- Andreassen family (Kare, Gerd, Asle, Lise)

It all started at Easter time in 1993 when Dave hosted Kåre Andreassen and his son Asle in his home when they were on a choir tour from Stavanger, Norway, and were scheduled to sing at Our Redeemers Lutheran church on Palm Sunday in Seattle. After church, when the choir members had some free time for themselves, Dave took Kåre and Asle on a sailboat ride in Puget Sound (Kåre had also invited his brother in law Tore to come for the ride, but he was unable to make it). That was the introduction to the Andreassen family.

A short time later, in May of 1993, Dave was attending a business conference in Orlando, Florida and walked into a ballroom with some 500 other attendees to have a sit-down lunch. Dave found a table where five others were sitting that still had some seats available. He noticed right away that the voices around him sounded like Norwegian. To make a long story short, it happened that Dave had sat right next to Tore Hagir who had been on that same choir tour and was the brother in law to Kåre. Dave was astounded at the coincidence of this chance meeting, and now the words "it's a small world" certainly ring very true for him. This was the introduction to the Hagir family.

And now, the friendship that was created with these two families has lasted for many years. And, there has been an additional two more choir tours (one in March of 1999, and one in April of 2003) where they have again stayed in our home.

The pictures above are from the 2003 choir tour. The touring choir was a combination of two of the five choirs in the cathedral. The picture immediately above and to the left shows Tore who was the tour director. He works in the Information Technology department for Statoil in Stavanger. On the other side of Diana is Kåre who is chairman of the choir committee, and a teacher in Stavanger (Tore is married to Kåre's sister Janneth).

In 1997 we visited Stavanger and stayed two nights with the Hagir family, and we wished we could have stayed longer. It was hardly enough time to get acquainted, but we had many more places and people to visit in both Norway and Sweden in the vacation time we had. Our hosts in Stavanger were very gracious and showed us around the area.

We were first taken to the Cathedral, which dates back to the year 1125, and is the centerpiece of the beginnings of Stavanger and the town's long history. This medieval church was built of stone in the Anglo-Norman style with a new chancel built in the Gothic style in 1300. Kåre and his sister Janneth who are very familiar with this place, and seem to know all the facts of its long history, gave us a first class tour. We were escorted upstairs into the organ loft and into the bell tower, and we listened as the organist played some wonderful music. Then we watched as the church bells were played by the musician pounding keys with his fists. The keys were attached to wires that traveled up into the belfry to each bell (although we've now heard that the mechanism is now more automatic). Dave was able to climb a ladder into the belfry and get up close to the bells where he could feel their magnificent vibrations.

We next were taken down the steps from the cathedral to the waterfront where there was a small market and where we could see the row of old wharf warehouses where some 60 of them have been preserved. And then, we walked a short distance to old town (Gamie Stavanger) where there are 173 closely built old houses that are like a living museum under preservation. Here, there are many artisans and craftsmen who have set up shops.

Tore then took us for a drive around town, and to Jemaldergården, the reconstructed Iron Age Farm at Ullandhaug. Here, there are three wooden longhouses built to hold animals at one end and the inhabitants at the other, with roofs made of peat and bark, and with exterior walls covered with stone. The reconstruction is on the original site using the original hearths that were still in place.

We then arrived at The Sword in Stone monument (Sverd i fjell) at Hafrsfjord, which is a powerful memorial to the battle that took place here in the year of 872 when King Herald Hårfagre united Norway into one kingdom (see picture below).

We finished off the day and our tour of Stavanger with a great salmon dinner at the home of Kåre and his family. We should have stayed longer!