A Busy Weekend

29 April 1986

Dear ones,

We had a busy weekend – we left on Friday morning for Koppang, a little town about 150 miles north of Oslo. That is where Kari Beisvag lives, the minister’s wife who has helped us find our relatives here. Her husband died in December so these last few months have been hard. She made flat bread and soup for us, and also served us multiberries. That is the or (?) a real Norwegian delicacy – grow in marshy, wet areas. She also served us cake and coffee, and a kaka particular only to Rendalen called tynnkaka – can be syrup tynnkaka, or cream tynnkaka or a third one , I think. I wonder why great grandma Lina didn’t make it – or maybe you did have it when you were little, Mom. We had an invitation for coffee at Kaare and Olaug Wardenaer (Kaare is a grandson of Oline and a brother of Ottar’s here in Oslo) – we visited at Kari’s until 6 so it was going on 7 when we got to Kaare’s. His son and family live next door, and were there, too. Vince’s Norwegian carried us through – Jene and I tried a little. There we had more tynnkaka, the layer cake, krumkaka, ice cream with our coffee. And you can’t eat and run – so it was going on 10 when we left. Olaug gave me a crocheted table runner and a ten or pewter plate with the Ytre Rendal church on it. Next we headed for Ovre Rendal where Sverre Hornseth lives – he and his wife operated a guest house for years; they still live there. Jene had room # 1 – we were in # 5. Neat, huh. We were a little late for the evening meal for which we were invited, though they offered us food, we begged off. We did visit for a couple of hours before going to bed. A niece of Sverre’s and her husband were up there for a week’s vacation – (they have a cabin) he speaks really good English so he was the official translator but Vince used his Norwegian a lot. Saturday we went out to get a few pictures of farms ancestors lived on, a couple of different times. We had coffee at Aase’s (the niece), and the rest of the meals at Sverre’s – he is 81 or 82 and is still farming. He is the son of Martin Hornseth (brother to Lina) and a first cousin of Elise’s. They were surprised to hear that Sverre had a first cousin still living. Sunday we went to church at Ovre Rendal – the bishop spoke. He would probably be like a district president, or I guess we call them bishops now, too. Then we went to the top of one of the mountains for pictures of the view – not as sheer as the western fjords but very pretty. They have more snow that we do here in Oslo. After coffee, we packed up and left for Oslo. It took a little longer than 4 hrs. – the traffic got heavy until we hit the 4-lane.

Don’t remember that the week was too busy. I did meet Jene downtown on Thursday, no I went in when she did. We decided to go to the Applied Art Museum – they were having a special show of weavings (tapestries) by a well-known (I suppose) Norwegian. We also saw a tapestry from the year 1200. And a lot of silver collections, and jewelry. By the time we got to the 4th floor, it was almost closing time so we got only a glimpse of the Royal Coronation Robes & gowns – Norway is only on its 2nd king of its own so the collection is not large.

Tuesday we were supposed to go down to As and to Oddvar’s for supper. The newspaper down there printed a story a couple of years ago about our looking for relatives – Kari had written the As minister. Anyway, the paper wants to take pictures and do a follow-up. It snowed however, wet, heavy slippery snow and we didn’t dare drive. So it has been reset for today. It is cloudy today but too warm to snow.

Monday (the 21st) I met Jene downtown – we went to the lecture (at 3:15) but evidently the professor forgot to show. So there we sat and waited – Vince picked us up at 5.

Sunday, Oddvar and his family, he has 2 little girls, one 2 and one 5 – and his mom came for dinner. We had beef roast, gravy, potatoes, the vegetable dish, and the fruit salad with honey-nut dressing, and apple pie with the coffee. It wasn’t as good as I could do at home, but guess the best I could do under the circumstances. We went for a walk in the afternoon (to wear off a little steam, particularly of the 2 yr. old) and showed them the church here in Osteras. It snowed that day too – so they left for home shortly after the pie and coffee, but guess that was almost 6 p.m.

The choir gave a concert that night, so I went down for that. It was well done – had piano, bass, oboe, drums, a soprano, and a baritone along with the choir. Afterwards, the director had the musicians and soloists over to her apt. and asked us too. We had a layer cake plus cheese sandwiches with the coffee. We visited till after midnight – the director’s husband spoke quite good English. He is employed as a deacon in the church – but here in Oslo he is taking some more schooling.

Now we are planning on company for supper tomorrow night, and then Lyle & Exene will be here Friday morning.

Thanks for cards and gifts! Last night we went out for pizza supper – a first for us here in Oslo. Will glance thru your letters to see if there are any questions.

We still don’t know for sure, but tentatively plan to leave Norway about the 20th of May. I would guess that perhaps you shouldn’t mail anything after May 10, unless I write differently. I will try to keep in touch as we travel, but I/m not sure that you would be able to get in touch with us.

Better fix breakfast and get going on the day.

Love, Verla and Vince