lillehammer | [papics.eu]

Yesterday evening I was so tired that (for the first time) I probably fell asleep before Clio did. This morning we slept till 09:00, then had breakfast before heading out for a short walk through downtown Lillehammer into the rain. It is a pity for the weather, but at least we finally managed to get the spatula with a Marius pattern in blue that Clio was looking for since we arrived to the country.

After a bit of drying up back in our room, we checked out around noon, and started driving towards Oslo. Instead of heading straight towards the capital, we took the scenic route, following road 250 to Dokka, road 245 to Jevnaker, and the E16 to Sandvika. Unluckily it was raining almost constantly, except for the last kilometres, so we did not get the opportunity to stop along the road for a nice pick-nick (just for the usual hot dog at a tank station). It is a bit of a shame, because we passed many beautiful lakes and forests. It was also quite a tiring drive, because the road until Jevnaker was constantly turning left and right (while going up and down), and on top of everything I also had to navigate around quite a few potholes, plus occasionally a few sheep with possible suicidal tendencies. In Oslo we are staying in the Saga Apartments, and we arrived just on time to take the last proper, covered parking spot.

After dinner we still went out for a short walk to the nearby Vigeland Park, to enjoy the sunshine (mixed with a few minutes of rain producing a nice double rainbow) and look at all the sometimes slightly strange sculptures of Gustav Vigeland.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3359 km (of which 208 km was today).

Today we went hiking again, this time in the Rondane National Park. The route, which was considerably flatter than the ones from the previous hikes (details on Strava), started just a few kilometres from our hotel, at the end of a short toll road (to Spranget). We followed some narrower paths along the small river (sometimes through bushes, moors, and small streams) on the way to the Rondvassbu hut, which is situated at the Rondvatnet lake.

There I still “climbed” a bit higher to be able to take pictures from above, before we got something to eat and drink inside (hot chocolate and a waffle with strawberry jam for me, coffee and a slice of banana bread for Clio). On the way back we took the much easier main gravel road, which ran a bit higher on the other, Eastern side of the river.

The scenery was very beautiful, I think this is my favourite from the Norwegian National Parks that we have visited (it is also the oldest one of all). We saw quite a lot of birds (at one point almost stepped on one), but unluckily no larger animals. As it might be also visible on the pictures, the beginning of the day was nice and sunny, but then it became more and more cloudy towards the afternoon.

After the hike we drove to Ringebu first to visit another stave church, then further all the way down to Lillehammer. We are staying in the Scandic Victoria hotel, but for most of the evening it was raining quite hard, so we only went out for dinner (to the Heim Gastropub, which was great). Tomorrow we can finally sleep a bit longer, if everything goes according to the plan.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3151 km (of which 137 km was today).

[papics.eu]

Tag Archives: lillehammer

Road trip Scandinavia: Day 14 (Lillehammer – Oslo)

Road trip Scandinavia: Day 13 (Hiking in the Rondane, and the Ringebu stave church)