Tuesday, June 23, 2009
We took the 8:10 am train from Oslo to Geilo (Yi low) where we were met by our hostess, Karin Brennesvik when we arrived at 11:20. She had just driven up from Telemark, and had all her baggage in her small car. We stuffed all our luggage and ourselves into her car and went over to the cabin she had rented. It was totally charming, one of several log cabins with sod roofs which the hotel had out back for rental. The interior was knotty pine, with a wood stove, five bedrooms containing 2 beds each, two bathrooms, kitchen with all the dishes and utensils provided, and an outside enclosed entry, to store boots, shoes and skis, and this time of year, patio chairs.
Karin is a remarkable woman. She has been dancing and teaching traditional Norwegian dance for 50 years She has made it her personal mission to preserve the dance and music of the regions of Norway. The oldest music and dance traditions are traced back to the 12th century, and the music for the oldest dances is provided by the Hardanger fiddle. This fiddle has 5 sympathetic strings which provide a drone for the 4 melody strings. The music is very modal, and the tunes are often crooked. This has a very ancient sound. Karen has won national dance competitions and trained many championship dancers. In fact, last year her dancers swept the competition. After having watched the competition, and then seeing Karen's dancers, it was obvious why she wins so many competitions. Her dancers seem to be floating, whereas the others are definitely earthbound.
She regularly tours to other countries to demonstrate and give workshops in Norwegian traditional dance. I met her in Portland at a house concert for Hardanger fiddle for the Portland Revels in December 2009. At that time, she told me about a regular dance week she sponsors in February, which features dance workshops, fiddling and cross country skiing. I must say that after the three days we spent with her in Geilo, both Tom and I are very tempted to attend.
The festival was just getting organized as we arrived, and another woman, Bjorg, a long time friend of Karin arrived in the afternoon. We were also awaiting the arrival of Karin's daughter, Arnhild, who was leaving Telemark after work. There was a big social dance being held in As, about 30 km away, but we needed to get settled in, visit the grocery store and walk around the town to get our bearings. Since Midsomar's Eve is celebrated on the 23rd, we all decided to stay up past midnight. Even though Norway has strict laws against open bonfires, we managed to have a very good time without one. We have a picture of Tom, Karin, Bjorg and me standing in front of the cabin at midnight. It is so light out at that time, you can lose track of how late it is. Karin says some people (probably younger people) never go to bed the entire week. We finally hit the sack at about 1 am.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Since the dance competition did not start until noon, Tom and I decided to hike up from the valley floor after breakfast. Geilo, at about 3,000 feet, is in a beautiful mountain valley. In the winter it is a ski resort, and there are many lifts on each side of the valley. Down below, it is forested, and up on the top it is above the tree line. We hiked up from the hotel past very old barns which looked like some we had viewed at the Folk Museum, and past modern cabins which ranged from simple to very grand. The meadows climb up the hill at a fairly steep angle and they were bordered by buttercups, foxglove, queen anne's lace, lupine, and a pink, and a purple flower I couldn't identify. We walked up for a little over an hour, and still hadn't reached the ski lifts, so we decided to return. At the top of our hike, we spotted a hare, which looks like a gigantic rabbit with extremely long hind legs. At first we thought it was a beagle sized dog, but then it hopped.
We returned in time to go to the dance competition. Karin sat with us and told us about the history and the finer points of Norwegian dance. There were so many competitors, both Junior and Senior divisions that they take a lunch break in the middle. One of the highlights for us were the young boys group from Geilo. They ranged in age from about 8 to 12, and were showing off their tricks – Russian style squat kicks, acrobatic flips, and jumping up to kick a hat off of a pole which is held at a height of at least 6 feet. All this must be done while keeping time with the fiddler, and dancing gracefully between tricks.
Food and beverages are sold in a huge tent next door to the competition hall. In the front of the tent there is a stage and a big dance floor set up. Wonderful bands perform, and the place is really “yumpin”. All the band members together sway and go up and down with bended knees in time with the music. The effect, when combined with a floor full of enthusiastic dancers, young and old, is quite wonderful. There are tables set up from the edge of the dance floor to the back of the tent, and they serve food and drink until 2 am. After the competition is done for the day, the chairs in the other hall are cleared, so there are 2 dance halls going simultaneously. There are also tables outside the hall, and those are packed with smokers, non-smokers, and some younger musicians jamming in less traditional and more innovative styles.
In the evening, there was a barbeque. Many of the dancers and families of dancers gathered on the lawn of a nearby house to socialize. The custom was to bring your own meal (not a potluck) and cook your own meat over the large BBQ grille. We were privileged to have several very fine young musicians play during the event. We recorded one of them. Karen had to leave midway to pick up another friend, Annemarie, from New Hampshire. They arrived in time to enjoy most of the picnic.
After dinner, I decided to go back down to the dance hall to enjoy the music. Tom took off for the top of the ridge. He was determined to get to the top by midnight. Since the sun sets at around 11:30 pm, and it never gets completely dark, he was able to accomplish this and be back by 2 pm.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
We attended the dance band competitions in the morning, and I took a break to jam with Mary Seim, a young woman who we met on the train from Oslo. Mary is a Minnesotan and her husband, Sigurd, and their daughter Emma (age 2), live in Oslo and attend and enter this competition frequently. Mary was kind enough to play fiddle with me once Emma was napping in the afternoon. I recorded several of her tunes, 2 done in cross tuning, and we played several old timey pieces together.
I also got some wonderful recordings from the band competitions. One band in particular was really rocking, and Mary told me that they had no recordings, but she knew of a possible private recording of them. All in all, I have some wonderful examples of Norwegian music to dig into.
In the afternoon, 3 more friends of Karen came, so there was lots of visiting and fun. Karen is naturally gregarious, so we would frequently wonder where she was, and she was off visiting someone. She was kind enough to keep us abreast of the conversation when it veered off into Norwegian. Most of the younger people were fluent English speakers, since they are required to study English from 1st grade on, but some of the older people are shyer about speaking it.
We decided to try for an earlier bedtime since we had to board the train for Bergen at 10 am the next morning. I think we managed to get to bed by 1 am.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Roots Tour Part 5
Friday, June 19, 2009 We arrived at the Oslo airport at 11:10 pm, and took a 30 minute train ride to the Central Station in downtown Oslo. There were lots of young men of every ethnic background hanging out there, and while we were told that the station is a magnet for drug dealing, we did not feel threatened. Fools rush in . . . After a long wait and several other people getting into a shouting argument with a teenager who jumped the cab line, we caught (an expensive) cab ride to our hotel.
The suite we were given was big enough for a small apartment, with a walk in closet that could have housed an entire coutre collection for Paris fashion week. We were too tired to go back to the desk, and so retired in luxury for the night.
Saturday, June 20th,2009 We checked in at the front desk, and were told we had been inadvertently given an upgrade by the night clerk, who was new. However, the day manager said that we could remain in the suite at the same bargain rate that had been promised. When I mentioned thatI'd gotten a shock off the light fixture in the bathroom, the manager offered to give us another suite. We took him up on it, and moved to a smaller, but equally well appointed suite. We had stove, microwave, refrigerator, dishes, glassware, cutlery, a combination washer-dryer and a walk in closet that would have housed most of oursummer and winter wardrobes with room to spare. Breakfast was included in the price and they have a generous buffet with meats,cheeses, fresh slice it yourself bread, eggs, cereals, real Americanstyle yogurt, pastries, muesli, fruit, juice and milk, and coffee and tea an all their accompaniments. The style of the hotel was very Euro modern, done in colors of black, white and gray. It was very dark in the halls and the rooms, so I can't imagine what it would have been like in the dark winter.
The first day we were a little slow getting started, so we rode the subway from our hotel 2 stops back toward town to the Central bus/train staion. We got a 3 day Oslo pass good for bus, subway, water taxi and free admission tomost Oslo museums. Then we went for Rick Steve's walking tour of downtown Oslo, and located the Cathedral (closed, under renovation), the main drag (delightful and lively, a pedestrian mall for most of its length), the Art Museum, the royal palace, and several beautiful parks. Then we walked to the waterfront and scoped out the watertaxis to Vigdoy. We had a delicious (very expensive) late day snack outdoors at a very nice cafe near the waterfront, then walked to the subway. Along the way we passed an Irish pub where there was a session just starting. We listened to the lads play a set, then chatted with them about the Irish scene in Oslo and PDX. It seems this pub has a session every night!
Back at the hotel, we checked our laundry which we had started when we left (5-6 hours previously) and were discombobulated to discover it still running Since the original cycle said 1hr 20 min for wash, we were sure our clothes had been shredded. We tried to open the washer door to no avail, the cycles automatically locked it. We tried various permutations of the 12 cycles listed on the dial, then finally let it run the hour still left on the dial. All was well with the clothes,but we never could get the dryer cycle to run, so we hung up everything. We came to realize that when we left the room and removed our room key, all the power had gone off. (Duh!)
Since it was Saturday night, we were entertained throughout the night by the lusty celebrants in the bar down below our room. It also looked like one of our nice looking female neighbors was running a little business during the evening and during the night. She was just seeing out the last of her gentlemen callers as we went to breakfast the next morning.
Sunday, June 21, 2009 Midsummer's Day. We got an earlier start downtown, and visited the Nobel Peace Museum, which sits on the large waterfront terrace, near the water taxis and the tour boats. The permanent display shows all the Nobel prize winners, the reason for their prize and thought provoking quotes of the winners. The display had great graphics and electronic effects. There was also a very moving photo display showing the plight of immigrants, and following the stories of 6 different individuals from all over the world.
From there, we boarded aferry to Vigdoy, to see the Viking ship museum, and possibly some of the Norwegian Folk Museum. The Viking ships and displays are not to be missed. The lines of those boats are pure poetry. There weremany other Viking treasures of great antiquity, including a wagon, tools, textiles and other good found in burial mounds. Most of the jewelry had already been stolen by the time the archaeologists arrived, but there were a few pieces on display, as well as pictures of the excavations.
We were pretty tired from lack of sleep the night before, so after a snack, and a walk up tothe Folk Museum, I took a short snooze on the grass, and then was refreshed enough for a short glimpse of part of the grounds. The Folk Museum covers several acres, so we decided to come back the next day and see it an the maritime museum. We returned to the hotel, got a good night's sleep and were refreshed and ready to go the next morning.
Monday, June 22, 2009 After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we set off early for Vigdoy. We got off the ferry at the Fram Museum, which housed ships, equipment, diaries and photos from the major Norwegian polar expeditions. The expeditions of Nansen, Amundsen and others were well documented.
Next we went to the Maritime Museum. I really got a much better idea of what life must have been like for my grandpa Cornelius, who was a ship's carpenter out of Bergen, Norway at the turn of the 20th Century. The whole place smelled of pine tar, used to preserve wooden boats. It was a very nautical smell. There were many boats of all sizes, and the equipment used for fishing and whaling from the 1600s up tothe present time.
We then walked up through some very nice neighborhoods, past the Canadian embassy, to a little local restaurant for lunch. Afterward, we went back to the Folk Museum, and looked at the Sami exhibit, then went on to a Norwegian folk dance performance. The Museum is laid out in villages representing the different cultural regions of Norway. There are old buildings, some going back to the 1300s which have been moved to the site, preserved and and restored to give an idea of life in Norway in the rural areas. There is a very impressive stave church. We took lots of photos.
We went to a lefsa making demonstration, and bought a sample to eat. It was made of wheat and barley, thick like a Southwestern tortilla, and served with butter. I got a recipe. There are as many styles of lefsa as there are different kinds of tortillas.
Last, we went to the museum's display of bunad, or Norwegian national folk costumes. These styles began in the Renaissance, and are very decorated,expensive, and handed down from generation to generation. I took photos in particular of the west coast styles. I also got a bookshowing the styles. We went home and prepared for our train departure for Geilo in the morning.
The suite we were given was big enough for a small apartment, with a walk in closet that could have housed an entire coutre collection for Paris fashion week. We were too tired to go back to the desk, and so retired in luxury for the night.
Saturday, June 20th,2009 We checked in at the front desk, and were told we had been inadvertently given an upgrade by the night clerk, who was new. However, the day manager said that we could remain in the suite at the same bargain rate that had been promised. When I mentioned thatI'd gotten a shock off the light fixture in the bathroom, the manager offered to give us another suite. We took him up on it, and moved to a smaller, but equally well appointed suite. We had stove, microwave, refrigerator, dishes, glassware, cutlery, a combination washer-dryer and a walk in closet that would have housed most of oursummer and winter wardrobes with room to spare. Breakfast was included in the price and they have a generous buffet with meats,cheeses, fresh slice it yourself bread, eggs, cereals, real Americanstyle yogurt, pastries, muesli, fruit, juice and milk, and coffee and tea an all their accompaniments. The style of the hotel was very Euro modern, done in colors of black, white and gray. It was very dark in the halls and the rooms, so I can't imagine what it would have been like in the dark winter.
The first day we were a little slow getting started, so we rode the subway from our hotel 2 stops back toward town to the Central bus/train staion. We got a 3 day Oslo pass good for bus, subway, water taxi and free admission tomost Oslo museums. Then we went for Rick Steve's walking tour of downtown Oslo, and located the Cathedral (closed, under renovation), the main drag (delightful and lively, a pedestrian mall for most of its length), the Art Museum, the royal palace, and several beautiful parks. Then we walked to the waterfront and scoped out the watertaxis to Vigdoy. We had a delicious (very expensive) late day snack outdoors at a very nice cafe near the waterfront, then walked to the subway. Along the way we passed an Irish pub where there was a session just starting. We listened to the lads play a set, then chatted with them about the Irish scene in Oslo and PDX. It seems this pub has a session every night!
Back at the hotel, we checked our laundry which we had started when we left (5-6 hours previously) and were discombobulated to discover it still running Since the original cycle said 1hr 20 min for wash, we were sure our clothes had been shredded. We tried to open the washer door to no avail, the cycles automatically locked it. We tried various permutations of the 12 cycles listed on the dial, then finally let it run the hour still left on the dial. All was well with the clothes,but we never could get the dryer cycle to run, so we hung up everything. We came to realize that when we left the room and removed our room key, all the power had gone off. (Duh!)
Since it was Saturday night, we were entertained throughout the night by the lusty celebrants in the bar down below our room. It also looked like one of our nice looking female neighbors was running a little business during the evening and during the night. She was just seeing out the last of her gentlemen callers as we went to breakfast the next morning.
Sunday, June 21, 2009 Midsummer's Day. We got an earlier start downtown, and visited the Nobel Peace Museum, which sits on the large waterfront terrace, near the water taxis and the tour boats. The permanent display shows all the Nobel prize winners, the reason for their prize and thought provoking quotes of the winners. The display had great graphics and electronic effects. There was also a very moving photo display showing the plight of immigrants, and following the stories of 6 different individuals from all over the world.
From there, we boarded aferry to Vigdoy, to see the Viking ship museum, and possibly some of the Norwegian Folk Museum. The Viking ships and displays are not to be missed. The lines of those boats are pure poetry. There weremany other Viking treasures of great antiquity, including a wagon, tools, textiles and other good found in burial mounds. Most of the jewelry had already been stolen by the time the archaeologists arrived, but there were a few pieces on display, as well as pictures of the excavations.
We were pretty tired from lack of sleep the night before, so after a snack, and a walk up tothe Folk Museum, I took a short snooze on the grass, and then was refreshed enough for a short glimpse of part of the grounds. The Folk Museum covers several acres, so we decided to come back the next day and see it an the maritime museum. We returned to the hotel, got a good night's sleep and were refreshed and ready to go the next morning.
Monday, June 22, 2009 After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we set off early for Vigdoy. We got off the ferry at the Fram Museum, which housed ships, equipment, diaries and photos from the major Norwegian polar expeditions. The expeditions of Nansen, Amundsen and others were well documented.
Next we went to the Maritime Museum. I really got a much better idea of what life must have been like for my grandpa Cornelius, who was a ship's carpenter out of Bergen, Norway at the turn of the 20th Century. The whole place smelled of pine tar, used to preserve wooden boats. It was a very nautical smell. There were many boats of all sizes, and the equipment used for fishing and whaling from the 1600s up tothe present time.
We then walked up through some very nice neighborhoods, past the Canadian embassy, to a little local restaurant for lunch. Afterward, we went back to the Folk Museum, and looked at the Sami exhibit, then went on to a Norwegian folk dance performance. The Museum is laid out in villages representing the different cultural regions of Norway. There are old buildings, some going back to the 1300s which have been moved to the site, preserved and and restored to give an idea of life in Norway in the rural areas. There is a very impressive stave church. We took lots of photos.
We went to a lefsa making demonstration, and bought a sample to eat. It was made of wheat and barley, thick like a Southwestern tortilla, and served with butter. I got a recipe. There are as many styles of lefsa as there are different kinds of tortillas.
Last, we went to the museum's display of bunad, or Norwegian national folk costumes. These styles began in the Renaissance, and are very decorated,expensive, and handed down from generation to generation. I took photos in particular of the west coast styles. I also got a bookshowing the styles. We went home and prepared for our train departure for Geilo in the morning.
Roots Tour Part 4
Saturday, June 13, 2009 We boarded the Kong Harald at 5 pm, settled into our cabin, had a wonderful smorgasbord dinner, and received an orientation and safety talk, and explored the ship. We sailed out of Bergen at 8 pm.
Sunday, June 14, 2009 There were 7 stops today, including 2 in Alesund, both before and after going up the Geiranger fjord. Tom decided to stay aboard during the first Alesund stop at 8:45 am, but I went ashore for a fast walk on the waterfront. Nothing opens before 10 am, but the sun was out and the town is charming. We Hurtigruten passengers who chose to get off had the place to ourselves Alesund had burnt to the ground in 1904, and had been rebuilt in the Arts and Crafts style. The buildings were 2-3 stories in many pastel colors, with pitched roofs and slate shingles. Canals threaded through the town, so many buildings had beautiful sailboats parked beside them. We learned that many of the towns which consisted of wooden buildings at the turn of the 20th century, had burned and been reconstructed using masonry. Tom and I chose to stay aboard the ship for the nine hour round trip up the Geiranger fjord. The fjord was beautiful from the boat , with many a photo op which you will see when we return.
Most stops each day are brief, but there is usually one each day of at least 2 hours, so you can get off and explore.
Monday, June 15, 2009 The highlight today was Trondheim. It had been the center of the Vikings, and was formerly called Nidaros. Warriors from Trondheim had conquered all the towns up and down the coast by 872 AD, so this is considered the year that Norway was first unified. Trondheim was also a pilgrimage site from 1030, after the death of St Olav, until the Reformation in 1533. A church was built on the site in the 11th century, and later a cathedral.
The ship dock is far enough from the town, the stay so short, and the visiting hours for the general public arranged so that you have little choice but to sign up for a tour if you want to see anything. We chose to go to the Norwegian folk museum. It is near the ruins of the residence of one of the early Viking warriors. They have collected a number of historic buildings and reconstructed them on the site, including the earliest stave church, built in the 1100's. Many of the original timbers were still intact, and some of the original painting in the interior. Our guide had us stand inside the church with the light of a single candle, and she sang an ancient Norwegian hymn, to give the effect which the original parishoners might have hadexperienced.
The museum also had several re-creations of villages from the 1800's. The first one looked like something from medieval times – log construction and sod roofs. The other houses were actually moved from other sites and looked more Victorian. They had belonged to merchants who wished to show off their wealth. Finally, when we had less than 10 minutes to board our bus, we came to the main museum building. They had a wonderful display area which was especially designed to engage children. I think the Swedish Museum in Chicago may have taken some inspiration from this one. We took lots of pictures.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Today we crossed the Arctic Circle. Hestmann Island on our port side marked the spot, it's summit being directly on the line. Later, near noon, we visited Bodo. Tom wanted to walk the docks and I hiked up to the cathedral and the local museum.
There was a funeral in progress at the cathedral, and the mourners were just queuing up for the procession. They put white markers with black crosses on the tops of the first cars in the procession. They looked like the kind of signs you are used to seeing atop taxis. After the funeral was gone, I went inside. It is a large church, with beautiful stained glass windows at the front and back, but no windows along the sides. Instead, each side was hung with ~ 6-8 Rya rugs in subdued colors. Under the pews, instead of kneelers, there were pipes which looked like heating pipes. I imagine it could get really cold in such a large space during the winter.
The museum is across the street and housed in a library-like building which was one of the few to survive the German bombing in April of 1940. Most of the center of town was destroyed. They had a wonderful Ken Burns style film which used photos of life before WWII, and had photos of the 1940 bombing. It did not say how many people were killed, but indicated that most had abandoned the center of town for the outlying farms. It is a real eye opener to realize how many towns in Northern Norway were destroyed during the war either from the initial bombing in 1940, or from the retreat of the German army, when they destroyed everything left behind them.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 The longest stop today was the town of Tromso, which has the northernmost university in the world. Tom and I decided to walk to the university museum which has a major display of Sami culture. It was about a 30 minute walk from the dock, and with the nice weather, was fun. We walked through neighborhoods with wooden buildings with slate or ceramic roofs. Tromso was relatively unscathed by bombing during the war. Our Canadian friends were joined on the ship by a cousin who was 86, had grown up in Tomso and had a wealth of information about life in the town. He said that the town was occupied by the regular German army and not the SS. His family was forced to house 2 young German soldiers, but they were so young that his mother felt sorry for them and occasionally shared food with them. We did notice that there was a memorial to eight Jewish citizens of Tromso who had all died in the same year.
The streets wound around the town's hill, and though there were no sidewalks, there was also little traffic. The grass and shrubs were greening up nicely, and there were daffodils, rhododendrons quite a few bedding plants in the yards. We had noticed pallets of the plants being offloaded from our ship on most of our stops. We were surprised to see quite a few trees in the yards. As we were walking up, a man of about our age came roller skiing at a brisk pace down the hill. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. When we walked back down to the ship we heard the most beautiful tenor voice singing opera. An older man was out on his porch serenading the birds.
In several of the towns, we visited outdoor equipment shops. Most of the towns had cross country ski trails and ski slopes. One of the shop's employees said that it was cheaper to visit resorts in Italy or France than to go to the resorts of Norway. In general, prices are really high by our standards, due to the influence of oil money from the offshore drilling.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 The weather continues to be sunny and cool. We got off the ship at Hammerfest for a walk along the 1 road along the waterfront. The landscape is pretty much treeless this far north, but there were wildflowers coming out, and lots of grass, mosses and lichens. Tom waded down on the beach, and stuck his toe in the water. He said it wasn't much colder than the Pacific at Cannon Beach. We collected a rock to bring home, and it sparkled, because the rocks around here contain chips of mica. As in most of the towns this far north, fishing is the main industry and there are piles of crab pots, racks with nets, and boxes of long lines with fishhooks at the ready for when the season for each harvest begins.
Our excursion today was from Honningsvag. We did a bus tour to the North Cape, the northernmost point of continental land in the world. The hills around here are bare of trees, but there are large herds of reindeer grazing on the mosses, lichens and grasses. The reindeer belong to the Sami people, who have lived in this area as long as anyone knows. The reindeer are brought over by boat to the summer pasture and for calving, they fatten up, and then swim back as winter approaches. The Tromso museum said that there was an account of the Sami by an early Italian explorer dating from 350 BC. We visited a Sami camp with a summer teepee, a reindeer, and tool that people had made in earlier days for everyday use. The young Sami man was dressed in traditional felt garb with a 4 pointed blue cap. He was obviously very well educated and switched easily between Norwegian, English, German and Italian while answering the tourists questions about Sami life and customs. We later found out that there has been an effort to preserve Sami language, and Sami children are taught in Sami throughout elementary school.
Our visit to the North Cape featured cool, windy, but sunny weather. From the cape you are looking directly North at nothing but ocean. If you could fly or sail in a direct line from there you would end up in Alaska, probably near or in the Bering Straight. The visitor's center and the viewpoint sit about 1,000 feet above the ocean, and we could see a cruise ship and several fishing boats down below. There is a long tunnel from the visitor center to a viewing point under the cliff. We were told the area gets only about 15 sunny days per year. People from all over the world were there, and have come to this point in the past. There was one room furnished by the king of Thailand, whose father or grandfather had visited the cape in the 1800's. Our guide on the trip gave the tour in English and Italian, and we ate lunch next to a couple from India.
Friday, June 19, 2009 The weather became cloudy, windy and colder overnight. We went past some open water during the night and had a little wave motion. We prepared to get off the ship in Kirkenes at 9:45 am. We took a tour to the Russian border and saw a bit of the countryside. It was cold with intermittent drizzle all day. Many, if not most of the signs in Kirkenes are in both Norwegian and Russian.
We drove through some forested areas on the way to the border. There were both evergreens and deciduous trees. There is a national park in the area which contains 50 brown bears. The bears are protected and monitored by scientists who live in the park. We did not see any bears, but we did see more reindeer.
There were huge bare hills with flattened tops around the town, which we learned were actually tailings from the iron mines. The mines and the town's location made Kirkenes a strategic location during WWII. There were over 300,000 German troops stationed there in preparation for an invasion of Russia. It was one of the most bombed cities in WWII. The Russians liberated it at the end of the war after the Germans burned most of the remains of the town during their retreat. The surviving Norwegians holed up in an underground shelter in town, and in one of the mine shafts. Some people died in the underground shelters, and 12 babies were born underground. The people of Kirkenes took great hope from the births as a symbol that life goes on, even under the worst of circumstances.
The border itself is guarded by young Norwegian soldiers. The Norwegians had a checkpoint station there and outside of the border area, was a nice gift shop. We understand that there is regular bus service back and forth into Russia, and the town was full of Russian fishermen who use Kirkeness as their base to avoid red tape at home. There is a ship repair facility in town and their main business is fixing Russian fishing boats. There were many young Russian men in town, and they were buying perfume and pretty trinkets for their wives and girlfriends. We were told that there is regular bus service between Kirkenes and Murmansk, Russia. The gray skies, the low ~ 40 degree temperature, and the cold rain did little to make the town look inviting. The overall effect was pretty dark, even though we were in the midnight sun latitude. I can't imagine living there during the period when the sun is below the horizon all day – a period of about a month in December and January.
We returned to town and whiled away the time visiting the local indoor shopping mall, walking around town and having lunch in the one centrally located hotel. The airport bus arrived at 6:30 pm to take us out for our 8:50 pm flight to Oslo.
Sunday, June 14, 2009 There were 7 stops today, including 2 in Alesund, both before and after going up the Geiranger fjord. Tom decided to stay aboard during the first Alesund stop at 8:45 am, but I went ashore for a fast walk on the waterfront. Nothing opens before 10 am, but the sun was out and the town is charming. We Hurtigruten passengers who chose to get off had the place to ourselves Alesund had burnt to the ground in 1904, and had been rebuilt in the Arts and Crafts style. The buildings were 2-3 stories in many pastel colors, with pitched roofs and slate shingles. Canals threaded through the town, so many buildings had beautiful sailboats parked beside them. We learned that many of the towns which consisted of wooden buildings at the turn of the 20th century, had burned and been reconstructed using masonry. Tom and I chose to stay aboard the ship for the nine hour round trip up the Geiranger fjord. The fjord was beautiful from the boat , with many a photo op which you will see when we return.
Most stops each day are brief, but there is usually one each day of at least 2 hours, so you can get off and explore.
Monday, June 15, 2009 The highlight today was Trondheim. It had been the center of the Vikings, and was formerly called Nidaros. Warriors from Trondheim had conquered all the towns up and down the coast by 872 AD, so this is considered the year that Norway was first unified. Trondheim was also a pilgrimage site from 1030, after the death of St Olav, until the Reformation in 1533. A church was built on the site in the 11th century, and later a cathedral.
The ship dock is far enough from the town, the stay so short, and the visiting hours for the general public arranged so that you have little choice but to sign up for a tour if you want to see anything. We chose to go to the Norwegian folk museum. It is near the ruins of the residence of one of the early Viking warriors. They have collected a number of historic buildings and reconstructed them on the site, including the earliest stave church, built in the 1100's. Many of the original timbers were still intact, and some of the original painting in the interior. Our guide had us stand inside the church with the light of a single candle, and she sang an ancient Norwegian hymn, to give the effect which the original parishoners might have hadexperienced.
The museum also had several re-creations of villages from the 1800's. The first one looked like something from medieval times – log construction and sod roofs. The other houses were actually moved from other sites and looked more Victorian. They had belonged to merchants who wished to show off their wealth. Finally, when we had less than 10 minutes to board our bus, we came to the main museum building. They had a wonderful display area which was especially designed to engage children. I think the Swedish Museum in Chicago may have taken some inspiration from this one. We took lots of pictures.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Today we crossed the Arctic Circle. Hestmann Island on our port side marked the spot, it's summit being directly on the line. Later, near noon, we visited Bodo. Tom wanted to walk the docks and I hiked up to the cathedral and the local museum.
There was a funeral in progress at the cathedral, and the mourners were just queuing up for the procession. They put white markers with black crosses on the tops of the first cars in the procession. They looked like the kind of signs you are used to seeing atop taxis. After the funeral was gone, I went inside. It is a large church, with beautiful stained glass windows at the front and back, but no windows along the sides. Instead, each side was hung with ~ 6-8 Rya rugs in subdued colors. Under the pews, instead of kneelers, there were pipes which looked like heating pipes. I imagine it could get really cold in such a large space during the winter.
The museum is across the street and housed in a library-like building which was one of the few to survive the German bombing in April of 1940. Most of the center of town was destroyed. They had a wonderful Ken Burns style film which used photos of life before WWII, and had photos of the 1940 bombing. It did not say how many people were killed, but indicated that most had abandoned the center of town for the outlying farms. It is a real eye opener to realize how many towns in Northern Norway were destroyed during the war either from the initial bombing in 1940, or from the retreat of the German army, when they destroyed everything left behind them.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 The longest stop today was the town of Tromso, which has the northernmost university in the world. Tom and I decided to walk to the university museum which has a major display of Sami culture. It was about a 30 minute walk from the dock, and with the nice weather, was fun. We walked through neighborhoods with wooden buildings with slate or ceramic roofs. Tromso was relatively unscathed by bombing during the war. Our Canadian friends were joined on the ship by a cousin who was 86, had grown up in Tomso and had a wealth of information about life in the town. He said that the town was occupied by the regular German army and not the SS. His family was forced to house 2 young German soldiers, but they were so young that his mother felt sorry for them and occasionally shared food with them. We did notice that there was a memorial to eight Jewish citizens of Tromso who had all died in the same year.
The streets wound around the town's hill, and though there were no sidewalks, there was also little traffic. The grass and shrubs were greening up nicely, and there were daffodils, rhododendrons quite a few bedding plants in the yards. We had noticed pallets of the plants being offloaded from our ship on most of our stops. We were surprised to see quite a few trees in the yards. As we were walking up, a man of about our age came roller skiing at a brisk pace down the hill. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. When we walked back down to the ship we heard the most beautiful tenor voice singing opera. An older man was out on his porch serenading the birds.
In several of the towns, we visited outdoor equipment shops. Most of the towns had cross country ski trails and ski slopes. One of the shop's employees said that it was cheaper to visit resorts in Italy or France than to go to the resorts of Norway. In general, prices are really high by our standards, due to the influence of oil money from the offshore drilling.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 The weather continues to be sunny and cool. We got off the ship at Hammerfest for a walk along the 1 road along the waterfront. The landscape is pretty much treeless this far north, but there were wildflowers coming out, and lots of grass, mosses and lichens. Tom waded down on the beach, and stuck his toe in the water. He said it wasn't much colder than the Pacific at Cannon Beach. We collected a rock to bring home, and it sparkled, because the rocks around here contain chips of mica. As in most of the towns this far north, fishing is the main industry and there are piles of crab pots, racks with nets, and boxes of long lines with fishhooks at the ready for when the season for each harvest begins.
Our excursion today was from Honningsvag. We did a bus tour to the North Cape, the northernmost point of continental land in the world. The hills around here are bare of trees, but there are large herds of reindeer grazing on the mosses, lichens and grasses. The reindeer belong to the Sami people, who have lived in this area as long as anyone knows. The reindeer are brought over by boat to the summer pasture and for calving, they fatten up, and then swim back as winter approaches. The Tromso museum said that there was an account of the Sami by an early Italian explorer dating from 350 BC. We visited a Sami camp with a summer teepee, a reindeer, and tool that people had made in earlier days for everyday use. The young Sami man was dressed in traditional felt garb with a 4 pointed blue cap. He was obviously very well educated and switched easily between Norwegian, English, German and Italian while answering the tourists questions about Sami life and customs. We later found out that there has been an effort to preserve Sami language, and Sami children are taught in Sami throughout elementary school.
Our visit to the North Cape featured cool, windy, but sunny weather. From the cape you are looking directly North at nothing but ocean. If you could fly or sail in a direct line from there you would end up in Alaska, probably near or in the Bering Straight. The visitor's center and the viewpoint sit about 1,000 feet above the ocean, and we could see a cruise ship and several fishing boats down below. There is a long tunnel from the visitor center to a viewing point under the cliff. We were told the area gets only about 15 sunny days per year. People from all over the world were there, and have come to this point in the past. There was one room furnished by the king of Thailand, whose father or grandfather had visited the cape in the 1800's. Our guide on the trip gave the tour in English and Italian, and we ate lunch next to a couple from India.
Friday, June 19, 2009 The weather became cloudy, windy and colder overnight. We went past some open water during the night and had a little wave motion. We prepared to get off the ship in Kirkenes at 9:45 am. We took a tour to the Russian border and saw a bit of the countryside. It was cold with intermittent drizzle all day. Many, if not most of the signs in Kirkenes are in both Norwegian and Russian.
We drove through some forested areas on the way to the border. There were both evergreens and deciduous trees. There is a national park in the area which contains 50 brown bears. The bears are protected and monitored by scientists who live in the park. We did not see any bears, but we did see more reindeer.
There were huge bare hills with flattened tops around the town, which we learned were actually tailings from the iron mines. The mines and the town's location made Kirkenes a strategic location during WWII. There were over 300,000 German troops stationed there in preparation for an invasion of Russia. It was one of the most bombed cities in WWII. The Russians liberated it at the end of the war after the Germans burned most of the remains of the town during their retreat. The surviving Norwegians holed up in an underground shelter in town, and in one of the mine shafts. Some people died in the underground shelters, and 12 babies were born underground. The people of Kirkenes took great hope from the births as a symbol that life goes on, even under the worst of circumstances.
The border itself is guarded by young Norwegian soldiers. The Norwegians had a checkpoint station there and outside of the border area, was a nice gift shop. We understand that there is regular bus service back and forth into Russia, and the town was full of Russian fishermen who use Kirkeness as their base to avoid red tape at home. There is a ship repair facility in town and their main business is fixing Russian fishing boats. There were many young Russian men in town, and they were buying perfume and pretty trinkets for their wives and girlfriends. We were told that there is regular bus service between Kirkenes and Murmansk, Russia. The gray skies, the low ~ 40 degree temperature, and the cold rain did little to make the town look inviting. The overall effect was pretty dark, even though we were in the midnight sun latitude. I can't imagine living there during the period when the sun is below the horizon all day – a period of about a month in December and January.
We returned to town and whiled away the time visiting the local indoor shopping mall, walking around town and having lunch in the one centrally located hotel. The airport bus arrived at 6:30 pm to take us out for our 8:50 pm flight to Oslo.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Norway Coastal Cruise
Overview – The ship is comfortable and not ostentations. It is a working ferry and we stop frequently to pick up passengers and offload passengers and goods. The Hurtigruten line on the coastal route is an official mail carrier for the Norwegian post office, but so far I have not seen any sacks of mail going either off or on.
The coast is very rugged with lots of islands and skerries (have to look this one up – I think it means small islands which can be below water at high tide). Many small towns and villages were isolated except by boat, but most on the mainland now are connected by roads, bridges and an extensive ferry system. We have seen countless small farms which appear shuttered and abandoned, but nonetheless well kept up – roofs in good repair and paint not peeling. We were told that these are now used as summer homes. They were originally homes and farms, though lord knows what they could grow on the small pieces of land. One village required that when someone died and needed burial, the family had to supply enough dirt to do the job. In times past, the small farmers also fished to feed their families. Thus far, except for occasional gulls, we have seen a dearth of any kind of wildlife. We've passed several fish farms, but again did not notice much activity around them.
Daily routine is sooo taxing. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style with plenty of food and good selection. They have 5-6 different kinds of fish, both pickled and cooked (the lox is to die for), 5-6 different kinds of cheese from mild to stinky, a wide selection of hot meat dishes, and veggies, fresh salad fixings and fresh fruit, flat breads and fresh baked slice-it-yourself bread both white and whole grain. They also have hot and cold cereals for breakfast, a rich dessert selection at lunch, and yogurt, though it is liquid and not “spoon-able”like the kind at home. Dinner is at assigned tables with a fixed menu, very nicely prepared.
For exercise, you can walk around the deck, or go up and down the stairs, or get off and walk around at one of the towns which has a longer stop. There is an exercise room and sauna on one of the lower decks, but I have yet to see them. I am reluctant to go below when there is such great scenery. A drawback of a walk on the deck is getting downwind of the smokers. At least they are relatively few, compared to former years.
There are 5 passenger decks, with an observation lounge above the prow on deck 7. The dining room is on deck 4, near our cabin, and there are 2 bars on that level with windows also. We are on deck 3 starboard side, with a window. It is quiet down there and no foot traffic past the window.
Each day we dock at 4-6 ports, both during the day and at night, although now that we are above the Arctic Circle, it is all day. Getting used to the amount of daylight at this latitude is difficult. The sun is at such a low angle in the sky that it can be quite intense, like a kleig light. If it is very cloudy, it is dim enough to sleep at night, but if there are gaps in the clouds, the light is almost blinding and shines through the gaps around the blackout curtains. Even with eye shades, you can sense the intense rays. One enchanting effect of this low angle is rainbows and snowbows whenever the sun is behind you and there is precipitation in front of you. They appear almost magically, are subtle in their intensity and sometimes double. Then in the blink of an eye they are gone, and you wonder if you imagined them.
Americans are few on this trip. There are two tour groups, a German and a French, as well as independent travelers from both countries. Of course, there are Norwegians, Brits, Canadians and also Italians. I met a lady from Belgium, and a gentleman from India. All of the announcements over the intercom are given in 5 languages. Most everyone knows how to speak some English. We have met 3 people of Norwegian heritage – a Canadian couple, and a lady who grew up in a Norwegian community in Brooklyn, NY. The lady from New York says that Brooklyn still hosts the largest Norwegian Independence Day parade outside of Norway, even though the neighborhood has changed to mostly Chinese and Puerto Rican.
I'll continue with a day by day account of the stops on our trip in another file.
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