Juleen/Joe leave and Julie/Harold see a few more Bergen sights

Juleen and Joe slept late -- very late, attempting to stock up on sleep that they don't get enough of in the US.  They then ran for a bit, had breakfast, packed, and off they went for the airport.  They fly from Bergen to Copenhagen and from Copenhagen to JFK.  They have a tight turnaround before their flight from JFK to Pittsburgh.

Harold and Julie emptied the dishwasher -- yay, the dishes were clean, and they cleaned the kitchen.  Harold also found time to walk around Bergen Art District before they packed and headed to the Hotel Admiral, their last hotel stay before they board the cruise ship.

the arts district in Bergen

Harold and Julie spent the day at the three museums associated with the Hanseatic League, the German economic group that swapped fish for wheat.   This group took over Bryggen's commerce in 1300 and continued for almost 400 years.  They were clannish (didn't mix with the locals) and secretive about how they operated so efficiently.  They were also all-male.  We visited the Hanseatic League Museum and the musuem that housed their social and educational rooms, and the kitchen.  Because of the fear of fire, no kitchens were allowed in the main areas where they lived and did their business.  Then we trekked over to the Maritime Museum and Julie learned that cod liver oil comes from the liver of cod.  Who knew?  A highlight was taking a shuttle boat back to the main wharf area in Bergen.

After that, Harold went to see more of the Hanseatic League Museum, and Julie did a little shopping.

After an unsuccessful attempt to eat at a great little restaurant Joe found for us, we ate at the Fish Market for the second time today.  All was good and a fitting end to our final full day in Bergen.

One last thing -- Bergen gets about 60 sunny days a year, with rain being predominant.  We were lucky enough to be here during four consecutive beautiful days, two of them with full sun, and none of them with rain.  Our server at the restaurant said it had rained for about 2 weeks straight previously, so the natives were thrilled to see the sun -- and so were we.

Bergen -- oh, what a place

Today was spent savoring this beautiful city.  

We mostly split up and did our own things.

Joe went for a long run and shared some of the sights he saw.  Then the two of them (Juleen and Joe) walked around the Fortress and went to the Bryggen Hus Museum which tells about the fortress.  They also partook in a "Resistance to the Nazis" exhibit that was housed there.  They had lunch on a little wooden bench, and in the afternoon, they bought some gifts, shopped, viewed the city from the funicular, and wandered.

The Fortress in Bergen

heading up in the funicular

the view of Bergen from the top of the funicular

Julie and Harold met Randall and Olive at the funicular and up they went.  Bergen is a grand city to see from on high.  Previous to that ride, Randall and Olive wandered around the city.  The four of them had lunch at the Bergen fish market, but they were not together at this point.  Unfortunately, Julie got a touch of food poisoning from her lunch (which was delicious. . . . ), and that bout cut short the afternoon activities for her and Harold, but they did have time to wander through the little alleyways too.

Is it salmon or trout?

Randall purchased some salmon for our evening dinner, and he told a funny story about being at the fish market.  He looks like a native Norwegian, and when he stepped up to the counter, the clerk spoke to him in Norwegian.  Randall smiled and asked him if he spoke English.  Yes, he did, but seemed quite surprised that Randall wasn't Norwegian.  Then Randall pointed to a fish and asked for the salmon.  The clerk sort of sniffed and said, "That's trout."  Let's just say that the clerk wasn't all that impressed with "Norwegian" Randall, but in the end, we did get a huge amount of wonderful, fresh salmon (or was it trout?).  Yes, it is better than what you can get in the US!

Julie and her new beau -- Troll.

We all chilled late afternoon when the major activity was finding a post office in the grocery story we have been using, so Olive, Juleen, and Julie put their reindeer pelts in plastic bags and we headed over to the PO to see if we could mail them to the US.  Sure enough. They had three large boxes big enough for one pelt each, and we boxed them, taped them, paid for them (about $100 total) and away they went.  They should arrive within a week.

We had planned ahead for our final dinner at the apartment.  Randall had bought the salmon/trout at the fish market; Julie and Harold bought the fruit for dessert ($40 worth -- yes, food IS expensive in Norway); Juleen and Joe bought the ingredients for side dishes, and they were responsible for cooking.  We had a superb meal of baked salmon, rice (Julie put butter on hers just to be like a real Norwegian), broccoli, and the fruit for dessert.  We feasted and reminisced about the week.

Then Randall and Olive packed and left about 7:00.  Sigh. They arrived at their airport hotel easily after taking the light rail.

The other four of us at the apartment attempted to get the loaded dishwasher started and eventually succeeded. We are hoping the dishes will be clean in the morning, although Julie wasn't certain what kind of soap she put in the dispenser of the dish washer.  Indeed, it may not even have been soap!

Julie got ambitious and put a load of clothes in the washer and in the dryer.  Again, she wasn't sure which soap was for the clothes, and ended up using a powder soap that was probably for baby clothes. Oh well, it worked, and the clothes washed and dried.

We all went to bed thinking wonderful thoughts about our Norway trip which is almost over for 2/3 of us.

Leaving Maristuen and the "snow road"

the view of Maristuen from our cottage: the middle red building is the old hotel/now museum.  To the left is where guests check in.  Sara's apartment is upstairs.  To the right is the swimming pool and recreation center (currently closed).

We had a busy morning at our cottage at Maristuen.  We packed and cleaned up the place before we loaded our suitcases and the six of us into the car and headed over to the main office.  Julie paid, and quite happily, Knut and Anders came over with a vehicle filled with reindeer skins.  They had one for sale at the hotel, but we wanted two, so they brought a bunch back for us to choose from.  Juleen and I each picked out our favorites, and Knut and Anders gave us an extra, so we have three.  Happily again, we were able to get them in the loaded car.  We sat on them and put them on our laps and away we went.

one last look from Knut as we drove away

one of our reindeer pelts with its Maristuen "markings":
their reindeer skins have spots which are unusual markings

We drove through Laerdal on E16 and then veered off onto what the locals call the "snow road" which Knut had recommended we take in lieu of doing the Flom Railway -- same spectacular views without all the tourists, and lord knows, we want to avoid tourists :-).

We did, however, take the time to stop at the Dale of Norway store in Dale, Norway.  We gave ourselves 10 minutes of power shopping time, and we did indeed get out of there in 12 minutes -- not bad, but none of us found anything worthy of the cost of the items.

"Is he alive?"

This snow road was aptly named.  It weaved around higher and higher until we got above the tree line and continued up past crystal clear lakes, streams, rapids, and waterfalls, and yes, indeed, there was also snow.  We were in awe of the beauty, oblivious to the fact that the best was yet to come.

But that "best" was post lunch.  We decided we didn't have time to stop for something "real" to eat, so we got out the bag of left-over food from our stay at Maristuen:  bread, a little lettuce, a pack of proscuitto, cheese, flatbread, 6 bison sticks, and some candy.  No apple juice though -- the bottom of the cardboard container broke and a large amount of it was in the bottom of the sack.  We drove and ate, and all of us marvelled at how good our lunch was, even sans apple juice!

Then came the "best."  We reached a stopping vista view point with a lot of cars, so we stopped, got out of the car, and walked across the road.  Wow -- we were at a high precipice overlooking a finger of the Sogn Fjord called the Aurland Fjord, which some say is the most beautiful fjord in Norway.  We can't speak to the comparison, but it was indeed stunning.  The cliffs rose high and straight into the air, and those cliffs dove straight down into the water.  The views were complemented by a group of Peruvian bikers who had just made the trek up the mountain on their bikes.  One of them (Julie speculates she was a professional photographer because of the camera she had around her neck) took a picture of all of us with her iphone, and it is without a doubt, the best picture of the trip thus far.

the beautiful Aurland Fjord

Eventually, we felt we had to leave the splendour and continue our trek to Bergen where we had to drop off the car by 3:00 and check into our "penthouse" at 3:00. All was going well until we got close to Bergen and tried to find a gas station.  Our time was slipping away.  We did find a gas station, but decided we didn't have time to actually be dropped off by the penthouse, so driver Joe dropped us off at a street corner (4 of us) with 6 suitcases and 3 huge reindeer pelts, along with three of four shoulder strapbags.  What a sight we must have been.  We had less than 10 minutes to get to our penthouse and we didn't really know where we were going.  Stress.  Fortunately, we made the right turns and finally a local woman took pity on us and asked if we needed helped.  Fortunately again, we were just a couple of blocks from our place.  She laughed and said no wonder we were having trouble.  Our "penthouse" was on the narrowest and shortest street in Bergen -- no cars and only two blocks long.  We arrived a few minutes late, but the owner was still there, and we were happy with the place.

Joe and Olive arrived at the car dealership to return the rental car at 3:15, but Olive put 3:08 down on the "return" info, which was the exact time we had checked out the car.  Quick thinking on her part.  Joe and Olive also found the apartment, and we all chilled a bit.

We wandered around the beautiful streets of Bergen going in and out of the little alleys looking at the shops and then headed to our restaurant. Olive had made us reservations at a good local restaurant -- Bryggeloftet & Stuene where we again feasted on wonderful Norwegian foods. Julie had whale carpaccio, and she is still alive.  Juleen had reindeer filet, Randall had dried cod (bacalao), and many of us had a fish soup which Julie thought was superb and the others so-so.  It was basically in a cream and butter sauce.

Post lunch, and after a bit of wandering around the city some more, we headed back to our place -- quite nice with three bedrooms and an okay view which was one of the selling points of the "penthouse."  It was, however, up a flight of stairs to the main living area, and another flight of stairs to the bedrooms.  One bathroom, on the main floor.  Overall, though, it was a good location and a good place for us all, especially since no one fell down the stairs going to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

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.