1 September 2023

Over and out Oslo!! We‘re heading north!

But we do have one or two things to do before we quit Oslo for good. We have to pick up our hire car, and then make our way back to the ferry terminal to collect our package.

We said goodbye to our lovely little Airbnb just off Karl Johans Gate, and headed for another 7/10 coffee before chancing our luck on the public transport system.

We traipsed up the cobbled street for one last time, all our worldly possessions in tow, to the local metro station.

There was a bit of a drama here as there was nowhere to purchase our tickets. A kindly young girl patiently talked us through downloading of the required app, registering it, adding a payment method and finally purchasing our two single tickets to Helsfyr (scary name, but true). Once on board, I think we were supposed to validate our tickets, but maybe we didn’t. The upshot of that is that we have two single tickets on the Oslo metro should anyone need them.

We arrived at the car rental office on time and went through all the required sales pitch rigmarole re extra insurances and car upgrades. We signed our lives away and within minutes, we were driving back into Oslo to collect a very important package. Grahame handled the driving like a pro, despite not having driven on the wrong side (which of course is the right side) of the road, on purpose, for several years now.

Our important package was arriving by overnight ferry from Copenhagen.

Meet Emily, our niece! So, now we are three.

This was a plan hatched back way back in late 2019, and four years later we all turned up at the right place at the right time on the other side of the world. That‘s pretty amazing.

Our Ruby Red Peugeot was repacked, seats were allocated (more on that at a later date) and off we went……. Back and forth under the Oslo tunnel system, several times, before we finally took the correct exit and could finally start heading north.

Our first stop was Kistefos Museum, about an hour and a half drive north of Oslo.

Our visit here was a happy little accident. I’d been watching “Grand Designs” a while back and some overachieving, underfunded and unrealistically time framed home builder/ renovator, mentioned that his inspiration had come from “The Twist”, a gallery spanning a river in Kistefos, Norway. I googled it ,and as luck would have it, it was on our way to tonight’s destination at Lillehammer

Omg!! More sculptures in the forest!!

Add a raging torrent tearing through the valley, an amazingly wonderful architectural feat (filled with even more sculptures, by Tony Cragg) spanning the river, a water-mirror-maze, some historical wood mills and nice little cafe, and there goes several very pleasant hours of your day.

Even going down stairs to the bathroom was worth the effort.

Walking through the Water/Mirror maze was a bit tricksy. Reflections of reflections of reflections!! Played with my brain a bit!

Things were starting to turn ugly. Time to move on. We had a ski jump to see!

Driving in Norway is a bit tricky I’ve decided. The roads are narrow, the speed limit changes every couple of kilometres, the views of lakes and fjords are distracting, the place names are unpronounceable and our Peugeot is a becoming a little bit bossy. Alarms sound if one of Grahame’s hands leaves the steering wheel in order to simply scratch his nose. And sometimes, not even!! And then there’s the co-pilot keeping an eye on the speedo every second and politely reminding the driver of his need to “slow the heck down”.

There may be a seat reallocation tomorrow!

The countryside is of course beautiful. Little red, white or gray farm houses and barns smattered over rolling green hills, heavily forested mountains and mirror like lakes reflecting surprisingly blue skies!!

Not that I noticed, of course. I was too invested in watching the speedo!!

We arrived at our accommodation for tonight with plenty of time to drop our bags and go exploring. We are staying at Lillehammer Touristsenter. It’s a kind of camping ground with additional cabins and a few hotel rooms. Winebego heaven!

Lillehammer was of course “Home to the Winter Olympics” in 1994 and there is no way they are gonna let you forget it. Mind you, once you step outside and see a whopping great ski jump in your back yard, I can’t imagine you’d forget in a hurry.

We stood gaping up into the sky in awe of those crazies that come hurtling down the ramp and soar through the air not knowing how it’s going to end.. It could all go so horribly wrong!!!

Now, I’m sure I’ve already mentioned that Norwegians are an active lot and despite this area being built for individuals to descend, many of the locals apparently feel the need to actually ascend!!! All 936 steps! There was a steady stream of lycra clad, athletic looking people powering their way from bottom to top at staggeringly speedy rates.

We drove up!

The view was phenomenal, the landing area terrifyingly small,

The mountain was crisscrossed with a myriad of hiking and mountain biking (summer) and cross country skiing (winter) trails. The locals, who weren’t running up all those stairs, were up here, making the most of the late summer evenings, running , walking, cycling or just sitting and enjoying the view!

We arrived too late to visit the Olympic museum so we headed back to the Village and downed a beer and some dinner instead.

We took a stroll down the main pedestrian mall, checking out the woollen jumper shops, and the expensive outdoor clothing and sports wear stores. We found a grocery store and stocked up on some essentials for the next few days. Grahame managed to knock down a Pringle Display, which is karma, I reckon. Tins of Pringles went rolling all over the floor, much to Grahames horror! We quickly gathered them up, restacked them in some sort of weirdly wonky display, and high tailed it out of there. Apologies to those Pringle lovers who bought a tin of very smashed up chips from the little Lillehammer minimart in the Main Street.

Now is not the time to mention the parking fine we found on our windscreen.

I’m gonna jump into bed!