August 22 Gjøvik (Day 330)
Today we’re going to Gjøvik, a town about 45 km (28 miles) from Lillehammer, on the opposite side of Mjøsa lake. Except that we have to travel 2 hours south to Oslo by train, then 2 hours back up to the shores of Mjøsa lake by bus, to get to Gjøvik! And it’s raining! So I will digress and write about yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday we took an afternoon walk, away from the hills and down to the shores of Mjøsa lake, Norway’s largest lake, formed as a long narrow Y-shaped lake as the glaciers of the last ice age receded. Lillehammer sits at the north end of the lake, where the Gudbrandsdalslagen river flows in. We found a pedestrian bridge that crosses a narrow, about a half mile wide, section of the lake.
The Vingnesbrua, the ‘bridge to Vingnes’, the small village with a small marina at the foot of the bridge.
The view upstream from the Lillehammer side of the bridge.
The view back towards Lillehammer as the sun shone on the ski jump and ski slopes above town. You get a much better perspective of the ski jump from here!
The view from the top of the ski jump in winter, from a picture in our room.
Back to this morning now. Robert got up early and walked back to the bridge at 6:30am to fly the drone. It was the best part of the day weather-wise, with the sun shining on the little village of Vignes across the bridge!
The blue sky did not last long though. The clouds were thick by 10:45am when we boarded our train to Oslo!
Luckily we did not have to walk in the rain in Oslo to catch our bus! Here’s a brief glimpse of downtown Oslo in the rain!
Thankfully the rain held off in Gjøvik while we walked for 25 minutes to our Airbnb, the ground floor of this house, opening to a nice garden.
We weren’t so lucky when, after we unpacked a few things, we walked to the closest grocery store. It was a light drizzle and we were happy to get back, settle in and enjoy a quiet evening and an early bedtime!