Norway (27 Dec 24 - 10 Jan 2025) - Day 3 & 4

 We were up early as the hotel had an included breakfast, and then we were off.  Our goal for the day with Ringebu, which is a skiing town, which hosted the 1994 Olympic downhill skiing.

The roads started off pretty easy, but as we got further north we started to encounter a lot more snow, we were mostly on the main roads, so it wasn't too bad.

We had a quick stop in Lillehammer, a small town that was the host of the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is named after the Hamar farm (meaning stone or rocky hill). Since there was already a nearby town of Hamar, the town was called little Hamar, which morphed to Lillehammer. The town is mentioned in the old Norse sagas as Litlikaupangr ("Little Trading Place").

The coat of arms of Lillehammer is a Birkebeinar, a member of a rebellious group of Norwegians who supported a pretender to the Norwegian throne in 1174. The Birkebeinar is skiing, representing the story of the Birkebeinars who carried future King Haakon from to Rena from Lillehammer on skiis.

Some scooters and bikes being preserved for summer...

Our next stop was the Ringebu Stave Church. The church was built in a traditional stave church design in 1220 and expanded in 1630 and restored in 1921.

As we were going to leave we caught a phenomenon called Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs), in which the clouds form a rainbow/pearlescent glow:

We we still a little early for our accommodation, so we decided to do some shopping for breakfast and dinner before we checked in. But, being Sunday, all of the shops in Ringebu were closed, so we instead headed out to a nearby ski resort, which involved a bit of mountain driving.

Our accommodation for the night was a mountain cabin in Ringebu:

The next morning we were off to Trondheim and some winter driving:

We were staying in an apartment just outside the center of Trondheim, which was spacious and comfortable, there was just one problem... When we had booked the place I was sure that the advert listed a washing machine and dryer. We had already been travelling 4 days and now had 6 days at this place then 3 days in a cabin, we needed to wash our clothes. But there was a gap in the bathroom where the washing machine had been in the picture. Feeling I was going crazy, I checked back at the advert and there was no washing machine listed and the picture with the washer had gone. It turns out that the owner had moved house and taken the washer and dryer with him. He had updated the ad to remove it from the listing, but we had booked before the change. He offered to take our clothes to his place to wash them, but that didn't sound too good, so we ended up heading into Trondheim to a laundromat to wash everything:

With everything washed, we returned home for dinner and a movie before bed.

Norway (27 Dec 24 - 10 Jan 2025) - Day 1 & 2

Our return to Australia was booked in and my contract would be ending on the 23rd of December. If we decided to fly home then, we would land in Australia around 10pm on Christmas Day, which wasn't really desirable. So, we did our usual thing, and decided to make a small holiday out of our last few weeks.

With the air freight packed, Alana and Grace returned safely to Australia, and the hired car (a Passat) sitting in the garage, we packed our bags and after about five attempts managed to cram everything into the car. We ended up with doonas and baskets on our laps and the boot completely full:

I'd looked into a few holiday destinations. We considered staying in Malmo, but the accommodation prices were crazy. Kris had mentioned wanting to try to see the Northern Lights and snow, so I started looking northward. Kiruna was about 26hrs driving and there wasn't much accommodation available there around Christmas. Tromso and Iceland would be expensive as we'd need to fly in, and Rovaniemi was too much of a pain as we'd have to fly in via Helsinki. In the end I settled for Trondheim.

We'd been through there briefly on our first trip around Norway, but it was far enough north while still being accessible and fairly cheap.

I didn't think we'd want to try to do the full 13 hour drive in one hit, especially after packing in the morning, so I booked us a stop-over in Strömstad, which was most of the way up to Norway, but still on the Swedish side.

We arrived around 4pm and checked into our apartment, which was a converted shed and quite snug and comfortable:

While Kristine resorted and repacked the bags, Tomas and I walked down to the shops to get some dinner and breakfast foods.

The next morning we woke fairly early and started our next leg of the trip - up to Oslo through some pretty thick fog:

I'd hoped to check out the Viking Boat Museum, but it was still closed, so we found a park near central stations (something we'd come to regret 2.5hrs later when we went to pay the parking cost and found it was 350 Norwegian Crown (NOK) - around $50).

We'd visited Oslo a few times before so we had a few things we wanted to see. I was voted down on going to visit the Frogner sculpture park (again), so I set my sights on the Oslo City Hall which had been closed for a graduation ceremony last time we'd been in town.

To start with, we walked to Central Station, which is defined by two big sculptures.

The first is the Oslo Tiger. The nickname of Oslo is Tigerstaden (The Tiger City), from a poem by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson which referred to a horse being the safe countryside and a tiger resembling the dangerous city. The Tiger statue was gifted to the city for its 1000-year anniversary in 2000, and is 4.5m high.

The next statue is the "Knus Nazismen" (Crush Nazism) statue, which shows a hammer smashing a Swastika, representing Norway's resistance to German occupation in World War II

We then headed down to the harbour via Christian Frederik's Plass and passed the Sun and Earth Fountain, which was built in 1986 using bronze figures sculpted in 1935 (seagull not included):

Ice skating in the square

Sitting by the harbour is the Operahuset (Oslo Opera House), with its distinctive sloped roof. The habour was filled with floating sauna boats - for people to swim in the water (2 degrees C) and then jump in the sauna.  Half obscured by the fog was the sculpture She Lies, which, is based off the painting Das Eismeer (The Sea of Ice). The sculpture is tethered to the habour but can float and turn freely and depicts an iceberg:

She Lies

Sauna Boat

Opera House

Our next stop was the very impressive Oslo City Hall (Oslo rådhus), which was opened in 1950. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is hosted in the hall as well as the City Council meetings.

Outside the hall was a series of plaques showing different stories from the Nordic mythology:

The Death of Balder

Tor is Driven by His Goats

Vidar Conquers the Wolf Fenris

Inside the city hall are multiple massive murals:

Main Hall

After finishing at the City Hall, we started to make our way back to the car, passing the Emergency Rescue Diver trucks:

We then passed through Vinterland, Oslo's Christmas market and celebration:

We then headed back to our car and drove out to Gardermoen, Oslo's airport where we had out next stay at a small transit hotel, before we headed further north: