Day 14, cont. - For plant lovers

Most of my friends know I'm crazy for fuchsias, but can't grow them in Fair Oaks - it's too hot and dry in the summer.
There were 2 of these standards at the front door of the Ringve and each was loaded with blossoms.
Too bad they don't have any hummingbirds in Norway!

Day 14, cont. - Munkholmen and its ferry

This is the little ferry we took to the island of Munkholmen.
It has to fit under a rather low bridge at any tide, hence the squished look.

See - I wasn't kidding about the rain! We even had a lovely, and complete, rainbow later.

Day 14, cont. - Boats in Trondheim's harbor

I really like these old-fashioned wooden boats.

Fishermen actually use these wooden "canoes" to fish in the harbors and fjords.

Day 14, cont. - Two images

This is "Den Siste Viking" or "The Last Viking"
He stands guard over the harbor of Trondheim.

Are we in Norway or Texas?
This restaurant is just to the right of the Last Viking statue!

Day 14, cont. - Nidaros Cathedral

The carving on this cathedral was stunning. Next time we visit, we'll take the time to go inside.
Sorry I couldn't get the entire front in a photo frame. It's impressive.

Day 14 - Sep. 1

This day was a biggie. First, I have to tell you that it rained pretty much all day. Not to be deterred because this was our only opportunity to explore this ancient and very important city, we donned our raincoats and headed out the door, maps, cameras and binoculars at the ready. (Note: Blogspot has upgraded their posting capabilities and I can now put captions under photos. I'm going to try that for the photos, but will describe where we went on this day in the body of this post. Subsequent posts will have the photos. Something with this, * means that there's a photo in a later post.)

We wanted to visit Munkholmen * which is a very small island in the harbor. It was used as a prison starting in the 11th century and some truly barbaric things happened there. To get there, one takes a 15-minute ferry *, unfortunately, we arrived at the ferry one hour BEFORE it left on its first trip of the day. Since it was raining, we dashed into a little bakery and had a coffee and shared a small, but luscious, sweet roll. That took about 20 minutes, so we headed back outside and decided to go to the Nidaros Cathedral * which was about 1/4 mile away, but directly up the street from where we were. Took a couple of photos outside (no photos allowed inside) and when we went to have a peek inside, we were told we had to pay. Time was getting short and, since we were more interested in learning about barbaric treatment of prisoners in the 11th to 15th centuries than we were in seeing the inside of a cathedral, we politely declined and walked back to the ferry. They were beginning to load passengers, so we were happy.

When the tour of Munkholmen was over, we decided to take the bus to the Ringve Museum, which houses an incredible collection of musical instruments of all kinds and from all parts of the world. This was one of the most interesting museums I've ever visited. I know that many of you, friends and family, are musically inclined and I encourage you to visit their website: http://www.ringve.com/English/  Their collection of instruments * on display in a building called "The Barn" is mind-boggling! Almost all instruments are behind glass and my camera's photos were all out of focus, but Ivan was able to adjust his camera to get some nice ones. There are three photos later on. We spent much of the day here.

We finally left on the bus back to town. Since it was still raining and we were tired, we elected to have dinner at the hotel again. Not as good the second time, but it sustained us.

(Another note: I took several photos of odd things we saw and those will be posted with small explanations with them. A couple probably won't need explanation!)

Editor's Note

Just a quick note to say that we arrived and checked into our hotel in Lund a couple of hours ago. I have notes on the previous days, but access to the internet has been spotty at best - not as bad as Cuba, but somewhat difficult to make work. The date is 5 Sept. and I'm writing these posts as quickly as I can. (Don't tell him I told you this, but Ivan's having a nap as I write!)

Day 13, cont.- to Trondheim

Our ride on the train was uneventful. It rained almost all the way to Trondheim as we zipped past farms and beautiful mountains. I dozed a bit of the time, read some, dozed some more. I was glad that, if it HAD to rain, now was a good time for it to do it! As you can see from the map, there were long distances in between stops, so that "rhythm of the rails" thing turned out to be quite relaxing.

We arrived in Trondheim around 2:45PM and got a cab to our hotel. The ride took about 6 minutes and, when we saw where we were, we realized that we could have easily walked from the station to the hotel! Live & learn, I guess!

We had only 2 nights at this hotel, so we didn't do much unpacking. We found a place to get dinner and set off in an attempt to find the place. We had our little map and thought we had followed it precisely, but ended up about 6 blocks away from where we wanted to be. Everyone in Norway understands, and speaks, English, so we asked someone who was putting a bicycle away for directions. He steered us in the proper direction, but when we arrived at the address, it was a place of a different name and it served only sandwiches. We wanted a proper dinner, so we decided to go back to the hotel and have dinner there. It turned out to be an excellent decision! The food was great and the location was certainly quite handy!

Day 13 - Departure from Mo i Rana

This morning, the weather apty mirrored my feelings as we said goodbye to Astrid and Svein. It was chilly and rainy and the sky was filled with clouds of varying shades of grey. I have loved our time with these two family members - we shared laughs, concerns, happy tales, sad tales and general family stories. They were just the best of hosts and I'm so glad that we finally made a connection, met and discovered how much we enjoy each other.

Our train, the 8:25AM to Trondheim, was awaiting our boarding. We gave our hugs goodbye and took our seats.

On the way to the train station, Svein stopped so I could take a photo of this little display at the town border. There were flowers everywhere in Mo i Rana - it's a lovely city in Norway.

Day 12 - Back to Mo i Rana

Oddvar and Solveig came back to Per Kristian's house while we were having breakfast (and I was freaking out at the Jay), and we bid them farewell until we would be back in Oslo. Astrid, Ivan and I drove back to Mo i Rana, a long drive taking a coupe of hours. We drove past some of the loveliest country anywhere - lakes and fjords and islands and mountains and beautiful small farms.

Once back at Astrid and Svein's house, we greeted Svein, who had taken the bus back from the house in Sandnessjøen. While Ivan and I re-packed our bags, Astrid set about fixing us our first ever dinner of reindeer meat. It was really quite good. After dinner, she excused herself and Svein, Ivan and I chatted about the state of the world. I was astonished a few moments later when Astrid re-appeared in this, her "Nordlandsbunad" which means the traditional costume worn by the women of the Nordland region. Some are green, as Astrid's is, and some are blue. These are worn at, or to commemorate, significant events in a girl's life, such as confirmation. Astrid wore hers at her wedding! When her children were baptised, she wore it. The costume is hand made with exquisite embroidery on the skirt, the vest and on the little purse that hangs on the left side of the skirt. The men wear costumes with similar embroidered designs, but they knickers knickers. She looked radiant when she showed us her bunad. BTW, this is the same costume she wore at her wedding!

Day 12 - Aug. 30 Per Kristian's house

After sharing dinner with Øystein and Toril, we all headed to Per Kristian's house. Oddvar and Solveig headed to their house in Sandnessjøen while Ivan, Astrid and I stayed here at the beautiful home of Per Kristian and his wife, Rakel. While we ate breakfast in the morning (window behind the group) we watched 3 magpies chasing a falcon, several Pied wagtails foraging on the ground and, best of all, a Jay taking food which Rakel had thrown onto the lawn. You MUST see this bird:

Photo taken by Luc Viatour and taken from the Internet

Imagine sitting quietly, eating your breakfast when this gorgeous bird appears on the lawn right outside your window! The bird is large, larger than a Western Scrub Jay, and extremely extroverted. Lar, this was our Norwegian crippler!

Day 11 - End of the day

Not only did we have a wonderful afternoon on Øystein's boat, he and his wife, Toril, had all of us to dinner that evening! It was a wonderful spread and, once the meal was done, Ivan hopped up and took a photo of the assembled Nordnes clan! L-R are Toril, me, Solveig, Astrid, Oddvar and Øystein. They have a lovely home and the dinner was delicious.

Day 11, cont. - Yet more!

When we had seen the entire town of Leland, we headed to the docks at Sandnessjøen (pronounced 'sandeshon' - much easier than it looks!). There, Øystein (sibling #3) and his 11-year old grandson, Mikal, were awaiting our arrival in their beautiful boat! We were treated to about 2 hours of cruising around the islands off Sandnessjøen. The photo is of a very famous mountain range called "Seven Sisters." The one in the middle that looks like two peaks in one is actually just that - two peaks in one! Astrid has "walked" up all seven multiple times. Oddvar had done a cuple of them and has verified that the trek is not technical, that, if you give yourself enough time, anyone who is fit can get to the top of any of them. There's even a competition in which people summit each of the peaks in one day! Next time we come here, I'd love to do one or two of them. We were told that the views are worth the hike up.

Day 11, cont. - Leland School

Across the street from the little church was this building. It was the school where the Nordnes boys went to their primary education. The building had been made into a sort of museum, mostly to save it for the sake of having a real bit of history for people to see. The fact that it's the actual building where our Bestefars had gone to school was, for us, an added bonus.

I'm not sure if Bestefar sat at one of these very desks, but, if not, he sat at one quite similar. I can imagine him getting into trouble with spitballs and inkwells.

Before leaving the area, we had to have a group photo of the people whose relatives had spent time in this little schoolhouse.

Day 11, cont. - Goosebump moment

Services were finished at the church where we had been poking around the cemetery and so we wandered in. Oddvar told me that this church was where my Bestefar had been baptised. One feels reluctant to take photos inside a church, but what happened next was so unexpected, that I discarded that reluctance. The church is of the Lutheran denomination and is a bit different from the Catholic churches I had been used to. The priest approached us with a big smile and he and Oddvar had a brief conversation during which the minister shook our hands and took us to the altar area of the church. He pointed out the baptismal font and said it was 300 years old and had been in that church since it had been built in 1869. Oddvar then said that this was the very font over which my Bestefar had been baptised in 1885. It was one of those 'OMG' moments that sort of took my breath away.

Day 11, cont. - Cemetery in Leland

After spending some time looking at these lovely rolling hills where so many family farms were located, we drove into the little town of Leland. We went to the churchyard where an extremely old cemetery is situated. Oddvar said that my Bestefar's parents may have been buried there, but the headstones had deteriorated so much over the years that they were removed. Graves were considered a part of a family's duty to maintain and, if families moved away, or were not diligent in keeping the gravesite mowed and the stone in good condition, such things happened. The family had 'ownership' of a grave for 60 years and, after that, if needed, someone else could be buried in that place.

In a newer part of the cemetery, Oddvar showed us the headstone over his grandparents' grave. If you remember from the family chart at the beginning of this blog, Ole Andreas and Hans Martin (my Bestefar) were brothers and their adventurous spirit in heading to the wilds of the Territory of Alaska in 1912 had some significant consequences, such as my existence and, ultimately, your reading of this blog!

Day 11 - Home of Grandparents, continued

(This photo fits nicely on the right side of the top photo)

We met up with Oddvar and his wife, Solveig, somewhere on the road to Leirfjord. Oddvar had scouted out the places where my Bestefar (Grandfather) had been born and grew up, as well as places where his parents lived and were buried. 

These photos are of the farm where Bestefar possibly/probably lived and grew up. The people who live on this farm now were not home, so we couldn't ask them any questions about the history of the farm. This was an aspect of hands-on research that I found amazing and refreshing. Oddvar simply asked someone who was walking on the road whether he had any knowledge of this farm's history. The man said he had just moved there and so didn't know much about the area. He and Oddvar chatted for a few minutes and then we left. I thought it remarkable that a conversation with a perfect stranger had been amicable and friendly, with neither conversant being concerned about who was asking what about whom.

Day 11 - Aug. 29 Home of Grandparents

This day was a biggie, both emotionally and travel-wise. As you know, one of the purposes of this trip was to see some of the places where my maternal grandparents grew up. A truly wonderful facet of this trip has been spending time with the grandkids (all my age!) of my grandfather's brother, Ole Andreas Nordnes.  Ole's eldest son, Kristian, had 4 children, Astrid, Oddvar, Øystein, and Per Kristian and, on this day, we spent time with ALL of them! We had more fun than should be legal! But, first things first.

In the morning, Astrid, Svein, Ivan and I had an early breakfast, then Svein elected to stay home fixing various things around the house while the rest of us went off to the ferry to Levang and Leirfjord where we were to meet up with Oddvar.

Day 10 - Dinner and sleep

Peter and Grandpa

We had dinner at the home of Astrid's daughter, Lisbeth. She is a remarkable and very capable young woman who has 2 adorable kids, Vera and Peter. For dinner, she had made several kinds of pizza, all of which were delicious. When we arrived, she asked what we'd like to drink. I sort of jokingly asked if she had Arctic Beer (an actual brand!) and she didn't hesitate to say she did!  Hence the photo!

We shared this festive meal with Astrid's elder son, Asbjørn, and his wife, Anette. 

After dinner, we headed to Astrid and Svein's holiday home in Levang. This cabin is a rustic 2-story building that sits right on the water. We had a comfy room and slept well there.

Day 10 - Return from the Circle

Once heading back from the frigid zone of 66°33', we had some fun watching a White-tailed Eagle as it eyed its dinner in the form of 2 Goosanders, birds that look like Mergansers, but aren't. The Goosanders knew the eagle was in the tree above them and were very wary, diving underwater at the slightest hint that the eagle was coming. When Ivan got out of the car to photograph the eagle (or the goosanders, whichever would work), the show was over. The eagle flew away and, since Svein had stopped in the middle of the road so we could watch this show, we headed further south toward Mo i Rana. (BTW, 'i' in Norwegian means 'in.' Rana is a municipal district and, since there are several towns in Norway with the name of Mo, this one is differentiated by adding the 'i Rana' to it.)

We visited a dam along the river in Mo. Svein told us that it is used for power in the city and it's really quite interesting. The river bottom at the base of the spillway is solid rock and we could see several holes in this bottom surface, holes that were made by very large stones getting caught in the current from the spillway flow and spun around and around until they made deep depressions in the rock. At some point in this process, the whirling stone would break up from the relentless pounding of the water and all that would remain would be a very big, and almost perfectly ball-shaped hole. There were lots of these holes of varying sizes, but all looked as though a ball had been in the hole sometime in the past.