We're back

We're back! Exhausted and broke, but full of stories to tell. Buy us a beer and we'll tell you all about Norway!

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about spending 16 days with my parents, but the family vacation couldn't have gone better. I had no idea we were such a functional family! Actually, it was more like traveling with friends (really old friends!) than with family. We shared all sorts of laughs, from inside the cramped confines of hotel elevators to picturesque mountaintops, from behind the wheel of our trusty Volvo (which we nicknamed "Cousin John," in honor of the family giant) to early 19th century farmyards. I can't thank them enough for all the fun memories.  And I owe a special thanks to our new Norwegian relatives for treating us so, so warmly! Tusen Takk!

 

Final day in Bergen

Another rainy day in Bergen! But, according to the almanac, that's no fluke. It rains about 260 days a year here. The locals (even the toddlers) have themselves fancy rain suits. But tourists like ourselves are stuck hopping over puddles with umbrellas in hand. Guess we should have read that almanac before we left. 

Anyhow, despite the weather we managed to do a little more sightseeing here and snuck in one final delicious meal, which was quite possibly the best restaurant dinner of the trip. The photos show Haakon's Hall (built in the 13th century) from the viewpoint of Rosenkrantz Tower (a 16th century royal residence).

Viva Espana!

After 14 days here, I guess we're starting to catch on to the European way of life. Tonight, we've decided to order in a pizza and watch the semi-finals of the EuroCup football championships. Since we're drinking Spanish wine with our meal, we've decided to root for Spain. 

Great Ball of Fire!

Ahoy! That glorious, radiant ball of flames we call the sun has returned! After several days of cool, rainy weather, we had warmth and sun for our morning drive into Bergen and our day in the city. After checking in to our hotel, we hightailed it to a nearby cafe for a pint and a sandwich on an outdoor patio. That alone would have been enough to keep us satiated the entire day, but since we had a full day of sunlight ahead of us, we decided to wander through the city and explore its various nooks and crannies (of which there are plenty). 

After dinner, we took a bottle of wine and three glasses down to the pier and toasted the sun as it finally began to set at about 10:30 pm. 

Snow fight at 1200 meters...

After several hours of driving on narrow roads and a failed attempt at battling a busload of tourists for a photo-opp, Doug and Connie decided to let off a little steam with a snowball fight up in the clouds. 

I hope the photos do the area justice. We passed up a fjord boat tour for a drive up this mountain and were not disappointed. In terms of scenery, it was one of the highlights of our trip thus far. 

Tourist country

We had our first major encounter with the tour bus brigades today near the Geirenger Fjord (and heard native English for the FIRST time since our arrival). Lord, those people are ruthless! They come storming off the tour bus with their cameras in clutch and you'd better hope you're not the poor soul standing between them and their Kodak moment. Yikes! 

We got a little claustrophobic amidst the crowds and decided to head for the hills (literally). And we couldn't be more happy with our decision. The route we took was astonishingly beautiful. We pulled over frequently to snap photos like these and breath in the cool mountain air. 

A few more photos from Alesund

Taken after 10 pm. 

Alesund

Here's your history lesson for today: Nearly the entire coastal town of Alesund, where we're currently holed up in our hotel room due to poor weather, was burned to the ground in January of 1904. Afterwards, with a little help from Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm, the town was re-built (this time in concrete & stone) in the Art Nouveau style. The "sentrum" (that's norske for downtown) is just gorgeous - cobble stone streets; windy, narrow roads; bayfront hotels and cafes.

Unfortunately, it's been cold and rainy all day today so we haven't been able to do as much walking and exploring as we'd like. It has let up a little bit now (at approx 9 pm), so I think we'll venture out. We're all a little stuffed from another excellent fish dinner and could probably use a little exercise. If you're ever over in these parts, be sure to try the monkfish (a.k.a. The Angler). It's one of the ugliest fish in the sea, but it tastes mighty good!

P.S. A big thanks to Frank, Ann, Hannah and Ellen for being such amazing hosts in Molde! 

More photos...

1. This is the Amundson/Dahle posse from Molde and Bud. Mom's had some trouble with her pronunciation here. Bud is pronounced Buuud. Try it. It's fun. After a delicious traditional fish dinner at the uber-authentic Slipon Restaurant we retired to Olaf and Dagny's beautiful home for coffee and dessert. 

2. Outside our hotel in Vinstra. 

3. Me and my new friend Bergfryd - the prettiest woman in Molde!

4. Ann, Doug, Connie and Frank after a drive along the Atlanterhavsvein - the Atlantic Road. It was cold, windy and rainy which sort of seemed appropriate for the scenery. 

5. A portrait of the port of Bud, painted by Frank's uncle. The Slipon Restaurant is in the 2nd building from the right. Bud has been a trading post and fishing village since the 16th century. 

Cruisin' Molde in Style

We arrived in Molde, a seaside town in the northwest, last evening and were greeted warmly by our hosts Frank and Ann, their daughters Hannah and Ellen, and Frank's brother Arne. We sat outside on their veranda and drank some excellent wine with yet another postcard view of the mountains. 

This morning, after another stellar Norwegian breakfast, we took a cruise around Molde in Arne's '57 Plymouth Fury, visiting a few shops here and there, but mostly just lookin' cool. (It's not that I really needed any help in that department, but the cruiser was a nice touch.)  

This afternoon, we gathered with my grandparents' cousin Bergfryd, who lavished us with a wonderful lunch. Dear reader, you haven't tasted strawberries until you've tasted NORWEGIAN STRAWBERRIES!   

We bought some fresh fish from the market earlier and we're now preparing a dinner of grilled monkfish, salmon, halibut and whale (!). 

(The last photo you see was snapped just a few seconds ago. For you Luddites out there, that's called Live Blogging. And that's why this blog is better than yours.) 

The weather's turning a little cloudy and rainy on us this evening, but it will be fascinating to watch as it moves from the mountains, to the sea and then to shore. 

Needle in a haystack

We packed rather lightly for our trip here - amazingly, just two small bags a piece. But one thing we made sure to pack was a letter that had been sent to my great aunt Martha (on my father's side) from a cousin named Alma in Dombaas, Norway back in 1976. In the letter, Alma mentions her two sons and a daughter. We've have incredible luck thus far in tracking down family, so, yesterday, we travelled to Dombaas on a bit of a whim. While I napped in the car, Mom and Dad walked into the post office. When Dad plopped the letter down on the counter, the woman behind the counter gasped. Alma was her mother-in-law! And better yet, was still residing in Dombaas! Her husband Asgeir, now a carpenter (a very skilled one, I might add), was just 20 years old when Alma's letter was sent. 

So, just a few hours later, we were sitting in Kirsti and Asgeir's living room with their son Mattis (a musician), Asgeir's brother Marten, and the lovely Alma! We had a wonderful time chatting with our new cousins, looking over photos and sipping on coffee. And we made sure to snap a family photo for the album. Asgeir and Kirsti's family have planned a trip to Route 66 next autumn. They've promised to stop in Minnesota to visit us and we're going to hold them to that promise!  

Vinstra

We spent much of yesterday in the Gudbransdale Valley, near the towns of Vinstra and Gausdal. We had an excellent lunch with Ingrid #2 (who we love as much as Ingrid #1 back in Oslo) and her family on their farm. Dad really enjoyed talking with her husband Erling about farm life in Norway. Erling and his Belorussian farmhand Micha raise dairy cattle and also have some land for haying. And I had fun playing football (soccer) with her son Mikkel and his pal Kristian. We also met our relative Erik, a spry and handsome 75 year-old man who knows the region very, very well. He was our tour guide (and Ingrid our translator) as we searched out Mom's ancestral farms. We were able to find the farms of both her maternal (Ronningen) and paternal (Amundson, Smikop) grandparents. 

I'm not sure the folks at Hertz Rental Car would approve of some of the routes we've been taking with the Volvo. Erik took us up and down some steep, windy, dirt roads commonly traveled by more sheep than cars. We're hoping for some rain today to clean off the dirty car. 

We spent last night in a quaint, B&B style hotel near the Vinstra River. The owner, a friendly Dutchman named Maarten, served us a few cold beers which we drank on a table at the river's edge.  And for the first time in a week, I was lucky enough to have my own little room, free from Mom and Dad's synchronized snoring! 

Lillehammer

Good morning, dear reader. And how are you this fine day? We just had another wonderful breakfast in our hotel here in Lillehammer - site of the '94 Winter Olympics. I'm not sure if they call it a "Continental Breakfast" here or not, but it sure as hell beats the free breakfasts in American hotels. 

Here's roll call for the typical breakfast buffet:

Waffle bar

Toast and jam

Yogurt and granola

Coffee and Juice

Cereal and milk

Potatoes, breakfast meats, eggs

And one heaping table of European deli-style meat, cheese, bread, fish, veggies, etc. 

Needless to say, we haven't had much of a need for lunch. 

We arrived here in Lillehammer yesterday afternoon after another spectacular drive. This time Dad drove, Mom rode shotgun and I took a brief snooze in the back seat of the Volvo. We then met up with another relative (who conveniently shares the same first/last name as Ingrid from Oslo) and spent the afternoon walking around the main shopping district here and chatting with her. Ingrid from Gausdal is a freelance journalist who writes about alternative health and environmental concerns. 

Later today we will meet Ingrid and her father to tour Mom's family farm and church near Kvikne and Vinstra. 

P.S. I forgot to rotate the photo of the Olympic ski jump. For the best results, please tilt your head so that your left ear is touching your left shoulder. How's that? Better? Good. 

In search of the giant

Oh boy. Lots to blog about yesterday. We picked up our rental car near our hotel in Oslo and managed to navigate our way out of the city. Oslo has some of those narrow, windy roads that Europeans seem to favor for some insane reason. It was a little nerve wracking, but we made it. 

Then it was on to Veggli, in search of the legendary family of giants from Dad's side of the family and the barn from their farm, which still stands. For several years now, Dad's been particularly interested in the story of Johann (John) Aasen, a man born in Minneapolis who grew to be over 9 feet tall. John spent some time in Hollywood, starring in a number of early silent films, and was also featured in various circus troupes. John's parents (the Danielsruud/Bakke family) are fairly well known in these parts. We even met a man in a nearby village who has been trying to get the government to commission a statue of John. A kind woman named Marie who lived on a beautiful farm near the Aasen farm offered to show us the site. Marie told us it would be difficult hiking and that it would take 10-15 minutes. Both were understatements! The trek began with a steep uphill climb on a muddy path that was just recently cleared of tall pines. At the summit, we walked another half mile over/under/through thick brush, mossy rocks and more pine trees. Eventually we reached the barn, built some time in the early 1800s and still relatively sturdy. Clearly, these folks loved solitude more than I love a good nap! But I must admit that the view from their farmyard is tough to beat. Mom still can't believe she was forced to make that hike, but is thankful that Dad's silly fascination with the giant came to some sort of fruitful finish. 

After descending Everest, we grabbed dinner at a restaurant in Veggli and asked some locals where we should spend the night. They recommended we drive on to Gol and gave us a locals-only shortcut to get there. Again, their interpretation of travel time and the curvatures of the road were slightly understated. But, the scenery was gorgeous and, with the 24-hour daylight, the mountain passes weren't too daunting.  

The hotel they recommended turned out to be very nice. The house band was absolutely awful and a round of beers cost us $40, but the room was great and the coffee at breakfast strong. 

Now, we're off on a three to four hour drive to Lillehammer.

Happy Birthday Kai Albert!

Happy 2nd birthday to my bestest buddy Kai Albert Haroldson! Kai is a lot like me: He likes books. He particularly likes books about trains, so I'm gonna keep my eye out for a cool book about trains while I'm here.

Hope you have an awesome birthday party buddy! Wish I could be there. And tell your Dad happy birthday for me tomorrow, will ya?

Holmenkollen

The best part about visiting the homeland is that you don't just make new friends, you make new cousins! We spent the better part of today (which started out rainy, but ended up being quite nice) with our relative Ingrid and her family. We ate dinner up near the ski jump hill at Holmenkollen. Both the view and the buffet were spectacular. 

So, meet my new cousins: Ole, Marie, Ingeborg, Fredrik, and Karoline. Karoline is only 9 months old but was very eager to walk. Fredrik was a little shy at first, but by the end of the day he and I were good friends. It's a good thing that there's no language barrier when it comes to peek-a-boo, Tom & Jerry, Legos and waterballoons!

Thanks to Ole, Marie, Ingeborg and Ingrid for being such gracious hosts and tour guides here in Oslo!

More photos

Just grabbed a few more photos off of Mom's camera. 

1. Toasting our Uncle Joel with Bloody Marys before leaving Mpls. 

2. The area near our hotel.

3. Kristina and I

4. Dad and I at the super modern Icelandic airport.