Day 38 - Monday 30 May - Geiranger to Oslo

HOT!! HOT HOT HOT!!!! Horrible hotel room. And bright too. We turned the light off and it's like "did we turn the light off?" Of course at 4am it's like "is it morning?". Le sigh.

At breakfast I really didn't feel like eating - just didn't want to be hungry. And need to eat enough to only need a light lunch as everything is stoopidly expensive here.

After breakfast walked down to see the 3800-person carrying Costa ship in the fjord. We were pretty lucky that there weren't any cruise ships in port yesterday to clog up the trolls road. Today tour bus after tour bus was heading into town to take people places.

Cascades flowing through Geiranger

Waterfall on the Geiranger river

Costa Favolosa in Geirangerfjord

Had a morning pitstop in Lom.

View of Geirangerfjord on the drive out of town

Peaks south of Geiranger

Knuten historic bridge

Traditional Norwegian homes south of Geiranger

View back towards the peaks surrounding Geiranger
Photo by Mum

Frozen Djupvatnet lake
Photo by Mum

Me and Mum with a moose warning sign near Billingen

Dam on the Otta River and Heggjebottvatnet

Nordberg kyrkje

Lom township

Norwegian flag in Lom

Lom stavkyrkje

Reflections on Vågåvatnet

Made an unscheduled stop at a small cemetery where another Insight guide was buried - she'd actually died on tour which was all very sad.

Grave of Kari Anne Rössum at Kvam church cemetery

Stopped in Lillehammer for lunch. Had issues finding public toilets. In the end snuck into a Scandic hotel and went there (we figured we've given Scandic plenty of money over the past couple of weeks). Then had a cheese roll for lunch. Went up to see the ski jump, which was in use! Even with no snow - they just slide down slippery plastic.

Hunderfossen Adventure Park

Dam on Gudbrandsdalsågen river south of Hajfell

Olympic rings in the pavement in Lillehammer

1854 chimney on Elvegata

Shops on Storgata

Our driver Oleg and tour guide Peter outside our coach in Lillehammer
Photo by Mum

Lysgårdsbakkene Ski Jumping Arena, built for the 1994 Winter Olympics

Lysgårdsbakkene Ski Jumping Arena

Ski jumper on Lysgårdsbakkene Ski Jumping Arena

Then carried on to Oslo. The traffic here (that we've seen of it) is pretty awful.

Vikingskipet (The Viking Ship) Olympic Hall in Hamar

Got to our hotel and checked in. The hotel is literally on top of the station concourse. The room is a comfortable temperature, but the decor is a little disturbing - a dude beating up a lion (well a human body with a lion head - weird weird weird).

Then headed out again. Firstly we went to the station to check out the process for getting to the airport on Wednesday. Then we went down to the Opera house (pretty, but not as pretty as ours), checked out Noah's Ark (a theatre on a barge) and then went to look for some dinner. Ended up at the cathedral café with some others (including, I believe, as I write this ten years later, the couple from New Zealand who were among the most negative people I have ever met. Regretted asking to join them). Had a reindeer pizza, although there wasn't much meat on it.