Consideration

I am not a Travel Agent. For four months I've tried to find "deals" to Norway. It's not an easy task given the travel routes we're considering.

At our initial meeting in July, we considered a thrify trip: flying round trip from Minneapolis to Olso, renting a van, navigating ourselves over the Norwegian countryside, stopping at camping huts along the way to meet relatives and friends, stopping for historical and scenic view points from Oslo north to Trondheim and Verdal and then beginning a southeastern journey over the mountains through Lillehammer and down into Hedmark County to the Swedish border south of Kongsvinger and back to Oslo to fly home again. We considered: one night's hotel stay as a treat.

That plan changed in September. My Norwegian host parents came to visit me here in Minnesota. They told me if I were to lead Americans through their country, I would be doing them a disservice if I did not show them the West Coast. They recommended beginning in Bergen, taking the Hurtigruten Cruise ship to Trondheim, finding transport to Verdal to see Grandma Lena's homestead and people and then coming south to see them on the Swedish border before heading to Oslo for a capitol tour and returning home.

Either route falls under Independent Travel. But the latter is far more challenging to coordinate. Oh, travel agents will tell you they can help you book... but when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of the plan, I've found they fall back on their own airline preferences (not always the most thrifty or convenient) and also want fees up front for research as well as to book various portions of the trip. Economizing this kind of a tour is difficult even with a group – albeit a small one of six.

My quest has been to get a price quote out to our group to decide whether our "Tri-City Dream Tour" is one to pursue.

Anticipation

All talk and no action frustrates my husband. That's why he paired me up with his father's cousins to make a trip to Norway.

I'd longed to make a trip back to my adopted home. These women dreamed of visiting their immigrant (great) grandmother's roots.

At a cafe meeting last July, we began to plan for a 10-12 day trip in August 2008. Their main goal was to travel north of Trondheim to the small community of Verdal – where Grandma Lena's life started – a place and people that Dan and I had visited years ago. Dan's cousins hoped to see mountains and fjords, tour a big city or two and travel to the Swedish border where I'd spent a year living as a high-school exchange student. Our mutual enthusiasm was catchy.

With that consensus and my husband's promise for me to lead the group, we were Norway Bound.