Maristuen, Laerdal and Helene Maristuen

Again, we woke up later than we anticipated.  We are finding the long, long days to be quite wonderful, but it does cause one go to bed later since it is still quite bright at midnight

We did, however, get motivated and walked over to Sara's place to get Jorunn who walked with us to the private Maristuen cemetery.  It was a nice hike over some beautiful terrain, along the crystal clear rushing river, and in places, we walked on the King's Road.  The cemetery held many of the graves of the Maristuens, past and present, 12 graves to be specific.  They were all in a row, and the deceased had chosen the kind of stone they wanted before they died.  Some were official gravestones, while others were flat, solid rocks from the area which were engraved with the relevant information.  One of them had written his signature which was then duplicated on his grave stone.  Pretty pink mums adorned each grave, and they were all well kept.  Jorunn talked about how they had scrubbed the stones in an attempt to keep the moss from growing, but it was difficult to keep up with the moss.

the private Maristuen cemetery at the hotel/cottages

Jon/John Maristuen's brother Knut who took over the hotel after John emigrated to North Dakota. Knut and John (and other siblings) were Anders' sons (Andersen). Anders was born Anders Nystuen and died Anders Maristuen.  He was the first owner of the hotel, purchased in 1847.  Anders' grave is at the Borgund Stave Church, but it had broken and had been somewhat poorly repaired.

Knut's son was Anders.  Notice the first names alternate with each generation,
and the middle name tells who the person is the son or daughter of (Knutsen or Knutsdatter for a girl).

Anders' son Knut.  His son was Anders (father of Sara), and
Sara's son is Knut (whom we met), and Knut's son is Anders (whom we also met).

After visiting the Maristuen cemetery, we got dressed up and headed for Laerdal to have lunch with Helene Maristuen who lives on the edge of town.  She hadn't expected us so early and was not home when we arrived :-(, but after a phone call, she arrived quickly.  She was a delight.  She is about the same age as Randall and Juleen and has two children (a boy 13 and a girl, about 8).  She is an assistant professor in tourism at the tourism college in Laerdal, and she also runs two shops, works in the local market, and does several tourist-related activities in the community.  She had a wonderful sense of humor and was clearly a busy, busy, busy person.  Our lunch consisted of all local products, which was a Laerdal brain child of hers.  We had venison salami, goat salami, pork prosciutto, a spicy hot salami, a local cheese, boiled potatoes (this area grows most of the potatoes for Norway), local salmon, and a potato salad.  We also had a wonderful local raspberry beverage to drink and had local ice cream for dessert.

We, thus, hit it right with our gifts for her.  She was very excited about the North Dakota durum pasta, and said she would frame it instead of eat it. She was equally thrilled with the North Dakota bison salami made in Leeds; she said she had never tasted bison. Olive and Juleen told about their purse/bag gift, and she wanted to make sure she wore it correctly, and could hardly wait to take it downtown to the store and to work.

Helene, sporting her new bag and wondering if she
was wearing it correctly.

Randall, Helene, and Juleen -- 5th cousins

Lastly, of course, we went through the book Julie had made on the Leeds branch of the Maristuen heritage.  We speculated that Helene would visit us all in the US at some point.

While we were there, Helene remembered that several years ago, there was an exhibition of emigration from Norway.  This area of Laerdal has 2500 people, but 5000 people emigrated to America.  They left largely because the area was very economically depressed, and as we learned last night, they were so depressed as to actually be hungry.  Thus, it made more sense that 5 members of one Maristuen family emigrated, and we also learned that they most likely sent back money, and perhaps considerable money.  We speculated that perhaps Knut built up the hotel the way he did because of money from the North Dakota Maristuens who all did quite well.  It turned out that the diary of John Maristuen was featured at the exhibition, so we went to see it.

Then we parted ways with Helene, and it seemed somehow quite fitting that we hugged and said good bye at the same location where Knut and John said good bye in 1870, for this was the exact location where the boats left to go to Bergen before they headed across the ocean. Poignant.

Juleen and Joe about where the boats came in in Bergen to pick up emigrants

In the middle of the day, we headed over to the salmon center in Laerdal and learned more about the life of the salmon and more about this section of the Laerdal River, especially between Laerdal and the Borgund Stave Church which is world-famous as a salmon-spawning area.  We were able to see the river where the salmon jump in their struggle to get back to the location where they were born.  We did not actually hang around to see any salmon jump, however.  We did see several fishermenfly fishing for salmon in the river.  It's only "catch and release" for wild salmon at this point because of over fishing, and all of the Norwegian salmon are from salmon farms.  The King comes here every spring to fish, and he was here just a couple of weeks ago.  Helen also told about working at the tourist center when Eric Clapton came in for information.  It's apparently a hot, hot, hot salmon fishing area.

Juleen preparing to go out salmon fishing

Then we headed back to Maristuen, washed some clothes, napped, took hikes, ran, washed dishes, and Juleen and I ordered two reindeer pelts which Anders will bring us tomorrow morning.

a hike up the mountain on King's Road.  Maristuen is behind us to the left. 

Happily for all of us, last night, Randall had made us a soup, so we feasted on his soup, a salad, flatbread, and six bottles of beer which he said cost $40.  They were larger bottles however. . . .

Maristuen and the Borgund Stave Church

 We all were stunned when we realized it was 9:00 am when we woke up!  We had coffee, a banana each, and two hard-boiled eggs each, as well as some toast :-).  We each had enough, and several members of our group went hiking and/or running.  The setting truly is spectacular, and one has to wonder what John Maristuen thought when he arrived in flat North Dakota.

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!

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.

Anders Maristuen, Sara's grandson, regaling us with reindeer herding stories

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.

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.

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.

the hotel as it looked when Julie visited in 1972

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.

one of the original windows in the Maristuen Hotel Museum signed
by travelers in the 1800s.  

The six of us in front of the front door of the old museum/hotel.
Sara gave us quite a comprehensive tour.

train day: Oslo to Bergen and arrival at Maristuen

Today was a transition day.  We left our Oslo hotel, and off we went to the central train station in Oslo, took the train to Bergen, rented a car, and then drove to the Maristuen Hotel where we spent the next three days.

We left the hotel at 7:15 am to walk to the train station. We had enough time to get ourselves a cup of coffee and a pastry before hopping on the train (an easy process).  There were no empty seats on the train (literally – it was sold out).    Fortunately, the hotel had packed a "to go" breakfast for us, and the breakfast became our lunch.  The train ride was as good as the advertising indicated; it is billed as one of the most beautiful train rides in Europe.  The beauty was especially relevant for the last third of the trip when we travelled through snow-covered mountains with waterfalls everywhere one looked.  In one location, we counted a view with more than 30 waterfalls. And these were not waterfalls that were a few feet tall; they literally poured down from the tops of the mountains ½ mile or more.  Spectacular is an understatement.  The only irritating thing is that there were as many tunnels as there were waterfalls, so one had to be quick with the camera to get a couple of pictures before we were in the dark again.  We all took several pictures of the dark walls of the tunnels, having missed the PERFECT picture by a few inches.  Damn.  Some of the tunnels were through the mountains, but some appeared to be wooden structures meant to keep the snow away from the train tracks.

a beautiful farm setting visible from the train window

our arrival at the train station in Bergen: a bustling location

Olive was persistent in connecting with the Avis Car Rental Agency in Bergen to try to get them to stay open a few extra minutes after their 3:00 closing time, and she eventually succeeded, and yes, they said they would stay open until she arrived.  So when the train trip ended at 3:00, Olive and Joe RAN to the car rental agency and made it (Joe won, but Olive was not far behind).  Hooray!  The rest of us stood in the rain waiting for them to come back to pick us up with the car.  Fortunately, it didn’t take long, and we were able to put all of our luggage (JUST BARELY) and all of us (JUST BARELY) into the car, and off we went to the Maristuen Hotel.

We wanted to try to find a grocery store and a restaurant on the way to Maristuen.  We failed to find a grocery store that was open, but we were able to pick up 6 bananas, 12 eggs, and a loaf of bread for breakfast at a convenience store.  While we were successful finding a restaurant in a small town, the food was less than spectacular and quite pricey.  Those of us who bought hamburgers paid $25 for a not-very-good hamburger.  But to be fair, it did have 3 onion rings and a pile of fries with it :-(.  The good news is that we all were fed and we hit the road again.

We again were amazed by the beauty surrounding us, and at 8:30 pm, we pulled into Maristuen.  Gorgeous.  We were given the large four-bedroom cabin (we had paid for the three-bedroom one), so we were given a bit of a gift from Sara, who was as pleased to see us as we were her.

Our cabin is wonderful -- the setting, and all of the amenities including a dish washer, a clothes washer and dryer, wi-fi, TV, heated floors, a sauna, and absolutely everything one needs for a beautiful stay in a beautiful location.

We wrapped ourselves up in our duvets and sat outside on the front porch and enjoyed the splendour. We went to bed at midnight, and it was still light out.  We are going to like this place!

It was a bit chilly, in case you hadn't guessed,
but the view was so spectacular, we couldn't resist
sitting outside until about midnight around the time
this picture was taken!

Randall and Juleen standing on the porch of our cabin,
with Randall sporting his new Dale of Norway pea coat

the exterior of our Maristuen cottage

the living room of our cottage, the beautiful kitchen and dining
room are on the far end.  The cottage included 4 bedrooms.