We awaked with the sun peering through the window.  It was like a miracle since we hadn’t seen the sun once in the morning so far and today we were to go horseback riding and I was convinced we would be going in the rain.  At breakfast we packed ourselves a lunch, there were mainly lunch items anyway, so I guess it was the Norwegian way.  They provided bags and fresh baked bread.  Then we went down to the barn where I was expecting to see tacked horses.  No such thing they had to be gathered from the pasture, and we had to brush them and tack them ourselves.  The horses were run across the street to the muddy paddock next to the barn.

Horses crossing the street

At least the horses were fetched for us because I did not want to go into the paddock as I had no riding or protective equipment.  I got a brown horse with a white main called Imar and Hendrik got a beige horse with a white main named Ljøme.  They were so short I kept wanting to call them ponies.  We took them to the barn for breakfast and to groom them.  I helped Hendrik since he had never groomed a horse before and Ljøme was way muddier than Imar. We both needed help tacking the horse since Icelandic horses wear the saddle further back and not on top of their withers as I was used to.  They are also ridden with long stirrups with the knee barley bent so it felt weird to me and the taller people’s feet ended up below the horse’s stomach so it looked as if they could drag their feet through the ground.

Wading through the pond

Shortly after we had begun to ride we brought our horses into a tölt which is a gait somewhat like a trot but smoother and it is unique for Icelandic horses.  It was comfortable and smooth and apparently it doesn’t tire a horse out as much as a trot.  We even tried a canter which was pretty advanced since Hendrik had never sat on a horse before but he did very well but lost a stirrup but that is normal for beginners.  We waded our horses into a pond which Imar did not seem to like and at every opportunity tried to escape the water.  Near the end of the ride we climbed atop a small mountain overlooking the farm and the whole valley.  We were able to take some great pictures.  Then we had to go back and it was pretty steep coming up and for me going down something steep is harder on horseback then going up especially since Imar decided he knew a better route than following the trail at one point. I thought he know best since he was the one going down but that was not the case and at one point I was so vertical I thought I was going to fall off.  Afterward, I made sure he stayed on the path.  All in all it was a great and beautiful ride and sunny the whole time.

On top of the hill

After the ride, we ate our lunch which we had packed in the ranch and then set of for Kristiansund, from which the scenic and famous Atlantic Road began. Kristiansund is an island city and to get to it we had to cross over several expensive bridges only to come to a town that wasn’t worth our time.  We decided to spoil ourselves in a nice hotel, Rica.  We wanted to find something to eat and went on trip advisor and found a highly rated fish and chips place.  We decided that would be great since we were in a fishing town.  We arrived at the shop at 6:30 only to see that they close at 6:00.  Most everything else was closed as well.  We thought that was incredibly strange since in many places restaurants don’t even open until 6.  We were quite disappointed because our other options seemed less enticing and much more expensive.  We went into a wanna-be American family style pizzeria chain called Pepe’s Pizza. The service was less than subpar and after getting the menus ourselves and ordering at the bar we were forgotten about.  It wasn’t until the waitress’ friends had come and gone that she noticed us and realized she had forgotten about us for an hour.  She panicked a bit when she saw us and was apologetic but tried to blame the mistake on the server instead of her social life, but she did give us a free appetizer of our choice which was good since we could save some of the pizza for lunch and also gave us 20% off the total bill so all in all it only turned out to be semi-outrageously expensive with all the discounts. We went to use the sauna when we came back to the hotel but we could only use it for about 15 minutes since Pepe’s had drained all of our time and the sauna was turned off at 10.

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.