OSLO, NORWAY
We
arrived at the new Gardermoen Airport outside Oslo around 11 a.m. We
took the bus into the city, then a taxi to the Hotel Munch, which was
just north of the central city. The room here was about the same
size as the room in Stockholm. We gathered the maps and brochures at
the hotel, then took off for the harbor area on the trolley. The bus
stop was about 200 yards from the hotel, and was only another 200
yards from the central area near the National Theatre and Oslo
University. We took a harbor tour to get some background.
In the evening, we met
three genealogists from Oslo at a
restaurant (I arranged it on the RootsWeb Norway Genealogy mailing list). We talked to Ole Kjolseth, Elin Galtung Lihaug and Odd
Braathun about our trip, Linda’s Norway ancestry, and Oslo
sightseeing over a pleasant dinner. They helped me with place names
and advised Linda on troll books. Ole helped me with a genealogy
mystery in Voss. We then took some pictures, walked around the
central area, said goodbye to our new friends, and did some shopping before returning to the hotel.
On
Thursday, we took the bus to the Bygdøy peninsula, where we visited
the Norway Folk Museum and the Viking Ship museum. The Folk Museum
is an outdoor museum with old buildings with docents to explain the
lifestyles and customs. We stopped at the stave church, the Voss and
Sogndal areas, and the two cooking huts where we sampled lefse and
other Norwegian goodies. At the Viking ship museum, we saw the
remnants of the ancient ships recovered from the Oslo fjord. We then
walked to the pier at Dronningen and took the water taxi to
Bygdøynes, where we visited the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Fram ship
Museum and the Sjofarts Museum which houses the Roald Amundsen
display and ship Gjøa. These places were interesting and
educational. We returned to the harbor area, after an ice cream at
the boat slip, on the water taxi. We had dinner in the downtown
area, did some shopping, and went back to the hotel and packed.
As we
left the hotel early on Friday 13 August, Linda fell down three steps
in the hotel lobby and injured her lower legs - bruises and swelling, but
no fractures. We spent most of that day on the train to Voss. The
train made many stops, including one at the top of the Norwegian
mountains at Finse, where it was cold with snow on the ground.
VOSS, NORWAY
We got
off the train in Voss, which is a small town (about 5,000
inhabitants) beside the Vangs Vatnet (lake) with snow capped mountain
ranges circling the valley, with many streams, rivers, and small
lakes feeding into the major lake. We had a bite to eat at the train
station café, and then took a taxi to the Rondo Sport Hotell, which
was on the east side of the river, about a kilometer from the center
of Voss. The owner of the hotel was very helpful and gracious.
After
checking into the hotel, Randy walked into town and checked out the
information center, the graveyards, the bookstores, and the library.
He found the Voss genealogy mystery in a genealogy book at the
library, with the help of Ole Kjolseth’s note, and also got on the
Internet at the information center.
We
called Bjorg Liland that night, on the advice of Jeri Walker, another
Norway researcher who had visited Voss and met Bjorg in 1998. She
had her son visiting, and asked us to call her back later. When we
did, she offered to drive us around the Vangs Vatnet and out to the
Liland farm on Saturday.
Saturday
came, and Bjorg arrived about 11 a.m., and we started on our tour
around the lake in the rain. We stopped at the Gjelle ("yell-leh")
farm on the south side of the lake with the "postcard" view
of Voss. Gjelle happens to be one of Linda's ancestral farms, and can be
seen from the north side of the lake since it is fairly high on the
hillside and has a distinctive yellow farm house.
We drove slowly
along the lake and passed through a number of other ancestral farms
like Glimme, Midtun and Eimstad. We got
to Liland farm at the west end of the lake. Bjorg had arranged a
meeting with Inge Liland (age 90, who had the Voss bygdebok, and was
sharp as a tack!) and her daughter Guri Liland. Bjorg is a 4th
cousin-in-law of Guri's. We did not go to the working farm, since
the workers were away, but went to the new house next to the working
farm - it was a beautiful home! We had a very pleasant visit with
them including a lunch.
I got
out the Voss ancestry list and Inge looked carefully through the
Liland section of the bygdebok. She could not find a direct tie to
the ancestry list, which was not surprising. I offered my conclusion
that Ivar Torgerson (brother of Sjur Torgerson) married Kari
Larsdatter of Liland farm, and that the extended family adopted the
Leland name in America. She seemed to accept that, and noted that
there were always farm workers who were not part of the direct
family. I elicited some genealogy information from her about the
Liland family history after the bygdebok entries to try to understand
the line better. When Inge read further in the ancestry list, she
got excited when she saw mention of some of the other farms and we
concluded that Linda was probably a distant cousin to Inge and the
Liland farm people after all. We took some pictures with the
"cousins" and thanked them for their hospitality.
Then we
stopped next door to what used to be the Liland Hotel, and talked to
Alf Ringheim, Bjorg's former brother-in-law. The hotel is now an
apartment building, filled to the brim with Kosovo refugee families.
He showed us around the public parts of the hotel and his own
apartment. Alf had a genealogy chart that showed his ancestry back
to Roman times.
We left
Alf and drove along the north side of the lake through central Voss
and up to the Mølstertunet Museum, which is composed of 15 buildings
from the 19th century. Mølster is another of the ancestral farms,
where Sjur Torgerson lived at the time he married in 1850. A docent
explained each room of the main farm house, the clothing, the food,
the working farm. There was also a museum with farm artifacts and
cultural history of the Voss area. Fascinating stuff!
After
all of that, we took Bjorg out to dinner that night at the Park
Hotel. She invited us over to her apartment the next night for
dessert. What a beautiful, spirited, and knowledgable woman. We
parted with hugs and kisses, and promises to send her pictures of our
time together.
We also
had a short meeting at the hotel with Svein Ulvund, who has a great
Voss web site with digital pictures of Voss farms and sights. He
knew where all the farms were!
The next
day we took a great tour out of Voss - Norway in a Nutshell. This is
highly recommended! Our tour went by bus to Vik, up through
Vossestrand and the Myrkdalen valley, past snow capped mountains and
rushing waters. Then we caught an express fjord boat to Balestrand
and Vangsnes, and transferred in mid-fjord to a ferry boat to
Gudvangen. The fjord arm into Gudvangen is spectacular, with
mountains plunging into the fjord, and small farms lying at the base
of cliffs and streams. After a short bus trip through a long tunnel
to Flåm, we caught the Flåm railway to Myrdal. This 20 km trip
rises over 800 meters, through the Flåm valley and past several
spectacular waterfalls. The trip concluded with a short train trip
from Myrdal down to Voss.
On
Monday, we packed our bags, checked out, took a taxi and stored the
bags at the train station. We then took the cable car lift (over 800
meters high) up the mountain overlooking Voss and had lunch at the
small restaurant there. In the winter time, Voss is a ski resort.
The view was fantastic, and the fish and chips were excellent (and
cheap)! I went again to the Voss library and found more genealogy
research data. I also bought the Vossestrand Ættebok and several
topographical maps with Voss area farm names. We walked around the
town a bit, and waited for the train to Bergen.
BERGEN, NORWAY
We took
the train to Bergen (where Linda's ancestors sailed from in the 1850s) on Monday evening, and stayed at the Hotel Park
Pension, which was up a hill south of the main part of town. It was
the nicest hotel we stayed in, but we had to use taxis because of
Linda's leg injuries. Dinner that night was a snack in the hotel
dining room.
On
Tuesday, we took a taxi down to the harbor area and walked through
the market place, visited the Bryggen Museum (with artifacts and
history of Bergen), and then took the tram to the top of Fløyen
hill, overlooking the town. We had lunch, then waited out a rain
shower under our umbrella near the marketplace, and then took the
water taxi to the aquarium. We returned to the central area, did
some shopping and had dinner at the Lido restaurant before returning
to the hotel.
We
packed on Wednesday, checked out of the hotel, and took a taxi to the
bus/train station to store the bags. Linda did some shopping, and
Randy found an Internet connection at the Bergen library nearby. We
took the bus to the airport and flew out of Bergen back to Arlanda
Airport near Stockholm that night. We stayed at the Good Morning
Hotel and had dinner there.
We took
a hotel bus to the airport on Thursday, August 19, and returned to
San Diego through Chicago, tired but happy we had such a wonderful
vacation.
I have many more photographs from the entire trip, but can only post so many.
