Norway with a child and a van - Lillehammer, Peer Gynt Vegen, Vågå and Lom

Departure

It’s finally here, the big trip to Norway is coming up. It begins with a long evening of climbing stairs and running between our fifth floor apartment and the car. This time we will only be on the road for 3 weeks and then visit our relatives for another 2 weeks. We have a lot of luggage with us. A stroller, two and a half bikes, a backpack for the hikes, camping gear and the usual photo gear. Oh, and a supply of food, which will probably be enough in case three lockdowns surprise us on vacation.

The next morning we continue after breakfast. Of course, the things from the bathroom were still missing, as were the contents of the fridge. While we are constantly scurrying between our feet, drawing on our work notes and sometimes nagging for food, we try frantically to pack the car and get it ready to leave before we get tired at midday.

At 12:30 p.m. the time has finally come and we can start. This is the first ride where our mouse is allowed to go forward for a longer distance and can also look ahead. The result: yeah. what to say Two turns and she fell asleep. Only two and a half hours later we will take a break. The mouse has never slept in the car for so long and so easily.

Let’s see if the new seating position can last longer.

Overnight at Hvalstjern Badeplass

So, originally we wanted to drive about 30km further north. In the dark, however, several deer ran across the road and we also saw a moose a little further away from the road. So we spontaneously rescheduled and used the next parking lot for a stopover. After a restful night, in which we were allowed to sleep in until 8 a.m. (whoops!), we are now heading further north.

Domkirkeodden

The first stop is Domkirkeodden in Hamar. There you can see the ruins of the old cathedrals. Unfortunately, there is only either a typical Scandinavian expensive restaurant or the simple waffle room for lunch. The latter can only be paid for with a Norwegian app (Vipps) and is therefore not available to us. It doesn’t matter, Anne spontaneously has the solution. There are bromlettes: baguette slices fried in oil and baked with egg and cheese. Although born out of necessity, very tasty! It is quite possible that this will happen again on this trip.

Maihaugen

For the afternoon we have planned a visit to the open-air museum Maihaugen in Lillehammer. There are all kinds of buildings from Norway’s older history to visit. We were there in an old stave church, were able to marvel at various courtyards and had to realize that teachers here used to only have a really small room in the school building. The average room on a farm was definitely bigger. It is nice that there are also guides at some of the buildings here, who give explanations in period costumes.

In the second part of the museum there are also buildings from the recent past. For example, we were allowed to walk through the birthplace of Queen Sonja of Norway. Kinda funny. This could also have been our grandparents’ house. And that is already history… But the district is definitely interesting. There you can visit various old workshops and also an old mail train. If only our mouse were a little bigger, it would be a fantastic adventure playground with something great to discover around every corner. At the moment, however, she can still be inspired with every step or staircase. So much so that we would have needed ten times the time for the circular route without packing them into the carrying frame at some point.

Lillehammer

Since we are already in Lillehammer, an overnight stay at the ski jumps is obvious. There are terraced pitches with great views of the valley. At dinner, our mouse then devoured three plates of pasta with sauce — that must have been an eventful and exhausting day.

Peer Gynt Vegen

After yesterday’s program was more about culture and country and people, today we decided to go to nature. A gravel road leads to the Peer Gynt Vegen through a plateau. We don’t want to drive far today. Instead, we stop at a free parking bay with a picnic bench and start a short hike to Kristianvården. From this summit there is a great view of the plain and of the glacial mountains further away. We quickly discover that the mouse thinks hiking is fantastic. You can run so nicely through the area and collect tons of stones. A dream for our stone-loving adventure rat.

The next morning we drive a little more on Peer Gynt Vegen and then leave it to continue to Vågå and Lom.

Stabkirche of Vågå

At this point I would now tell about the stave church in Vågå. But I can’t. Unfortunately it was closed for repair work on the organ. Pretty stupid. Our stopover at the Harpefoss waterfall in the town of the same name was just as bad. So let’s skip this somewhat boring chapter and get on with Lom.

Gjeilo Camping near Lom

At Lom we treat ourselves to a campsite. So far we have stayed in free parking lots on this trip, but today it should be a campsite. We need new water anyway and we can do that right away. The campsite is located directly on a river, but unfortunately also plagued by mosquitoes. While we can still have our dinner on a picnic bench in a light drizzle, we flee to our car immediately afterwards. The rain is getting heavier. After the mouse has been put to bed, we convert our dining area back into a sofa and put our feet up. That’s really comfortable and simplifies the editing of our travel videos.

Lom

This morning we went straight to Lom. This is a small mountain resort on the edge of the three national parks Jotunheimen, Reinheimen and Breheimen. There are opportunities for a great many hikes, an ice cave at the Galdhøppigen glacier, some cycling tours and a lot of other activities. Here you can probably spend a holiday in this place alone. The stave church in Lom was open today. It’s an impressive building. Apparently the stave churches were built entirely of long wooden poles held together without a single nail. After admiring the stave church sufficiently, we set off in search of a coffee and lunch. We found what we were looking for in the cafeteria of the Fossberg Hotel and finally got the opportunity to upload the first part of our travel video.

Since a lot of rain is forecast for tomorrow, we decided to leave the national parks around Lom despite their beauty and continue towards Åndalsnes. There is another beautiful panoramic road there, the Trollstigen, which we definitely want to take a look at. Although it is certainly nicer in the sun than in the rain, hiking or cycling make even less sense in this weather. We may come back here later on in our trip. Then hopefully again with more sun in the back.