Travel day again. Moving south to Lillehammer , famous for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics!

Our train follows the valley formed by the Gudbrandsdalslagen river, through bucolic farm country.

We reached Lillehammer at about 1pm so we had time to check-in at the Stasjonen Hostel adjacent to the train depot, drop off our luggage and explore the town.

A former bank building now houses a high end restaurant!

A beautiful park on a hillside sloping down to the Lillehammer Church.

Flower beds taking advantage of the long summer days and sunshine that are soon transitioning to Autumn and the rainy season here.

A different take on the ‘mounted trophy head’! The restaurant on the opposite side of the wall was not open, so we don’t know if the head is inside!

We walked uphill from the main shopping district of town to the Olympic Village, transformed into a Sports Center for summer and winter sports activities.

Yes, that’s snow! Outside an arena at the edge of the Olympic Village.

A montage of Olympic sites, a skate park, arena, ski jump in the distance, and Viking inspired sculpture.

This morning dawned with rain threatening so we did some paperwork, cementing the last of our travel plans through Europe, while the rain came and finally slacked off. We took a walk back into the village center to stretch our legs.

Ski runs above town illuminated by the sun breaking through the receding rain clouds!

At Memorial Park, between the shopping center and the large church we found a pavilion with monuments and signage, and we got a WWII history lesson! Dombås at the time was an important rail and telegraph center linking north and south, from Trondheim to Oslo. During the German invasion of Norway in April of 1940, on April 21, the Dombås railway station was bombed by the Germans. The first American military casualty of WWII occurred in this bombing raid. While serving as a military attaché prior to America’s entry into the war, Robert M. Losey was killed … He had been attempting to complete the evacuation of the American diplomatic legation from Norway to Sweden in the wake of the German invasion.

The Dombås church, built in 1939, was spared by the Nazis.

A beautiful sunset on our way home. It is definitely feeling like autumn here in the mountains of Norway.

Another train ride, another town! Today we traveled further south to the village of Dombås (pronounced ‘Doom-boss’), with a short stop in Trondheim which is the 3rd most populous city in Norway (Oslo #1, Bergen #2). Along the route we had many stops at small villages that boasted beautiful train depots.

Some log buildings and some stone buildings.

And an unfortunate fire damaged depot.

Then the next stop was “Hell”!

The name Hell stems from the Old Norse word hellir, which means “overhang” or “cliff cave”. Among English-speaking tourists, popular postcards depict the station with a heavy frost on the ground, making a visual joke about “Hell frozen over”. Temperatures in Hell can reach −25 °C (−13 °F) during winter!

The prettiest rail depot near Dombås, in Kongsvoll.

We reached Dombås soon after and our host picked us up at the station, saving us the 20 minute walk to the apartment. We settled in and then walked back to the village center for groceries.

The troll patrols the shopping district!

Next to the troll is the National Park Center, which was closed unfortunately.

Dombås is situated at about 2200 feet in elevation (673 meters) surrounded by higher mountains and between 2 National Parks! One, the Dovrefjell-Sundallsfjella Nasjonalpark is the only place in Norway to view musk oxen! The other park Rondane Nasjonalpark is home to wild reindeer.

We have only 2 nights here, so we won’t be able to explore the National parks unfortunately.

Today feels like yesterday without the train travel! Overcast, breezy, with the same view!

The arm of the crane is pointing the other direction, but we can see (with binoculars) that it is being manned and operating on the construction site.

We did take a walk to the mall down the hill for some groceries, but mostly it was a day of relaxation!

We are moving south again by train, but not before our hosts invited us to enjoy a slice of heavenly cake made with the fresh blueberries they picked yesterday!

Cake made from eggs, rolled with whipped cream and fresh blueberries, covered in chopped almonds! Light, fluffy, delicious!!!

We walked the 5 minutes to the train station, declining an offer of a ride from our host (we need some exercise) and boarded our train toward Steinkjer, our destination.

We rolled through beautiful countryside, pine covered mountains along the Luonosjåhkå river, a turbulent stream descending from the mountains into this valley.

Soon the scenery changed to what I would consider more stereotypical ‘arctic tundra’.

Treeless, rocky, low vegetation, wet, and it looks like patches of snow in the distance!

About one hour and 20 minutes into our ride, 60 some odd miles south of Fauske, we crossed the Arctic Circle again, from north to south this time!

We zoomed past the Arctic Circle Center, on the highway paralleling the train tracks.

And then passed the rock cairn marking the Arctic Circle!

We began our descent from the Saltfjellet mountain range into another river valley.

The pine forests again cover the lower reaches of the mountains.

The sun occasionally peaked out from the clouds to illuminate farms along the river.

We reached the town of Steinkjer (pronounced something like “stine-sh-jar”) and had a short walk uphill to our Airbnb overlooking town.

A modern growing city at the inner end of Trondheimsfjord, the 3rd longest fjord of Norway.

Like most of northern Norway almost all current buildings were built after 1945. During WWII Norway was heavily bombed by the Nazis and then occupied by them for 5 years. As the Russian army approached in 1945 and the Nazis retreated they destroyed everything of value, almost all buildings, sparing only a few churches.

We had a relaxing evening sitting on the patio in the cool breeze watching the arm of the yellow crane swing around, trying to discern if it was being manned, blown by the wind, or remotely programmed to swing into the wind!