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| Joe and Randall exploring the King's Road, the path of which was right outside our cabin. |
Our plan for the day was to explore the surroundings and go to the Borgund Stave Church before going to Sara's apartment for dinner. Some of the exploration was done via running (Joe) and some was done via hiking before we packed into the car to drive to Borgund Stave church. We spent a fair amount of time in the interpretive center for the stave church, and then went over to view the real thing with our new-found knowledge. We pointed out the "knees" and looked over the "sills" and other aspects of the wall structure, as well as wondering about the dragons that fly from the corners (no one knows why they are there). They believe the church was built in 1100 AD, and this church is the finest remaining church of several hundred that were built. Only a few Stave Churches remain.
We also spent a fair amount of time in the cemetery, and found a few of the Maristuen graves, but not the one Julie really wanted to see: "born Anders Nystuen, died Anders Maristuen." The stone has apparently broken and was fixed with an iron cross, but the cross obliterated the name.
Then we all started out on a hike of the King's Road -- the first proper road between east and west Norway. It was built for carriages. Julie was slipping and sliding (wrong shoes!) and decided to head back to the Interpretive Center. The rest of the group hiked for about an hour before they returned to the Center, and we all had lunch, bought several things in the Center, and then headed back "home" to Maristuen. On our way home, we were able to find a grocery store in Steinklepp, and we bought lots of food. Hooray for food!
We returned to our cottage, rested a bit, and then got cleaned up to go over to Sara's apartment for dinner. We had a lovely meal of salmon, reindeer sandwiches, fruit, two different kinds of pastries (a chocolate nut cake and kari lefse (not sure if that is the correct name), which was many slices of lefse folded together with goat cheese and sugar. DELICIOUS!
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| Sara Maristuen in her lovely apartment. She is a busy woman since she checks in the visitors to the Maristuen cottages. All of the wall paintings are Maristuen family members, some done by famous Norwegian painters who were guests at the hotel. |
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| Anders Maristuen, Sara's grandson, regaling us with reindeer herding stories |
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| Knut Maristuen hiking on the King's Road |
Sara's cousin Jorunn was also there, as well as Sara's son Knut, and his son Anders. We had a delightful evening discussing reindeer, music, education, the family, and taking pictures. Knut had a large reindeer herd (numbering from 2000 to 5000, depending upon the time of year), and this summer, Anders is working for Knut using a drone to keep track of the reindeer to be sure they stay where they are supposed to. We actually got to see a video done by a drone checking on the Maristuen reindeer herd. Knut and Anders are quite concerned because one wild reindeer from a neighboring herd had been found to have CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease). It's the first such case found in Norway, and if any deer in their herd has it, they will have to kill the entire herd -- a scary prospect indeed. Knut was enjoyable and is living with (and has three children with) a local teacher across the street in the Maristuen house.
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| Julie with Sara (left) and Jorunn (right) -- 4th cousins |
Anders is in his last year of college. He is getting a music degree focused on rock and hip-hop. He plays the bass guitar, and it seems he must be quite talented. He left home at the age of 16 to go to a music high school (he lived in an apartment in the community). He hopes to become a famous rock star, but in lieu of that, he will play music on the side and teach music at a school, but he also talked about some day taking over the reindeer herd, which appears to be Knut's main endeavor.
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| Anders, Randall, Juleen -- 5th cousins |
Jorunn had a wonderful sense of humor, and we learned much about the family from her. The Maristuens own considerable land in the area, and they own the cottages, including the one we are staying in which is beautiful, immaculate, and well set-up. It even has a wet sauna!
The beautiful old hotel, which Julie visited in 1972, burned in 1976.
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| the hotel as it looked when Julie visited in 1972 |
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| the hotel in around 1937. The older hotel, to the left, is now a museum. |
After the fire, another more modern hotel was built, but it seems that after Chernoble, the tourist business came to a stand still in the area because the winds brought the radioactivity over Norway. The tour busses stopped coming, as did other tourists, and five of the surrounding hotels closed. The Maristuens were able to keep going with their facility, but the loss of the original hotel was devastating, of course compounded by Chernoble. The swimming pool/restaurant/motel went through several owners and is closed right now. The six Maristuen cottages remain open, and Sara is in charge of booking and getting people their keys.
We shared gifts and went through the Maristuen Heritage book that Julie had made. Sara also had written a book about the Maristuen Hotel, and she gave us a copy. It is filled with family information and pictures -- all in Norwegian, of course, but we can have the relevant parts translated. They were quite pleased with the gifts, including the North Dakota pasta, the bison salami from Leeds, and the Frank Lloyd Wright silk scarf.
It was a wonderful evening of connections between the Norway Maristuens and the North Dakota Maristuens.
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| one of the original windows in the Maristuen Hotel Museum signed by travelers in the 1800s. |
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| The six of us in front of the front door of the old museum/hotel. Sara gave us quite a comprehensive tour. |
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