Back on Canadian Soil - July 9, 2009

The flight from Frankfurt landed in Calgary – almost home. We had a three hour stopover – but that was a good thing because the security line in Calgary was very long – in fact some people may have missed their connecting flights, there was lots of frustration and a lot of cranky people. Fortunately for us our stress level was low thanks to the long lay-over.

Beth adds: I have to say that I didn't realize how much I missed Canada and everything familiar until we came through Customs and one of the first things I saw was a Tim Horton's. Finally I could get a simple cup of coffee without fumbling through foreign currency and language barriers. I was back in well-known territory.

We went through Customs in Calgary and were relieved to discover they didn’t care about the goat cheese! Yes, in spite of saying I wouldn’t do that again, Sissel and Terje gave us two big packages of gjetost to take home! There were no other problems at customs either, even though we were a little over our limit for the amount of purchases we were allowed to bring in duty free - they simply waved us through (big sigh of relief). Now all that remained was the last little flight home!

Landing in Regina was bitter sweet. On the one hand we were very glad to be home, but this also meant the end of our wonderful trip. When we came down the stairs in the airport we were greeting by two of our children (Anna and Thomas – Joshua was at work). A pleasant surprise was also being welcomed home by our friends Irene and John Edworthy. To see these familiar faces really brought home the reality of being back home. The pilgrimage was over – now to share our adventure with the many curious folks who would be wondering how it all went. But that was for another day – today we simply wanted to take ourselves and all our luggage to our house, then to try and get some sleep and get back on Saskatchewan time.

Once at our house we waited until Joshua got home from work, then we spent some time handing out the souvenirs we brought back for the kids. We shared some stories, answered questions, got caught up on the important happenings around home, then went to bed (after being up for close to 26 hours straight).

Thus ended our 6 week trip – so much packed into so short a time – and memories to last a lifetime. So too does this blog come to an end (ironically 2 years after our trip was finished we finally got around to finishing up the final days of entries!) Both Beth and I will post one more reflection piece each – as we look back over this whole adventure and make some general observations about the trip and how it impacted us. Thanks for sharing this pilgrimage with us through this blog. Now on to whatever the future holds.

Final Day of Travel - Frankfurt Airport - July 9, 2009

Our last day in Europe started very early as we had to get to the train station to catch the high speed train to Frankfurt (which rolled out of the station at 6:41 AM). The train was ride was fast, and smooth and before we knew it we were arriving at the airport in Frankfurt (the train pulls right into the Airport terminal – that’s effective and convenient public transportation!)

It was a good thing that we arrived at the airport early because the line up to get through security turned out to be very long. While waiting for our boarding call we marvelled at this city within a city – the Frankfurt airport is huge, indicated by the airport security people who rode around on bicycles inside the terminal! What a place to people watch – folks from all around the world, many different skin colours, clothing styles, languages, all waiting to go somewhere.

The last official duty we had in Europe was to complete and mail our forms for the VAT refund (Valued Added Tax - remember the leather purchases we made in Florence?) The deal there was that some of the tax was waived because we were from out of country, the trick is that there was a certain form that had to be submitted within six weeks. Beth mentioned that we wouldn't be leaving Europe before that so thus wouldn't be able to process the form through customs in time. She was assured (by the very skilled salesperson at the leather store) that this would be no problem (and it wasn't except that the extra tax portion wound up being charged to our VISA since we didn't submit the paperwork in time. Beth had quite the process after we got home to get it refunded.) It took a very long time but we did eventually get our refund. Anyway, enough side notes.

We wandered through the Frankfurt airport and found a convenient post box where we could mail the completed form. First Beth needed to go to the customs office and have the official stamp put on it. There was quite a line-up but we had lots of time. Imagine our surprise when as we waited, we heard the initial call for our flight. We were a little panicky until the woman ahead of Beth told her we would be just fine - she was one of the stewardesses for that same flight!

It turns out that our plane was over-sold and so they were checking us into the gate early (we didn’t take the offer to take a later flight and get some credit or something – we simply wanted to get home to our family). Soon enough we were settled in our seats for the long flight home.

The flight itself was memorable for only three things – it was very long, the movie system kept crashing, but the food was good (better than what I would expect on an airplane).

A Tale of Two Hotels - July 8, 2009

We woke up to our last day in the Scandinavian countries refreshed and ready to go (in spite of the very small hotel room – and small beds to match!) Little did we realize that the contrast with our accommodations later that day would be a study in contrasts. After breakfast we lugged our bulging suitcases (now I know where the term luggage comes from) to the train station. Thankfully we had wheels on the largest suitcases and thus we made our way down the sidewalks of Copenhagen looking very much like tourists.

After waiting for a little bit we were able to board the train that would take us to Hannover, Germany. By this time we were experts at getting all our luggage and ourselves onto the train and settled into place. The train trip had nothing of note – or perhaps we were simply worn out and didn’t pay attention to things that would have caught our fancy earlier in the trip. Actually there was one cool thing about the trip - at one point the train boarded a ferry to cross a body of water. We had to leave the train while the ferry sailed, and doing so we were able to see the train tracks built into the floor of the ferry. Thinking back on this now I realize that within a 24 hour span we travelled by rail, sea and air!

Once in Hannover we walked the couple of blocks from the train station to the hotel where we discovered that we had been upgraded because the room we had booked was not available. This was one of the hotel rooms booked using our Airmiles. So up we went to the top floor of the hotel and walked into the most luxurious and spacious suite we had been in the whole trip (see the picture above). The irony was we weren’t able to enjoy it very long because we had such an early start the next morning.

The best thing about this room was all the space! We were able to unpack everything, and then re-pack it as efficiently as possible for the trip home. So rather than being able to enjoy the spacious room and huge bed with a lazy day and sleeping in the next morning (in the lovely huge bed) we simply grabbed some food from a grocery store in the train station and proceeded to eat, and repack. When that was done we fell into bed exhausted… it was time to head home!

Marilyn Mazur Concert - July 7, 2009

Back in Copenhagen after running around Malmo for the day. The Copenhagen Jazz Festival was taking place at the time so I thought I would see if there were any concerts I would be interested in. One name jumped out at me – the American/Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur. I recognized her name from a number of recordings I have, most notably Jan Garbarek’s recent ECM albums. Playing with her that night were a couple of musicians I recognized from ECM recordings - John Taylor (an English pianist who I first heard as part of the group Azimuth) and Anders Jormin (a Swedish bass player who I knew from his playing with the Bobo Stenson Trio). The group was rounded out with Josefine Cronholm, a Swedish vocalist I didn’t recognize. The concert was in The Queen's Hall of the Royal Library (Det Kongelige Bibliotek)and with a little checking we discovered it was within walking distance of our hotel. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we decided to take it in.

We had a little time for shopping before the concert so we wandered around the city streets near our hotel. It was a lovely evening and many people were out and about. I was specifically looking for a Danish vimpel, but also any other Danish souvenirs to bring home. We grabbed some food from a street vendor - the Scandinavian equivalent of a hot dog – a thin long sausage in a baguette. When you ordered one of these the vendor asked what condiments you wanted, these then were squirted into the hollowed out baguette and finally the sausage was stuffed in - well not all the sausage, a good 4 or 5 inches stuck out the top! A little unusual looking but they tasted good.

Being a beautiful summer day there were also buskers about including a couple of guys in full North American Indian outfits, complete with huge feather headdresses. They looked like they could be of aboriginal descent, they certainly advertised themselves that way – but rather than the drum circle music we are familiar with from the plains tribes, these fellows were playing their version of Native American music: Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” played on pan pipes! Beth and I laughed at this ‘authentic music’ of the North American first nations peoples – but the Danes were eating it up!

The Queen's Hall in the Royal Library sounds like it should be an old ornate space, but it turned out to be a very cool looking new facility (it is also known as 'The Black Diamond'), and the theatre inside was modern and comfortable. When we took our seats the first thing I noticed on the stage was what looked like a cage made out of all kinds of percussion instruments; cymbals and chimes, bells and drums. This was going to be interesting!

Shortly after settling into our seats the lights dimmed, and Marilyn Mazur’s Celestial Circle (as the group was called) took the stage. For the next 90 minutes we were treated to a display of focussed energy and percussive precision that was truly captivating - this from a woman in her 60’s! It was not all banging and crashing either, much of her playing was subtle yet intense – supporting the musical expression of her band mates. I found myself thinking “This is like listening to an ECM recording – but live!” I was really pleased at this happy musical discovery, and Beth was very patient.

After the concert (and buying a couple of CDs of course!) we walked back to our hotel with thunderstorms threatening in the distance, but we never got wet. A pleasant end to day that, in spite of being pretty spontaneous, was filled with wonderful sights and sounds.

Day in Malmo - July 7, 2009

Tuesday was another great day, weather-wise and we decided to take advantage of it. Dennis wasn’t feeling too inspired about exploring Copenhagen, he had seen what he wanted to in 1980 and apparently the little mermaid is overrated anyway, so we hopped the train and headed back to Sweden. Even though we had gone to some very specific places and had accomplished what I had hoped we would, I was feeling disappointed that we hadn’t had more time to just soak up the ambience. Turns out that I’ve become very pro-Swedish since we came back (or so I’ve been told).

Malmo is only about ½ hour from Copenhagen by train so that’s how we spent our afternoon. One of the first things we saw was a four piece marching band artwork made out of steel - quite funny! Then we talked to a very informative man in a souvenir shop who drew all over a city map and told us about some sights we really should see. So we went through yet another Saint Peter’s church. Some interesting points about this one - the pulpit was resting on the shoulders of a statue of Peter (see the picture above) Was this a reference to Peter being the rock upon which the church would be built? Also there was a medieval side chapel with some subtle ceiling paintings.

We also saw a building with the craziest architecture ever - the floors were slightly offset so it looked twisted and almost leaning. There’s a river running through the center of the downtown core, quite the focal point. There were these water features flowing into the river and on the steps beside we saw statues of cats - they almost looked life-like, at first glance you didn’t realize they were statues.

We discovered a great cake shop and tried a few amazing cupcakes (along with a pretty decent cup of coffee). We needed another piece of carry-on luggage so the helpful man told us about a shop that had used to be next to him when he was located in the train station. We covered a lot of ground looking for it (even though we were talking about a ten block radius probably, just did it several times) but never found it. We even went to the tourist office in the train station to try to get an address but had no luck. Good thing we didn’t try to find the restaurant he highly recommended (which was apparently a little tricky to find). However, it was good of him to be so helpful and we did end up getting another bag, just not from his friend.

Finishing the Blog

Well it has been two years since we travelled in Europe, and finally we are getting around to finishing the Blog. Once we got back to Canada we got caught up in our busy schedules again, and good intentions of finishing off the final entries never happened. To tell you the truth I think we were simply worn out. Besides that we were focusing on our upcoming 25th Wedding Anniversary celebration held only a couple weeks after our return. A few of our readers kept asking when we were going to finish the Blog, thanks to their gentle reminders Beth and I decided that this summer we were going to do just that. We took Beth's laptop up to the Hedlin family cabin at Christopher Lake and while relaxing at the lake we took some time to review the notes about the final few days of our trip, looked at pictures to refresh our memories, and then sat down to write the final entries. Now this long weekend we finally will post these long-awaited entries, and the Blog will be mostly complete. We also hope to each write a personal reflection on the whole trip that will complete the Blog, but for now here are the entries to finish the trip. Thanks for your patience.
Dennis

IKEA adventure

We left Gotheburg bright and early on the Monday (well, okay it was 9:30) ready for our visit to IKEA. Little did we know that just getting there was going to be as much of an experience as being there. We had decided to save some money on the train tickets so we didn’t get reserved seating. This was how we had travelled around Scandinavia and so far it had worked well, but not so well today. The train was crowded and we ended up moving seats about three times (no easy feat when you consider the amount of luggage we were hauling).

If that wasn’t challenging enough, our train was running late and I started to get concerned about making the connection in Halmstad. I even asked the conductor, as we were getting closer to the station, if we would be alright - would the train wait? He assured me that we would be fine and maybe we would have, if we had known where we were going when we arrived at the station. We had to catch our connecting train two platforms over which meant going up some stairs, through the pedway, back down the stairs (did I mention we were really loaded down with luggage?) and down the platform to where the train was waiting. It was a relief to see our train still there until we noticed the conductor getting back on board, then the train started to move. We ran down the platform, waving our arms frantically, only to see it pick up speed and move right past us. This was the one time I saw Dennis really angry, I was glad I wasn’t the person at the ticket office. It wasn’t so bad though. They extended our tickets so we could catch the next train which would be in an hour. This just gave us a little more downtime than expected.

In due time, we arrived at Älmhult. We discovered that, unlike most train stations, there were no lockers for storing luggage at this station. However, the people at the ticket office graciously allowed us to leave it there so it wasn’t an issue after all.

After a short walk we arrived at the IKEA complex. I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the flagship store - except for a sign in the entryway, it looked like every other IKEA I‘ve ever been in. However, I did pick up a Dala horse baking pan and I’m not sure you’d find that anywhere else.

When I called it a complex earlier I wasn’t kidding. To get to the store itself we walked by a couple of big warehouses and across the parking lot we saw the IKEA hotel and restaurant. I wondered if it was furnished entirely with IKEA product. In lower level of the hotel was an IKEA museum. After we finished shopping, we decided to have a look through it and see what would be there. We arrived just before 3:00 (which was the closing time) but the staff there encouraged us to go through anyway and to take as much time as we wanted. It was basically a history of IKEA (as expected) and had rooms set up with furniture from the different decades - similar to how the stores have their demonstration rooms. We also received a book talking about the life of Ingvar Kampar and the evolution of IKEA. The book was actually written as an internal training tool for new employees so gave a fascinating glimpse into the whole philosophy. Just as an aside - that’s how he came up with the name IKEA - Ingvar Kampar Elmtaryd (family farm) Agunnaryd (home parish)

After leaving IKEA, we spent a little time looking around the town square (bought a Dala horse for myself and a few more things for the kids) then got back on the train and headed for Copenhagen.

In Copenhagen we had booked a CabInn hotel about 5 blocks from the train station so once we got our bearings (or rather once Dennis got his bearings since I’m directionally-challenged) we set off to find it. Once there, we discovered that this room was probably the smallest and least luxurious of any we had stayed in yet - really brought definition to the term ship-shape. I’m pretty sure it was even more compact than our ship cabin, even had bunk beds. Oh well, we had decided while planning the trip that hotel rooms were only a place to lay our heads at the end of the day so this fit that purpose.

After a nice supper at an Italian restaurant (Vesusius in Copenhagen, go figure!) we wandered around the area for a little. We saw a few shops that we pegged for visiting the next day (to hopefully fulfill the quest for a Danish vimple). We also saw a pair of buskers dressed as Native Americans (the full headdress and everything) but their music was nothing like I was expecting - mostly pan flutes, the Sound of Silence, that type of thing. Oh well, they certainly drew a crowd and I guess that was the point.

It had been a long day so we went back to our little hotel room (Dennis opted to sleep on the pull-out bed rather than the top bunk) and prepared to rest up for whatever adventure the next day might hold.

Those Goofy Ears and Riding a Wooden Rollercoaster

Both on the way out to Hestra, and on the way back, I noticed an amusement park with a large wooden rollercoaster. Beth and I had figured there must be an amusement park nearby because we kept seeing young kids (and not so young) wearing these goofy looking pink rabbit ears. I got a yearning to try a wooden rollercoaster, something I’ve never been able to do to date. Once we got back to Göteburg we went to a tourist brochure display and picked up some information on Liseberg Park. Now the presence of so many young families made sense, it was a weekend get-away for people; take the kids to Liseberg Park (something like taking the family to Disneyland - though not quite as big, and with lots of games of chance… the favourite prizes being oversized chocolate bars, including the largest Toblerone I’ve ever seen).

A little checking on the internet and we determined the park was open until 10 PM, which would give us time to go to the park and for me to ride the rollercoaster. It was at this point that I discovered the wooden rollercoaster is called Balder, and has been voted the world’s best wooden rollercoaster several years running. In rollercoaster fan circles the wooden rollercoasters are known as Woodies, and some people have made it their life’s passion to ride every wooden rollercoaster in the world. So after brief deliberation we decided to squeeze this little adventure in.

The gal at the reception desk must have thought we looked like walkers (which we are) because that was how she gave us directions when we asked. About 20 or 25 minutes later we were at the gate (it was now 9 PM), the admission person said “You know the park closes in one hour” which we assured him was enough time (though we didn’t get a break on the price of admission). Once inside we made our way quickly across the park (Balder being on the opposite side of course), looking for a token seller (the first booths were all empty, but eventually we found one and I bought my three tokens needed to ride the rollercoaster).

Beth was not going to join me in this adventure, instead she became the keeper of my stuff as I wasn’t about to have my money pouch, Rider hat, or camera go flying off into space on one of those sharp turns. At that hour the line up wasn’t too bad and within 15 minutes I was strapping myself into one of the rollercoaster cars. Then the cars began climbing a long, long hill of wood and steel to the top of Balder, then whoosh we dropped at a 70 degree angle and the ride was in full speed.

I don’t know why, but I start laughing and yelling “woooooh” on rollercoasters, this happens spontaneously, and for the next 2 minutes and 15 seconds that’s exactly what happened. I can’t compare it with any other wooden rollercoasters since this is the only one I've ridden, but it certainly was a great ride (the ride seemed less jarring than most of the metal rollercoasters I’ve ridden). We have a picture to prove it, one of those ones taken by the amusement park which you can purchase for an arm and a leg after the ride.

After I had my ride on Balder we walked around the park looking at rides that you would catch neither of us on (ones with spinning involved simply make me sick - in fact the only amusement rides I really enjoy are rollercoasters, and now I can say that I have ridden one of the best in the world). We decided to grab a bite to eat in the park, and expected typical fair food, but I had a sausage in a baguette and Beth had little meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce - and both dishes were really tasty! So we sat in the growing twilight listening to the screams and laughter from people on the rides and enjoyed our simple meal. Then I took a picture of Beth by a giant Dala horse, something we’ve been looking for since getting to Sweden (a little one to take home, not a large one). Even though the park closed at 10 PM, most of the food places stayed open later, and people were not pushed out of the park, so we actually had a little more time to enjoy our food after which we strolled leisurely out of Liseberg and back to our hotel.

This was one of those pleasant, unplanned surprises of our trip. I had no idea the world’s best wooden rollercoaster was in Göteburg, but it was a bonus for me that it was, and that we had enough time to allow me to ride it. So we’ve been to Liseberg park, and I have ridden Balder (and have a picture to prove it), but in case anyone reading this blog was wondering, no we didn’t buy any pink rabbit ears.

Hestra

We arrived at Hestra in the rain, good thing the bike rental idea had fallen through. When we got out of the taxi we saw some people down by the cow barn so started heading in that direction.

We introduced ourselves to Bjorn, the current owner of Hestra. Bjorn’s parents, Helge and Sonja Stensson, had purchased the farm from my great-uncle, Johan Huvudsson back in the 1950’s. (I think I mentioned in an earlier post that only one of my grandfather’s brothers and a sister had remained on the farm with their parents and neither of them had married.)

It was interesting to look around at the outbuildings. With the exception of the new barn, the farm looked much like the pictures I’d seen of it.

Bjorn had limited English, mostly he was just self-conscious about it, and my Swedish was limited to what I could look up in the pocket Swedish-English dictionary I had purchased in Gothenburg - so needless to say, our conversation was limited. He had tried to arrange for some relatives to act as a buffer but no one was available so we just had to muddle through it ourselves. He actually could speak better than he thought so we didn’t have to resort to too much pantomime.

The rain had let up enough for us to tour some of the farmyard but when it started to come down again, Sonja came to the door of the farmhouse and called to Bjorn to bring us in.

We had planned to have the taxi wait because I didn’t want to impose on Sonja and Bjorn’s generosity and take up too much of their time. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that they had planned to have coffee with us and that Bjorn was willing to transport us back to Fristad afterwards.

Sonja is a delightful lady. She’s in her 90’s but, similar to my mom’s cousin Karin, is so full of life. One of the first things she did when we sat down to the table for coffee was to bring out a guest book for me to look through and identify my relatives. This book was amazing - it dated back to the 1960’s. I found many entries written by my relatives, including a few different ones by my parents (Dad once and Mom twice). It was fun to see how often the Hedlin name cropped up, and interesting to see some unfamiliar relatives, obviously some of the U.S. branch of the family had also made this pilgrimage.

After we had perused the guest book and added our own entry, Sonja was off on the search through various photo albums and once again I was called upon to identify pictures of my relatives. It was great to see the old photos, always taken with Sonja and her husband. Before we left we had our picture taken with Sonja, and I intend to send a print to her to be added to her photo album. It was also interesting to me to see pictures of my great-uncle Johan’s funeral and a picture of my great-aunt Ida, taken on her 85th birthday. Community events were apparently very meaningful to Sonja.

Sonja didn’t speak any English so a few times we did have to resort to a form of sign language to communicate. I had to laugh to myself when she showed us that she could count to ten in English, which was certainly more than I could manage in Swedish. However, I did attempt to write a thank you note in Swedish, with the help of my little dictionary. (I included an English translation just in case I wasn’t actually saying what I thought I was.)

A few times during the process of getting to Hestra, I had been tempted to just cancel the whole expedition. It seemed like there were so many roadblocks, that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. After visiting with Sonja and Bjorn, I was so thankful that Dennis had been willing to persevere. We had such a nice visit and it was very meaningful for me to see where my grandfather grew up. Sonja welcomed us so graciously, it really was a joy to be in her house.

How We Got to Hestra

There were only two times on our trip that we thought we might need to rent a car to get to the places we wanted to visit. The first was in Denmark where were wanted to visit the Mårup Kirke and Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse - which we managed to get to by public transportation and walking (as covered in an earlier post). The second occasion was in Sweden when we wanted to get to Hestra, the farm where Beth’s grandfather grew up.

One problem we didn’t count on was trying to rent a car on Sunday. Doing internet research we discovered that the only place we could rent a car from in Gothenburg on a Sunday was the airport (which was a fair distance from the train station and our hotel). The other problem was that renting a car for one day simply wasn’t economical - most car rentals only became reasonable with a rental of a week or longer. So the next option was public transportation, combined with cycling. We found out that often Tourist Bureaus had bicycles to rent, and we knew that it was possible to take bikes on the train (at least in some places) so we started checking into that option. The reason we were looking into bicycles was because the closest we could get to Hestra by public transportation was the small town of Fristad which was still about 10 kilometres from the farm.

So here is how our travel adventure unfolded: We started off by taking a bus from Gothenburg (or Göteborg as the Swedes spell it). The bus depot was in the same building as the train station, so that was handy. We first looked at taking a train from Gothenburg to Borås but the trains didn’t run as frequent on the weekends, so the bus became our best choice based on our schedule. Once we got to Borås we walked to the Tourist Bureau to check on renting some bikes. In talking with the Tourist Bureau people we discovered that we would have needed to get the bikes back by the time the office closed, which was 3 PM, and there was no way we could make that happen. So time for Plan B.

Back to the Borås Train Station (which looked pretty cool - see the picture), and went inside to buy some train tickets to Fristad. The next problem we encountered was that there was no one in the ticket office (because it was Sunday). There was an automated ticket machine, but it didn’t like any of our credit cards. As a last resort we figured we should be able to buy a ticket directly from the conductor on the train. When the appropriate train pulled into the station we got on board. The trip to Fristad was not that long, less than half an hour, and in that time no conductor ever came through our coach… so when we arrived a Fristad not knowing what else to do we simply got off. It turned out to be a free ride! (I felt justified in this because the stupid ticket machines didn’t accept any of our cards - we tried to pay, honest!).

Now the question was how to get to Hestra from Fristad. The good news was that there was a local bus service that stopped right by the farm (the bus stop is actually called ‘Hestra’) but the bad news was that the bus wasn’t running that day since it was a Sunday. This was where we had been planning on using the bicycles, but that plan fell through, so then we contemplated walking, but it seemed to be a bit far for that, so finally we decided to call a taxi. There was no pay phone at the train station, so we went wandering in search of a pay phone, eventually ending up at a gas station where we asked the attendant where the closest pay phone was. When he found out we were trying to call a taxi he offered to do that for us, and within ten minutes the cab was there.

We showed the cab driver a map of where we wanted to go and he said he could do that for us, and I asked for an approximate price which he quoted and which seemed reasonable. So we loaded in the car and drove to the farm. When we arrived there we asked the driver if it would be better if he waited for 10 minutes, or came back to get us later. He said he would wait and even turned off his meter while doing so!

When we found out that we were invited to stay for coffee, and that Bjorn (the current owner of the farm) would drive us back to Fristad, we sent the taxi driver on his way with a big thank you and a (hopefully) decent tip. Beth will write about our time at Hestra, but I will conclude this post by explaining how we got back to Gothenburg. Bjorn did drive us to Fristad, and by that time it was raining pretty good (including some thunder and lightning) so Beth and I were glad the bicycle option didn’t pan out - we would have gotten soaked!

From Fristad we ended up taking a bus back to Borås simply because the bus was available before the train. As this was a local bus we were dropped off somewhere other than the train station (where the regional buses were based). It took a little wandering and asking to make our way to the train station, but eventually we found it, and having just missed the hourly run to Gothenburg, waited for close to an hour in an outside bus shelter (much like you would see at a city bus stop) until the next bus arrived. At least by that point it was no longer raining.

The trip to Gothenburg was uneventful and eventually we were back in our hotel room glad to have survived our transportation adventure. I did a little mental calculating and the way I figured it, even with the taxi ride, we probably spent as little as a third or a quarter of what we would have spent renting a car for a day… so in that way our adventure was definitely worth it.

First Hotel G

Our train arrived in Sweden around 9:00 pm. Typically our next step at this point would be to schlep all our luggage off the train, through the station and out the front door to see if we could find a taxi (by this point we’d pretty much given up on the idea of walking to our hotel, unless it was within a few short blocks). Today we could skip the taxi ritual because our hotel (called First Hotel G) was built right into the train station! We did have to go out of the train station because the entrance to the hotel was on the exterior but at the end of a long travelling day it was a treat to just have to walk a few more steps. It was a surprisingly quiet hotel, from our room we heard very little of the train/bus announcements (did I mention that the train and bus system run out of the same complex?). It probably helped that the station basically shut down by 10:30 pm and didn’t start up again until around 8:00 am.

Speaking of things shutting down - we thought we’d try to be proactive and do some of our research into travel to Boras. However, that was when we discovered that the all the ticket offices were closed, as were the currency converter offices and virtually all the shops.

However, we weren’t totally out of luck. We hadn’t really eaten supper, just some snacks on the train, so were both feeling like we needed some food. We didn’t feel like venturing out of the train station so Dennis settle on a sub from Mr. Sub (just like being at home) and I got a couple of tubs of yogurt and some bananas from 7-Eleven - I never imagined I’d be buying fruit from 7-Eleven. Dennis had an interesting experience with the server at Mr. Sub so this is probably a good time for an editorial comment.

<Here's my story from Mr. Sub: I decided on a Louisiana Chicken Sub, and went through the normal process of adding extras like mushrooms, onions and such. Then the girl behind the counter asked if I wanted any sauce on that. I asked "What kind of sauce do you have?" She replied by listing off 5 different kinds of sauce, after which I picked the one I thought sounded good - it was a Honey Mustard sauce if I remember correctly. Her reaction was pretty funny, she shook her head and said "You don't want that! You want the Southwestern Sauce" and proceeded to put on the 'right' sauce. I wondered why she had asked about sauces in the first place if there was only one 'right' sauce for this particular type of sub sandwich. Beth and I had a good chuckle over that, and to be fair the sub really did taste good! DH>

So at the end of a long day with another full day looming in front of us, it was nice to go back to our nicely appointed room and settle in for a good sleep. Another bonus was that we had booked two nights in this hotel so would have a brief reprieve from packing up and moving suitcases.

On the Road (Rails) Again

Saturday July 4 was another travelling day and a long one at that. This was our trip from Kolbu to Gotheburg via Oslo. In total I think we spent about 6 or so hours on the train - we’re sure getting good at organizing all our luggage and ourselves, especially when each country seems to have a different system of doing this.

Geir had plans for his day so Gae came to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma. She is certainly Bestemor’s girl (I love the Norwegian names for Grandpa and Grandma, wish I’d known them about 20 years ago).

As a special treat before we headed for the train, Magne had made waffles - I finally got to try the famous ‘vaffle and kaffe‘ combo that I‘ve heard so much about. The Nosterud clan laughed about we Canadians eating waffles drowned in maple syrup and I could understand why. We ate these with some sour cream and strawberry jam - a delightful change. It was not nearly so sweet as what we’re used to - I wonder if the kids will go for this?

Before we left Kari was looking through her address book and came across a letter that had been written to her oldest son, Tore, from my cousin (who shall remain unnamed). This letter dates back to 1976 or so, shortly after my parents and Grandpa had been over visiting. She had asked him many questions about himself and life in Norway but Kari said she didn’t think he had ever responded. I’ll have to ask her if she remembers sending the letter.

Linked by a Pilgrimage

One of the sites we looked at in the Kolbu area On July 3rd was the local church. When we were walking into the church yard I noticed a familiar looking sign post - it was a pilgrimage marker, just like the one we saw at the Bønsnes Kirke in Hole! A quick look at a descriptive sign confirmed that this church was another stop on the Ancient Pilgrimage Route to Trondheim. This was another of those amazing coincidence moments from our trip - to discover that both our families were connected by this ancient pilgrimage route.

Pilgrims would have stopped at the churchyard where my grandfather played as a child, and then further north a few stops later on the pilgrimage route they would have stopped at the church that Beth’s great-grandparents could see a short distance across the valley from their home. This whole trip of ours we have been considering a pilgrimage (as evidenced by the title of our blog), and then to discover that our families had a connection of sorts through an ancient pilgrimage path - that was another thread in this interesting tapestry our life together.

The Kolbu Kirke is interesting because it is built in the shape of an equal armed cross (like the Red Cross symbol). Many churches are built in the shape of a cross, but with the traditional cross shape, with shorter horizontal arms than vertical. For the Kolbu Kirke the centre of the building is where the aisles meet, and in the centre of that space is the baptismal font. This arrangement I thought appropriate considering the Lutheran understanding of the centrality of baptism in a Christian’s life. Our understanding is that baptism marks the beginning of a journey of faith, a pilgrimage through life, and in Kolbu we were given another reminder of this interconnectivity of faith and life.

Visit to Torgunrud

We seemed to go from relative to relative. About the time Asbjorn was leaving, another cousin, Klara, and her husband came. Klara had grown up at the Torgunrud farm and was prepared to take us there to see it. The first thing I that struck me about the farm was the spectacular view (see the picture). Torgunrud is built on a bit of a hill so you look out across the valley and see all these farms, each with their own forest. (We were told that in Norway each farm included a forest, for firewood among other things.) We also saw the spot where my great-grandparents, Otilia and Anders, lived. The house isn’t there anymore but if we had looked through the overgrown area, we could probably have found the remains of the foundation. They left the area shortly after marrying, seeking a better life in the States. Again, as Dennis has mentioned in his entries, it must have been a very difficult transition from lush farmland to the harsh conditions they encountered but we, their descendants, are certainly better off because of it. We were able to see the main house and the outbuildings. We also saw some Norwegian elkhounds. It’s hard to believe that such a small dog could hold a moose at bay, that would be quite a sight to see.

Then it was back to Kari’s for supper. We were joined by Roar’s daughter, Mette along with her husband Bjorn and son Eskil. Poor Eskil, at ten years old this was not a fun crowd to hang out with - Gae was far too young to be interesting and the rest of us were just too old - thank goodness for computer games.

Mette’s older son is the one who races cars. I asked her how she felt about that, if it worried her. She said of course it did but when she was there watching him race she would get so excited she forgot about worrying. She also showed me a short video on her cellphone of him racing - clearly a proud Mama.

Kari pulled out her books with family tree records, it was interesting to piece together how everyone was connected. She has some very detailed records also, listing Confirmation dates and everything. I think if I had more time genealogy is something I would really like to pursue, it probably fits well with my love of puzzles.

Torgunrud Time

We must have been tired because once again we slept in (seems to be a recurring theme, time to think of going home). When we got up we had a nice breakfast with Kari, Magne and Roar; then it was time for Roar to leave - he was committed to providing some musical entertainment at the Senior’s Home where his mother now lives.
We lingered over coffee a little longer, then also headed over to the Senior’s Home. It was fun to hear Roar play the piano and sing along to (I believe) some old Norwegian folk tunes. Then he sang a song in English in our honour. I also very much enjoyed meeting Kari and Roar’s mother, Karin. She is over 90 years old but has so much spirit, there’s an unquenchable twinkle in her eye. I hope I have even half that much enthusiasm for life as I reach her age. When my parents and grandfather were in Norway in 1976, they stayed with her at her house. She had a very unique relationship with my Mom - they managed to communicate without words (probably because Mom is good with talking with her hands). I could see why she holds a special place in Mom’s heart.

Karin also has many artistic abilities. At breakfast that morning we had used a set of dishes that she had hand-painted. The plates were decorated with poppies which had included an amazing amount of detail. The incredible thing to me is that she didn’t take up painting until she was over 70. Then she started weaving when she was close to 80. We ended up bringing home a table runner that she had woven. I will certainly treasure it and it will bring back memories of our time here.

Friday proved to be Torgunrud family day. After entertaining at the Senior’s Home, Roar packed up his bus to head to Sweden to watch his grandson race cars. Cindre is 16 and this is something they like to do together.

We were not without company though. A cousin, Asbjorn, showed up in time for lunch. He is retired now but as a side-line is involved with some development in his hometown of Lena. He brought along some plans for a proposal he and other investors are working on for commercial development in the centre of town. He also had a book that he and another cousin had put together showing some of the town history, specifically pertaining to an old building that had been converted into office space.

The evening before at the restaurant, Dennis had expressed an interest in trying a “Toten” burger (Toten being the region where Kolbu is located). He had eaten a chicken dish instead so, low and behold, Toten burgers showed up on the lunch menu and they were very tasty. For dessert Kari had made something called “World’s Greatest Cake” and I had to agree with the name - it was a confection made of cake, meringue, custard cream and served with strawberries - most yummy.

While we were enjoying the coolness of the shade, Magne brought a pair of binoculars out of the house and indicated that we should look in the field across the road. I saw three cranes - a pair of adults with a young one. I’ve never seen a young crane before so this was a real thrill for me. One more unforgettable event to store up. I still wish I could have seen a moose (or Elg) while we were in Norway, but we were out of luck. Maybe next time.

On the Move Again

Now it was time for us to reconnect with my side of the family. I had made arrangements with a relative (also named Kari and married to a man named Magne, how confusing is that!) that we should spend some time with her at their farm near Kolbu, north of Oslo. Kari’s grandmother is a cousin of my grandfather (her mother is a first cousin of my mother, I’m not sure what that makes us.) We had met her when she was in Canada a few years ago and she had come to our house with my parents.

After wandering in the Oslo train station for a short time we met up with Kari and Magne (Kari had said she would be holding a Norwegian flag but Dennis recognized her even without it). We got back on the train and rode for about an hour until we reached a small town near their farm. We had a short scenic tour, stopping briefly at their son Geir’s house - mostly I believe for Kari to see their granddaughter, who she hadn’t seen for a few days. Gae Isabella is a sweet almost two year old, she has spina bifida so isn’t walking independently yet but she is so easygoing and lovable. I could see why Grandma needed to see her again.

Kari had promised us a relaxed time with them and she was true to her word. When we got to the farm we took a little time to settle into our room (again, in the lower portion of the house so most comfortable temperature-wise) then Kari’s brother Roar came. He had been in Canada with Kari and Geir so it was time to get re-acquainted. He was driving this huge touring bus converted into an RV. It was most interesting to see him manoeuvre it, especially when it came to backing it down the driveway between the two trees which flank the space (see the picture).

Shortly after that, Geir came driving in his little red sportscar and we all went to a neat restaurant on the Mjøsa Lake. It was on a boat that was built specifically as a restaurant, even though it’s half on the water and half on the land. The location is a bit of a resort area so we were able to watch people zipping in and out of the marina and kids diving into the water as we ate. Then it was back to Kari and Magne’s for a coffee time and then to bed, it had been another long day.

Final Update from Europe

As you can see I added many postings today, I took advantage of our long day on the train to catch up in my postings. We're now at the point in our trip where Beth will take over the writing (since it is about visiting her relatives and family farm site). However as I write this post we are about to go to sleep in our luxurious room in Hannover (the nicest room on our whole trip... and we're not quite sure how we ended up with it).

Tomorrow we board the train bright and early (6:41) to head to the airport in Frankfurt where our plane will leave for Canada around 2:14 PM (Germany time). We may do some more writing tomorrow, but of first priority is getting all our customs stuff straight. We may get an opportunity to post something before we board the airplane, but that's unknown. We will finish our blog when we get back to Canada (if nothing else), if nothing else for our own sake as we seek to set our memories down for future reference. To all of you who have been following our blog we hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure. There will be further postings after we get back, especially as we reflect on our experiences, so keep checking back to this site in the weeks to come. Now to get to bed, the morning will come mighty early.

The Tord Gustavsen Ensemble

As promised, Kine from the Jazz Festival Office had reserved two seats for us at the Kino (something not usually done, thank you Kine!) right in the center a few rows up - perfect seats! And we arrived just in time, settling into our seats just a few minutes before the concert began. It didn’t take long to know that this was going to be a very different concert than the one we had just left. The Tord Gustavsen Ensemble concert was quiet, sublime and introspective - with Norwegian poetry spoken between (or sometimes as part of) the songs.

Sometimes the playing was very energetic, but it never had the sense of being showy, or flashy (unlike the previous band). The music unfolded in a very organic fashion, and the ensemble playing was great - the musicians showing a high level of sensitivity to each other, never stepping on each others toes musically, always supporting and enhancing each other‘s playing.
Part way through the concert I realized why I like Tord Gustavsen’s music so much, - it’s because his music always has a spiritual quality to it… there is something deeper going on in his music than simply notes being played well. In this concert there was one moment I felt close to tears, but I have no idea why (other than the music was touching my spirit), I didn’t understand the Norwegian poetry, and didn’t know the names of the songs either - it was simply the direct impact of the music being produced so organically and intimately right in front of my eyes (and ears). Simply put, this concert was a spiritual experience between the band and the audience (Tord compared it to a congregation being in tune with a worship service) and for me it was highly inspirational.

The ensemble included Tord, playing piano and Rhodes (sometimes at the same time), Jarle Vespestad on drums (whose playing I knew from Tord’s trio recordings), Tore Brunborg on saxophones, Mats Eilertsen on bass, and Kristin Asbjørnsen on vocals (I have one recording with her singing on it, and she has an usual voice - a bit Janis Joplin, a bit Kate Bush, and a bit Bessie Smith) - Beth commented that hearing her sing live her unique voice was not a distraction, but seemed to blend into the music well. The Norwegian poet was a women whose name I didn't catch, and while we didn’t understand the words, the way they were spoken wove a spell over the audience, including us.

After the concert we waited around for a little bit, then saw the band go out a side door to get some fresh air - so after a little deliberation we went out the same exit where I was then able to personally thank the musicians for a great show. The highlight of this post-concert time was being able to talk with Tord Gustavsen in person for a few minutes. He, like the rest of the band, was very gracious. As we chatted Tord came across as a very humble and authentic person, gentle and quiet - but with much depth, much like his music.

Beth and I walked back to the hostel enjoying the cooler air and the beautiful surroundings of Kongsberg. Back in our room we opened the window wide to help cool off the room. While the room was cooling down we spent a couple of hours researching train and hotel information (taking advantage of the free wireless in the hostel). By the time we went to sleep the room had cooled off enough to allow us to get to sleep without too much trouble.

Blood Sweat Drum ’n’ Bass

After a little rest we walked back into the town center to the fair area to grab a bite to eat at one of the booths. I had some kind of curry rice wrap, Beth had a kebob. Then it was off to the Tubaloon. We didn’t arrive too early but there were plenty of decent seats left so we set ourselves close to the sound board where we could see well and I suspected we would get the best sound mix.

The Blood Sweat Drum ‘n’ Bass Danish Big Band came on shortly after 8 PM. The concert started with guest artist Palle Mikkelborg (he is a older Danish trumpet player who is pretty famous in Europe) playing his flugelhorn through an echo and reverb unit, some very atmospheric stuff. Very subtly the band came in with some lush background chords, and then the tune slowly grew in sound, complexity and energy - it was a great beginning to the concert.

The write-up in the program suggested that this band could get wild, and sometimes they were indeed wild and raucous, but at other times they were subdued and melodic - always they were surprising. I really enjoyed the times that Palle Mikkelborg interacted in am improvised way with others in the band like a trumpet player, or the female vocalists, or even rhythm section. I also enjoyed watching the conductor who directed with much energy and unique hand gestures (my favourites being when he wiggled his fingers or when he stabbed his arm in the air). Before we knew it the band was leaving the stage after an hour. I had to check with someone to know that this was the intermission not the end.

After the intermission a different guest artist, Jørgen Munkeby, joined them on stage (someone whose name I didn’t recognize). This guy looked wild, like some kind of cross between a Fonzie character and a Viking. He was listed as a saxophonist, but in the first song of the second set he started by picking up a electronic wind instrument (EWI). When he started playing this instrument I realized that this was the sound I had thought earlier to be a synth keyboard. It was very nice soloing; strong, fluid and melodic - but as he played he prowled around the stage like a caged wolf (or some kind of rock star). In the next song he picked up an electric guitar at one point and proceeded to do some power chording and fast soloing… just like a rock star! On the third song in this set Jørgen actually played the tenor sax, with the same fierce intensity he showed on guitar - fast and powerful!

There was some tight ensemble playing with this group, some interesting interplay between various musicians (who took turns coming to the front of the stage to be featured). The band has two female vocalists, who sometimes sang wordless parts as part of the ensemble, and sometimes like a lead singer out front. Overall I thought it was a great concert, complete with musical humour (that most of the audience didn’t seem to get - my favourite being one song called I Have a Cold which began with two female horns players honking on their horns).

We didn’t get to hear the end of the concert, because we needed to get to the Kino and the Tord Gustavsen concert, which was the main reason we came to Kongsberg in the first place. So with the band still blasting out a tune Beth and I headed out of the Tubaloon and down to the Kino, the sound of the band slowly fading into the evening.

Kongsberg - Where Silver is King

Wednesday July 1 we enjoyed our final breakfast at Per’s, following which Per played some music for us, first on his Hammond B3, and then on one of his accordions. He is an excellent musician, and we heard more evidence of this in the car on the way to Kongsberg as he played us a recording from a band he was part of. He also gave us a CD of his most recent recording and we look forward to being able to play it when we get back to Canada.

Per and Truls drove us to Kongsberg (saving us from taking the train, a very generous act on their part). Along the way they showed us various places of interest (and told us that the round straw bales wrapped in white plastic are known in Norway as tractor eggs). We saw the largest Ski Jump in Norway, and I wondered if that sport would ever grow in Canada. With the Olympic facilities in Calgary I thought that might have happened, but perhaps we are too stuck on hockey (which is not a big sport in Norway unlike its neighbour Sweden). The Ski Jump facility in Oslo could hold crowds of over 50,000 spectators, it is a big deal in Norway.

In Kongsberg we settled into our Hostel Room - and were pleased to discover that it was a nice facility, but unfortunately it had no air conditioning (and our room faced south, so it got a little warm to say the least). Of all the hostels I have been in I think this may have been the nicest, but then again it was also the most expensive to stay in by far (but cheaper than staying in one of the local hotels which were twice as much money or more!) Speaking of money, Kongsberg was originally a town built around the silver mines, and silver is the theme of the city. From what I understood the coins for Norwegian currency have been minted in Kongsberg as long as there have been Norwegian coins - we saw the building where the Royal Norwegian Mint is currently housed.

Beth and I wandered around in the afternoon (with the purpose of finding the venues for the evening concerts at the Jazz Festival). The Tubaloon (a special structure designed for the Jazz Festival as their main stage), was actually quite close to our Hostel - right next to the famous Kongsberg Church. This structure, partially framework, and partially inflated fabric, is supposed to represent the inner ear in a stylized manner… certainly is interesting to look at.
We didn’t think the Kongsberg Church was much to look at from the outside, but we had some time and so we went in (had to pay admission however). The inside took us completely by surprise - baroque and big (seated 2400). Apparently the church was designed by two architects, the first was a pietist who didn’t have much use for excessive adornment, he was responsible for the exterior of the building. After he died another architect took over, and he was a flamboyant man - which accounted for the drastically different approach to the interior. Some interesting features of this church:
- the pulpit was built into the altar piece (right above the altar and below the pipe organ - see the picture, that‘s the pulpit and altar - note the large silver candlestick holders).
- there was a box for royalty (just like a theatre box) still used today only for royal visits.
- the main chandeliers were made with multi-coloured glass (very unique and very expensive).
- the altar faces west (rather than east) because this was the direction of the mountain with the silver in it, something the Kongsberg folks felt was a blessing from God (though to me it almost seemed like it was a subtle statement about the worship of money rather than God).

During our time looking about the church we heard the Danish Big Band warming up outside, this whet my appetite for the first concert of the evening (especially this nice synth keyboard playing… which I later found out was something else). Following our time in the church we walked into the city centre, where many booths were set up selling a variety of goods: hand crafted jewellery, clothes, art items, and so forth. We found the Kino (or Cinema) where the Tord Gustavsen concert would be later in the evening and then we headed back to our room where we rested and did a little internet work (the hostel had free internet!)