Back Across The Country Again!

We did some serious zigzagging in our last week in Norway! Having returned to the eastern province of Hedmark, we spent a few days with my father's second cousin (a different cousin than in Ålesund) in the town of Elverum. She and her husband welcomed us, made us comfortable, and took us to some great, local landmarks! One of them was the Skogsmuseum (forestry museum), which has impressive displays of historical logging and forest management practices both in the museum and involving a series of small outbuildings shown in the surrounding woodlands. We went on a walk through the outer section, including an island in the river Glomma or Glåma (both spellings are accepted and tend to shift by region). This is Norway's longest river and it is named for the old Norse word for thunder. Fortunately for us, we did not have reason to respect that name as we saw it in fine weather conditions.

However, there was plenty of evidence for other, past incidents of massive flooding, as we saw on this flood-stone which showed the water levels at the spot near the Skogsmuseum that the river had reached at critical points over the past few centuries. (Flomhøyder means flood height)

The other impressive landmark we visited during our stay was in the nearby city of Hamar, where we went to see the preserved ruins of the original Roman Catholic cathedral, called Domkirkeodden in Norwegian. The limestone walls were severely damaged over the ages by the Reformation protestants, marauding Swedish armies, and local farmers who needed building materials. However, in an effort to preserve the remaining limestone ruins from the deprivations of acid rain, conservationists have constructed an impressive glass enclosure around the rest of the church:



Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a single picture from the day in Hamar, so this one is from the website (http://www.kmb.no/vare_turer.htm) of a Norwegian tour company that takes its customers to a wide variety of Norwegian cultural sites.

While we were there, we were extremely fortunate to hear not one, but two individual singers perform Gregorian chants for us, showing off the amazing acoustics of the enclosure. We were told that the acoustics were an unintentional side effect of enclosing a building the size of a cathedral, and not part of the design of the enclosure! 

After a few lovely days of pre-fall splendour in the east, we were on the road again--back to the west coast of Norway! We took the stunning train journey from Hamar to Oslo to Bergen. Although all of the scenery was impressive, nothing could be so startling as the return to near-winter conditions at Finse (elevation 1222m above sea level)!

Our stay in the Bergen area was at the home of one of my grandfather's cousins with whom I had visited a few times previously. She made us both welcome and helped us find opportunities to visit not only Bergen, but also the coastal town from which my great-grandfather had come: Salhus.

In Bergen, we explored some shops, gardens, the fish market (which, although very famous, was not to the taste [smell] of my son), and the Rosenkrantz tower at Bergenhus fortress.

Despite my best efforts, this picture looks like the buildings are leaning--they are not. The tower was simply high enough that, with the limited space to back away when taking the photo, perspective took control and I have leaning towers where they don't exist! We did climb up through the tower on some ancient stairwells, so we know!

When we went to Salhus, we met two of our hostess' sisters and one's husband, had a lovely lunch, and explored several local sights. We found out how the town was named: It was the site of a ferry service to islands across the fjord during the salt trade. If one arrived too late in the evening for the last boat, one could overnight at the "sail house." Over the years the name shifted to "Salhus" instead of "Seilhus" which caused some confusion about the origins of the name, as "sal" is the Norwegian word for "room". This would also carry some authenticity, however, as folk who stayed at the sail-house were rooming for the night. The original sail house is still standing, occupied, and beautifully cared for:

We also saw the old knitting factory (now a museum), the impressive bridge that now completes the journey once involving the ferry service, a military battery operated by the Nazis in WWII to control marine activity in the area, and the community graveyard where we saw the graves of many of our ancestors.