Landingslag Tour to Norway, June 11-18, 2010
Verlyn
and Evonne Anderson will be escorting a
7-day tour of southern and western
Norway
for members of the Landingslag, just prior to your lag meeting
in
Land,
Norway.
It is suggested
that those who wish to take part in this tour should plan to
arrive in
Oslo
at the latest on June 11.
Reservations
will be made for you at a hotel in
Oslo.
The tour bus would pick us up the
morning of June 12 at the hotel to leave for the tour.
Cost of the tour includes all
hotels, all breakfasts, chauffeured bus, guiding, two dinners,
and all entrances.
A
very
preliminary cost estimate for
the 7-day tour only is $1,750 - $1,925 (does not include
airfare).
If you are interested in receiving
more information about this tour, e-mail Verlyn Anderson at
vanderso33@hotmail.com
or telephone at (218) 233-0685.
More specific information will be
available after the New Year.
Preliminary Itinerary:
June 11 (Friday) –
Arrive in
Oslo.
Rest from the flight and have dinner
on your own.
Cost of hotel for Friday, June 11,
is included in the price of this tour.
June
12 (Saturday) –
Oslo
to Årendal.
Meet the bus
and begin the tour by driving southwest out of
Oslo,
along the Oslo Fjord to the small
village
of
Drobak.
There we will
visit the recently opened
Oscarborg Fortress, scene of
Norway’s
biggest military success in World War II.
The German
invading cruiser,
Blucher,
was sunk by cannon shots from this fortress.
This delayed
the German invasion of
Oslo
and allowed the King and the Parliament members to escape to
Hamar very early in the morning of
April 9, 1940.
After lunch we will continue on to
Porsgrunn, home of the famous Prosgrund Porcelain factory.
The tour continues southward to
Årendal, picturesque town on the Oslo Fjord where we will
overnight.
(Breakfast, Dinner)
June 13 (Sunday) –
Årendal to
Stavanger.
We continue along the Oslo Fjord to
Kristiansand,
Norway’s
southern-most city. After a short city tour we continue westward
along the southern coastline of
Norway.
This
scenic drive takes us via Flekkefjord, Egersund and on into
Jæren, the largest flat lowland area in
Norway,
one of the most important agricultural areas of the country and
a very unusual landscape for
Norway!
We continue on through Sandnes to
Stavanger,
Norway’s
“Oil Capital.”
Overnight in
Stavanger.
(Breakfast)
June 14 (Monday) –
Tour
Stavanger,
Norway’s
4th
largest city and the headquarters of
Norway’s
large oil industry.
In
Stavanger,
we will tour the
Oil
Industry
Museum,
the medieval cathedral and visit the site of King Harald, the
Fairhaired’s final battle before he put all of
Norway
under his control.
Stavanger
is a combination of an old historic town and a modern industrial
city.
It is a wonderful place to do your
own walking tour as you saunter through its picturesque streets.
Mid-afternoon and evening free for
individual sightseeing and shopping.
(Breakfast)
June 15 (Tuesday) –
Stavanger
to
Bergen.
Today we will
take the beautiful drive through the fjord country between
Stavanger
to
Bergen
– via three deep-sea tunnels and two ferries along the way!
We will make an
interesting stop at the
Utstein Kloster;
Norway’s
only totally preserved medieval cloister.
From there we continue north via
Haugesund and on through the breathtakingly beautiful fjord
countryside and a ferry crossing of Bjornafjorden to Bergen,
Norway’s second largest city and Gateway to the Western Fjords.
We’ll have a short get-acquainted
tour of the city before we check into our hotel.
(Breakfast)
June
16 (Wednesday) –
Bergen.
We’ll begin the day with a walking
tour of Bergen’s Hanseatic Harbor area, viewing and visiting
such famous sites as St. Mary’s Church, Haakon’s Hall, the
Hanseatic Museum and Bergen’s world famous Fish Market.
We end the tour
with a trip on the Funicular to Fløyen, one of the seven
mountains overlooking
Bergen.
For those
participants who would like to visit Edvard Grieg’s summer home,
Trollhaugen,
we will drive there in the afternoon.
Or, if the group would rather visit
Ole Bull’s summer home at Lysøen, we’ll do that.
Otherwise the afternoon is free for
the other participants to do some exploring (or shopping).
(Breakfast)
June 17 (Thursday) –
Bergen
to a hotel on the Sognefjord.
We’ll travel
north and east out of
Bergen
toward the beautiful Sognefjord, through some of the most
beautiful scenery in
Norway.
We’ll overnight
at Sogndal, located on the eastern end of
Norway’s
largest fjord.
Our exact route that day will be
determined by consultation with the traveling Landings who join
this tour.
There are many excellent
possibilities of how to spend this day.
(Breakfast, Dinner)
June 18 (Friday) –
Sognefjord to Land.
Today we leave
the fjord country and head into central
Norway.
We’ll be traveling on Highway E16.
It is the
historic, as well as the modern, main route linking West Norway
with
East Norway.
It is one of
the most picturesque roads in
Norway,
which takes us through Filefjell, a mountain area filled with
steep grades, rushing rivers and many scenic outlooks.
Interesting sites along this “Old
King’s Road” include the well-known Borgund Stave Church,
Vangsmjøsa Lake, and Fagernes, the chief town on our route and
home of the Fagernes Museum.
At Bjørgo we leave Highway E16 and
join Highway 33 which takes us to Dokka and the district of Land
in time to begin our activities in Land that evening.
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About our tour guides, Verlyn and
Evonne Anderson:
Landingslaget is fortunate to have, for
the third time, Verlyn Anderson and his wife Evonne as
guides for a wonderful tour through the beautiful Norwegian
countryside. They have traveled extensively in the
United States and have made more than 40 trips to
Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. On many of
these trips to Scandinavia, they have directed study-travel
seminars for Concordia College (Moorhead MN) students and
alumni, the Red River Heritage Society, and Skogfjorden,
Concordia's Norwegian Language Village. Since 1995,
Verlyn has served as study leader and Evonne the tour
manager on 16 Smithsonian Museum (Washington DC) tours and
the National Trust for Historical Preservation's "Cruising
Norway's Western Coast" study tours
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HERE IS THE
COMMITTEE’S TENTATIVE SUGGESTION FOR THE PROGRAM FOR THE LAND HERITAGE TOUR IN JUNE 2010:
Friday
18th Arrival and depositing of luggage where you
will be staying.
Then we mount a bus and head into
Nordre
Land’s
wild west, Vest-Torpa.
There are no saloons in Torpa so it’s a
good place for the first meeting.
We begin at the
farm Røste, the farm of Lars Nielsen Røste, the first Landing who
emigrated to America
in 1839.
We hope to get Arvid
Sandaker to tell you about Lars Nielsen
Røste while we have coffee.
Then onto the farm Ulsaker in Vest-Torpa
to eat, and maybe a couple of speeches.
Ulsaker has a spectacular view over
Torpa.
Saturday 19th
A free day to visit farms, meet relatives and
wander round in Dokka.
Saturday 19th
is when Dokka celebrates “summer day”, with activities, music and
late opening.
In the evening a formal dinner held in your
honour by Nordre and
Søndre
Land
municipalities.
This will be held at Grannæs Guest House
in Odnes.
A very pleasant timber hotel with an
interesting history.
Musical entertainment and several very
special guests whose names I won’t reveal, but I think I can say
that you will get some very interesting speeches and musical
entertainment.
Sunday 20th
We start the day with a church service in a
church in
Søndre Land, with
“church coffee” afterwards.
Then back to Lands
Museum
for lunch and a day at the museum which will include a “country
wedding” where we will use for the first time the bridal crown that
the Landingslag has helped to finance. By popular request we will
also arrange a bunad parade.
Nordsinni Ungdomslag (youth
organization) will help arrange activities in some of the houses.
Nordsinni
Ungdomslag has a very soft spot for Landingslaget in that they made
Landingslagets first banner in 1914. In addition Nordsinni
Ungdomslag is also celebrating its 100 years jubilee in 2010. We
also hope that you will get to meet Landingsleiken who visited you
in America
in 2008.
Guiding in the museum’s houses, a chance
to use the museum’s archive and see our new extension to the
administration building and the exhibitions in it.
We’ll find lots to keep you occupied!
Monday 21st
You get to choose:
we will arrange a bus tour of Søndre
Land.
As an alternative you can visit
relatives, family farms or continue family researching at the
museum’s archive.
Tuesday 22nd
As for Monday, but this time there will be a
bus tour of Nordre Land. In the evening a last meal together at
Ankalterud farm, where many of you have stayed before, and will no
doubt want to stay this time.
Wednesday 23rd: Departure from Land
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