A Norwegian Roadtrip - Day 18 - The Land of Winter Olympics

I had forgotten just how special the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer were, but visiting the town brought back a lot of great memories.  I went online and found this article on what's known as the best Olympics ever:

Lillehammer Olympics

For a town of 22,000 to pull off the winter Olympics like that is simply amazing.  We spent a fair part of the morning exploring some of the facilities from the games, including the ski jump which is located just above the town.

Looking Down on the Town of Lillehammer

The Olympic Cauldron - Lit By a Ski Jumper Who Brought the Flame Down the Ski Jump

View from the Top

The area around the ski jump is used by Norway's Olympic athletes as a year round training ground.  There were some impressive athletes.

At One of the Lodges Above the Ski Jump

Then we headed up North of town about 30 km.  We originally were going to do some hiking up on a mountain which is a ski facility known as Skeikampden.  However when we got up there it was 45 degrees F with about 15 mph winds.  Wayyyyyyyy to cold for the flat landers ... particularly with that wind. 

Imagine a ski area starting to get cold in September.  :)

So instead we went back down to a hiking area at a lower altitude with more tree's

Which Way to Go?  We Couldn't Decide So We Did All Three

Tina and I saw these cows in a couple of places and couldn't find a name for them.  We just called them the Shaggy Norwegian Hippy Cows.

At one of the info centers we visited they told us around a reserve area above the ski facility.  So late afternoon we were off for a drive.

So comes to an end another day in beautiful Norway.

A Norwegian Roadtrip - Day 17 - The Land of Tunnels

We woke up rather late today (yes ... I'm officially caught up with posting and doing a post on the same day I took the pics).  We made it to breakfast at 9 and made it out of the hotel by 10:30.  It was a 4 hour drive over to Lillehammer.

 

Before we left we walked down to the waterfront and caught some final pics of Norways largest fjord.  The clouds from the previous day of rain made an interesting setting.

And then we were off.  On the way into Aurland from Bergen we'd gone through a 17 km tunnel.  Leaving Aurland we quickly hit a tunnel which was 25 km long.  That's a long Long LONG drive.  In addition to being the land of water, lakes, fjords, and mountains, cliffs, and rocks, Norway is also the land of tunnels.  I'm quite sure driving around Norway would be much more brutal if it we're for there extensive use of tunnels.

On the way we came across a full rainbow brought about by a light drizzle we were hitting.

To do it justice, I had to do a video of the whole rainbow.

And finally, even after the day before, we came across a couple of waterfalls that were more than worthy of being added to our blog.

So until next time, hope everyone is well.