Episode 7

After the colourful spectacle of the Norway Day parade had faded away we headed off in the direction of Lillehammer. This was quite a distance away in a northerly direction.

Lillehammer is where the 1996 winter Olympics were held. It is also the place where there are going to hold the 2016 Youth Olympics. What the hell these are I have idea, as most competitors appear to be quite youthful in any of these games.

A bit of a detour off our route took us to another of the old stave churches. This one is the smallest one in Norway, and Lyn believes it is world heritage listed. It was not so easy to find being well off any main road and halfway up a mountain track leading only to farms from what we could see.

It was not open when we arrived. It appears that it only opens during the summer months and then there is a charge to visit the interior. The current church dates for 1342, though there have been at least two previous churches on the site dating much further back. Seeing as we couldn't look inside we had a good look around the outside. A couple of steps along one side led up to a hatch where lepers could come to have their confessions heard. In the early years these churches were all Roman Catholic, now however, they are Lutheran. Apparently there is a soap stone alter in the church and some important cruixifixes.

Meandering around the grave yard where the graves were all well tended usually with a headstone and some flowers planted at its base, we saw that there were many graves of people who had lived well beyond 90 years old and several that had lived more than 100. The oldest one we spied lived to be 102. Must be something good in the air here, perhaps I should stick around

Along our route we passed a couple of other pretty little churches and found them all to be locked, the locals don’t seem very trusting in this region.

We came across several streams that were rushing on their way in a torrent of very turbulent white water. Some would be challenge for the most skilled of water rafting enthusiasts I would think. I fancied giving it a try but L insisted that I would get much too soggy and disappear without trace. We did see some canoeists on the lakes, even out in shorts and t-shirts on one sunny afternoon, not that the sun lasted very long that day.

My humans went for some walks in the forests: This is a very popular pastime here, even in less than ideal weather. L just love the forests and at present they are very pretty with the fresh bright green leaves of the silver birch trees intermingled with the very deep green of the spruce trees (at least I think they are spruce), conifers anyway. These mixed forests generally have a floor of deep and spongy sphagnum moss that you sink well into if you tread on it. The paths are quite easy to follow often being quite muddy with so much wet weather. None of our shoes are waterproof enough for these trails really, when it comes to crossing marshy bogs one of us always ends up with shoes full of mud or water or muddy water.I don't as I get carried in the day pack. On the edges of the forest thick stinging nettles abound taking advantage of the sunlight. There are also the pretty little white flowers, wood anemones, out at present and when the sun does shine they open out and offer a white carpet on the forest floor. Another splash of colour is the very bright yellow marsh marigold. Haven’t seen many of them but they are lovely.

Something my humans found very interesting was an ants nest. They saw several in one area. They were in a spruce forest only, no deciduous trees just in this area and the mounds, about 1 m high were built of pine needles. They were in this deeply shaded area, I suppose it is warmer in the winter being protected by the trees from the worst of the cold but they would get almost no sunlight at any time. Somehow they must generate enough warmth for the ants to thrive. As they observed the nests they could see that the top was a heaving, almost solid layer of ants, bit like icing on a cupcake. All over the forest floor the rest of the colony was busy going about its daily business.

Another thing that apparently inhabit these forests but we have yet to encounter are Elk, my humans have seen plenty of their droppings, and there are warning signs all along the roads but none have shown themselves to us. Elk are the European version of the Moose of North America, though they differ a little.

We had been pre-warned that Friday the 17th May was a national holiday, however, what everyone forgot to mention was that Monday the 20th May was also a public holiday with the result that the parcel D had been waiting for and that he knew had left Copenhagen would not be delivered until at least Tuesday. That Monday was a splendid day. It was sunny and hot, reaching 22°C in the afternoon. It felt really good after having a couple of days of 4°C last week, the shorts and light shirts came out for an airing, alas, it was back to drizzling rain the next day.

On Tuesday the parcel was delivered to our friend Sigrid’s home. We , me too, spent a few hours with her before heading off back towards Sweden. Because of the car problems we have more parts coming to Kristina’s home near Linkoping in Sweden. This route took us through the very pretty city on Kongsvinger on the junction of two rivers.

High on a hill overlooking the town is an old fort, of which L could find out no information. Will have to look it up on the internet I fear. The walls of the fort are built of rock and the interior is in the process of being renovated. One of the buildings is being converted into a small hotel, the former commandants residence will become a restaurant, and the old barracks will be some offices apparently a workman explained to us. The museum was closed.

Along the bank of the river L spotted a huge timber yard, the biggest, she said, that she has ever seen, even bigger than those in Siberia. I remember some of them and they are huge. Anway, this one covered about 300m along the river bank and there were stacks and stacks of tree trunks waiting to be processed all neatly stacked up. Logging is a big industry here, not sure just how sustainable it can be as there seems to be vast areas awaiting new planting and not the same amount of mature forests. All these forests have been logged in the past, probably many times over the millennia

I am getting a bit bored with all this wet weather, I get left in the car because it seems I could get very soggy if I was taken out for walks or sightseeing. L feels that I am not at my best when soggy. Now I will have to go through those photo’s and find some that might be of interest to you when you read this blog, I think there will have to be an EU convention on the treatment of stuffed toys, especially those of us that travel widely.

© Lynette Regan 23rd May 2013