Photo credit: Henry Rosling c 1860

Today, my post is about a place I would love to go – Drammen in Norway. Drammen is about 40 kilometres from the capital of Norway, Oslo, and is one of the larger cities in Norway. The city centre lies at the end of a valley, on both sides of the Drammenselva river, and where the river meets the Drammensfjord.

Why Drammen? My father’s great-grandfather, Anton Benson, arrived in Australia in 1868 from Norway, via North America. He came from Drammen and was a merchant seaman. The photo above is dated around 1860, not long before he made his journey to live on the other side of the world. Story has it that he in fact jumped ship near Harvey Bay before settling in Toowoomba, near Brisbane – but that is disputed.

I know very little about this part of…