We headed out of Oslo in the morning and stopped at an Exxon station for breakfast since they also had a coffee shop.  They had a special on coffee and waffles and the attendant gave us two different kinds.  One had strawberry jam which was good but the other had sliced brown goat cheese.  Yuck! Hendrik and I both detest anything that comes out of a goat.  What we didn’t know yet was that this brown goat cheese would follow us all around Norway.  This stuff was ubiquitous and people ate it anytime of day.  At least it was easy to peel off the waffle since it was sliced cheese.

Soon we were out of Oslo and the road quickly turned into a small windy road trough the valley.  We stopped in Lillehammer, by the ski jump where people were training.  The skiers slid down a ramp that was like a water slide with water running down and landed on a grassy types substance and then came to a halt on real grass.  After trying to avoid paying for the minimum for parking which was 4 Euros for three hours a fellow tourist gave us their ticket since no tourist stops there for 3 hours.  In turn we put the ticket on the machine when we left.  We were then able to drive up to the top of the ski jump and venture straight to the area where the jumpers took off.  At the top, parking was free.

Lillehammer ski jump

We drove further up the pretty The Gudbrandsdalen Valley and stopped by the Ringebu stave church.  Further, we spotted signs advertising rafting on the Sjoa River which we were both interested in but when we went to inquire, they said that they need at least 6 people and they didn’t have enough.  We weren’t aware that tourist season was over in Norway at this point.

Ringebu Stave Church

We continued along the road north towards the Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park.  Since it was evening it was about time to find someplace to stay. We drove by the cutest hotel with wooden buildings with grass on the roof.  We looked at the menu in the restaurant and it was reasonably priced but it said it closed at 18:00. It was now 18:00.  We were shocked to see a restaurant close at 18:00 since in Belgium many restaurants open at 18:00.  They were also out of rooms which was probably a good thing since looking around we were the only ones there with color still left in our hair.  The next place we stopped at was a campsite that didn’t look too appealing and the lady there looked a bit like a troll so we decided to go elsewhere.  The next place was also a ranch which organized horse rides scoring points with me at least.  We got a room there, even if it was a bit expensive but it included breakfast, internet, and lunch which we later learned.  We ate ramen for dinner since the only place to eat around here was the ranch restaurant and it was of course very expensive. Later in the evening, Hendrik called the rafting place to see if somehow they had collected more people for a trip, but they hadn’t.  So we signed up for a trail ride for the next day instead, which was my first choice anyway.  That night it was only 5 degrees since we were in one of the coldest parts of Norway, so we were glad we were not in our tent.