It was time to leave our cozy cabin on the Sognefjord and head north. I am quite positive that any search for directions in Norway via Google Maps results in a squiggly line that can’t possible be the quickest route…but, alas, due to intervening fjords and mountains, it usually is. This was such the case in our travels to Lillehammer.
But we had all day, so the circuitous route was no problem. We stopped by another stave church (post coming soon), which Birk and I explored. Bridget and Bjorn were “stave-churched-out” by now.
The boathouses of Vik are a colorful lot.
Our lodging for the night was adjacent to the downtown railroad station (in fact it was called the Stasjon Hotel), and this was my worst lodging decision of the trip. Not that it was noisy, it was not, but that it was basically a youth hostel with some marginally nicer private rooms. Tiny and spartan.
I had been to Lillehammer on two occasions before…both in winter. Once was for the 1994 Winter Olympics; a joyous and enthusiastic gathering. I don’t think the world has ever seen so many Norwegian flags and hand-knit sweaters in one spot! I was mesmerized by the whole spectacle, and took in ski jumping (Espen Bredeson!), the 4x10k Nordic Relay (Norwegian men losing by a hair to Italy…You’ve never heard such a loud silence), the downhill (Åmodt), speed skating (American Dan Jansen). Okay, enough reminiscing…back to 2025.
To celebrate that Olympic history we decided to try the Olympic bobsled run in nearby Hunderfoss. I guess we got to the site early as no one was around. The place looked abandoned. Finally some workers drifted in and we signed our lives away with waivers. A short van ride to the top I found out that our Bobsled driver was not actually a bobsledder himself. Okaaay.
After putting on heavy duty helmets, we were given instruction on how to enjoy the 65km per hour ride down a curvy track while pulling 3Gs of force! “Keep your chin up” was basically the only instructions.
I’m not going to lie…I did not enjoy the ride. It was 90 seconds of unpleasantness for me. My helmeted head banging off the roll cage with every turn. Bridget and Birk really loved the experience though.
Later, while chatting with my relatives in Trondheim, Jan related that a couple of his work colleagues had done the same ride and both had gotten injured, resulting in a few months of chiropractic work. Yikes!
We made our way back to the outskirts of Lillehammer to visit Maihaugen, possibly Norway’s best outdoor folk museum. But first we had to take a spin through the Olympic Museum that is housed in the Maihaugen interpretive center. Being Olympic nerds and a skiing family, it was quite cool to see familiar names from past Olympics.
Maihaugen was the brainchild of Anders Sandvig a Lillehammer dentist who started buying up and preserving old farm buildings in the late 1800s. He was not a wealthy man, so he eventually gifted the buildings to the town.
Over 200 buildings dot the expansive and hilly site. Maihaugen is especially blessed with many early log farm buildings (1600s to 1800s). Laced with walking paths, you wander between a mountain farm to a fishing village to a blacksmith shop, even to a 1950s suburb. They have two historic “crown jewels” on the grounds: the 1200s Garmo stave church and Queen Sonia’s childhood home; both moved to the site from their original spots.
Bridget and the boys went off on their own as they knew I would linger far too long at the log barns.
We reconvened after a couple hours and all agreed it was well worth a half-day visit. I think we could have made a full day of Maihaugen! I even bought the book that contains details on most of the buildings because I didn’t have time to read all the signage.
NEXT—Norway #6
My Norwegian Family; Røros to Trondheim
September 8, 2025
Sparky Stensaas
thesparkygroup@gmail.com
