Here are some photos from our gigantic Euro-tour 2001. It was really three vacations in one. I guess we thought we might never return, but now we feel like going every year. I had planned every detail and it came off very well anyway. Better, in fact, since so much of the good stuff you just can't plan anyway. Our relatives were warm, loving people who lived in the most beautiful places. We hope you enjoy these photos.
Click on photos to enlarge.
London, April 29, 2001
This is the view from our room at the County Hall Marriott on the Thames in London. Margaret Thatcher closed down the London County government a few years ago, freeing this venerable edifice for Marriott to renovate into a 5 star hotel. Yes, it's the first time we'd stayed in a 5 star hotel. We rode the London Original, the famous London tour bus. We were happy letting the able tour guides fill us in on what we're seeing.
Dinner at Porter's, a pub in Covent Garden, with my 1st cousin, Bob Swanson and his wife, Kathy. They took the train all the way in from Sunningdale, about an hour away. This was the first night of our trip and it was great to see some familiar faces.
Day 2, April 30, 2001. We attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey.
That evening, my mom's cousin, Marjie, had us for dinner in their suburban London home. It was a rare visit with fabulous home cooking and chatter until midnight. We left with full hearts and slept late, because....
On Day 3, we caught the train for Durham County to see where Quinn's grandmother's grandfather was born. We rented a car and picked up some probable 3rd cousins, Ruby and Carol Linsley Hughes. They were delightful tour guides who willingly placed their physical well-being in my hands by letting me drive. A bit daft of them, wasn't it?
On to Norway....
May 4, 2001. My good friend, Øivind Farmen, visited us at our hotel in Trondheim. We were buoyed up by almost daily visits with the most wonderful people everywhere we went.
We took a stroll to Lille Bryggen, the wharf area in Trondheim. Very tired, but the sun stays up so late we had to check out our surroundings before retiring.
Saturday, May 5, 2001. My 4th cousin, Bård Gunnar Stokke, showed us around Trondheim. He is a doctoral student in biology and has lived in Trondheim for 10 years. We had an instant rapport, but I think that anyone would like him. We had met via e-mail 3 years earlier and he was instrumental in our meeting the rest of the family in Norway.
More family met us for lunch. Don, Siri, Harald, Bård Gunnar and Marthe are here. Siri is the niece of one of my closest relations in Norway, my mother's 2nd cousin, Jon Vaagan. We're headed for his home in the little vacation village of Hellandsjøen next.
After Harald guided us on a drive over breathtaking mountains, we arrived at a banquet in Jon and Ruth Vaagan's home. Molte (cloudberry preserves made from berries they'd gathered in the mountains), Sood (simple potato soup with meatballs), and Laks (the ubiquitous smoked salmon) made us feel welcome from the start. And it's still Saturday.
After dinner, Jon, Harald, Olav, Trygve and I went for a stroll. This is Thore O. Stokke's store, which Jon operates. Thore founded it in 1919 at the age of 64 after living much of his life as a ferry captain in the north at Børkenes. Thore was my great grandfather's oldest brother and was the only sibling who stayed in Norway. He had nine children, so we have a lot of Norwegian cousins.
First, we a have a photo of Thore Ole Stokke with his wife, Theonore. Then, a photo of Thore as a young man. None of the my American cousins had a photo of Thore, so it was a big deal for me to finally see some. Even though Thore lived until 1939 and his daughter, Marie (3rd photo), lived in North Dakota for 6 years from about 1916-1922, we knew almost nothing about our Norwegian cousins. My great aunt, Alice Stocke, remembers Marie visiting Minneapolis and playing her guitar. I have a photo of Marie she apparently gave to my grandmother, her 1st cousin, when she lived in America. But no one had a photo of Thore or knew when he died. Thore sent a few letters to America in 1932 because he had apparently heard that his brother, my great grandfather, Christian Ole Stocke, was ill. I have heard that their sister, Yetta, corresponded with Thore after that and perhaps with Marie until Yetta died in 1957. Then, nothing until I found them in 1998.
I asked Jon and Ruth Vaagan if they had ever been contacted by any of their other American cousins. They said no, we were the first, but that they had always known that they had American cousins. Trygve, Jon's brother, even had a photo of Christian's wedding from 1893. Trygve didn't know who it was! Now he does. Ruth added that, while they knew they had American family, they didn't know they were so nice. I assured them that all their cousins in America were loving, industrious people who never complained.
The third photo shows the island of Hitra, taken from Hellandsjøen. The village of Sandstad is on Hitra. Thore and Christian's sister, Anna, married Lauritz Sandstad, from this village, and my 3rd cousin, Doug Sandstad is descended from them. Hitra has fantastic fishing. Doug loves to fish. Doug has been planning his trip to Norway almost as long as we have. Send us a postcard when you get there, cousin :)
Ok, it's finally the Sunday, May 6. The Vaagan Family and us. This one chokes me up. Then we left Hellandsjøen with Jon and Ruth to drive to the Stokke farm, 3 hours away. The drive was glorious. We took one ferry, had perfect weather and arrived at milking time at Kolbjorn and Gerd Stokke's dairy farm. A calf was born that night. They named him Don.
The Stokke family and us. Behind us is their mountain, Stokknoken. In front of us is Kvernesfjorden. Yes, they live at the foot of a mountain on a fjord. Awesome.
Ok, a bit of history. This is the barn built around 1811 by Amund Lassesen Lykken, my 5th great grandfather. Family record says that he inscribed it with these words, "I, Amund Lassesen, hath built this barn and no one hath me helped". We couldn't find the inscription, but it's a great story.
The second photo shows me standing beside the baptismal font in the 13th century Kvernes stave church. It is likely that my great grandfather was baptized in this font, since this church was still in use in 1866 when he was born.
We spent one night with the Stokkes, then boarded the Hurtigruten (coastal cruise) at Molde bound for Bergen. Again, perfect weather, dry, sunny and warm. It rains 288 days a year in that area. We had no rain at all in 8 days in Norway.
Tuesday evening we had a nice supper at Magne Seim's parent's home. Laks, bread, preserves, cold scrambled eggs. It was fabulous. Magne and I talked accordion for hours after dinner.
Wednesday, May 8. This was a mind-blowing day of over-the-top scenery via bus, ferry and train. An absolute glut of natural grandeur. Pristine, majestic, mythical. What else can I say?
Thursday, May 9, Sandvik, outside of Oslo. Anders Grøthe spent a couple of hours with me even though he had been quite ill the previous two days. We had a great talk about the arcane subject of modified accordions. It was truly a rare event, perhaps for both of us, since this area has so few aficionados :) See Bayans and Bayanists for more.
My luck continued as Jon Faukstad, head of the Accordion and Folk Music Department at the University of Oslo met with me. Two of his students played for me and I learned a great deal. See Bayans and Bayanists for more.
Then, we had a bit of business to do as we picked up my accordion and another bag at the Oslo airport and boarded a train for Halden, our last stop in Norway.
Friday, May 11. My accordion friend, Simen Korsvold, picks us up at the hotel and takes us to another unexpected feast at the home of Aslaug Nysterud, my 5th cousin. Mooseburgers, molte, salmon, cheese, fruit. Heaven. She showed us around Øymark, an area that was home to my great great grandparents, Anders and Thea Søgaard Iverson. At one churchyard, the index shows that 19 of my direct ancestors were buried there, although no stones were left, since the graves are reused.
My 9th cousin, Svenn Søby, and his wife hosted us next. We had coffee and cakes and talked for an hour or so about our Norwegian family.
That evening we had to catch a midnight train to Lund, Sweden. We were again cared for by Simen, a travel agent and accordion friend I met on the internet and one time in Waterloo, Iowa when he was in America on a tour. He invited two of his accordion club friends over and we played and listened to accordion music for hours until it was time to go to the train station, five minutes away.
Saturday, May 12. We slept on the train and woke up in Lund, where we were greeted by my 4th cousin, Nils Normander. I had met Nils in Estes Park, CO at a Swanson reunion in 1997, and he overwhelmed us with his hospitality. He insisted on providing our hotel room, he acted as tour guide, he made sure we rested, and he took us to a superb Greek restaurant with another couple (2nd photo) for our last night in Europe together.
The third photo shows me at the Ottarp church. My great grandmother, Selma Peterson Swanson, was born in Ottarp and the next photo shows my great uncle, Ted Swanson, standing at this same spot in the 1960s.
Sunday, May 13, Nils drove us across the new Øresund bridge joining Sweden and Denmark. I then flew to Rome from Copenhagen. I immediately left Rome via train for Ancona, where I rented a car and drove to Loreto. There, I took off in a hang-glider and made my way into the otherwise inaccessible reaches of the eastern Italian wilderness. Just kidding. But I did check into a hotel atop the small mountain on which the Loreto Basilica is built. It houses the manger in which Christ was born and is the second most holy spot in Christendom. Which I didn't know until I got there. I was there to see accordion manufacturers.
Monday, May 14, I dropped my accordion off at Pigini to be serviced and went to Zero Sette, another manufacturer. They welcomed me enthusiastically and showed me every facet of their process. Then, of course, we ate, and it was fantastic home cooking for over two hours. That was lunch, which we finished at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Tuesday, May 15, my new friends and I visited Siva, a traditional reed-making company. The owner, Lorenzo Antonelli, spent a lot of time with us and shared his dream of preserving this soft art of making accordion reeds by hand. This knowledge exists only in the minds and hands of the artisans, so it was fascinating to see it living in Lorenzo's factory. See Bayans and Bayanists for more. Then, I picked up my accordion and prepared to head for home.
Wednesday, May 16, I rose at 4:30 am and drove to Milan, 5 hours away. It was a bit ambitious, but everything went well and 24 hours later, I was in Des Moines hugging my little boy again :)
Now for the good photos. These are scanned postcards we bought. We were actually present at all these places, but, come on, the professionals can get shots that we only dream about.
Hellandjøen from the air. I took this from that hang glider I told you about.
This is the view from the Stallheim Hotel, our first stop on Norway in a Nutshell. We were speechless, dumbfounded, our minds stilled by the majesty of creation. Then we got back on the bus for a snack.
Gudvangen, where we got off the bus and boarded the ferry for the two hour cruise to Flåm. The road into town is visible at the bottom.
This is Flåm from up on the ridge about Aurland, I believe. You can see more at The Fjords.
Flåm again. We could have taken this picture if we had walked for two hours. You can see the dock behind the cruise ship. It's hard to see how the train got out of this valley. Check out the Flåm Railway for more on that.