Taking a Ride

16 March 1986

Dear ones,

Did I write Saturday morning last week? I’m thinking I did, but its hard to remember what I’ve written to you and what I’ve written to the kids. Anyway, if the following paragraph is old, you’ll just have to read it anyway. Vince and I went for a ride – Jene got ready too, but didn’t feel super so decided to lay around home. It was a bright sunshiny day – the last one we’ve had I think. It was a sloppy day to drive with the melting. We headed n.w. toward Honefoss, and just before we got there, Vince saw an old church and turned off to take a look. It was old and locked. However, there was a monument to Anna Colbjornsdatter, and also a museum across the road. There were a couple of cars there so we decided to go see if it was open. It wasn’t – it’s not heated – but the care taker was outside and we visited (Vince visited – though he spoke some English) with him. He invited us in to look around if we didn’t mind the cold. He unlocked a few doors for us. We saw a good W.W. II collection. The Germans overran most of Norway in two weeks, and there was no outright resistance after 2 months. The underground resistance is another story. The caretaker apparently lives in the back rooms. He popped out and wanted us to see another room. It was called the Swedish room; and there were still bullet holes in the wall from a battle with 500 Swedish soldiers in 1716. The legend goes that Anna C. (the minister’s wife) helped set an ambush for these soldiers. The building used to be the parsonage – part of it was from the 1600’s, part from 1700’s, and part from 1800’s. In the oldest part was a collection of Jorgen Moe’s possessions. He evidently was a minister and we are supposing there; he was also in on the compilations of Norse folk tales by Asbjornson and Moe. His things appeared to have been elegant in their day. The ministers in the 1700s were wealthy.

Then the caretaker wanted us to go down the basement to see something else. Behind a door he opened electronically, and then behind bars chained and locked were Russian icons. You’ll have to look the word up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. I only have heard enough to know they are quite valuable – he said they were worth a million kroner. There were also paintings of the Russian czar’s family done by a Norwegian artist who had been there. In that same room, but not behind the bars was a runestone from the Viking Age - 900-1050 A.D. – the inscription was something about “Guttorm the good”. There were also 2 stone ‘hammers’ that were 4000 years old.

From there we drove into Honefoss – and walked around the town. We were looking for a café to eat lunch. The town was lively – a woman was giving a speech in the square. The sings were advocating boycott of South Africa in protest of apartheid. Suppose she was talking about that – Women’ Lib day is Mar 9, so it could have been that. We only found a “fast” food place for a sandwich. By the time, we had eaten, the speaker was done and the town was about folded up. Stores close at 1 p.m. and don’t open again until Mon. morning. So we drove on a little farther and then headed back to Oslo on a different highway. Lots of pretty views.

We talked about taking the trikk downtown on Sunday and going to the worship service at the Cathedral, but it was cloudy and damp so we decided to drive to Haslum, the next little ‘suburb’, for church. The main part of the church had been built by 1200. The walls were about 4 ft. thick. Wings had been added later as had the pulpit and pews. The pews seated 4 people each and there was probably 16 rows front to back on each side of the aisle; the wings had 6 on each side so I figured it couldn’t seat more than 200 or so. The chandelier hanging in the center had candles, 12 of them, but electricity and heat had been put in. We hung around a little afterwards to take pictures. The asst. pastor came to talk to us as we were looking at the baptismal font – it was dated 1643. He pointed out the original font which had been found out in the grave yard. It was a large rock with the ‘bowl’ for the water hollowed out. He asked us where we were from – he was from N.Y. – the only other thing Norwegian about him was his wife. He had lived in Norway 9 years.

17 March 1986

Wednesday I met 2 ladies downtown at noon. There are nieces of Sverre Hornseth (he lives at Ovre Rendal) who is a first cousin to Elise. We went to the Theater Café, had lunch and visited until 4. It was interesting and I didn’t know about these until they called. I had been writing to Sverre now and then and he told them to contact us.

Tuesday I tried to make an apple pie. It was better than the choc. chip cookies.

Thursday we left on a little excursion – drove up to Hamar. Found the jewelry store where Vince bought the ear rings 10 years ago. I have lost one and he was checking to see if he could find a matching one. We couldn’t. Then we tried to find the store where we bought our sweaters. We hoped we could find such a good deal again. Think the stores have changed; not as many of them carry those kind of sweaters. Guess mostly tourists buy them. We didn’t find any. So we had a cup of coffee and then drove up to Elverum. We saw the building where the constitution had been signed – that must have been before we got to Hamar because it was open from 12 – 2, and we were about an hour early. At elverum we found a place to stay for the night and then drove downtown. The stores were closed but Vince saw a sweater in a window that he thought was pretty. We got up early the next morning so we could check out that store before we looked for a (?) checked out a couple of touristy things. When the clerk told Vince the price of the sweater, he decided it was too expensive. He couldn’t find any other he liked; and we were in a husfliden where all the sweaters are hand knit – they are handcraft and bunad stores. The clerk decided to take the one out of the window – then she saw it had last year’s price on it. He thought it was maybe a bit big, but decided to get it anyway. So he was done shopping – Jene and I never did find anything we wanted to buy.

We did find a monument – built on the spot where King Haakon told the Germans (nei) when they asked him to agree to a government run by Quisling (Norway’s traitor). And we got close enough to read the inscription even though we trudged through snow over our knees. Traveling in Norway in the winter has a few drawbacks. We also visited a Forestry museum which showed the history of lumbering; there was an aquarium there, too, with a lot of different kinds of fish.

Then we drove up to Lillehamar and got ourselves a room. It was about six or so. Jene wasn’t feeling good – so she climbed into bed – think it was trudging through the snow – Vince and I went down for (?) and then went out for a walk along the main street. We found a few stores we wanted to check out in the morning. Jene’s friend at home wants her to bring something back so she’s been looking for a made in Norway gift that doesn’t look like a “souvenir”. We checked out of the hotel by noon, and then went to find Maihaugen, an outdoor museum with a collection of old buildings. The buildings are furnished, too, I guess, but are only open in the summer time. Paths were cleared though so we could walk through the area.

From there we headed in the general direction of Oslo, driving through Eina. That’s where Vince’s grandpa W. and great grandfather lived for 10 years before coming to Iowa in 1864. The little old hotel we stayed in 10 years ago wasn’t open. Could be they use it only in the summer. We drove by the farm so Jene could see it. Guess we didn’t stop after that until we got home.

Had some soup, read our mail. Didn’t stay up too late because Sunday was Holmenkollen. That will wait until the next letter!

To answer some questions: Palme’s assassination was big news – of course, we don’t understand a whole lot. We get a couple of Swedish channels, too. But it gets to be a lot of watching the pictures and trying to get the drift. The Nato exercise up north where 16 Norwegian soldiers died in an avalanche was also big news. Guess there is controversy about whether they should have been ordered in there.

The people in the house called once – the battery on the Cutlass died and they were wondering what to do. Everything else seemed to e fine. The little boy is enjoying the big yard to play in, and had been sliding down the hill. It must have been still Jan. or early Feb. when they called. We will have to write them soon – some of the mail that they have been forwarding has taken six weeks to it must be coming by boat.

Dawn did call, in fact twice. We weren’t home the first time so she talked to Jene – then she called us later. Sounds like Heather is growing and changing!

Heard about the buzzard cake but not about the Elvis one.

Time to fix breakfast. Need to go to the store for bread and milk. Jene starts her second six-week session today, but it is in the early p.m. instead of late a.m. She will like lying in bed a bit longer. She had last week off. Think she gets next week off for Easter break. We’ve been told every one in Oslo heads to the mountains for Easter vacation.

Love, Verla and Vince