loaded his backpack into their car. David and I both became a bit nervous. What exactly were we climbing? How were we going to climb it?

There is the saying that “It is not what you know but who you know.” In basic terms, Gunnar is the head of police for the Inderøy area; with that he knows many people and has many connections. He told us that we were going to climb one of the pillars of the bridge. Remember, we do not really know them that well, and we don’t know how daring they are with extreme sports, so I had thoughts in my head of them planning on us scaling the column and repelling down! Gunnar told us that he knew the man who has the keys to the column and that we were going to climb it on the inside. Phew, a bit of relief! Then he told us that we were going to climb up ladders to the top. What?? Gunnar liked to joked with us and see our reaction. Thankfully. Then he told us that most of the way was switchback stairs and then ladders at the top, and that the gloves were mainly because it was dirty/dusty inside. Ok, but it was still a long ways. Plus, he told us that the top of the column has a fence around it that is about two feet tall, but he quickly laughed that one off and told us they have a taller fence. I am not really afraid of heights, but this was way up there and I was imagining a chain link fence at the top with the wind whipping around. So we began our ascent.

The stairs in the column

Ingunn and Gunnar when we
were coming back down the stairs

 

The ladders near the top

Andre met us at the bridge for the trip up the column. Neither he nor Ingunn had ever been up it before, only Gunnar. He unlocked the padlock and opened the door, we all stepped inside, and Andre found the light switch. The stairs were steel, with grip holes drilled into them, which were Hilte drilled into the sides of the concrete walls. Their safety standards are not what we would expect in something like this, but then again, this was not open to the public. Each flight of stairs had some movement to them, and Gunnar told us to not have more than two people on a flight at the same time. He and Ingunn went first, and then David and I, and then Andre brought up the rear. It was a little intimidating because the stairs had many places where you could fall through, and many of the flights were slanting and the platforms between flights were leaning hard to one side. I kept looking at the Hilte drilled bolts into the concrete and wondering, “How good is Norwegian construction?” The flights of stairs got shorter as we went higher because the whole columns became skinnier as they reached the top. We finally reached the top of where the stairs went to, and we reached the ladders. The ladders were made of the same steel with a cage around it as it went up. The cage did not start until you were partway up off of the stair platform, the cage was little more than the minimal required to stop you from falling out (similar to the water tower at my parents’ Clearview home), and the cage actually overlapped over the stair platform we were starting from. Yes, a little intimidating once again. Ingunn was chosen to go first with Gunnar behind her. It took her a few tries to actually go through with it, with a bit of pushing from Gunnar; literally. Once she got going it wasn’t too bad and she continued up to the first platform break in between the sets of ladders. We all followed suit and came to the last ladder that brought us onto the top of the column. Gunnar went up the ladder and unlocked the padlock to the hatch that opened up to the top.

Gunnar propped up the hatch and went up and over the lip onto the top, and then we all followed. Luckily for me (and everyone else) the “fence” was a concrete wall about four feet tall or maybe a little bit higher. Wow, we were up there; and the view was amazing! It took a little bit to go and look over the edge, but looking down on the bridge below was an impressive site. The views all over the fjords boggled the mind. After many pictures, Gunnar opened up his backpack and took out coffee and snacks. That is what his backpack was for! We spent at least a half hour up on top of the column taking pictures, enjoying the view, visiting with each other, and David and I getting explanations to much of the landscape and the municipality of Inderøy in general. We then started our descent back down the ladders and stairs. After looking over the edge of the column at the top, the ladders and stairs did not seem as bad. It was still a bit hairy walking down the stairs, where each flight was angled a different direction and flexing and wiggling as we walked back down, but it seemed to go much faster and we popped out the door at the bridge level. Now looking over the edge of the bridge at the water far below wasn’t that bad!

The view from on top of the column

The view from on top of the column

 

The view from on top of the column

The view from on top of the column

 

Gunnar, Ingunn, and Andre at the top of the column

We walked back to their car and we started to head back to their house. We stopped off at a public, picnic type area that has a great view over the fjord and landscape. We took some pictures and signed a guestbook that was in one of the shelters, and then we drove back to their house. When we arrived at their house, Jan Olav’s (and Ingunn’s) mother Marna was there. (Jan Olav was busy, so he met up with us later at the harbor.) They brought out some food for a late lunch: sliced ham and mutton, pork and deer sausage, chicken wings, some flat bread, and a mixture of a few other things. We all sat around visiting for a while before we headed down to the harbor to sail onboard the Pauline.

She was a magnificent vessel! It was not windy enough, and we were not going too far out, so we did not use the sails, but it was still a great experience. The captain showed us around the ship, below decks, the crews’ quarters; there was beautiful woodwork everywhere. One of the reasons we were sailing out was to pilot in another vessel as it came in to the harbor. The vessel was another old, unique ship: the Hansteen. It is the only remaining steam sail ship in the world. It was built in 1866. We sailed out on the Pauline until we met the Hansteen and then we sailed alongside it until we reached the harbor. We then docked and the Hansteen docked a short time later. The weather forecast called for thunderstorms that evening, but when we boarded the Pauline it was cloudy with no rain. The entire trip took close to two hours, the last half hour to forty-five minutes it rained. Not only did it rain, but it down poured. We were all completely drenched by the time we got back to shore, and the rain let up within five minutes of docking, so we drove back the few minutes to Ingunn and Gunnar’s house and dried our clothes. While we waited for our clothes in the dryer, we visited more and they showed us pictures of their life, including pictures of their cabin up in the mountain. After our clothes were dry we went back down to the harbor for a light dinner.

Pauline in the harbor
(On a previous day)

The captian handling the rudder
(With Jan Olav and Ingunn at the right)

The captian and Gunnar

The crew tightening up one of the sails

Looking up the mast of the Pauline

Ingunn, Jan Olav, and Gunnar
below deck of the Pauline

 

 

Spotting the Hansteen from the Pauline
(The Skarnsund Bridge is in the background)

Looking at the Hansteen from the Pauline

 

The Hansteen cruising down the fjord

Me and Jan Olav on the Pauline

 

We went and ate on an old ferry boat, tied to the dock, which has been converted into an outdoor pub. The harbor is famous for its famous fish burgers; they serve many hundreds during their special time at the beginning of July. After Ingunn and Gunnar treated us to the fish burgers, Gunnar talked the captain of the Hansteen to let us tour his vessel. For about a year, a long time ago, this vessel was used as a Royal ship. Although the king was only on board one time (if I remember correctly), it was finished for royalty. The woodwork was exquisite, even though the interior was small, and it had pictures of the kings around the room. The engineer, who gave us the tour, showed us around the ship, including the steam engine room. The engine was quite large (and it was very hot in the room) and still uses coal to heat it. He opened the door to the furnace and showed us how the engine worked and was a very nice guide. We then left the ship and walked back up onto the dock a little after 9:00pm and we said our goodbyes to Ingunn and Gunnar. They were incredible hosts, and made our last day a very special one. We then drove back to our cabin in Åsen and packed our bags and didn’t get to bed until fairly late.

 

The Hansteen at the dock

Inside the Hansteen

 

A true porcelain throne
The Royal Bathroom onboard the Hansteen

The crews' quarters onboard the Hansteen

 

 

Sunday morning we got up, finished packing our bags, and picked up the cabin and then drove back up to Jan Olav’s house. We sat on his back deck visiting for about an hour and a half and then we went next door to Marna’s house and said our goodbyes. Then Jan Olav drove us back down to Værnes to the airport. We said our farewell and we went and checked in for our flight. We had about a two and a half hour wait, but we weren’t taking any chances on missing our flight. It turns out that it is quite the small airport, and we probably could have gotten there 45 minutes early and been fine. Oh well, it gave me time to write part of this blog.

Our flight was a little delayed because we had to wait for passengers from another flight that was running behind schedule, but it wasn’t too long. The flight went well and we arrive less than an hour later. I like short flights! We caught the Flybussen bus to the Brygge (wharf) and walked the couple blocks to our hotel. After checking in and dropping off our bags, we headed out to try to find some dinner. The weather forecast has been, and pretty much still is, rain, rain, rain. But when we got there, it wasn’t too bad. We walked around the wharf in search of some food and ended up, of all places, at TGI Friday’s. While we were eating, the rain came down; just as hard as it did when we were on the Pauline. People were ducking under any cover they could find until the worst passed. By the time we finished eating the rain had stopped, so we took our time walking back to the main wharf area. We looked through some of the food tents on the wharf and then started wandering over to the shops. And then it started to rain again. We barely made it to some little covered tourist kiosk before the monsoon came again. We waited under there, with many other people, for about five minutes or so before the rain stopped again. We then went over to the shops and browsed in a few of them and then wandered around some of the neat alleys of the wharf before heading back to our hotel. It was then 9:00pm and we were pretty tired out, so we just called it a night.

A neat alley on the wharf in Bergen

Looking back on the same alley in Bergen
(If you look carefully, you can see how badly
the buildings all lean. Quite the sight.)

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!

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!

Our Amazing Family in Hammerfest, and the Start of our Hurtigruten Cruise

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.)