Grandpa Mike Barnaal's Diary

Thank you to Merle for sending along this text from Grandpa Mike's diary during he and Dennis' trip to Norway. It is pretty long, but I thought it was worth posting all of it. I tried to include some links along the way to help with navigation.

Merle writes:

One of (Dad's) Melvin Barnaal's high points of his life was his and son Dennis's trip to Norway in 1983. Isaac, Melvin's dad, was born and spent first (aprox) 1/3 of his life there before imigrating to America.

This diary was kept by Melvin Barnaal in a little 3 inch by 5 inch Sacred Heart Minnesota Co-op Oil Station Notebook. His daughter Lois had made copies of each and every page all 19 of them 36 separate notebook pages. I (Merle), in an attempt to decipher the handwriting and still keep as close as possible to the original spelling and writing of Melvin, sincerely hope that this will make the reading of the diary a bit easier for all descendants.

Thank you Dennis for making this possible. It was, I think the absolute high-point in Dad's life.

Thank you Lois for taking the time and making the effort of duplicating the diary and the circa 1909 picture of the Home Place in Sacred Heart and sending a copy to each of us.

There undoubtedly some mispellings and grammatical errors. Please excuse.

Merle

May 20 , 1983

Left Minneapolis at noon, arrived in Detroit at 1:30. Wait at Detroit for two hours. Arrived in New York 6 P.M. E.D.S time. Waited in New York for two hours or more , arrived in Oslo at 10:00 A.M Norway time. Met Olaug and Randi at airport. Picked up Volvo car at airport and drove to Oslo. Checked in at Ansgaard Hotel.

May 22

Got up at 8:30 had breakfast in hotel. Went to castle and walked around castle grounds. Walked down Carl John Gatte and back to car, and drove out to Bydäy and seen maritime museum. Went to see RA2 and the Kon-tikki and museum. Drove to University and walked around the grounds. Had supper at University Kafeteria. Slept in Hotel and had breakfast.

May 23

Started out for Sel and stayed at Eidswall and went in house were constitution was drafted for Norway 1814, came to Lillehammer and had lunch. Arrived at Sel about 4:00 Pm at Hans Svastuen walked around the place and looked at mountains and scenery, Fantastic.

May 24

Went over to visit Hans Hansen Netras and seen Ma's home place. He had red hair and two daughters with red hair. Seen old water lift out of old well that mother used, seen some trout he had caught that morning in Skatt uatme. Looked at some old pictures and had lunch. Drove to Sel Church and looked at old graves were several Barnaal's lay. Across the street to Ruby Rusten's store. While there a grocery delivery truck and the driver was a Deason , went South a little to a gas station down by Oddsland and greeted him from Olive Nord. Had supper at Palma Svastuen and Hans, Ruby & Clara was there. Lots of old times talk. Slept at Han's.

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May 25

Went up the mountains to visit the Seters. Went first to Häuringin and talked to Ole Sjhella's widow and had lunch and waited for two hours, then went to Putten Setter and seen Barnaal Seter walked over to Fugleshell Seter drove down fjeld and had dinner at Mrs Oliver Barnaals at Pa's home place.

May 26

Left for Yaga and seen an old farm place by name of Kroge that was bought by the Kings Dentist, very old and well kept buildings. Went to Yaga town and got special invitation to enter Yaga church, second oldest church in Norway built in 1100. Baptism font made of solid stone. Alter was elaborately carved and several items donated from the 15 and 1600's. Drove over on Southern port of Valdes very pretty valley and farm places set back in the mountain slopes. In evening went to Farmas very old big place Anton and Gudrun Gudrun is sister of Hans Barnaal only one left of Skjells. Anton was together with Hans much, the house had many articles from the 1700's. They were in their middle 80's but good memory of old times, they were really happy to meet a son of Isaac Barnaal, hard to get away, left about 11:30 PM and they stayed outside and waved at us long as I could see them.

May 27

Went to Otta to meet Mai Britts father Moen to go with us up to Pillorgwi Topen really good views. Seen lots of blueberry bushes. Big Slate quarrying operations up there. Went to Clara Lie for supper. House on Main Street in Oslo. In evening went to Ole Lakken a third cousin of Ma.

May 28

Went to Otta in morning to do shopping. At noon went over to the old Skjelle place very old place were Hans and Ragnild lived, large old log house with many rooms about 60 feet long. Many old things in the attic. Went to Palma's for dinner and to Ruby's for supper. She lives upstairs in store at Sel. had evening lunch at Hans Svastuen with several guests, including Pastor Skelher and wife.

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May 29

Went to 11 AM service in Sel Church, service on Nicodemus , had two baptisms with same Fonts used for Dad , font made of stone 600 - 700 years old. Hans place for dinner. Had lunch at Colbys place. Spent evening at Hans and Mai Britt , had lunch at church school building , Mai Britt teaches there on three days a week.

May 30

Went over to Palma's to say goodbye, went to school to say goodbye to Mai Britt and Hans and Hans was there on way to Raalhuis for meeting. Started up Otta dahlen stopped at Laga for lunch. Drive to Lom and went inside, old Lom stone church , a bus load came at same time and a lady seen my Sacred Heart cap and came over all exited her grandmother was born there. I ???? Related to the Knutsens , lives in British Columbia Canada. Drove up the mountains and snow on side of road up to 15 Ft high for miles with fantastic views along Briedals Uenet and over to Geiranger at the head of Geiranger fjord. Stopped at a lookout point way above the fjord waters and saw a ferry boat below, looked about the size of a bug. Stopped at a place along Geiranger and stayed over night.

May 31

Took ferry at noon from Geiranger to Hellesylt down fjord past seven sisters waterfall falling about a hundred feet. Had coffee and cake at Hellesylt , drove down highway 60 to Stryn which is at end of nord fjord , drove down around fjord and had coffee at Innvik drove to Utvik over the mountain to Byrkjels and stayed over night at youth hostel 11 Kroner each. [ about $1.25 3/1/2001 ]

June 1

Started out at 8:30 raining, drove along Jaetro Uatnet . Took highway 5 from Balestrand took pictures at Eidelodala , one of a gull chasing a sheep from her nest. Had lunch at picnic table in mountain, coming down to Sogndalsfjora had coffee had Balestrand and took ferry to Hella from Hella apple orchards all along fjord to Sengdahl drove down to Kaupanger and took ferry to Renoness. From Renoness took highway E 68 Lardesbryte and stayed at youth hostel for $4.20 each.

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June 2

Left Lardesbryte about 8:30 on E68 went through miles and miles of apple orchards til we arrived at the Lillefjell mountains which was desolate except for an occasional hut , arrived in Vang and stopped at the Vang church several names of generations familiar stopped at store and talked to lady operating it and she pointed out several farm places I mentioned names of. I said she looked like a Hamre and she said her mother was related a large Vangeskljel lake along there and the local landowners have fishing rights. Drove to Fagerness and went through the museum lots of old buildings and household utensils of old homes in Norway. The weather was rainey all day , drove on to Narrafaas along Sperillen Lake for many miles had supper in a resturant in Honefas right along side the rushing falls , very large waterfall. Tried to call Sundvold didn't succeed, A town next to Narafaas called Sundvollen , on road to Oslo some fairly large fields for Norway arrived in late at 8:45 and registered at Haraldshiem Youth Hostel.

June 3

Had Breakfast at 8:30 in cafeteria at Haraldshiem and drove out to Fragner Park , large grounds and many statues & fountains. Went to the university where we met the professor that Dennis worked with, very well built buildings with nice grounds after dinner at the University Cafeteria left to South Norway to visit with Knute and Randi Norskig South of Oslo , the country flattens out and large fields appear with quite a lot of nice pine and evergreen forests. Arrived at Norskigs in evening. Nice place in country like Wisconsin, Knute has 25- 30 milk cows and several young stock , with quite modern barn and facilities. Visited and looked at pictures and went to bed and slept good. No noise and like at home.

June 4

About 9:00 AM Olaug and Grie came over and we left for Fredrikstad , very old town on the harbor took boat to Stromstad Sweden about 1 ½ hours wandered around down town and looked at the open market area for about 1 ½ hours until boat left for Fredrikstad , on arrival at Fredrikstad went to Gamle Lyen and saw old fort and buildings from Fredrick the II time. Moat around fort and tremendous masonry walls.

June 5

Had breakfast at Olaug's and left for Suinnesund Sweden, lot's of traffic of Norwegians going to trade there because the prices were much lower than in Norway Food and Bensin??? and various articles from there. We drove to Halden Norway were the Danish King Fredrick the VII was slain in war with Sweden, the fort was built in 1646 and additional stone fortifications added the next 300 years. The fort is on a high hill over looking the harbor and the Swedish boundary. The masonry on the walls and buildings must have taken thousands of man-hours. The museums are housed in three or four large rooms of the fort with huge doors four or five inches thick with hinges of heavy iron set in the rock, one of the rooms has old farm equipment and ancient sleighs , one room has old rifles bayonets and armor , old uniforms paintings of old Generals etc. In the lower pert of one building had been a bakery, two ovens built with rock and about twenty feet long each oven had capacity of 125 loaves of bread at same time. The stairways were all stone and the driveways for pulling cannons were cobblestones.

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June 6 1983

We left by bus with about 38 people mostly ladies of women's club to Soberg Norway but no guide available so we didn't get in. Then we went to Bla glassworks and seen a lot of cobalt glassware we thought we would see glassware being made but the factory had been closed since 1898. Randi went over to talk to aman working at the big hydro plant right next to the old factory. He told us the whole story, he said his grandfather worked in the cobalt mine there and they were getting this artificial cobalt for glassware from Denmark by trailer. We went up to see the dam called Horfass right there where the water tubes started out. We got on the bus and drove to the Bolstad farm, a large farm given over to the government with a palace of a house with large grounds of natural and imported trees and plants. The house contained lots of old furniture, two sofa's were each about 20 ft , old paintings on the walls and fancy tables and chairs , artifacts etc.

June 7

We left for Oslo from Olaug Oustrig at 8:00 A.M . Dennis left me off at the city hall and he went and delivered the car up on Dramanin when he came back we toured Roadhaus , then we went to the glass managerie , were I bought a ship. Then we started out for the harbor and stopped at Sten & Stom dept store and then arrived at harbor were we bought tickets on King Olaf ship for Denmark. We went on board about 5:00 P.M and put our baggage in cabin.

Went up on deck and looked at Oslo from deck. Left Oslo at 6:00 P.M Watched the Oslo fjord shores till we went below deck for bed. The sea was rough for a couple of hours, slept pretty well.

June 8

Arrived at Copenhagen Dock at 9:00 A.M. Took a taxi to the Mission's Hotel and checked in, then went for a stroll from hotel to Ostergade up to Rosenberg park, to Rosenberg Castle which was used as Kings residence up to 150 years ago. Been museum since the Kings, throne chairs , tables , cabinets , paintings of Kings for many hundreds of years . Mural paintings in ceilings large meeting rooms, silver ware and utensils worth million's today, then went down into the treasury were all the Kings and Queens crowns were stored, including jewelry and gold plated swords and etc inlaid with precious stones. Then went to university founded in mid 1400's, very large and ornate buildings with statutes and murals. Went in a large dept store called Illenuis ambled down to Girelli a large amusement park famous the world over for a long time, with beautiful flower beds and trees with all kinds of kids rides, something like Excelsior used to be. Had large open-air stand with trapeze performers and elephant's acts all free. Sat on benches now and then and watched the people. Left the park and walked in the Roadhus tremendous building with statues all over inside and out, called it a day , went into a restaurant on way back to hotel and had ham sandwich & pop , arrived at hotel about 9:30 P.M .

June 9

Got up around 8:00 A.M went down and had breakfast in Hotel Café. Went over to Christianborg (slof) Palace a massive palace, started building around 1200 burnt up a couple of times, went into the basement were it showed the walls and water pipes and well from the oldest up to the latest building. A large courtyard with a riding area for cavalry training. Went across the stree to the Thoraldson Museum around by the city containing the sculptures and art of Thoraldson and other famous sculptures, walked back to hotel and packed up a 11:00 A.M to go to airport. Took Taxi to airport and checked the baggage, our plane was delayed 1 hour and 45 minutes. Waited some more and it was delayed some 6 hours longer. The airline decided to hire a bus and take us up to a large hotel 20 miles North of Copenhagen got to see the Danish Countryside. Had supper there and got back to Copenhagen about 11:00 P.M. Boarded plane at 1:00 A.M and left at 1:30 A.M in a different 747 they flew over from Sunday. Arrived in New York Kennedy airport about 4:00 AM E.D.T. The plane we were to take from New York had long ago left, so they took us by Taxi to La Guardia airport to take a 727 direct to Minneapolis. Arrived at Minneapolis at 10:20 AM, Doris and Kari were at the airport to meet us and we drove to hotel.