Day 7 - Beautiful Scenery In The Morning, A Ski Jump In The Afternoon

---

Today we bid farewell to Sweden, the land of unisex bathrooms and over-groomed men, as we make our way over the northern route and on into Norway. Today was another traveling day, as Maja warned us about this trip, the journey is often better than the destination. After a delicious breakfast in the grandest hotel in Falun, we made a brief stop at the Falun Copper Mine.

The Falun Copper Mine began production as near as they can tell around the 9^th or 10^th century, reaching its peak in the 17^th century at about 3000 tons/year. In 1687, mostly due to inadequate records of the tunnels dug over the centuries, the myriad of tunnels collapsed. Fortunately, the collapse happened on Mid-Summers Eve, one of the few holidays where the mine was not in operation, so no one was killed. The mine continued to be productive through the 20^th century until it was closed in 1992.

After checking out the Falun Copper Mine, we got back on the bus to begin our sightseeing tour of the north. Now our tour of the north is really a tour of about the middle of Sweden, where the population thins out considerably. True northern Sweden is above the Arctic Circle and endures days without darkness in the summer and days without sun in the winter. It’s also abominably cold! The scenery was as beautiful as promised as the mountains became bigger and the forests denser, the lakes became even more idyllic.

Maja is always considerate that we stop every couple of hours for a comfort break where we can stretch our legs, use the restrooms, and grab a little snack. This time we stopped in Mora, a tiny little town of about 10,000 people located on the shores of Lake Siljan. Lake Siljan is actually the result of a meteor collision with the earth in prehistoric times resulting in a 32 mile across crater., one of the largest in the world. Since it was just before 10:00AM, most of the shops were not yet open, so Jody and I stopped in a little café and had fika, consisting of coffee and a couple of delicious pastries.

There weren’t any souvenir shops and Mora is hardly a tourist hotspot, but by the time we finished fika, the shops were open and Jody spied a little gold pendant that she really liked. Evidently I hadn’t fully understood the consequences of deciding to only bring and wear silver jewelry on this trip and then buying a black t-shirt with gold writing on it, it would be imperative to find some gold jewelry to match. Needless to say, I now fully understand the logic and consequences and Jody now has a lovely new gold pendant.

The other claim to fame for Mora is that it is the endpoint for the Vasaloppet, and since our next stop was to be Salen, the starting point for the Vasaloppet, it was time for us to get back on the bus and Maja explained the story of Vasaloppet. The Vasaloppet is essentially a 90 km (56 mile) cross country ski race held in March and is essentially Sweden’s version of the Boston Marathon except it is over twice as long and is done on cross country skis. It began as early as the 16^th century, and people from all over the world, both amateur and professional come to witness or participate in the grueling event. Last year there were about 16,000 participants and the men division completed in about 3-1/2 hours and the women in about 4 hours. The Vasaloppet has since expanded to include summer running and bicycling competitions also.

It took a couple of hours for the bus to cover the distance, including a brief travel on Route 66, but we finally made it to the starting point in Salen. We stopped for a quick couple of pictures, and the starting field was certainly impressive with a countdown clock to the bicycle version beginning in 42 days. After the brief stop at the Salen starting point, we moved on into Salen proper for lunch. Salen only has about 650 residents, so Maja had to call ahead and let the café in town know we were coming so they would be ready to feed us all. She worked out a menu of soup, salad, bread and a drink for about $12. Such a deal, and it was delicious! Of course Salen was too small for a souvenir shop, but we did find a magnet in the little shop that was there. There was also a street vendor selling various stuff, and Jody found a nice geometric pendant for only $20.

This was our last stop in Sweden as our next comfort stop was to be our first stop in Norway. We were getting close to our hotel, but it was time to stretch our legs one more time. This time it was in Elverum, Norway, a town of about 21,000 people. We just made a quick stop in a local shopping center to use the restrooms, which were back to being separate again. But there was ice cream available, so of course I needed a little taste – salted caramel and Oreos and cream. So it was our last time back on the bus to our destination in Lillehammer.

Lillehammer is a small town of about 28,000 residence but it’s big claim to fame is as the host city for the 1994 Winter Olympics. This was the famed meeting between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan where Nancy Kerrigan won silver, Tonya Harding placed 8^th Actually Oksana Baiul from Ukraine won gold but no one really remembers as it was all overshadowed by Nancy and Tonya. Some of the major venues are still present like the skating rink, but part of the theme of the 1994 Winter Olympics was conservation and recycling, so many of the buildings were designed to be easily dismantle so they could be recycled to other parts of the country where they could be better used.

But the one piece that definitely could not be recycled was the ski jump which is still here, still used and is an overwhelming presence on the mountain overlooking Lillehammer. Arpi drove the bus up the mountain to the base of the ski jump so we could get an up close view and it is impressive! You can ride a ski lift to the top and either ride it back down or walk down the steps. In either case, I was glad we did not have time to ride to the top, because it’s just too high, and I’m sure the view from the top would be terrifying.

After taking some great pictures from the ski jump of the jump itself and the town of Lillehammer below, it was time to head over to the hotel. The hotel is very nice, and very Scandinavian, with a beautiful turquoise interior. There is a tiny little balcony that is just too scary for me to try to step out on. We dropped off our stuff, ready to head out to dinner, but we found out that Norwegian hotel staff will not move luggage, even if you pay them. Now, Insight normally provides luggage service so we don’t need to lug our bags to and from our rooms, but it didn’t seem right to make Maja and Arpi move all the bags themselves, so those of us who were able picked up our own bags from the bus and brought them to our rooms.

Since we arrived at the hotel at 5:00 and since Norway is a civilized country, all the shops in the shopping district were closing up so that the employees could go home to their families and enjoy their weekend. We did manage to find a souvenir shop just closing up so we were able to get a Lillehammer magnet, bot almost everything else was alpine wear and heavy sweaters, gloves, and socks. Not much good in Florida! Unfortunately, the Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, which is supposed to be an outstanding modern art museum, was also closed at 5:00. The cafes were still open though, and we found a nice outdoor café run by a couple of Turkish guys that served Turkish and Italian food. Jody had the ravioli, and I had the lasagna and both were just the comfort foods we needed.

Tomorrow we head for Geiranger and our first glimpse at a fjord, we can hardly wait!

---