If you had asked me six months ago, I never would have guess that we would get to visit Denmark and Norway this year…much less this winter. My sister Sharon just had this nagging thought that just would not let go. She felt that “we” needed in the worse way to get to Denmark to see Bjarne. Bjarne is the last remaining Norwegian cousin from my Mother’s generation. He has had several strokes and we just don’t know how much time we have left with him. She saw that airfares thru an Iceland airline were well under $500.00 per ticket so…the hunt was on.  After a bit of investigation, we determined that the Icelandic flights were only out of New York, Boston, DC and Atlanta…all places that we would have to get to one way or another so the cost of the ticket began to rise. Eventually she started to focus on Chicago because we could take the train in the early morning from Lapeer to Chicago at an affordable fare and be there in time for an afternoon/ evening flight. Chicago had direct flights daily to Copenhagen.  She found flights and before we knew it we were headed to Denmark.  Along the way, we picked up another traveler, Zach, Sharon’s son wanted to come too.

It did not take me long to decided at the price we paid for tickets to Denmark, we would be able to visit Norway too. I have a bucket list of things I need to do there! When we first started looking at flights to Norway, the tickets were running about $150.00 per ticket round trip but before we bought the tickets we needed to make sure that Rita (our Cousin who is our age) was able to spend time with us too. We were hoping to be able to stay with her but would find accommodations either way. We played a bit of email / Facebook tag with her so by the time we booked our flights the fares to Norway were now $200 but still within budget. My bucket list items are now within reach.

Bucket list Item # 1 – See Grandpa Anders birthplace

The plan was to go to Tjome, the birthplace of our Grandfather, Andrew (Andres) Anderson. For over 7 years now I have been in contact with a woman from the Tjome Historical Society. Her name is Inger Zeiner. In 2011, I wrote and article about our Grandfather and his life in America after leaving Tjome for the Historical Society’s Bi-Annual Tjume Publication. She is the Great Niece of our Great Grandfather’s second wife.  Our plan was to spend the day with her in Tjome so she could show us around.

Bucket list Item # 2 – Meet Inger Zeiner

We arrived in Oslo on February 28. We took the Express train from the airport to downtown Oslo for the afternoon because Rita was working. We grabbed a beer and a burger at the newly renovated old train station. It was a cold rainy day but we were so happy to be in Oslo it really did not dampen our spirits. We spent the afternoon sightseeing.

We tried to watch the changing of the Guard at the palace but the process took too long and it began to rain huge raindrops so we ducked into the closest place we could find to get out of the rain. It was Hard Rock Cafe Oslo. It turned out to be a place we would return to! People were nice and the beverages were too!

Bucket list Item # 3 – Nurture our relationship with our Norwegian cousins from our generation – Rita and her family

Our plan was to rent a car for two days so we could make the two hour drive to Tjome on Wednesday,  March 1 and go to the Viking Ship Museum on Thursday before returning the car. SO we got back on the Express Train and headed to the Airport to get our car so we could make our way to Rita’s house after she got out of work. We had a great evening with our cousin. We spent the evening laughing and trying to learn Norwegian….lets just say we failed but Rita learned a couple of good American slang phrases that she used a lot!

The next morning we were off to Tjome. We were like 4 excited kids on Christmas morning ready for this new adventure. It was very easy to drive from Rita’s home to Tjome.  Norway has a really efficient roads.  They have tunnel systems in place which routes the most thru traffic under Oslo and keeps traffic moving pretty effectively. Many of the downtown streets are pedestrian only streets. We saw almost no parking so people use mass transit when visiting downtown Oslo.

It took about two hours and was a really nice drive. It was mostly freeway. We went thru a lot of tunnels.  Eventually we made our way to towards Highway 308 which was our exit for Tonsberg.  Tonsberg is the nearest medium size city to Tjome and where we will eventually cross the bridge to the island of Tjome.  Next time, I want more time to explore Tonsberg. It is a quaint fishing village and is the oldest city in all of the Scandinavian countries. It is referenced in print as early as 900 BC at about the time of the Vikings.

Bucket List Item #4 – Visit and explore Tonsberg

We made great use of GPS technology on this trip and were able to drive directly to Inger Zeiner’s home with the address that I had for her.  I have never driven in a foreign country, my nephew Zach helped us with that this trip but it was easy enough that I would not hesitate to drive myself next time.

By now we are shivering, not from the cold but from the sheer joy and excitement that this long awaited day had finally arrived. Up to this point, we could only imagine what it would feel like to be here, but now we know. It was just so hard to believe that this place was Grandpa Andres’s hometown, thousands of miles and an ocean away from the home that we knew was his. We were now in his neighborhood!  Inger and Rita were getting acquainted and planning our next move in Norwegian so we can not understand them but it gives us a few moments for the reality of it all to sink in.

Bucket list Item # 5 – Grandpa Hans’s Cove

Our first stop would be the cove that Great Grandfather Hans had lived on as a child and the place where he fished nearly every day of his life. I am sure that Grandpa Andres and his brothers spent a great deal of time here too.

Hans’s Cove today….as it looks today….

This is taken from a pier which was not there in Great Grandpa Hans’s time. Inger remembers a story that her Mother use to tell her about Hans.  Hans would loaded up an old wheel barrow with his traps and his poles everyday and walked to the shore to fish.  The wheel barrow squeaked and groaned like an old man as he pushed it first to the shore and then in the afternoon as he returned to his home.  They knew when to look up to see him as the noise of the wheel barrow got louder and then softer as he passed by and continued to his home.

This is a photo that Inger shared with me of Han’s Mother, Olava’s house.  It is the white house on the left of the photo. The path that you see by the house was the path that Han’s walked everyday to get to the cove.  The sail boat shown in the photo was about where the new pier is that we were taking photos from. Olava’s house is no longer there.

Standing on this pier and feeling the presence of the three generations who made this place their home was the first of many goose bump moments for the day.

Part 2…coming soon…

Jan