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August 2012 |
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On our way out of Hellesylt, where we had responded to the ringing of church bells and found them on a steep incline next to a huge rushing waterfall, we were forced to come to a complete halt at times because heavy fog brought visibility to zero. It was scary. Very narrow roads along the steep sharp edges of mountains are another means of navigation among the fjords. Some are only ten feet wide. We measured! A ferry at Stranda brought us soon to the City of Orskog where we stopped at a gas station to ask directions to our cabin at Fjellstova. Allan had found the ski resort online and learned it was also open for overnight business during the summer months, but its location was far from self-evident. When Allan came back to the car, he said, "Guess who I found at the gas station. Karin and Per Inge are here!"
NORWAY WITH THE VIKS Their last name is Vik. We first met Karin and Per Inge Vik when they came to America to visit several years ago and most recently when Per Inge served for three years at the Mindekirken Church in Minneapolis. Per Inge is a Lutheran pastor now serving three churches in this sparsely populated and outstandingly beautiful area of Norway. Karin grew up in this part of Norway, working as a teenager in a flower shop owned by her Uncle Lars and Aunt Maria Hatlen and living with them during the summers. The late Lars Hatlen was a distant relative of Allan's who traveled to Minnesota twice to visit relatives, including Allan. We smiled when Per Inge remarked of the nurseryman, "Lars had green fingers." On a personal tour with the Viks to Aandelsnes, home of Lars and Maria's flowershop, Karin said, "Cruise ships stopped here and we sold flowers to them, to guests on the ships, for fresh flowers in their room. Working for Lars and Maria was like a little vacation for me because I'd get tired of the farm work at home. We worked with horses. Horses did the work that tractors did. We were modernized later here in Norway than in the USA." We drove past the big flower shop which is today a nursing home. It was one of the prettiest we had seen. We also visited Karin's father Martinus Sylte in Tresfjord, in his stately yellow two-story house near a long red barn on his beautifully green and manicured farm. Karin remarked, "It is said you can tell how good a farmer is by the length of his barn." The farm is located at the end of a fjord called Tresfjorden. The Viks recently moved to a lovely and spacious home in the town of Skodje where they served us a gourmet baked fish dish fixed by Per Inge and a smooth and savory custard with caramel sauce fixed by Karin. The meal was topped off with fresh strawberries. Norway claims to have the sweetest and best tasting strawberries in the world. We would agree.
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Karen and Per Inge Vik at their home in Skodje. |