2016 May: Lillehammer & Lom

May 20, 2016

In the Maihaugen museum parking lot

With visions of the 1994 winter Olympics dancing in our head, we picked up our rental car and headed for Lillehammer.  The day was overcast with occasional rain or mist.  We were glad that the less perfect weather waited for a day we were driving.  We pointed our gray Opal Corsa north on route E6.  It was 112 miles (180 K) and took 2.5 hrs at their speed limit of 70K/hr.  The road was decent, but two lane much of the way.  






In the Olympic museum we were immersed in Olympic history from the Norwegian perspective.  You may remember the "snow" outfits from the 1994 Olympic ceremony.  We remember watching the '94 winter Olympics with our exchange student Anya.  We were on vacation up in Magog Canada at the time.

Adjacent to the Olympic museum, the open air museum at Maihagen was similar to Oslo with many farm buildings preserved.  This museum also had some more recent neighborhoods.  Being early in the season none of the building were open, but we enjoyed the walk around even in the light rain.




I included the plowed field in front of this set of buildings to show the black soil.  When we were flying in to Oslo we were struck by the light color of the soil in the unplanted fields.  They looked almost tan with shades of gray, like sand or gravel.. 

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel with our friends Carl and Linda from Anacortes.  You may remember them from our trip to Alaska last year.  The were visiting with Carl's Norwegian cousin.  It was Carl and Linda's description of their trip to Norway two years ago that encouraged us to plan this trip. 




From Lillehammer we headed northwest to Lom.  Lom is a traditional region in Oppland county.  It is near the Jotunheimen National Park.  As we drove we could see the change in  landscape.  There ere more forests and eventually snow topped mountains.

Our destination was a farm stay on a sheep farm called Strind Gard just outside of Lom.  We stayed in a cabin that was built under the barn ramp One wall of our cabin was adjacent to the sheep pasture.  We had a good view of them out our window.  They seemed to like checking us out as well.

Our cabin at String Gard outside of Lom on Rt 55

We chatted with some Swedes staying there.  They were going skiing.  There are no ski lifts they were on telemark skis.You will see some snow shots soon, but first I have to introduce you to "our" sheep.  They were cute and fun to watch.  The bells on the ewes became slightly annoying as we went to bed.   We think the lambs were getting a kick out of running up and down the ramp that was part of our roof. 

Driving west of Lom we went up in altitude and entered ski country.  I shouldn't be surprised to find snow in the mountains and roads that are closed in the winter and plowed open in the spring.  We have that in Washington, but somehow it always amazes me to see snow in the end of May.

Driving Rt 55 west of Lom

If we had kept going over the mountain we would have come down in the Sognefjord valley.  We turned around at the viewpoint.  We will get to the fjords another way

Looking west toward the fjords

Scenes in and around Lom

Back to Oslo to begin our trip west by train.  Stay tuned.