At the end of January, we had an extra winter school break called “Winterferien” – not to be confused with Christmas vacation – and we decided this would be a great time to go to Norway.
Flying with only carry-on in winter…we did it!Already at the airport, Oslo felt so ScandanavianMoomin alert!Stolpersteine in Oslo. Always moved by these solemn reminders of the people whose lives were interrupted/ended by the Holocaust. A lot of families in this one building! Dammit!!
We spent a day and a half in Oslo before heading north for some cross-country skiing. Of course we went to the Polar Exploration Museum, known also as the Fram after the actual boat that is inside it. There are two boats actually, that carried Norwegian polar expeditions to the north and south poles around the turn of the 20th century. I realized that the combination of boats PLUS snowy cold is kind of Peter’s idea of heaven…
Testing whether they have the strength to drag supplies to the South PoleAboard the Fram!Peter in his happy place120 year old chocolateThe boat from aboveExhausted kid protesting museum timeBest figurehead every – a librarian!!A cool display in the kids section: a boat crewed by children and sea creatures, with a snail that eats garbageOh no! An octopus!!
Other Oslo adventures included Ekebergparken sculpture park, a very expensive beer (not pictured), and other entertaining city finds.
We are inside the artJohanna and the dancerView from EkebergparkenThese hands…A new friend?Book skating under the loversMy favorite, the swimmerBeer was okay, but I loved the canDog parking???Beautiful sunsets at 4:30pmNext time we’re eating bicycle pasta
But we actually came here to go skiing so we took the train to Lillehammer and then stayed in a small town called Nordseter, where we could ski out the back door. Many good days of XC touring were had. Also some good ping pong.
Our first night we stayed in the train station hostel in Lillehammer which had a great restaurant, that served local beerA quick afternoon outing on our first day in NordseterDay two was snowyBut fresh snow is not a bad thingAbout to descend back into NordseterThe pool and sauna in the building were closed to save energySo we played table tennis (also appreciated the decor – every Winter Olympics poster was up somewhere in the building)A new morning with sunshineThey are so greatWe could have skiied halfway across Norway on free groomed trailsGorgeousSunsetCloudberry ice cream! Tasty and also weird.
As we got back into the rhythm of XC, we went farther – if we had known how well-groomed it all was we could have just skiied from town to town! But the place we stayed was very cozy and we enjoyed trying out things we found at the local grocery store.
Happy eatersLunch in the snowThose sunglasses!Signing the summit register at a very flat passWhy am I holding your poles??Moon up in the dayRacing down from the passSuch big terrainDinner of instant things: tomato soup, fish cakes, and some interesting pea mash
We also went out at night to play under the full moon. Not great conditions for the aurora, we’ll have to come back another time for that, but really cool moonshadows.
It was so bright we didn’t need headlampsSpooky cool treesThat’s the moon!The lake behind the building we stayed in
We got in one last short ski before heading back to Lillehammer, taking the train back to Oslo, eating a fancy dinner out, and staying in an unremarkable airport hotel before our flight back home. We all really enjoyed Norway – except the prices – definitely on the list of places we’d like to visit again, including in summer. Tak, Norwegen!!
It was snowing more as we were leaving – sad to go!!!Waffles at the train station in Lillehammer(Better with coffee)Dessert again, at the nice restaurant in OsloLook Gramma, a moose!
shannon and... 