Kongsberg Church, Thurs. 23 Sep 2010

Kongsberg Church

We have had a very special day today.  Mom prayed that we would be guided this day.  We had gone to the Kongsberg Church on Tuesday morning but it was closed we found out later that the sign said due to illness. So Marit called some people to make sure it was going to be open.  So this morning at 11am we went and we were than going to meet Marit and Gena at 1pm and then Marit was going to drive us out to the Flaatrude farm were our relatives rented and worked. We go in this church and it was beautiful with wood carvings and paintings. This church was consecratd in 1761.  It is the largest baroque church in Norway.  It's rococo interior has three magnificent chandeliers and a beautiful Gloger organ dating from 1765, that was refurbished in 2001. We had been told by Marit that Hendrich Beck(could be related) was one of two sculpturs that did all the wood working and carving in the church. 

 It is amazing because it is all done in wood, but you would never imagine that it could be. We got there when a tour group of older women were there and the man was speaking Norwegian.  Almost every where you can pick up information sheets in different languages and we had the English(of course) and were trying to follow where he was pointing.  We noticed a young man there watching and he had been standing around the grand piano that was there.  They hold sunday services there every week, concerts etc. We finally got to talk to the guide and Tami told him that she was intrested in the Organ and that she played.  He asked if we wanted to see it up close.  He took us up several flights of stairs and we saw it up close.  Amazing that anyone could pull the stops and work it alone.  As we were standing over aways taking pictures 3 men came and 1 started playing it to demonstate.  Wow!

 Tami took some video so you can hear it.  Later that man who played came over and Mom mentioned if he knew about the Tabernacle Organ.  He said that he had seen it and even stayed with some Mormon family and he really wanted to go in the temple and he was a good Christian.  He said that they would not let him and he found out that even the mormon man could not go in. As we were talking the young man asked if we were Mormon.  Guess what, he was to.  There are only 2 families in Kongsberg that are members and they have to drive to Drammen(1 hr) to go to church.  He had received his mission call to Colorado Denver North and was leaving in December.  He was amazed as we were to meet members in Kongsberg.  He asked if all 3 of us were.  His name is Ole Matthias Isaksen.  He was there at the church to practice the piano.  We asked to hear him play.  And wow he did.  He was practicing his piece to play to be admitted to what we would call Music Academy.  He wanted to be admitted, go on his mission and then come back.  I felt the spirit as he played and I couldn't contain my tears to know we had received an answer to our prayer to meet this young man and feel his spirit also through his beautiful talent and music.

It was an amazing experience and we are looking forward to seeing him on Sunday at church.  He also played his arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man"  Mom tried to sing with her tears with Tami singing along too. I just cried.

        

Just more Norway pictures!

 



Ok for you that said you want to see more pictures these are just more pictures of the beautiful scenery on the train and boat rides through Norway.  It is just so beautiful that you just want to take pictures of everything.



from Flam Train



View from Flam Railroad leaving Mydral, Norway

Kjosfossen Waterfall

On the Sognefjord-see the mirror image

 

We have seen many buildings with the grass covered roofs

Bountious Beauties

We have riden Ferries, Trains (lots), taxi and a bus.  It has been quite the trip so far.  The only complaint is our luggage problem.  Too Much for us old women and way too heavy.  It has been our burden that we pray every minute for the Lord to lift our burdens.  He must be doing it because we have managed.  We have done lots of walking with this luggage that I am speaking of.  We get the looks let me tell you.  I was teasing Mom and Tami that we must be being admired for our bounteous beauty.  that is for the bounty of our beautiful huge luggage. 



Walking from Oslo Central Station to Oslo Hotel



Tami tired at the thought of having to leave again with all the luggage

We laugh about it all the time.  Tami and Mom can't even lift there luggage so every time we have to lift them into a train or up on a rack I have had to do it.  We laugh and laugh and then we have a harder time.  We have met some real angels that have helped in our time of need several time.  And Mom said that we need to stop saving money by walking and walking to our hostels with our beauties.  Ha Ha. 

Your probably wondering why so many pictures of luggage (we call them the beauties) they wanted me to tell you more of the stories.  Well let me start at the beginning.  Elwin dropped us off at the airport in Seattle.  We were worried about meeting the 50 lbs limit.  So we are getting as close as we can without going over. (Dumb! we know now) The first problem came with Tami's backpack.  Since it was 2stories wide and weight one building, that extra suitcase we brought came in handy.  So Tami is busy trying to decide what she can take in the back pack because now the little suitcase has to be checked in.  So T throws all her 10 plus lbs of candy in the little suitcase and about everything but the computer.  It's still over weight but the nice lady lets her check in the backpack now.  T is so flusted that she doesn't realize that her candy and snacks are in the checked in baggage.  So now she has to buy the candy at the Seattle airport. Whoops!  She also got the fisk down.  I mean all the way.  They made her take everything out of her 2stories wide bag and they checked everything down to the orangejuice.  Mom and I just went thru slick as can be.  We waited a good 20 minutes for T to get through.  We got to iceland and stood in line to check in and then found out that we didn't need to check in, just wait for the plane.  When we got to Oslo airport we need to get to Oslo the city.  We have to catch a train and this is when our troubles with the luggage begins.  We get our tickets and find a cart to haul the luggage and hoped we could take the cart with us.  We did try to get it on the train but it was so heavy and large we couldn't.  We laugh because we couldn't even lift 1 suitcase let alone the whole cart.  But it was a thought.  Finding a place to even put it makes us laugh now.  You have to realize that everyone else had a diaper bag size suitcase, so you can imagine what we looked like.  Out next adventure was getting into Oslo city and we were told that it was a short walk to the Hostel from the train station.  Believe it we found another cart. (picture with the building behind us.)  So we start out pushing this cart.  About 10 minutes into this short walk we dump the cart, ask several people for the next set of directions, go over cobblestone walks, walk through a crowed bus transport waiting station, take a hill huffing and puffing with the looks.  Yes this is where our luggage got their names.  I kept telling the girls that we must be being looked at because of our beauty.  And then I said for our beautiful luggage.  We still laugh so hard everytime we think of it.  We about killed ourselves getting to our hotel and dreaded thinking how we were going to get back to the train station early the next morning for the cruise part. We did keep the cart in the hotel room so we could get back in the morning.  No way were we going to get an expensive Taxi. By the way with the cart and our luggage we practially had to walk on our beds to get to the bathroom. Yes that big, ha ha!  We really wanted to take that cart with us again.  We struggled onto the train and tried to find a place to put them and ourselves when we realized that it was assigned seating.  Where we didn't know.  We sent out T to find out for us.  Finally she comes running back and says we can't be on this car #7, we are on car #3 seats 96-98.  By the way I had been loading heaving and lifting to get this luggage on a rack, and told M to just get a seat.  Then T comes back and says hurry we have to run 4-5 train cars up and the train is leaving in minutes. Boy was that a rush.  We really just barely lifted the last luggage into the train as it is leaving.  We were pooped and just wanted to plop into any o seat.  But no we have to now try stuffing our beauties somewhere where no one would trip over and then find a seat. This is the train ride (6hrs) that we met Kristin (an answer to Mom's prayer).



Kristin Garaas Lochen


The next train change went pretty well but we were commenting on several items that we wished we had left home.  We even laughed about sending a big box back home but being cheap and all, you know! This train ride took us from about sea level to thousands of feet(can't remember).  It winds and makes its way up and over this mountain.  It goes through dozens of tunnels they have built into the mountain, we saw beautiful waterfalls and scenic views that can't be discribed.  The train slowed several times just so you could take pictures. This next part of the story I did tell you about getting on the slow ferry instead of the fast air boat ferry.  We did get to see the scenery better until we found we were on the wrong one.  And boy they had us docked and on the other ferry so fast it was amazing.  It's a good thing because we were one pathetic piece of scenery. We had two ferry boats worth of on lookers!  I hope you don't think this is all we did.  I'm just telling you the beauties story.  Luckily we didn't have to take them with us for the next days ferry cruise.  What a relief that was.  As I said we prayed nightly for help and strength.  The Lord has really blessed us because we still have walked to all our hostels but one.  After walking to our Bergen hostel from the Ferry going across and over and around and up hill both ways that we would not be able to walk the longer walk to the train station early the next morning.  We talked with the receptionist and she said that it would be a long walk so we pre-ordered a Taxi.  We told her to get a big one because look at us and our beauties.  She said that it would be ready for us at 7:15 am.  So we got up early and had breakfast.  All of the hotels and hostels have offered amazing breakfasts.  They have everything from cereal to goat cheese and cavier, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers.  I mean they have it all.  So we eat this amazing breakfast and then wait for the taxi.  Up pulls this small car, in the rain.  Oh dear! The taxi driver had this look!  After lifting and rearranging the luggage several times. We pile in with our large backpacks in out laps and T's smaller luggage in her lap as well.  The door almost doesn't close.  We would have never made it walking.  The poor taxi driver was probably glad to see us there.  T did give him a good tip.  It was cheaper than we had anticipated. We got to our train in Bergen to go to Drammen and then catch another to arrive in Kongsberg.  When we pulled into Drammen we knew that we would have to buy a ticket to catch the Kongsberg train.  So I stayed with the beauties while T and M go to look for tickets.  All of a sudden they come running back and say get on the train behind you, and hurry its leaving and we can buy our tickets aboard.  That was another run run, huff, puff, but we did do it. We still continue to about kill ourselves getting it places. When we finally got to Kongsberg we again chose to walk, it was longer again then we thought.  We had another angel help us take M luggage up the hill.  He walked with us the whole way.  We are so grateful.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  It has been wonderful, eventful and we are doing it. We are now in Kongsberg now for 5 nights.  We are grateful for that.  Well we have much more to say and tell you.  But we just had to give you a little insite on the luggage thing.  Thankfully we can laugh about it.  

Bergen - Floibanen ride Monday 20th Sep

M-We are way behind on our writing, so this is Monday the 20th.  We had a wonderful breakfast at the Kivknes Hotek at 7:00 a.m. then boarded our express boat to Bergen at 7:50 a.m.  It was about a four hour trip going down this beautiful fjord with little scenic places along the way. We disembarked in Bergen with these tons of taxi's ready to take people to their destinations, but we were too cheap & dumb and decided we could walk the mile around the other side of the harbor to our hotel, (dragging Richard!)  If you don't remember Grandpa Berry's joke, we'll have to tell you later about that.  The last part of the trip was up hill to the hotel.  We were about dead when we got there.  Our room wasn't ready yet but they let us put our luggage in the luggage room in the basement so we could go out and look around and see some of the close sights.

We have found on this trip that pretty often we have had to ask some one directions or something.  Everyone has been so kind and helpful.  Anyway, we stopped this guy walking by to ask him something and he told us about this cable rail train ride that was just right there by us.  It was the most fantastic ride! It is called the Floibanen.  It only takes 7 min. and they come and go every 15 min. You get in these panaramic view train cars that takes a group of people to the top of this steep mountain.  The train is not only for tourists, but for people who live in homes and apartments on the mountain.  They have stops every once in a while and let people off and on. At the top you can get off and spend as much time as you want.  They have the most fantastic look out place where you have a panaramic view of Bergen with the surroundings of the harbor, fjords and mountains.

There is a gift shop and resturant up there.  There was even a little playground.  The big thing in Norway is trolls.  One of the biggest souvenier things in shops are the trolls. Anyway, they had this big statue of a troll by the playground so we had to have our picture taken by it. We really enjoyed this fun trip.  We've never seen anything like the view or the cable train!

Glacier Story 19th Sept, Sunday



Boyabreen Glacier Lake



Boyabreen Glacier-Fjaerland, Norway

 The story about the Glacier and how it got it's name.  Three German boys were crossing over the glacier and 1 boy fell off and was never found.  So they named it Boyabreen.  Breen means glacier.  So boy on Glacier.  there was also a plane crash in 1967 and they say it wont be found for a hundred years but they think pieces will show up sometime.  To get to the Glacier we took the ferry off Balestrand to Fjaerland village (which didn't have road connections until 1986) population 300 about the same as in Viking times.  This population is the best read people in Norway because this village is sometimes referred as "the book town of Norway".
Anyway we took a big greyhound like bus on these teeny tiny roads.  We asked what you do if a car comes the other way.  She said someone has to back up to a wider spot in the road.  She said that she doesn't have to do it because she is bigger than them.  We went to this museum that has the frozen man "Otiz" in it.  Very beautiful panaramic IMAX show of the glaciers and the land.  It was so amazing. Mom was oh..hh and Aw..ing I finally had to say Sh..hhss. It was hard to tell if she was sick by the movement or in Aw of the beauty.  It was both come to find out.  The farm land are picture perfect.  Sheep in the green fields.  You don't see junk around in the fields.  Just white plactic bales of grass everywhere. 

More on Balestrand

St Olaf Church in Balestrand

There is a story about this church.  Women from Boston falls in love with a man from Balestrand in the Fjord.  Her father was a priest so she loved her faith.  There was no church here in Balestrand so he told her he would build her one.  He didn't get it finished until 2 years after she died but he went ahead and then sent for a priest to live here.  The still hold services especially in the summer in this little church.  It was open and we looked inside. 

We walked around this little village Saturday night.  Most everything was closed.  But we talked to several people who live here year around.  The population is 1500 and it has this beautiful hotel that we stayed in that is family owed for hundreds of years.  Infact the story I told was owed by that man named Kvikne.  The hotel is so large like a spralling castle.  They have built 8 stories to the side of it.  It looks out over the Fjord.  You can't even discribe the beauty.  It is hard to belief that people live here. 



Kviknes Hotel in Balestrand

 As you can see it is beautiful.  We were on the 7th floor room 752.  This is the picture that I got from the ferry as we were leaving for the glacier part of our cruise.  

m-So far, this has been my favorite little town. It is just so pretty.  Everything is lush green. The mountains are covered with trees.  The flowers are still blooming.  We had the most beautiful view from our room window looking out over the town and the fjord. There were several little apple orchards we saw as we took a walk through their little town.  I couldn't resist picking up an apple that was on the ground and outside the fence, mind you, and eating it. We came to this little green knoll that had a statue on top.  It was called the Viking Age burial mound. The statue was the legandary king Bele. 

Pictures on the fjord

On Sognefjord just leaving Flam Pier.  This is when we were on the wrong boat.