Norway Part 1

Hello all,  it's the guest contributor to the blog Steve.  Mary asked me to write our post on Oslo and the Hallingdahl valley given the personal ancestry connection.   Our trip kicked off in Oslo.  The city is a great mix of new clean lines Scandinavian design and old school buildings.  We both really liked Oslo as it really had a different feel from where we are living.  Norwegians really take pride in the cleanliness of their cities (i.e.  no dog poop on the sidewalks) and also about weaving the culture of the country right into the urban landscape.  By this I mean Nordic skiing is everywhere.  We caught the metro out to Homenkolen to see the city setting up for the 2012 world cup ski jumping and cross country ski races the next few days.  The evening before I took the same line a few stops further and found myself cross country skiing in the woods overlooking the city.  This experience really helped to solidify that in my travels Norway still ranks at the top end of my list.

forget deer, watch out for skiers

The new opera house in Oslo

 

After seeing the Opera House, Kings Palace, the ski jump, the houses that still remind me of the old houses in MN and some great cafes on the main street Karl Johan's Gate we caught the train out of Oslo to a small town in the Hallingdal valley called Nesbyn.  It is around this area where my great grandfather comes from.  We were picked up at the station by probably one of the nicest people in the world.  Terje is something like a second grand uncle to my father.  His father and my great grandfather were uncle and nephew.  No matter how close or distant, we were family.  Terje took us to their Hytte (cabin) for the evening and there we met his wife Torun who was also wonderful. We spent the evening in the mountains and the next morning doing some hiking and taking in the valley scenery.   We looked at old photos and talked about his travels to the US and all of the genealogy work my dad and uncle had done.  The next day we traveled to the old Engebakken farm and also the site where my great grandfather grew up.  This was a really amazing experience to see the exact spot where my roots in the US all started.  I learned that my grandfather changed his name to Bakken  and dropped the (Enge) when he came to the U.S. in 1905.  Crazy to think he came with $10 in his pocket!  After a tour of the valley, a lunch of waffles and coffee, and reading a letter that was written from Terje's father to my great grandfather about how he was settling in to the U.S.  we got ready to head back to Oslo to catch our next day flight to Tromso.  Overall a quick but great experience seeing Norway by winter and learning a bit about my roots. Mary will be writing soon about what we did after Oslo and Nesbyn, stay tuned...

Steve and Terje

The view from the cabin

Great grandfather (Enge) Bakken's farm