flight to Stavanger

After a 5 hour drive from our Mad River home and a brief visit with our son and his wife we are ready to board our Alaska flight at Oakland International. Due to bad weather at our next destination, Seattle, our plane is put on hold.

Eventually getting air born, we here look down on Alemeda on the east side of San Francisco Bay. A brief time later we are at several thousand feet altitude directly over the Suscol/Napa area where Keith's Norwegian Slooper ancestors eventually settled and are now buried.

Due to the weather delay, we miss our connecting Northwest flight to Amsterdam. Here Peg waits in Seattle as we are rescheduled to fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to catch a very crowded flight on to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Arriving at Amsterdam's impressive airport, Peg poses here near a replica of the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed this very international airport facility, a fascinating crossroads of many nationalities, cultures and languages.

Also time to do some shopping at one of the gift stores at the airport. Among other things, tulips and a refrigerator magnet were obvious choices.

We soon will board our Braathens flight to Stavanger. Air born, we are greeted with blond Norwegian stewardesses with genuine smiles ... and with the fixings of traditional open face sandwiches. We feel we have arrived in Norway already!!

As we fly across the coast of Norway south of Stavanger we can see the gulf of Ogna and Brusand here in the center. Ogna and Sirevåg are farther south and to the right.

Here, as the plane turns north towards the Sola Airport of Stavanger, we believe we are seeing the area of Klepp and Frøylands Lake.

This is the front entrance of our very pleasant and comfortable Hotel Maritim in downtown Stavanger.

After meeting us at the airport and setting us up with our hotel room, Gunleif Seldal joins Keith in the hotel lounge. Gunleif furnishes Keith with updates and copies related to his most recent research projects.

Less than a block away from our hotel, Peg takes this night time photograph of the Stavanger Domkirke or Cathedral

Peg and Keith take a late stroll through the shopping area near our hotel to get a flavor of city decorations during the holidays.

01. Our flight and 1st evening in Stavanger - Thurs/Fri., Dec. 13/14, 2001