July 17, 2015

Arctic Circle and Cousin Grethe 

We had a filling breakfast with Havard and Anne before heading north on E6. E6 runs the length of Norway from Oslo to The Arctic Ocean. We were only going to Leirfjord which lies about 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The scenery was wonderful despite the clouds. We figured that we would see plenty of day light anyway.

 We reached Leirfjord in mid-afternoon. Grethe and her divorced but still friendly husband Jan greeted us. Grethe is my Uncle Hans’  daughter and sister of Cousin Oddbjorn. Uncle Hans passed away in the late 1990’s and his property ended up with Grethe. She manages to keep the birds and squirrels happy on the more than twenty acres that she lives on. Jan helped as our translator as we caught up on family history. 

We brought with us a thumb drive with a collection of old family pictures. They included a bunch of pictures of Norwegians and Swedes that we were trying to identify. Grethe helped with many family pictures but was stumped with the pictures of my grandmother’s childhood friend. That is not surprising. 

Of course we had a meal of cod and plenty of other things soon after arrival. We thought we were having an early dinner. We enjoyed the Lefse dessert that Grethe had prepared along with some coffee. We were a bit surprised that after a few hours, Grethe announced that dinner would soon be served. Somehow we managed to dodge another meal without hurting her feelings. Instead, we had some more Lefse and talked. I will be working to fill out my ongoing family history project after I digest the conversations and my notes from the pictures.

I am not sure when we retired to bed as it was still light. We were all ready for sleep.