Tiptoe through the tulips with me!: Our trip to Sweden and Norway, September 2013

Saturday, September 7th

All it took was a toss of a jacket, and we were locked out of the car! We left for Sweden via Oslo after the attendant unlocked the car for us.

For several weeks prior to our trip I and my Mom had been conversing via snail mail, email and Facebook with relatives in Sweden and Norway. The husband of my grandfather's cousin lives in Sweden and agreed to meet with us. While enroute I called him via cellphone to decide on a meeting place. He said he would meet us in a little town called Svinesund, which is right on the other side of the Norwegian/Swedish border.

We met in a Burger King parking lot. We got a bite to eat and planned out our day. Sven is such a wonderful man. He brought an old photo album which belonged to his late wife. In it were a lot of photos of people we recognized.

From there we all piled into one car and Sven took us to Halle, the place where my great-grandfather was born. He took us to the old family farm! It was quite emotional being there......seeing sights and stepping places my ancestors had been.

We then continued to the town of Halle...where my grandfather may have left the country from. It's unknown exactly where he left from......Sven told us stories too about the Germans invading that area and some Swedish people hiding in the woods acting as snipers against them.

This was an old railway station. It is unknown if my great-grandfather took the train out of the country or a boat. If he took the train it most likely would have been from here.

That night we spent the night at the Hotell Kungshamn. What a gorgeous place! We had separate rooms and both had unbelievable views!

We went to our hotel and Sven went to his home and we planned to meet for dinner later in the evening in the town of Kungshamn. We thought the restaurant in our hotel was serving dinner but found out they were not. So, we all met at the hotel and walked down to the marina area where we had dinner. Mom, Dad, Sven and his wife Birgitta, Andrew and I had dinner together. What a wonderful meal and time for sharing stories!

Sunday, September 8th:

The next morning we met with Sven and his son Johan. We spent the day together exploring the coastline.

Swing bridge:

We stopped for lunch in Smogen:

After lunch we said our good-byes to Sven and Johan. Andrew and I went for a walk around the canal in search of a Swedish flag, trying to get there before all the shops closed. Unfortunately, the shop we were told had the flags was already closed when we arrived. It was a pretty walk though!

For dinner that evening we went to a little grocery store down the street, bought some snacks and took it back to the room to eat! We sat out on the patio and enjoyed a meal together with a beautiful view!

Monday, 9 September 2013

We got up around 6:00 a.m. to set out for Sokna, Norway in the car to see relatives on my Mom's side of the family. The family still owns the farm that has been "handed down" for generations. Thankfully the restaurant was open for breakfast in the morning so we were able to get a bite to eat before hitting the road. The family was expecting us around noon, so we thought we'd better get an early start. Google maps told us it would take 3 1/2 hours to drive there, but we have learned to add at least an hour to a drive like that since the terrain was unfamiliar to us.

We stopped at a rest stop along the way...

We made our way up through Honefuss to Sokna to the family farm.

There we met with Ola:

and other family members and neighbors: Gubrund and Randi, Hilge and Olav and Else Marie,

This is the original farmhouse where my great-grandmother was born:

Randi served a lovely lunch for all of us in their home which is on the same property. Ola now lives in the old farmhouse. Randi had meat from boar and other wild animals the men in the family had hunted, a beautiful salad, etc. We ate in their dining room, then went outside on the patio afterwards for a bit.

After lunch we headed over to the church where my great-grandmother was baptized: Lunder Kirke.

Else Marie met us there and took us through the church:

The original baptismal font:

After going through the church we went out into the cemetery where we were surprised to learn that several of our ancestors were buried:

Later that afternoon we were invited over to Hilge and Olav's home in town.

Gubrund used to own the gas station in town:

We later returned to the farm and had dessert and coffee. Gubrund's brother, Bjorn joined us. The men were all planning to go hunting that evening, so they were all going to head up to their hunting cabin together.

We didn't want to overstay our welcome, so we left before dinnertime! We headed back to Oslo where we had to return the rental car. Andrew and I dropped off Mom and Dad at the hotel (Scandic Byporten) while we went downtown to return the car. The directions we had been given were imprecise so it took about an hour longer than we had planned to return the car. In the meantime Mom and Dad ate leftovers from our "munchies" from the night before. Andrew and I stopped at Burger King in the Oslo train station for dinner around 22.00 hrs. We had had to stop there to pick up our tickets for the Norway in a Nutshell trip which was the next day. We finally got back to our room around 23.00 hrs. and planned to meet Mom and Dad for breakfast in the morning before heading out!

Since our train was leaving Oslo at 08.05hrs., we met for breakfast around 0700hrs, packed and ready to go! We had a nice breakfast, grabbed our luggage and off we went for the train station. Our hotel was right next door, so it was very convenient. Andrew and I had scoped it all out the night before, so we knew where to go.

The train left at 08.05hrs. The schedule was supposed to be as follows:

Depart Oslo (towards Bergen) 08.05, arrive in Myrdal at 12.44hrs by train.
Depart Myrdal 1:27 and arrive in Flam 14:25hrs by small gauge train.
Depart Flam 15:10 hrs and arrive in Gudvangen at 17:30 via boat.
Depart Gudvangen 17:45 and arrive in Voss at 19:00 via bus.

The schedule seemed very doable. We were to take our luggage with us, but the schedule was such that it wasn't a problem at all.

Well, there was an election the day before. The conservative party won, leaving the liberals fit to be tied. Soooooo, they shut down the train system-nation wide! Our train had to stop pretty much in the middle of nowhere and just wait........

The system was shut down for at least two hours. We were certain we wouldn't be able to do our tour. But, much to our surprise, the conductor came and told us that we could stay on our tour, we would just be a couple of hours delayed! We were so happy!

We arrived in Myrdal ....

and got on the small gauge train:

From there we went up, up, up...and saw beautiful landscape throughout the ride!

We arrived in Flam about an hour later.

We boarded the boat and headed to Gudvangen, which was a two hour, twenty minute ride through the fjords.

Oh my, everywhere we looked there were breathtaking views! I took so many photos, there is no way I could post them all, so I will just post a few. I highly recommend a fjord cruise if anyone takes a trip to Norway.

We landed in Gudvangen......got off the boat and headed to the bus to Voss.

Put the luggage in the undercarriage......

Said good-bye to Gudvangen....

and boarded the bus to Voss.

We arrived at our hotel (the Park Hotel Voss) after 21.00 hrs. We decided to have dinner in the dining room, which was very nice!

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel dining room and prepared to catch the train from Voss to Bergen. We had a little time to kill so we walked around outside the hotel. What a beautiful place!

Our train to Bergen departed at 10.18hrs, scheduled to arrive in Bergen at 11:30hrs. Another beautiful trip!

It was quite a trek (with luggage) to our hotel.....over cobblestone sidewalks, but we did it! We stayed overnight at the Thon Hotel Bergen Brygge. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and decided to go find a place to get some lunch.

We had a nice lunch and then did some walking around Bergen. It's a bustling city. The people were very friendly and we were lucky to have nice weather while we were there!

We went back to the hotel later on, then went out for dinner in town.

The following day we had a good portion of the day to do some exploring and shopping!

As you can see I loved the Fire Boat.....it looked soooooo cool docked there!

We decided to take a ride to the top of the mountain above Bergen on the Floibanan:

We had a little treat before heading back down!

Early evening we caught a bus from our hotel to the airport. Our plane for Trondheim departed at 19.40hrs and arrived there at 20.40hrs. We saw this beautiful gazebo in Bergen on our way to the airport!

When we arrived in Trondheim our relatives (Asbjorn and Elin, Edvard and Anne) picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel, the Rica Bakklandet. Because it was so late they just dropped us off and we made plans for the following day...where to meet, what time, etc. Very very sweet people!

We had a nice dinner in the dining area and headed off to bed! The next morning we had breakfast in the dining room of the hotel and then Asbjorn and Elin, Turid and her husband Norvald met us at the hotel at 09:30.

Our first stop with them was the Bakke Church where my great-grandmother Kristine (Grandma Eleanor's Mom) was baptized.

Next we went by the Trondheim mekanske verksted/Solsiden Shopping Center which is a place where Great-Grandma Kristine had worked.

Our next stop was Gregus gt. 6 in Trondheim (Trondhjem in Norwegian). This is where my great-grandmother lived with her family.

Seeing the home was very emotional.

Next stop was the Trondhjem Preserving Company where great grandma Kristine also worked:

We then went to the Lademoen School and Lademoen Church.

We went by the Kristiansten Fortress. We had run out of time so we weren't able to go inside....

At around noon we (Asbjorn, Elin, Turid, Norvald, Irene, Rolf, Anne, Mom, Dad, Andrew and I) went to lunch at Tyholttarnet. What a beautiful place! From there we got a view of the entire city. The restaurant makes a 360 degree turn once an hour. It made me a little dizzy so I couldn't look out very much!

After lunch we went back to our hotel, then walked around Trondheim a bit.

Later that evening we had dinner at Asbjorn and Elin's home. It was a wonderful meal shared with warm welcoming people!

We spent the night again at the Rica Bakklandet. At 09:15 hrs., Saturday, 14 September 2013. Asbjorn picked us up at our hotel. We went along with he and Anne to the Nidaros Cathedral.