Day 23 At the Airport

I am at the airport in Oslo waiting to board my first flight.
Got up very early and took the train to the airport.
Oslo has great public transportation!!

Day 22 Last Day in Norway

Today was my last day in Norway.
Once again I continue to eat lefse.
They sell it at all the small markets.
Another beautiful warm day in Oslo.
I went back to the Munch Museum.
I heard from Mitzi. She made it home.
I am getting up very early to catch the train
to the airport.
This has been a great trip with wonderful memories.
Hope you have enjoyed following our journey!!

Day 21 Mitzi Goes Home

Mitzi went home today. I had a very quiet day walking around Oslo.
I had dinner at the Opera House.
Once again beautiful warm weather.

Day 20 Back to Oslo

We left Bergen and the rain today. We traveled by train back to Oslo.
Mitzi is headed home tomorrow morning.
We had a nice dinner at the Opera House tonight.
This has been a great journey seeing Norway.
It is difficult to choose our favorite experience.
We have seen so many different parts of Norway.
More to come from Connie who has 2 more days in Norway.

Day 19: Back in Bergen

It was a rainy day in Bergen, but still fun to get around.  We went shopping the morning.  This is a view of our hotel from across the harbor.

The fish market is at the center of the harbor.  We're going there for dinner tonight.

Mitzi went out to see the composer Edvard Grieg's house in Troldhaugen, a little ways out of the city.

Everyday they have an afternoon concert by a famous Norwegian pianist.  This is a picture of the concert hall from the outside.

And this is the view from the inside.

Jens Harald Bratlie played today.  He is an acclaimed soloist and also plays with the Oslo trio.  The concert was a wonderful treat.

Day 18: Rain, Books, and Boats

The rain finally caught up with us in Balestrand, but we still had a great day.  

Connie's cousin's from Montana came into Balestrand. We had dinner with them last night.

Today we took a small ferry up to Fjaerland.

It was a very pretty 2 hour trip, even with the rain.

Fjaerland is also known as Bookbyen, which means book town.  How cool is that?

There are 10 bookstores in this tiny town.

It's quite an amazing place.

As usual, we found a great place for lunch.

Then we took the express Ferry back to Bergen.  We're back in our same wonderful waterfront room.

Day 17: Art in Balestrand and Vik

Balestrand is famous for the many artists who came here to summer since the 1800s.  The Kviknes Hotel has great examples of very old art as well as modern paintings in it's new wing.

There are various art installations around town.  This one is very close to our hotel.

Another interesting thing we've noticed is the chimneys.  Many have a flat piece of slate over the top and then a rock on top like the two in these photos.  There are many explanations for why the rocks are on top including keeping the slate from blowing away and scaring birds.  We think they are little art pieces in and of themselves.

We took the ferry this morning to a town called Vik with a Stave Church.  The Hopperstad Stave Church is one of only 28 remaining in Norway. This one was built in 1140.  Although the Viking era had come to an end, most of the people were still seafarers and made the ceiling like an overturned boat.  It was really an amazing building.

There were intricate carvings.

We also found out that there was medieval graffiti on some of the walls.  Not sure whose "tag" this, but we sure liked seeing it.

Day 16: Strolling Around Balestrand

We are enjoying the peacefulness of Balestrad, situated on the Sognefjord.  The Kviknes hotel has been running since 1752 .  The family that runs it today has owned it since 1877.

There are many public sitting rooms--here is an example of one.  It feels like you are in a past century.  The food is also outstanding.



We are still charmed by the vistas from our room and balcony.  What a spectacular place.





There is a mile walk along the waterfront that we took today.  This is St. Olaf's Church.

The interior carving is magnificent.

We've had another sunny day, so the walk along the water was especially pleasant.

Kaiser Wilhelm II summered in Balestrand for many years.  We're not sure which house he summered in, but there were many beautiful homes that had a swiss-chalet style, only with dragons on the roof to represent the vikings.

These Oyster Catchers were enjoying the good weather from roof-tops in town.

Day 15: Goodbye Skjolden, Hello Balestrand

In the Skjolden Visitors Center there is carving work by one of Connie's cousin who lives in Minnesota, but is still famous in Norway. We saw many pieces he made for family members in Skjolden. He is Brynhild's uncle.

Yesterday, after going to the visitor's center with Brynhild and her sister, Ingrrunn, we walked around the town for one more great view of the river.

In the evening we went back to visit Tomas Bolstad and his family. They served us waffles and coffee.
Below are Johanne with her twin daughters Marthe & Thea, her niece Henriette, and Connie.

Gyda gave Mitzi and Connie these great hand made mittens as parting gifts.  We love them.

Today we took the bus from Skjolden to Balestrand.  We're staying at the Kvikness Hotel.  A great old hotel.  We'll put on views from our balcony tomorrow.

Day 14: Skjolden--More Cousins and Mountains

We started and ended today with meeting more of Connie's cousins.  We really enjoyed meeting them all. This is Tomas Bolstad  & his wife Berit with their family. Here are their two daughters Johanne and Borghild and their grandchildren. More to come. As with Brynhild's family they welcomed us into their home warmly. They showed us pictures of well known members of our family in the local tourist office. 

Then Brynhild and Gyda took us on an amazing ride up into the mountains around Skjolden.    This photo is of the original  Bolstad farm.

A little further up we hit beautiful snow covered mountains with glaciers.

This is Brynhild and Connie in the mountains above Skjolden.

All along the mountain road, there were hundreds of markers made of stone that guided hikers  before there were roads and people walked from town to town.  Gyda has made the trek over the mountains many times.

On the way down the mountain there were beautiful views of Skjolden.

One interesting note is that Connie's great grandfather was friends with philosopher  Ludwig Wittgenstein, who spent a lot of time in Skjolden.  Gyda even has his table in her kitchen.

Day 13: Buses & Bolstads "Connie's cousins"

After two wonderful sunny days in Bergen we took 3 buses to get to Skjolden, the small village where Connie has relatives.  It rained the whole way, which was fine because we were on the bus.  The bus drivers in this part of the country are awesome.  We had to connect to 3 buses (one that went on a ferry) to get to Skjolden.  The connections were really tight, but this bus driver called ahead to the next bus to make sure we wouldn't miss the connection.  It worked like clockwork.

We went through around 20 tunnels to get to Skjolden.  It's very interesting because many of the tunnels are just dug out with the natural rock walls showing (no reinforced concrete).  You can kind of see it in this photo.

We drove through many small villages and saw how the locals adapted to the weather.

Even though it rained a lot on our six hour bus trip, we saw some amazing scenery.

When we finally arrived in Skjolden,  Brynhild, Connie's cousin met our bus.   This village is at the very end of Lustrafjorden.  These are the views from our room at the local hotel.

After we got settled in out hotel, Brynhild walked us up to her mother's house.  It was a beautiful walk.

There is an amazingly stunning river on the way to the house.

Brynhild's mother-Gyda's house was charming with a beautiful view of the fjord.   

 

We also met Brynhild's brother-Harvlard.  They welcomed us into their home and served us delicious cake and Lefse. After hearing about the family from Carol and reading my cousin Bill's journal, we were very impressed with their warmth and hospitality.  We are so happy we came to Skjolden.

We came back to our hotel and while we were at dinner another cousin Johanne came to the hotel to visit us. We were at dinner so we missed her but plan to meet her tomorrow.