mountains and a stave church

August 2010 – Larisa, Johanna, Erin

In August our daughter Larisa had the opportunity to travel to Norway with her cousin, Erin, to visit Erin’s friend, Johanna. Larisa gave me permission to post some of her pictures!! One of my passionate dreams, when circumstances allow, is to visit Norway, the land of some of our sea-faring ancestors. Although Johanna didn’t live by the sea, the mountains offered more than enough beauty and scenic vistas to satisfy my curiosity for now… Larisa brought me a treasure: one of the flowers she picked in the field (below).

Larisa – Norway.2010 – “The hills are alive…”
Larisa, Erin, Johanna – Norway 2010 … Amazing how blue the water is!
Norway 2010 …nature…

According to Wikipedia: “A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing. The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. The load-bearing posts (stafr in Old Norse, stav in Norwegian) have lent their name to the building technique.” There is a replica of one at the Norway Pavilion at EPCOT in Disney World, which I have visited four times.

One of Norway’s stave churches – 2010
…Erin in the graveyard of a stave church…

Raised by a genealogist, Larisa knows that pictures of cemeteries are essential souvenirs to bring back from any country visited.

Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Norway 2010 …feels like home…

The first time Larisa showed me the picture above, I got butterflies in my stomach because it seemed so very familiar. I saw that same reaction portrayed once in the movie The Motorcycle Diaries. When Ernesto “Ché” Guevara took in the spirit of the ruins of Machu Picchu, he wondered, “How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?” I knew exactly what he meant. It is the same feeling I also had when I walked into the stave church replica at EPCOT.

And of course it also made me think of Sigrid Undset and her books Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken. And the Kristin Lavransdatter movie directed by Liv Ullmann.

Thank you, Larisa! You have given your mother a most wonderful gift!

18 thoughts on “mountains and a stave church”

  1. Mmmm love all that! And I know that odd sense of familiarity about some places….
    You’ve made me even more eager to visit Norway, too, Barbara, thanks for sharing the pictures.

    1. It’s so wonderful that you know what I’m talking about, OM! Here’s to a future trip to Norway for the both of us!
      “Way over yonder is a place I have seen
      In a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream”
      ~ Carole King

  2. Larisa and her friends are brimming with such beauty and joy! Thank her for letting you share the photos with us. I think Barry would love to visit Norway…and so would I. Maybe one of these years?

  3. Echoing too all of what Kathy said!
    Someday I will re-read Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. When we conversed about it before, maybe I mentioned it was quite a world-stretcher for me as a teenage girl.

  4. Hei Barbara,

    I like to see the pictures of another part of Norway. I hope that you make your dream trip a reality soon. Maybe you can take a visit up North to Lofoten. I would love to show you around. The weather is changing quickly and the leaves have changed. I saw the northern lights for the first time this season. a very special time. I have enjoyed your blogs post. So insightful.
    Smiles to you from Lofoten.

    Anne Marie

    1. Thank you, Anne Marie! You were blessed to see the Northern Lights! Maybe some day I will get to see them, too… Somehow I think I would love to stay a year and take in every season. When the day comes that I finally arrive in Norway I will definitely visit you and let you show me around. Now I have even more to look forward to. Thank you! 🙂

  5. What a beautiful landscape – and the houses with grass roof-tops look incredible. Thanks for sharing some of your daughter’s trip, what a great opportunity! Is your new header a painting? It has an air of mystery for me!

    1. Thank you, Cait. I’m very glad Larisa is getting a lot of traveling in before settling down. 🙂
      Yes! The new header is cropped from the painting “West Wind” by Winslow Homer. I found it on Wikimedia Commons in the public domain when I was looking for an illustration for my “Wind Song” post. Fell in love with it and was looking for a way to use it, which explains all the fiddling with the site I’ve been doing today…

  6. wow!!
    beautiful pictures. I am amazed. I love the church.
    I went to norway as child but saw nothing so beautiful there. I just remember the city of oslo and it was very dark.
    I loved the pictures!!!!!

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures! They spent some time in Oslo, too, but I think this might have been the best part of their visit.
      I’m looking forward to reading your new blog when you get it going! 🙂

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