Norway 2014

13 July - a few photos from Flaa, Norway, yesterday and today.   The interior of the church at Flaa is beautiful.  We enjoyed visiting with the student pastor.  The congregation no longer enjoys every Sunday worship; fortunately they had worship today.  From there we drove to Stor Gandrud (the large Gandrud farm).  I will edit more when time permits over the next few weeks in Norway. The last photos are from Sandefjord where we are spending the night before driving to Kristiansand.

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Church at Flaa

The Vold Farm across the road  from the church.  House is not original.

Vis-Kari the Mystic

Church at Fl å where my Vold great grandparents were married. 

Cynthia in the pulpit where her great-grandparents Vold were married

Stor Gandrud Stabbur , a store house.

storage buildings at Great Grandmother Brynhild's Childhood Home

Lake in front of Gandrud's home 

Lake View From the House 

Child's Playhouse Shot by German Gun from Lake

Great-grandmother Brynhild Gandrud Vold's home

Bergen

11 Juli- Oslo, Norway:  The extremely, STRONG steward was sitting on the deck in a tee shirt as we watched the ship docking in Oslo; he laughed heartily when Ron complimented him on his Superman strength in front of his comrades and enjoyed a later opportunity to tell him how distinguished he looked in his uniform.  Ron generously tipped the steward who assisted us with our luggage to the taxi, asking him to share with the other man. Our room at the Grand Hotel in Oslo was not ready when we arrived, allowing us to take a short fjord cruise to the Viking Ship and the Kon-Tiki Museums. The pictures taken with the cell phone do not adequately tell the story of discovering the 1200-year-old Viking ships or the decay happening from within the wood, creating a current crisis.  A desperate race is on to discover a way to preserve the ships and their treasure, or this is the last generation to see them.  The Viking ships were used as burial chambers for two women and one man; likely the woman was a queen or very wealthy person gifted with food, animals, utensils, etc., for her journey to "beyond." Fascinating to learn 15 more Viking ships have been discovered this past week, exciting everyone with the new discovery.   We walked to the Kon-Tiki museum from the Viking ship museum to view the bamboo and balsa raft Thor Heyerdahl and five other men constructed in 1947. Some photos below are from last night's sunset; the rest were taken as we approached Oslo; the others are from the day's journey. We have an upgrade to our room, and a car rented for tomorrow's journey to Flaa, Norway.