Valdres - June 15, 2007 By Carl

Our day today was very spontaneous (we just kept seeing different points of interest on our map). The first stop was the Valdres Folk Museum, which is an open air collection of old Norwegian houses and farms. It was very interesting to see how the people back in the 16th and 17th century lived. One thing that I found funny was the people would build the upper floors of their houses bigger than the ground floor; this was because the property taxes were based on the size of the foundation. In one of the cabins we got to hear some traditional music. After the Folk museum we drove to the Hegge Stavkyrke (stave church). This was unfortunately closed. But not to worry, mom soon spotted another stavkyrke in the area. So after another short drive and miniscule hike we arrived at the beautifully carved Lomen Stavkyrke, which was of course also closed. But I still managed to take the picture you see. In the Lomen Stavkyrke parking lot mom, while looking at a map of the area found the Einangstein which is the oldest rune stone in Scandanavia still in it’s original setting. This was probably my favorite part of the day. The rune stone marks a grave yard that was used when Vikings still ruled Norway. On our way home we took a slight detour and looked at some of the kinds of farms my ancestors decided to leave behind and head for America. Then we went back to our hytter (cabin) and had a quick dinner of Smørbrød (open faced sandwiches). Then after a long day we hit the hay.