As I was making arrangements for our 16 day trip to Norway that Celia, Thor and I were planning to take, I became aware that things were different than in other trips: we would be exploring Celia's ancestry instead of mine. Neither Thor, Celia nor I knew the language. Travel information was incomplete, mostly about busses we needed. Virtually every train we were to use recommended reserved seating and the hotel arrangements at the towns and cities I had specified were made almost entirely by a travel agent.
Nevertheless, the enjoyment potential was very high as we thought about people and places we would see during the upcoming trip. At some time during the days before we left, the first words of the ballad in the movie "The Hobbit" came to mind: "The greatest adventure, is what lies ahead....".
It fit perfectly with my mood -- even more so when I had listened to the stanzas of the ballad, sung by Mister Bilbo Baggins: (Celia copied them below!)
"The greatest adventure,
Is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow,
Are yet to be said.
The changes, the chances,
Are all yours to make.
The mold of your life,
Is in your hands to break.
The greatest adventure,
Is there if you're bold.
The goal of the moment,
That life makes you hold.
Can make the meaning, Can make you delay.
The man, who's a dreamer,
And never takes leave,
That thinks of the world,
As just make believe,
Will never know passion,
Will never know pain,
Who sits by the window
Will one day see rain.
The greatest adventure,
Is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow,
Are yet to be said.
The changes, the chances,
Are all yours to make.
The mold of your life,
Is in your hands to break.
The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead ..."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday, May 30, 2001:
Elaine and Carl picked Celia and me up at 8 a.m. and took us, along with Thor, to Lambert airport in St. Louis. The planned connection at Philadelphia went well.
Thursday, May 31, 2001:
Our flight from Philadelphia to Brussels was on time, getting us there at 10 a.m.
While hunting a place to eat lunch, Celia saw a "duty free" Walt Disney Store and bought a black visor cap complete with the bright yellow embroidered "Harry Potter" in front with its signature lightning bolt.
We had the experience of selecting our lunch at a "cafeteria" (with only modest success), and paying for it with some Belgian francs left over from our trip to Wiltz, Luxemburg, a few years ago.
The flight from Brussels to Oslo went well. We got our Scanrail Passes validated at the airport and used an InterCity train to get to the Oslo main train station. A walk of three blocks (along an extra wide cobbled stone main street, Karl Johannes Gate, which leads directly to the Royal Palace) and we were at the Hotel Foenix, where we checked in.
Thor and I used a money machine, that we had passed on the way to the hotel, then returned for Celia and went to McDonalds, also on the way from the train station to the hotel. A phone call home by Thor climaxed the day!
Friday, June 1, 2001:
This was a transfer day. I went to the airport, bought 3 round trip tickets from Oslo to Askim and checked on train departure & arrival times. After checking out of the hotel, we had lunch at the Burger King at the corner of the main street, Karl Johannes Gate, then boarded the train for Askim. After counting the eleven stops from Oslo, we got off the train, Thor spotted the tower of our Smaalenene Hotel, across the highway from the train station. We used the underpass and checked in (after waiting in its nicely furnished lounge for a while).
Soon after that our Avis rental car was delivered! It was a Touring station wagon. We decided to take it for a drive to the Eidsberg Church, which was marked on a map we got from the hotel. We had a pleasant drive, found it immediately and took pictures of it and some tombstones, a very satisfying accomplishment!
Our supper at the hotel was a Farmer's Omelet in mushroom sauce with a half salad on the plate with a mixed and colorful assortment of lettuce, strips of red pepper and several whole black olives. Raspberry mint ice cream dessert celebrated our day.
Saturday, June 2, 2001:
We had a leisurely buffet breakfast. We'd nearly finished before a person showed up with milk for the cereal. Then we traveled to Mysen, having an adventure while looking for the Eidsberg Folkenberg Museum, with signs that were unclear and even after asking questions, in English, of a Norwegian man, walking for exercise along the road, who spoke only Norwegian. He was able to help us by pointing, as "Folkenberg Museum" & "2 kilometers" sounds similar in both languages. After we got there we decided we didn't want to go inside. Then we stopped for lunch in Mysen at the By The Way FamilieRestaurant, where we got not only food, but a map of Mysen.
We followed it to the mid-town area of Mysen and parked near the Mysen Church, where a wedding was being conducted. We browsed the cemetery until the wedding was over. The bride was in white. The groom and best man were in their tuxedos. The bridemaids wore their traditional Norwegian regional festival dresses.
Then, as the person in charge was closing the doors, we asked if we could see the inside. This man was very gracious, as Celia showed him her Norwegian genealogy book written in Norwegian. They had a good conversation. He had learned English as a seaman. He took Celia into a side room to an altar with portraits of Anton H. Mysen and his wife Marie. The main street through town, Anton H. Mysen Avenue, honors him, whose estate gave money to build the current little brown wood church, now standing at the site. Its stained glass windows stood about mid-high along its side walls, plus an equivalent series of windows, just below the roof as well. Originally it was built in the stave church design.
Then we went on to try some shopping. We got the a bookstore before it closed, but the one store we had enjoyed seeing in 1989 was closed by the time we got there. On our way out of town, we saw an Internet Cafe Shop. So we spent some time there. The two young gentlemen were very hospitable, showing us not only the usual internet access (albeit slow), but some very powerful simulation programs, Thor was able to use.
The taller of the two men was curious to look at Celia's Hoie-Mysenslekta genealogy book closely, musing that he had Hoie relationahips! He had been in the U.S. Coast Guard earlier. He looked like great-grandpa's brother, Johann, who has his portrait in the book! Then back to the Smaalenene Hotel for supper (a menu being catered for a wedding reception dinner that same afternoon) and a restful evening.
Sunday, June 3, 2001:
In the press of getting ready to leave, Celia discovered she was missing her black vest jacket and had perhaps left it at the Internet Cafe or at the By The Way restaurant at Mysen.
After breakfast we got in the car to see if we could find a cluster of houses shown as "Eidsberg" on the map.
Eidsberg is the name of the county, as well as the name of a place where a small rural cluster group of homes is located, where Celia's great-grand-father was born. It is a short scenic drive not far from the Eidsberg Church. We'd seen a sign for Eidsberg Road, near the Eidsberg Church, so we decided to explore that area. We saw the Eidsberg Church sign again and stopped to take a photo of a typical farm building up on rocks, perhaps, because of the extreme cold weather.
While there a man walked up, as we stood looking at the Eidsberg Church grounds. So Celia had a chance to show him her genealogy book written in Norwegian. He was interested, but knew fewer English words, than we knew Norwegian. It was before his time, he offered! Then we drove on to find the group of houses labeled Eidsberg on the map. It was about a kilometer of driving and we enjoyed its splendid scenery.
We stopped at the By The Way Restaurant at Mysen for a drink, pastry and rest stop. We arrived back at the hotel shortly after lunch. As we were pulling up to the hotel, in the parking lot, closer to the door than the night before (which had been far to the left by some flag poles, Thor asked, "What's that black thing over there?", pointing to a black blob in the shrubs. Closer inspection revealed it to be the missing vest, that Celia had apparently dropped on the way from the car in the parking lot to the hotel door! The vest was swept up against the ivy covered rock garden edging of the hotel parking lot!
We took advantage of our slack afternoon time to rest, nap, watch T.V., etc. Celia and I took a brief walk to the train station to look at the arrival and departure times. We walked by shops, closed Sunday. There was an expensive Norwegian festival dress in a store window. Another shop had beautiful handmade quilts for sale! Returning to the hotel we made a brief trip from Askim to Mysen to check on the hours the By The Way Restaurant would be open for supper. We used a route, which had brief toll road access. So we found ourselves using a lane that would not require exact change, to make the experience more user friendly. So, at the appropriate hour, we drove there for supper. I chose a steak dinner in mushroom gravy. Celia had a salmon and fries plate. Thor chose BBQ ribs. All were great!
One interesting thing, we have been finding a need to consume a lot more liquids. We enjoyed a quiet evening of T.V. before turning in.
Monday, June 4, 2001:
We learned after breakfast that today was Pentecost Monday in Askim, (as in all of Norway) and shops were closed. So we canceled our plans for a shopping expedition in Askim, deciding to leave for Oslo this morning. Since the train station office was closed, we had to do a bit of figuring to be sure we were waiting on the proper track to be picked up. All went well and we arrived in Oslo in time to check in to the Foenix Hotel and go for lunch at McDonalds. After resting in our room, the afternoon included supper at McDonalds and an extensive walk along Karl Johannes Gate, the main shopping street of Oslo. Despite the shops being closed, we found lots of tourists strolling the street. We even spotted a shop, which has lots of good souvenirs we may visit on our last day in Norway. We did find an Internet Cafe open and checked our e-mail.
Tuesday, June 5, 2001:
First, breakfast at the Foenix Hotel, then we went to get our luggage in order to get on the train to Bergen by 10:43 a.m. The person who shared my seat (Celia & Thor were across the aisle) was a retired school teacher who had taught for 30 years, including the last 20 years in the Askim area. We chatted for much of the seven hour ride to Bergen.
Celia, Thor, and I bought our lunch from the cart that came down the aisle near lunch time, including sandwiches, small individual cans of Pringle chips, drinks and later in the afternoon, some ice cream snacks. A couple of funny incidents on the train involved Thor's losing a super ball he found the previous night in Oslo (under his bed) and moments later Celia lost a Vicks inhaler, which dropped on the floor and rolled forward! Both were eventually recovered as we prepared to leave the train.
It began raining during our trip to Bergen; we walked the several blocks to our hotel in a light rain. Then Thor and I explored the neighborhood around the hotel and found an acceptable restaurant for supper that we later learned was "one of the best restaurants in Bergen", (Dr. Livingston), according to our cheerful waitress.
Wednesday, June 6, 2001:
This day was our "Norway in a Nutshell". We walked to the train station in a light rain, boarded the 8:40 a.m. run for Myrdal where we changed trains for a really spectacular 1 hour ride from Myrdal to FlŒm, down 2500 feet into the valley. We traveled through numerous tunnels, (6 km out of 20 km) with spectacular views upon emerging from the tunnels.
A three hour lunch break gave us souvenir hunting and lent time for photos before boarding a ship for the two hour ride through the Sognefjord to Gudvangen. In Gudvangen we boarded a bus for a ride of over an hour to Voss, which included a ride up out of the valley and on a road with almost continual switch backs and no shoulders!
A ride on the "normal" train to Bergen climaxed the day, except for a supper stop at McDonalds within a complex of buildings attached to Bergen Sentral station.
On the ship we saw a lot of seagulls following it. They would swoop down and I was telling Thor how, many years ago at a rest area in Canada, I had discovered that the gulls would swoop down to catch bread crumbs, I would toss into the air. He then decided to try with our remaining potato chips. He was enormously successful, with these birds flying in and taking the pieces of the chips from between his fingers!
Thursday, June 7, 2001:
After our breakfast, and before shops opened, Thor and I walked to the wharf to check the distance from our hotel and upon our return to the hotel, the three of us did a bit of shopping at the wharf area, "Bryggen", in Bergen before boarding the train to Oslo. For a while I shared a seat with a 90 year old lady, who was returning to Oslo, after having spent many years with her husband in Bergen, including the World War II years. She spoke very little English. Her earlier years had been spent in Oslo. After an evening of watching television, Thor made a phone call home.
Friday, June 8, 2001:
Again we had an 8:40 a.m. departure. We took a track, "Spor" in Norwegian, from Oslo on the train, with an arrival at Trondheim at 3 p.m. We noticed a predictable cycle with its scenic green landscape around Olso. Then we traveled once again into higher elevations with such a barren look with its scrubby brush and dwarfed trees, struggling to thrive. Then we wound down into the more scenic green fertile valley, as happened on the Bergen route. We ate our lunch in the dining car. Celia ordered pasta. Thor and I ordered personal pan pizzas and we all drank a hot cocoa in the dining car.
Our hotel room, for the three of us was neat, with a long entrance hallway into the suite and a spacious bed room with its uncommon skylight, a large restroom, as well with plenty of room around our three beds.
It was raining so I went out, scouting the neighborhood around the hotel for tourist shops and there the three of us shopped until the 5:00 p.m. closing hours.
Then supper was spent at a Burger King on the corner. Finally, Thor and I escorted "Grandma" back to our hotel room and then Thor and I walked in a drizzle to the NIDAROSDOMEN (the eleventh century Nidaros Cathedral, Scandinavia's larest medieval building and coronation site of kings and queens), sometimes called the oldest church in Norway and took a few pictures. It was getting chilly!
Saturday, June 9, 2001:
A good breakfast at our Best Western hotel in Trondheim, saw Thor's mouth jump open, while he was looking over our shoulders at the breakfast buffet table next to ours. Thor was in total disbelief. An Oriental lady apparently sliced off half a loaf, without the heel, of freshly baked whole grain wheat bread into 4 very thick slices, They were at least 2 inch slabs apiece! They stood majestically upright centered on each of the couple's plates. "Did you see that!", Thor mused, upon leaving the breakfast bar. In Norway, there had been two different choices of fresh bread, made available for us to cut slices off at each breakfast bars and a delicious raspberry jam.
We found the train to Fauske waiting on the track a half hour early, so we boarded it, but couldn't get into the car where our seats were reserved from the next car. We got off the train and tried the other end of "our" car and got on. It was a car with half the space used as a play area for small kids with good play equipment. The reason we could not get in from the end of the car, we had tried first, was that it had a child lock on it (you had to push a tab by the top of the door first before attempting to open the door the usual way). This child-proof latch worked on both sides of the car door opening into the child play area. After we had figured that out, we were able to walk through the play area to other cars.
The train ride to Fauske was the longest so far - just over nine hours. It had a dining car, so we used it, as we had also on the trip from Oslo to Trondheim. About half way to Fauske, a man boarded the train and sat across from us. He spoke good English. He had just totaled his car this morning and caught the train with only minutes to spare. He was born in the same year that Celia and I were and 20 days younger than Celia. He had retired after thirty year of work in the manufacture of aluminum products. He talked about his grandson hoping to enter medical school, as well as his car accident today in which he was not injured, although he had totalled his car.
He looked at Celia's Hoie-Mysenslekta (Norwegian language genealogy book) with interest and soon noticed that she knew no Norwegian. He said he could translate the whole book! He read quickly the dialogue under Celia's Norwegian great- grand father's brother's write-up, which indicated that Johannes Mysen had died in his nineties, so very saddened by the war!
Upon arrival at Fauske, we took a cab to the Fauske hotel and had supper in the hotel dining room, then a few hours of watching T.V. tired us.
Sunday, June 10, 2001:
Since we had learned that the bus from Fauske to Narvik ran two times a day, we decided to take the earlier one, so we took the taxi to the bus station to catch the 9:30 a.m. bus. The bus stopped for a break, after two hours at a hotel (just enough time for some ice cream cones). Then after another hour and a half, a half hour ferry ride, in which the bus drove up onto the ferry, where we were required to sit on the desk or in the lounge, during that time. We arrived at Narvik shortly after 2 p.m., as scheduled.
Thor and I scouted the neighborhood around the hotel, while Celia rested, then I took a nap till supper time. We had our supper at a grill related to, and later found to be connected through the bar of our hotel - good substantial food, including a steak, baked potato and hot chocolate for the three of us.
We watched "Edward Scissorshand" and Stephen King's "The Night Flyer!" on cable T.V. till midnight, so we could take pictures of the landscape to be entitled: "Narvik at Midnight!" At that time we took some pictures from our room. Thor and I took some outside of the hotel, with us in the photos! All went well - it was overcast at midnight, but definitely "daylight".
Monday, June 11, 2001:
We had a late breakfast. Thor and I walked to the bus station to see if it was near the rail station. It wasn't! So we got a map and found the rail station 2 blocks from our hotel. There was a large shopping center between our hotel and the train station. So the three of us browsed in the shopping center main floor and upper floor of the complex until 11 a.m. Then we checked out of the hotel. We ate a light lunch at their connecting Grill and stored our luggage at the train station. We walked back to the shopping center to browse the lower level as well. Then we headed back to the train station, to board our train for Stockholm. We did so, a whole half hour before our appointed departure time of 3:50 p.m.
We were able to find our 3 person sleeping/sitting compartment and remained there until eating at 6 p.m. in the dining car. Thor and I had roast reindeer! Celia had a 3rd choice, a pasta salad. We rearranged our own compartment for sleeping around 8 p.m. with a bit of guidance from the conductor and went to bed.
Tuesday, June 12, 2001:
In the morning, Celia commented, that during her wakeful moments during the "night" the barren landscape had not been used for agricultural purposes. At 7:30 a.m. we had approached a good sized town with a large golf course, used by tourists. We had just rolled into the southern reaches of Sweden. As we came further south Again, Celia spotted a "once in a lifetime view " of the end of a gorgeous rainbow! It was, not surprisingly, anchored tightly into the depths of the long wide lake east of the train tracks!
Upon arriving in Stockholm Sentral station by 10:00 a.m., we put our luggage in a locker and spent the next four hours shopping and exploring (after getting some Swedish money). Then a six and a half hour ride on the train, including a sighting of two deer romping in the field near the train track brought us to Oslo by 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 13, 2001:
We enjoyed a leisurely catch-up day in Oslo as planned. We spent the morning walking to and exploring the harbor and some tourist ships anchored there. After lunch at McDonalds, we headed to the King's Palace grounds, in time to see the changing of the guard at 1:30 p.m. Then we attempted a session of trailing and feeding pigeons, starting with one and ending up with around 15 in the park along the Avenue. We did some last minute shopping at a souvenir shop on Karl Johannes Gate. We spotted a group of runners, and watched for a while, as we noted they were representing a world peace organization. They held different international flags and had 3 torch bearers with them. They were in a "welcome to our city" event near a Government building. Politicians were dressed in fancy robes and collars. After the torches were lit, we went on our way.
We decided to honor Pepe's Pizza with our last restaurant meal in Norway, eating outside in its enclosed area and taking plenty of time to get what we wanted. Thor was able to help us decipher some of the pizza choices, which were confirmed by the waitress! Then early to bed, having asked for a 4:00 a.m. wake-up call from the hotel desk.
Thursday, June 14, 2001:
Up at 4:00 a.m., checking-out of the hotel and to the train by 4:45 a.m., we arrived at the airport by 5:15 a.m. We boarded the plane by the 7:05 a.m. departure time but the pilot announced we had not been granted a departure spot until 8 a.m. That was a bit of a concern, since we only had a 2 hour layover in Paris. Also, we would have to get boarding passes from U. S. Airways in Paris for our flight to Philadelphia.
As Celia came down the aisle to find her seat number, a lady in the window seat position already, comented soon after that she just knew Celia was a teacher, too! They chatted through the flight to Paris!
It got a bit tense in Paris as we landed in one terminal and had to be taken by bus several miles to another terminal to find U.S. Airways gates. After a 25 minute ride, we were dropped off at the terminal and soon found U.S. Airways. Standing a while in a complex network of confusing lines, a U.S. Air employee asked us if we were waiting for the next flight to Philadelphia. Relieved, they pulled us out of line and processed us to move to the gate within a few minutes of needing to board!
Thor found very satisfying the personal electronic system that each pasenger had at her/his disposal. There was a TV screen built into the seat in front of you - you could select one of a number of movies to view in several different categories or some TV programs to view, or various categories of music to listen to, starting, pausing, and continuing at your discretion. It was a "first" for Celia and me as well.
Arriving at Philadelphia, we prepared ourselves for the five and a half hour layover. It was not totally a pleasant experience because our jet lag was catching up with us. It was not totally an unpleasant experience because we found over a half dozen friends and neighbors from St. Charles and neighboring counties also waiting for the same plane to St. Louis. Most of them were returning home from England; some had been on a tour and some had been travelling independently, but it was enjoyable to chat with folks in a different than usual environment.
The plane to St. Louis left essentially on time, but as we approached St. Louis, the pilot informed us that St. Louis was in the midst of a thunder-storm and we would circle a bit to allow it to pass. Eventually we came in to land, but the landing was suddenly aborted (the pilot later informed us the airport runway lights had gone out) and we were told we were being diverted to Indianapolis, where the plane was to be "serviced" before we returned to St. Louis. That is what happened, and thus we landed in St. Louis eventually in the wee hours of the morning instead of the anticipated time of 9:50 p.m.
A call to Thor's parents, and soon Carl showed up to take us home.
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Looking back on our trip now -- yes, it was the greatest adventure!
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