We are headed to the Wilds of Norway! Let’s look at the scenery on the way there!

Most likely, the folks that live here don’t think of it that way, but I do! It is REMOTE! The ship is at the port in Bodø and we are traveling on a very narrow stretch of road past the National Park until the road literally ran out and we waited for the ferry to take us further…… We are going to Kjerringøy, a village 19 miles north of Bodø, along the Karlsøyfjorden, just south of the entrance to the Folda fjord. The Kjerringøy Trading Post is part of the Nordland Museum and is located in the village (population 450)  The trading post reveals daily life in the Northern coastal communities in the early 19th century. The village was the administrative center of the old municipality of Kjerringøy, which existed from 1906 until 1964. Along the way, we see several of these long red homes right along the water. They have replaced the original fishing huts that were here……..

The first known church in Kjerringøy was built in the 16th century. In 1763, records show that an old church building was torn down  here and a new church was built. After that time, a new timber church was built in the “long church style.” In 1883, that church was torn down and replaced with the current building. This church seats 300 people and has one worship service every three weeks…… It is a parish church in the Church of Norway. The Kjerringøy Church is located right across the street for the original trading post. Let’s get out and stretch our legs and take a look first at the church.

This is one of my favorite photos of this church and this old, old monument!

and the front door looks like this………..it is locked up tight today!

and this plaque reveals it was erected as a fishermen and sailer’s sanctuary.

The trading post at Kjerringøy was established in the late 1700’s. It traded over a large area and was licensed to provide accommodation for travelers. Through the buying and selling of fish and fish products, it gradually became an affluent trading post. The fishermen, who ventured to fish even further north, brought their fish here, where it was dried or salted and sold in Bergen and other places south. Large, single masted, cargo sailing ships would come to the trading post with foodstuffs, fishing gear and other equipment, to be sold at the trading post. Then the ships loaded down with fish, returned south. The business was quite modest until 1820, when a boom for fish began and prices soared. The first merchant of the trading post came from a family of fishermen. Christian Lorentzen Sverdrop, had traded earlier in Bodø, but decided to make his way in Kjerringøy. Sverdrop owned the business from 1803, until his death in 1829. It was under his ownership that the trading post flourished and after 1829, the trading post was taken over by his daughter, Anna Elisabeth, who had married Jens Nicolai Elliingssen. He took over the business and invested more money into the fishing trade. Ellingsen died in 1849 and Anna took over the business with the help of her young clerk, Erasmus Zahl. In 1859, she married Zahl, twenty five years her junior. Together she and Zahl amassed exceptional riches and stamped their mark on the business of Nordland, for several decades. The herring fishery business peaked in 1860 and prospered until 1875, then it slowly declined……… Anna died in 1879……….there is a lot more to tell about Anna in following posts! So first, I think it proper to look in the small cemetery for Anna and Erasmus!

My, he has a long name!

and here is Anna!

Well we must cross the road if we want to see the trading post! This open air museum is made up of 15 buildings that were here between 1810 and 1880. It was the wealthiest trading post in Northern Norway!

A big look at the buildings before we go any further……….

I have a feeling that many of the young folks that work here, get here by bicycle!

On to the grounds…….

It is beautifully landscaped and the scenery is breathtaking!

Anna’s house……..is the big gold one with the red roof……..

The commercial operation of the Kjerringøy trading post was discontinued by the end of the 1950’s. The premises were bought by the Nordland Museum in 1959. There had been little or no activity here, for many years and the buildings were dilapidated. Most of the buildings at the museum have now been fully restored, as they were in their heyday. Wow, we have learned so much already, I think our first stop should be the Nyfjøsen Café, restored in one of the outbuildings here.

A great little cafe, it is too!

with hand made lace table coverings…………..

and a welcoming menu sign…….let’s see………I bet the top part of the menu is the cakes……..next is cornbread and eggs,………am I becoming fluent in Norwegian? Ha Ha! Next is BROWNIES and some kind of waffle cake….hmmmmm. And, I think the next is ? I looked the word “møsbromlefse” up to see what it was……it is a traditional Norwegian flatbread with caramelized goat cheese and a syrup reduction. It says, “this treat is sweet, gooey, tangy and packed with calories and Norwegian nostalgia!”

I chose this!