What a difference 2 days of rain makes! Between rain squalls we took a walk back up along Storgata (translates to ‘Big Street’) and marveled at the transformation of the little creek running through town! Compare to yesterdays pictures!

The rock slab creek crossing is completely underwater! Impassable!

The rainy season arrived overnight! Overcast skies and puddles. We walked uphill to the main street, Storgata, and window shopped. Yesterday was the best weather day forecast for our 3 night stay in Lillehammer, and here are some pictures of the little tributary stream, the Mesna river, that runs through town on its way to Mjøsa lake.

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.