NEWS

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Photo attribution: Creative commons CC0 / Pixabay.com

2024 NORWAY TOUR

You do not need to be a member of the bygdelag, Trønderlag of America, or any other bygdelag or organization to go on this tour.

Like some of our members, you might belong to a bygdelag representing the part of Norway your ancestors came from. Several of those groups sponsor tours of Norway.  Our Editor Jon Satrum helped create one of these tours for his bygdelag, Trønderlag of America. Here are the highlights with a link to the full tour page.
Skjold lodge even has a connection to one aspect of this tour (see last image on this page).

2024 Trønderlag of America Tour

MAY 28 - JUNE 9, 2024 - 13 DAYS


HIGHLIGHTS (full details on the tour page):

  •     Custom Small Group Tour
  •     Stay in Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim
  •     City tour with local guide in Oslo and Bergen
  •     72-hour Oslo Pass with unlimited rides on public transportation in Oslo, plus entrance to more than 30 museums and attractions
  •     Possible tour of the NRK-building (The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation)
  •     Transfer between airport and hotel on arrival and departure
  •     11 nights in hotels with breakfast
  •     2 special 4-star hotels (Princess Märtha Louise will be married at one of these)
  •     5 dinners
  •     2 light evening meals (Hotel Bakeriet)
  •     4 lunches
  •     Train ticket Oslo – Bergen
  •     Full size comfortable charter bus (even for our small group tour) as we travel from Bergen to Trondheim
  •     All ferries along our route
  •     Train ticket Voss – Myrdal – Flåm (Flåmsbana)
  •     Ferry across Sognefjord, the longest and deepest fjord in Norway
  •     Fjordcruise on UN World Heritage List Geirangerfjord
  •     Funicular(cable railway) ticket to Mount Fløien, one of Bergen's "city mountains"
  •     Entrance and tour of Austrått Fortress, Brekstad
  •    Tour of Nidaros Cathedral
  •    Tour of Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum
  •    Tour of Thamspaviljongen  in Orkanger, Norway (the new home of the Norway Building from Little Norway in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin).

Oslo's Opera House - the new Munch Museum is nearby.
Directly across the street from the tour's Oslo hotel


Stroll through Bergen's harbor area
Travel on the funicular(cable railway) to the top of Mount Fløien for fantastic views of the harbor area


Nidelven in Trondheim (viewed from Den Gamle Bybro)


YES - we will travel on Trollstigen!


We take a fjord cruise on UN World Heritage List Geirangerfjord


  4- Star Kviknes Hotel - Balestrand, Norway
"The jewel of the Sognefjord"


  4-Star Hotel Union - Geiranger, Norway


The Norway Building - Orkanger, Norway
Some Skjold members have been to Little Norway in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin before it closed. Little Norway was a living museum of a Norwegian village with a fully restored farm dating to the mid-19th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The best-known attraction at Little Norway was the "Norway Building". Built in Orkdal, Norway, for the Norway Pavilion at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair.) it was brought to Chicago and later moved to Little Norway. It was one of the few examples of Norse stave church architecture outside of Norway It is one of the few remaining buildings from the Chicago World's Fair. Finally it was disassembled, shipped back to Orkanger (Orkdal), Norway and reassembled there.

The Skjold Lodge connection to this building and its new location in Norway.
After bringing the building back at its home in Norway,  a group of 19 Norwegians came to Chicago for a ceremony placing a State of Illinois historic plaque at the original location of the building on the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry. Some you may have been at the ceremony where Skjold Lodge flags were used as part of it. For his efforts supporting the project group our  Editor Jon Satrum was awarded one of a limited number of certificates of ownership (purely symbolic) of the building at a ceremony in the building in Orkanger in 2019.
Click on the image of the 2017 dedication in Orkanger for a larger version.
Notice in the image, the restored original sign from Little Norway.


The Norway Building in Chicago (1893)
Click on the image for a larger version.

Remembering Lillian Berge.

Remembering Lillian Berge. BERGE, Lillian Agnes (nee Evenson), 93, of Wildwood, MO formerly of Huntley, IL. Loving mother of Wendy Berge Gray (fiancé Joseph Christopoulos), the late Eric Oscar Berge and Lisa Berge (Ronald Lee) Johnson. Former long devoted wife to Oscar J. Berge. Beloved grandmother of John-Austin Gray and Evan Oscar Gray. Dear eldest sister of the late Helen (late Edward) Froelich, the late Edward "Buddy" (late Emily) Evenson and Elese (late Joseph) Filepek.

Born in Sister Bay, WI, Lillian lived in Door County most of her childhood days. Lillian moved to Chicago's Northshore after honorably serving as a WAVE in the U.S. Navy in San Francisco, CA. She worked in the family business, Berge Builders and Gobe Management for over 30 years. Proud of her Norwegian heritage, she was active in the Skjold Lodge/ Sons of Norway and well known as "Lefse Lil".

Her true joy in life was being a devout Christian within her many church circles throughout her life. Her beautiful spirit is now at rest with her heavenly Father above, yet may it live through each of us.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in her honor to Foundation Baptist Church (204 Spring Street, Cary, IL. 60013). If this is not possible, an unexpected act of kindness for some unfortunate soul in her name would be heartfelt.

Family and friends are welcome to a private graveside service and internment at Mount Emblem Cemetery, 520 East Grand Avenue, Elmhurst, IL at 12:00 PM on September 21st, 2016.

A "MEMORY BOOK' SHARING IMAGES OF LILLIAN OVER THE YEARS IS AVAILABLE TO VIEW BY CLICKING/TAPPING HERE.