Map of Norway

Ken asked me to post a map of Norway. I tried to show their route on the Hurtigruten. The black line is the approximate northbound route, red is southbound, except I didn't show that they stopped at Hammerfest, and I don't really know their route around or through the Lofoten Islands. But you get the idea.

Their time in Norway is rapidly coming to a close, and they're getting ready to head to Germany tomorrow (Friday). Returning to Spokane late on the 22nd. Last time I talked to Ken, I think I understood him to say he has taken a couple thousand pictures!

Connie

Hammerfest August 1

Hammerfest is the home of the Polar Bear Society which you can join for about 50 bucks. Didnæt see any polar bears however. Took a tour to a Sami lodge where we sat on reindeer hides while the fire burned in the center and a Sami man told us about his life with the reindeer. He spoke in English for we 3 Americans and an interpreter translated into German for the rest of the Hurtigruten tourists. They bring the reindeer down to the coast in the summer because too many mosquitoes in the interior in summer. In winter they herd them 200 miles to the interior. The coast is too windy and the the snow too crusty in winter. The reindeer can then use their antlers and hoofs to dig down in the snow to eat the lichen. I asked him how many reindeer he had. He replied that was the same as him asking me how much money I have in the bank! Only 3000 reindeer Sami, about 10,000 in Oslo since they all canæt herd reindeer. They have similar history with American Indians such that Sami language and culture wasnæt allowed to be spoken or taught. Now the law states that Sami must be taught in the schools to the Sami people in addition to Norwegian and English. Most Sami are now well educated and assimilated into Norwegian society, but like our Indians, cling to their language, customs and songs. No casinos however. He is concerned about what his 3 kids will do - move to the city or stay with the reindeer. They canæt shoot the wolves, eagles and bears that prey on their reindeer because they the predators are protected, but they get reimbursed by the government if they can prove that the reindeer were taken by the predators. He then served us dried and boiled reindeer meat and cloudberries. Neat guy!

The Sami's of the north have had a tough history, especially the ones in Russia. At one time they were allowed to travel back and forth between Norway, Finland and Russia with their herds. But the wars closed the borders. The Germans also burned the Sami villages and the other towns in Northern Norway at the end of WWII as they retreated in the face of the advancing Russian armies.

On the Hurtigruten July 31

OK - time to catch up. Our young girl guide from Honningsvåg on the tour bus to North Cape on July 30 had to provide information in Norwegian, English and German. She also speaks Polish and Finnish. Most of the guides were incredibly gifted in languages. Last night had whale meat for dinner.

On the 31st of July we arrived in Kirkenes on a 70 degree day. This is the turn around point for the Hurtigruten and most of our German traveling partners flew home. Normal high in summer is 58 F and normal winter high is about 28F but can get to 50 below in winter. Area of the town is bordered by Russia on the east and Finland on the south. The lilacs were just blooming on July 31! Took bus out to Russian Border. Only 150 miles to Murmansk, Russia. But if you want to visit Russia you wait about a month for the visa and pay several hundred dollars (a lot less if you are not American). The cold war is still on here as the Russians have about 10,000 troops guarding the border and the Norwegians about 500. The Norwegians have mined their bridges to stop the Russian invasion if it ever came. If you poke a toe over the border to say you have been to Russia, plan on paying a 1000 dollar fine. Kirkenes is about 1500 miles away from Oslo and 3000 miles from Rome. Latitude about 71 degrees north but it is as far east as Istanbul. Speaking of Istanbul, a Spokane Mountaineer named Paul rode his bike from North Cape to Istanbul a few years ago. I attended his slide show. Quite a ride! Kirkenes is the only town in Norway with street signs in both Western and Cyrillic script.

Since our German dinner companions left us at Kirkenes, they were replaced by 2 Aussie ladies who both own caravan parks on the beach near Sydney. They flew to Kirkenes to join the ship - 36 hours from Sydney via Saigon, Paris and Oslo. They will spend a week touring Sweden, Finland and Denmark on the way home and 10 days in Vietnam.

Lynes farm from 1500's

Ola believes that the Lynes farm was probably started in the 1200's, but the black death decimated the local population, so we have records (Gunder Lynes, Halvor Gunderson etc) going back to the early 1500's. When we visited the farm (unannounced) they were having a family gathering. One of the cousins from Brooklyn was visiting and the ladies were just serving the food as we arrived. Ola met a friend of his who he hadn't seen for 60 years! His name was Anton Lynes who was born on the Lynes farm and now lives in Oslo. About the time the discussion really got interesting, the ladies basically invited us to leave since dinner was on the table for their guests. So we beat a hasty but friendly retreat, but it was pretty cool to visit a place that has been in the family for 500 years!

Ruby's great grandmother Marthe Christine's home in Ørbæk

View from Ola's mother's farm over Lake Mjosa

Thorbjørg, Ken, Ruby and Ola and Thorbjørg's house

One more Sinrud day August 13

Sorry you non Sinrud people, but we had another family day on Monday August 13. We drove from Hamar (Sinnerudstanden farm) to Eidsvoll, about an hour south. Eidsvoll is where Norway's constitution was signed in 1814 on May 17, Norway's day of celebration when they broke away from Denmark. Cousin Thorbjørg (age 88) lives in Eidsvoll. Her brother Ola is the family historian who has written 3 books on the Ørbæk family. He lives north of Hamer in Moelv and was in town for a family gathering. He just turned 80. Thorbjørg and Ola have 5 other siblings all living in the area. Ola is a retired English teacher. Thorbjørg still teaches Norwegian, German and English. We had a wonderful meal at Thorbjørg's home after Ola gave us a tour of family sites in the area. Thorbjørg had US and Norway flags flying from her home to greet us, just as she did in 1994 when Lennis and Ruby visited her.

Ola has traced the family back to the 1500's and we visited the Lynes farm where great great great great great etc etc grandfather Gunder Lynes lived in about 1540. Like the Norway tradition, the descendants were Halvor Gunderson (Gunder's son), Gunder Halvorson (Halvor's son), Anders Gunderson, Ole Andersson, Halvor Olson, Anders Halvorson, Jens Anderson (get the pattern here?). OK, pay attention here because this is how we are related. Jens Anderson married Mari Nilsdaughter Ørbeck so that's the connection to the Ørbeck side. (Ruby has Ola's book on the Ørbeck family that also lists the descendants including all of us Sinruds out there). Jens and Mari had 4 boys including Anders Jensen Ørbeck and Lars Jensen Aasgaard. As was also the custom, they sometimes took the name of their farm as a last name. So Anders ended up owning the Ørbeck farm (located in Ørbeck north of Eidsvoll overlooking beautiful Lake Mjosa). His brother Lars Jensen Aasgaard apparently moved to the Stange area (I wonder if he knew Peder and Pernille) and lived on the Aasgaard farm. He married Marthe Christine Olsdaughter Brodhaug from Eidsvoll. Not sure how many children they had, but Ruby's grandmother Karen Laura Aasgaard was born in 1865 in Stange. The family left Norway for America in 1869 and lived in the Pigeon Falls area. (Pigeon Falls is where Grandpa Pete was born.) Lars and Marthe died in 1901 and are buried in Hale Wisconsin. Ruby, Ruth, Connie and Ken visited the grave site in 2005. Karen Laura then hooked up with Anton Pedersen Sinrud (Ruby's grandfather) and died in Ashland, Wisconsin in 1938. Anton and Karen Laura were Grandpa Pete's parents (and of course parents to Aunt Mildred, Olga, Clara, Della, Alfred, Edwin , Gretchen and Leslie). Uncle Ed was Ruby's cousin Elaine's father. Elaine and her daughter Kathy Ramsted have made several trips to Norway and visited Ola and Thorbjørb in the past and know all this family history stuff but it was fun to see it for ourselves. Ola and Thorbjørg have also visited Elaine and Kathy in Minnesota in the past.

Ola took us to the farm where Lars' wife Marthe was born and raised in the 1830's and the Fremming farm where Ole Andersson lived in 1655. We also visited the farm where Ola and Thorbjørg were born and raised and is still owned by their brother Gunnar. We also visited the farm his Great Grandfather Anders Jensen Ørbeck lived on (Ørbeck upper farm ) from 1821 and the farm his mother and grandmother lived on (Ørbeck southern farm). Our heads were spinning a little after all this, but we felt a real connection with the ancestors and their stomping grounds.

Per Olav, Lisbeth and Ruby at Per Olav and Lisbeth's home in Langhus south of Oslo

Alesund

On Geiranger Fjord

Over Bergen

Geiranger Fjord

A few pictures

Hamar August 12

This is another Sinrud clan family blog entry. As an aside, you do learn a little Norwegian on the internet, like Logg PÅ means log in. Luckily cousin Ingrid taught me how to switch from Norwegian to English for blog directions or I would really be lost. Another aside, saw my first pickup truck in Norway today, after 3 weeks of travel! Gas at $8 per gallon may be the reason.

Today we visited the Sinnerudstranden farm where Ruby's great grandfather Peder Pedersen and great grandmother Pernille Pedersen and Grandfather Anton lived just before they left for America in 1866. Grandpa Anton was 8 years old when he left Norway with the family. Mickey and I had found the farm in 2002, but there was no one home. Today (Sunday) we found the owner of the farm home. (I've got the directions to this place figured out, so it should be easy for another family member to find it - the address is Kjonerudvegen 240, Ottestad 2312). His name is Laef Hansen and his family has owned the farm since 1920 or so. It is located on a beautiful river (Akersvika - I think means black river) that flows into Lake Mjosa from the south. He grows hay to sell plus raspberries and currents for his own use. Currents are served regularly in Norway. After lots of pictures, he directed us to the adjacent home of his uncle. So we knocked on the neighbor's door and met 2 wonderful people, Erna and Oddvar Hansen. Oddvar was born on the farm (Sinnerudstranden)about 78 years ago and didn't speak English but Erna spoke English quite well. She is 74 and learned English when she was 14. She said this was the first time she had a chance to use it! They invited us for coffee and promised to do some research on the farm to determine the history of when the houses were built and who has lived on the farm. So we are finding total strangers amazingly friendly and helpful.

We then took Mom on a tour of the churches that we had found last time in 2002, including the Stange church dating from 1600 where Peder Pederson was baptized in 1816, the Ringsaker church dating from 1200 where Pernille was baptized in 1813, the Furnes Kirke (kirke is church) dating from 1706 where they were married and the Romedal church where Grandpa Anton was baptized. The Romedal church had a sign indicating that it was built in 1887 but Anton was baptized in 1858. We think the original church probably burned down. I need to do a little more research on this. So all in all, it was a great day of genealogy discovery. It was fun to walk in the footsteps of the ancestors and see the places they lived or worshiped. All the churches have extensive graveyards around them. They are also out in the beautiful countryside. Ringsaker and Stange are on the top of hillsides overlooking Lake Mjosa. Lake Mjosa is about 50 miles long, stretching from Lillehammer to Eidsvoll. I read that they have a 150 mile dedicated bike path around the entire lake!

Tomorrow we meet cousins Ola and Thorborg in Eidsvoll to explore the Aasgaard and Orbeck side of the family. Grandma Karen Laura Aasgaard was Grandpa Anton Pedersen Sinrud's wife. While they were both born in Norway, they met and were married in Wisconsin.

Ole Sorlie August 7

This is an update for you Sinruds out there. We had a family discovery day today south of Trondheim. Frithjof and Åse drove Ruby and I to the Sorlie farm where Ruby, Ruth, Almon, Gordon and Doug's Grandfather Ole Sorlie came from. Well sort of. There is a Sorlie farm and it is likely that Ole's father Ole Kaspersen Sorlie worked on that farm, But according to Frithjof, when Ole Kaspersen married Gunhild Johnsdaughter Sjølisanden, he took her last name of Sorlie (the first part of Sjølisanden) such that Sjoli became Sørlie which became Sorlie in America because we don't have the ø. Or maybe he took the last name of the farm he worked on, but in any event he became Ole Kaspersen Sørlie. After getting married, Ole Kaspersen Sørlie and Gunhild Sørlie moved to Sjølikleva (the kleva part means steep). The actual home is long gone (Ole's brother Christian (born in 1863) tried to find it after WWII - we talked to a lady today who remembers meeting Christian several times when she was a little girl!) But we did see where it was located and it is indeed steep. Ole and Gunhild's children were Esten, Christian, Ed, Ole and Erik. Esten, Ole (Ruby's grandfather), and Ed went to America. How they raised a family at on that steep farm is amazing, but I can see why 3 of 5 boys went to America, with Christian and Erik staying in Trondheim. It would have been difficult to make a living on that farm. Erik is Lisbeth, Turid and Åse's grandfather which is how we are related to our Norway cousins.

So as we were talking to this man and his wife (who knew Christian), he pointed out a house down on the lake below and indicated that the house was built on the site where Gunhild was born and lived until her marriage. Pretty cool. Her name Gunhild Sjølisanden is basically Sørlie by the sand. So we have Sørlie by the sand, the Sørlie farm in between and Sørliekleva up above on the steep mountain. I'll try to post some pictures when I get back to Oslo. Ole Sørlie came to Wisconsin in 1880, died in 1922, and is buried in St. Maries.

The entire Sørlie farm was owned around 1900 by a man named Simz who was a mining engineer from Cornwall and became wealthy in the mining business. His grandson apparently lives in Spokane, because another man we met today talked to the grandson 13 years ago when he came to Norway to look up the farm.

The countryside is very rural, green and beautiful. About 100 kids and their families were swimming in the lake and enjoying a beautiful 75 degree day on the lake. It was a large lake, maybe same size as Hayden Lake, but no jet skis or water skiing. Just a bunch on kids swimming.

Norway map

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/europe/norway/norway.htm

I canæt seem to copy a Norway map so here is a link

North Cape July 30

Today we went out to the most northern point in Europe, the North Cape at 71 10 21 north. As stated earlier, beautiful day and very unusual. People who took same tour 2 days later experienced 46 F, windy, foggy and rain. So we were lucky! Bus kept having to stop for reindeer on the road. Reindeer grazing on all the fields nearby. No trees this far north, only green barren hills. Big globe on cliff marking the most northern point. Stopped at an authentic Sami house to see authentic Sami person by authentic Sami tepee, wearing authentic Sami costume with his authentic Sami reindeer and authentic Sami gift shop! The Sami make their living from herding the reindeer. I think this authentic Sami makes his money from the tourists from the Hurtigruten tour buses! The reindeer are on the coast in the summer and swim across a narrow strait to get to the mainland and move 300K inland for the winter.

On the Hurtigruten

July 28

Arrived in Bodø and the boat turned West toward the Lofoten Islands. http://www.lofoten-info.no/default.htm Nice afternoon, and as we got closer the high mountain wall of the Lofoten Islands rose out of the sea. "The Lofotveggen "wall" measures 100k in length and rises defiantly from the sea" according to the guidebook. Fishing is the primary industry and the islands have many beautiful fishing villages with fisherman's cabins where tourists can stay. Arrived in Svolvær at about 9 for a one hour tour of this beautiful city surrounded by high mountains. At 9 PM it is still broad daylight this far north.



July 29 Narrow passage though Trollfjord http://www.fjordtravel.no/images/hurtigurten/hurtigruten_pic10.html about 100 meters wide with snow capped rugged peaks on either side. Stayed up on top inside Panorama Room until midnight or so. Decided to go to bed when it got dark, but it never got dark! The saying goes, you can always sleep when you go south! Toured Tromsø, largest city in the north and home of the Arctic Cathedral http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Cathedral. Has the world's northernmost brewery as well! As the ship sailed on tonight, we stayed up and watched the midnight sun!

Trondheim!

The boat departs at one PM!

Svartisen Glacier!

Hello from Trondheim! Trondheim is Norway's 2nd largest city of 200,000 people. We arrived here from the north of Norway on Saturday morning August 4.

We had no internet access on the Hurtigruten so here is a day by day summary of our trip:

We had a great time in Bergen during the day on July 25 while waiting to board our ship. Took a ride to the mountain overlooking Bergen on the Fløibanen funicular. It was actually sunny and nice in Bergen which is pretty unusual in this very rainy city. Boarded the ship at 6PM, had a nice dinner and sailed for the north.

July 26. Beautiful day. Cruised into Geiranger fjord, one of the most beautiful fjords in Norway. Check it out at www.geiranger.no/attractions. Waterfalls everywhere, incredible scenery. On the Hurtigruten we are on one of the older ships, 1982 version and somewhat small with about 220 passengers. About 160 are Germans and we are the only Americans. Did meet a couple gals from London who spoke pretty good English. Our assigned table mates are a very nice German couple from Munster where Mickey's family is from. One slight problem is that they spoke no English and our German was limited to Guten Morgen and Auf Weitersen (from Sounds of Music). They were our table mates for 6 days! But using sign language and drawing on lots of napkins, we learned a lot about each other and had a great time! The Norwegian crew included many college students who all spoke great English and were a lot of fun.

July 27. The boat docked briefly in Trondheim (for 4 hours). Ruby's 2nd cousin Åse and her husband Frithjof met us at the dock and had breakfast with us on board ship. To my surprise the restaurant crew of young Norwegians sang me the Norwegian version of Happy Birthday! We also had cake for breakfast. It was a wonderful birthday surprise. Hopefully I can post a picture on the blog when I figure out how to do it on this computer. (As I write this, I am overlooking beautiful Trondheim fjord from cousin Turid's house near Trondheim)

July 28. Crossed the Arctic Circle this morning at 7:15:26. Had a contest to guess the time. We didn't win, the winner guessing within 15 seconds. At the circle is a globe on an island marking the line. Connie explained the ceremony the next morning in her blog posting. It was a lot of fun. The ships captain helped King Neptune and really had a great time pouring ice cubes and icewater down the passengers' backs. We then all got a drink of wine and an official Polar Circle certificate. At 8:30 this morning met at sea by smaller boat to take us to Norway's 2nd largest glacier Svartisen which can be seen from the ocean. It was really nice having cake and coffee at a little restaurant overlooking a lake with the glacier reflecting on its surface.

On Top of the World!

Greetings from Connie, pinch hitting for Ken. They called today, actually Tuesday, from the ship, using Ingrid's cell phone and a Verizon phone card. They haven't been able to get any internet access, and have had trouble making calls. I'll try to pass on what they told me - I'm sure they'll fill in the details later. They're having a great time, great weather, and many neat experiences. At North Cape, the normal temperature is 50, but they had 70! North Cape is at 71 deg. latitude, the northernmost point in Europe. It's daylight all the time - the sun took a little dip, then came right back up. They went up to the Russian border, but couldn't go across - it requires a visa and lots of money. The Russians are very strict about it - if you put one foot across the border, you would be fined $1,000.

They're the only Americans on board the ship - have been meeting lots of interesting people. They've eaten whale and ox meat and lamb, and will be having reindeer meat. The captain held a "baptism" ceremony when they crossed the Arctic Circle - KM&R were "baptised" with ice cubes and water down their backs, and they received an official "baptism" certificate. They're on their way back down the coast now. When they were talking to me, the ship was getting out into the open ocean and rougher seas. Did you get the web address I emailed, linking to a map of Norway and the realtime position of their boat? Here it is again: http://services.hurtigruten.com:8080/hurtigruten/index.jsp?lang=en

Their ship is the MS Lyngen. When they get back to Tromso, they'll attend a midnight concert. On their itinerary, they said they were taking a Samstund bus tour at Harstad. Actually, the tour is to Stamsund, a fishing village. No wonder I couldn't find it on the map!

That's all I can remember - they should be able to do their own posting when they get to Trondheim.

Over and out,
Connie