One of the reasons to venture to Norway was to visit some extended family I had met as a child. While traveling south from Bergen there was a huge rainstorm. Even as foreigners we noticed all the rivers running extremely high and all the lakes seemed full. It washed out some of the train tracks resulting in a 3 hour detour via bus through the mountains of Norway. We eventually returned to train and continued our regularly scheduled journey (only a few hours behind schedule). We arrived at the Porsgrunn train station to meet Stanley. He took us to his and his wife Elisabeth’s beautiful house and had an incredible dinner of duck, roasted veggies, fresh bread, hamburger patties, mashed celery root, and salad. For dessert we had ice cream and kransekake; a delicious almond cookie that you should look up and go make right now. It was all amazing. We woke up the next day to another amazing feast. The table was full of bread, spreads, and other fixings.
Next Stanley took us out on a drive around the area. Which by the way was incredibly smooth, he drives a tour bus for his hobby, so he is a real professional. He showed us the many locks that are on the river to allow boats to pass through. Historically used for the logging industry to transport lumber. Now it’s only used for tourism cruises. These locks were clearly taxed from the recent rain and the amount of water flowing through the dams was immense. After the locks we continued higher into the mountains, which looked as though Yosemite valley had filled up with water and we were driving along the higher points. There was water and lakes everywhere and giant rock formations surrounding us. We stopped at the summit for lunch. We had a delicious catch of the day with potatoes and asparagus, for dessert am amazing cloud berry pudding. We continued on through the mountains to Stanley uncle Johns house. It was next to a duck and goose farm which was a sight to see. We met John, his sister, and some of their children. We had more kransekake, lefse, ice cream cake, and upside down cake. Oh, and of course plenty of coffee. We talked for a few hours about Johns time in the US when he got to know my Grandfather and my great aunt. After that we headed back to Stanley’s house for home made pizza from Elisabeth. That night, Stanley showed us a bunch of pictures he took when he visited the united States in 2000 and in the late 1980s. It was cool to see his trip to San Francisco in the 80s and see how much has changed.
The next day we woke up, has a lazy morning then headed to the train station to catch our flight to Berlin!
Thanks again Stanley and Elizabeth for being such gracious hosts! You both went way beyond anything we could have asked for! It was great to meet you both and I hope we can see each other again soon! Sorry there aren’t more pictures of all of us, but we never had the chance with everything we did with you.
