Day 40: Trollstigen to Oslo

Today we set our alarms for 8:00 but we were slow getting up. We ate bread and Nutelli for breakfast and then cleaned up the cabin. We had to buy special coins for showering. One coin was good for 5 minutes of hot water. We each had one. Our shower was quick, but effective.

Last night while we were looking at the scenery, Jens had started to say, "Tomorrow, how about we" and Christine interjected sarcastically with, "try to climb up that mountain?". On several occasions now, Jens will say that he wants to climb to the top of a "small hill" and we now know that he is serious. Jens wanted to get up closer to the waterfall that were weren't able to get to see because the road was still closed from the winter and wouldn't be open until June 1st (it is too dangerous to drive on in the winter). So we walked up the closed road (about 1/2 way up the mountain). We decided to try and literally cut corners by climbing straight up the steep rock. After a difficult climb, we decided we probably did not save any time. Jens stayed on the road while we climbed further up to the bridge that crossed the waterfall. He stayed down below to take photos of us. It was a good morning workout. The winding road is the legendary "Trollstigen" (Troll Ladder). We did not see any trolls, but we did a German and a couple of people hiking to the top of the mountain to ski.

We drove back to Oslo today. Our entire road trip has basically made a big circle around the widest part of Norway. The drive was not as long as driving through the mountains to the west coast. This time the road was pretty straight. We passed through Romsdal and Gudbrumdsdalen Valleys. They both have a lot of trees and slow roads. Kim took a nap and Christine moose hunted. She did not find any, but the rain did not help.

We passed through the Olympic Village of Lillehamar. The winter Olymics were here in 1994. We stopped to see the ski jump, but it was too foggy to see to the top. We also saw a speed skating dome that looked like an upside down viking ship. Jens was craving American driving food, so we stopped at a McDonalds. We finally saw the first fat Norwegian of the trip, big surprise--at McDonalds.

We got into Lillestrom to Jens' mom's house at 7:00. We saw some planes overhead and wondered if an airshow was going on at the nearby airfield. The airfield is for small planes and airforce F16 and helicopter repairs. They have airshows fairly often there. We started to walk over, but we didn't see anything.

We were hyped up for the Eurovision Song Contest Finals. We ordered pizza for dinner and watched the 3 hour long show (with very few commercials). At the end, Jens voted for Spain and we each voted for the Ukraine. Neither won, but our other favorite, Armenia, came in third. Russia won, so the competition will be held there next year.

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