Day 18

Sonset Gard to Trondheim 

Miles walked: 7.8

Price: 430 NOK with breakfast 

It was a short walk, although the rain was coming down. Thankfully the trails weren’t too muddy. 

This is the easiest to use ladder we encountered. They are built so you can climb over fences on the path.

It was a quickish walk as we arrived around 12:30 to the pilgrim center in Trondheim. Here we received our final credentials.

Here we are standing in front of the Nidarosdomen, the endpoint of our pilgrimage. 

Day 17

Sundet Gard to Froset Gard

Miles walked:  9 miles

Cost: 100 to 300 kroner

We had a short walk with the pack today. The decision was to walk only halfway to Trondheim even though we could have done it in a day. We very nearly missed the sign for the lodging, we were so distracted by the picnic bench nearby.

At any rate, it all seemed good. We phoned the reservation desk for the property and got the go ahead to stay in the six-bed facility. Then a Norwegian guy stopped by and said he was the front line for the 11-person hiking group. I couldn’t see how they would be given access to stay there, but after a two-hour foray to the grocery store (We went out shopping), the property was full of people. They were everywhere, clogging the kitchen, sleeping in the hallways, filling up the tiny bathroom. We never found out if they had permission to stay there, and we hightailed it out of there first thing in the morning.

Day 16

Skaun to Sundet Gard

Miles: 12.2

Cost: 400 kroner

We left early today, again a bit worried about the quality of our beds as the Germans were on the same schedule. 

We are getting closer!

A vein of soapstone. Most of the trail was filled with blue stone chips. It is easy to understand why they used this material in their churches.

The weather was ok, overcast and cool.

We were again first to our lodging so phoned our host to come pick us up on the river/fjord.

Our host approaches 

Scrambling onto boat with packs and sticks

He rowed us and our heavy packs across the river to his farm. He told us he has 160 pigs who are raised entirely indoors. Even though this is better than the industrial farms of America, it is not good. 

The lodging was charming and we were housed on the third floor. There were five beds, each double, with little privacy curtains. Very luxe. And there was water in the building, but on the first floor. There was also a toilet...a pit...just outside the cabin. The stairs to the third floor were next-level treacherous. By now we were used to the steep ladder stairs leading up to farmhouse sleeping lofts. But were downright dangerous. Remind me about a discourse on safety in Norway. While passing a school playground I cringed to myself on the possibilities of injury and lawsuits with the dangerous equipment. 

Climbing one floor of the ladder/stairs, second to first floor

Third to second floor stairwell 

The lodging included meals and our hosts served them in style with China and candles. We all (us, the Germans, plus an additional German pilgrim) ate together at a long table...very familiar part of farm life where you are serving multiple children and farm hands.

The table, in background, set for dinner

Our dinner was a tiny bit disappointing..we were hungry and they served boiled potatoes with a thin soup filled with tiny meatballs and flatbread. They said it was a local specialty and that the meatballs were purchased! Indeed we saw them at a grocery store the next night! The dessert was amazing though, preserved plums with star anise and whipped cream.

The dessert

Some of our German friends at dinner

The next two days are short walks before our arrival in Trondheim! It was nice to live in less rugged conditions for a night and the big city beckons.

Day 13

Miles walked: 9.1

Segard Hoel to Gumdal Gard

Cost: 350

Day 14, Also a Gumdal Gard, rest day

The closer place was booked, so we had 30 km to get to our hotel, 18 miles, and we worried we could never make it so we agreed to hitchhike at Meldal, 9 km away. We got bites immediately, all from older men, alone. One guy said he just wanted to know what we were doing, and was not really going anywhere, another said he would be right back, and the final successful ‘bite’ was out fishing. He had a cute Norwegian Moose dog in the trunk and his car was filled with gear. He threw it all in the trunk and gave us a ride to Svorkmo. 

The exciting news was that there was a restaurant! There are shockingly few in rural Norway. No bars, no clubs, no liquor stores, no restaurants. We hatched a plan: eat out tonight1 Buy groceries for a few days in case we decide to spent two nights at Gumdal Gard, but have dinner out one night. 

It was a great plan, but it was a three km walk uphill to get to our hostel. That was tough enough with all of our groceries. we roughed it up the hill...it was steep and a slow walk. The accommodation turned out to be very nice, with a lovely kitchen and beer in the fridge. And the owner, a real sweetheart offered to take us to the restaurant. We ended up walking down and he picked us up.

It was nice to have non-home cooked with limited ingredient food for a change.

Gumdal Gard is a dairy farm and he supplements his income with running the hostel. He also has another cabin rented out to a fisherman for the summer. His wife is Thai. We got to observe the dairy farm activities pretty closely because we stayed two nights so we were hanging around the property all day. The milking process is surprisingly manual. I remember visiting a dairy farm as a child where the cows were milked in a row, all at once with gleaming milking apparatus. This farm had only three milkers, so the cows had to wait their turns. The weather was quite cold during our visit and he kept all of the cows indoors. We felt pretty sorry for them. I think our host is more of an old school farmer. It is hard to get the cows back in the barn once you let them out, and I can see why.

Milking old school style

Get us out of here

We also learned about robotic milkers. So there are robots who can milk cows. They are hideously expensive, so few farmers have them. This is the deal: the cows come into the barn to be milked by the robot when they’re ready. And because milk production is based on supply and demand, the cows also produce more milk with a robotic milker. It is a way to make a very inhumane business a little less cruel, it is unfortunate they are so expensive.

It is remarkable that these small farms exist in Norway. we see so little of it in the United States, I think because our government supports big farmers. It is expensive to subsidize farming, but even more expensive to subsidize little farms.

Our rest day was interrupted by the German invasion and indeed we are still under seige. Did I mention that 905 of walkers on this trail are German or Austrian? Four folks stayed at our little house and took up a lot of room. There are only six beds, and now there were seven people. We ate our dinner at 4:30 as they watched and continued to fill up the room. Then we had no where to go so we had to go up to bed at 6:30. We’ll that was fine with me, I was still exhausted.

The partying continued until midnight which kept Laura and Carolyn awake, but not me. You see there was beer.

Carolyn, our host, and me

Day 12

Mosli Heberge to Segard Hoel (Hol)

Miles walked: 6.3

Cost: 300

Rain. Somewhat driving rain and we decided to leave the forest and walk on the other side of the river on a road only used by tractors. We walked fast, it was cold. The river is still lovely and contains salmon! We keep hearing that it’s very expensive to fish and you need to be wealthy, but we’re not really sure about this.

When we got to Voll, we saw a fellow pilgrim speaking to a man. Laura and Carolyn thought he might be offering us a ride (remember, it was RAINING). But instead he offered to show us the local church called Rennebu. The church was quite interesting in that it was designed as the trinity, with three wings off the center. One wing had the altar and the pulpit, while the others contained pews. The church is one of four in Norway designed this way and it was built in 1672. 

We spent a long time talking about the symbolism in the church. Some of the items in the church come from an earlier church that burned down...circa 1100.  

Next stop, the bus stop! We caught the 14:12 bus to A. There we went to the community cafe. Laura was looking for a hot solstice party, but alas it was to be the following night and we would be long gone at that point. I of course took advantage of the situation and purchased a waffle with creme fraiche and strawberry jam...yum.

We got our groceries...after spending what seemed like hours deliberating over what we needed to make pea soup. The dried beans in Norway are nonexistent except for whole green peas and whole yellow peas. It seems that the pea soup our mothers made was not authentic....we had split pea soup, but Norway peas are whole and have the skins.

We walked to our hostel...up and up, per usual and put together our soup...it took two hours and made far less soup than a pound of split peas in the states would make. But we got more fiber, yes?

Laura made a salad of dandelion greens which was very healthy!

Day 15

Miles walked: 12.4

Gumdal to Skaun

Lodging community center of Skaun church

Cost 250 kroner

We had a ways to go. We met a group of 11 Norwegians from Tromso who were hiking, but also had a van full of supplies, which meant the pilgrims were not carrying full packs. When they said they were going to Skaun, we became concerned that we would be competing for beds, so we moved quickly. The walk was mostly through forest with a good share of muck. There were boards atop some of the muck, which was appreciated.

Sheep on the path

Miracle, we were the first to arrive at the hostel, which was a community center run by the church. They had mattresses and cots for 11 or 12 and a beautiful kitchen. The Germans, five of them, arrived after us and we all shared the giant room.

The church at Skaun was pure loveliness. It was small with some gothic elements, which we were told are rare. In addition, the altar had a painting of Mary, also rare. The church dates to the 12th century, early in the history of Scandinavian Christianity.

Also, the cornices were made from soapstone.

A distant view of the church in Skaun.

A great bonus today, the grocery store was across the street so we didn’t have to haul groceries for miles! 

Another bonus: clear blue skies and cool temperatures 

Day 11

Miles: 7.5

Hjerkinn Fjilstue to Mosli Heberge

Cost: 350 with breakfast

It is 8:37 pm with a projected sunset of 11:37 on June 20 and I am sitting in bed watching the cows grazing on a steep hill outside my window. What a perfect midsummer scene.

The field outside my room

Today was easy with a train ride from Hjerkinn to Bark shad (sp) and then a 7.5 mile walk first through town and then on a forest path next to the river. There were massive rock formations and a few little fairie dwellings....rocks covered with moss, with little places for the faeries or gnomes to live in.

We also passed two open-air furnished huts. It is hard to understand how these could survive a harsh winter, but were happy to know that if we lost our way, we’d have an open-air bed to sleep in. Note the moose head and the grass roof.

Our lodging is another traditional farm building with beds upstairs...actually it takes a ladder to get upstairs. We have electricity but the water and showers and bathrooms are elsewhere. I found a sweet little room with a view of the cow pastures..very Heidi-esque in the loft upstairs and am loving it. Too much maybe, how can I sleep after too little walking and a room of my own?

Day 10

Miles: 12.9

From Fuguhaugli to Hjerkinn Lodge

Cost: 375 NOK

This was our first and maybe last day of walking the trail without benefit of car, bus, or train. It was supposed to be easy! And it seemed so at first. The terrain is low with various lichens and such covering the ground. They are so charming, a tiny world beneath our feet. The trail is well marked. There are a lot of boggy areas that require light footwork...jumping on stones, or maybe selecting bits of foliage that won’t cause you to sink in the muck.

It was a longer day than we anticipated, although the hiking was not bad except for the need to hop over muck frequently.

Closeup of the lichens which covered pretty much everything on the trail. Some were soft, others spongy, others dried and crackly. They remind me so much of the Pine Barrens in New Jersey.

Stopping on the trail

Typical view from trail

When we got near to our lodging, we missed a trail marker and ended up a few miles away from the pilgrim trail. We finally realized that we needed to go back and sure enough we found the correct trail markers. This was another time my gps failed...but in the end helped get us back. I have a gps map of the entire trail, but sometimes the person who created the map goes off the pilgrim trail and takes shortcuts, so you can’t always be sure the map is correct.

One of the many little flowers along the trail, some are rare species that survived the last ice age

Crossing the roaring river to get to our lodging.

We finally made it to our lodging. We are at a hotel and campground that seems to specialize in horseback riding. They have given us a nice pilgrim cottage, but there is no water or toilet or kitchen. We have to climb down a hill to get to the camping bathroom.

This is where the pee bucket comes in very handy....Laura’s lightweight invention crafted from a soda bottle that allows one to pee safely and then toss out the contents without venturing into the woods and risking one’s life.

Here is a photo of empty bucket:

Day 8

Hunsdorp to Vinstra (foot and car) to  Dovre (train) to , Ingelshush (foot)

Miles walked: 9.2

Cost: 300 NOK

Our host at Dale Gubrandsdal made a new itinerary to follow which included taking the train up to Dovre pronto. The train left at 1:06 ish and we were to walk 12 km on the trail to get there. He said it was a beautiful walk, but still burned from previous beautiful walk promises, we kept to the road. We hit a pretty good pace and could have made it to the train on time, but alas, two ladies picked us up and dropped us at the station. 

So Vinstra is the setting of Peer Gynt, who knew? There is a statue there and they put on an annual play. I had seen some photos of the play in a book at our lodging which were pretty wild and made me want to see more. The Peer Gynt in the play is not what we saw in filmstrip as a child. I remember my 5th grade teacher playing the music and slotting through a filmstrip, although I can’t really remember the plot except there was a mountain king.

Statue at Vinstra train station

At any rate, there is a yearly Peer Gynt festival in Vinstra and it would be super fun to see it sometime.

The train ride to Dovre was 45 minutes and the train only had two cars chugging through the mountains. It was quite lovely.

On arrival in Dovre we had 4 km uphill to walk to reach our lodging at what I now see is a typical Norwegian farmhouse. There is never just one house, but always it is a compound with multiple buildings, many or all with living roofs. 

Our approach to the farmhouse outside of Dovre.

Our hostess greeted us with coffee and Norwegian snacks: a large round cookie (not krumkake, it had -brod as a suffix) and a pancake with the suffix -kake topped with brown cheese. Yum. The communal kitchen was stocked with various items to be used in the preparation of dinner, each with a price tag. we chose salmon and potatoes and added our own fresh broccoli. Cost of dinner, mostly made by Laura, was 50-60 kroner.

Brown cheese and kakas/brods

Norwegian flatbread kitchen. So twice now we have stayed at farmhouses where there is a special outbuilding for the making of bread. Flatbreads require    A special large, round iron — always electric today — and need a very large board and rolling pins. Our hostess today must have made the cookies we at in this kitchen because we found the cutter for one of them, a larger cutter with prongs in the middle. I would love to try to make some of these flatbreads, but fear that many expensive tools are required.

Day 9

Ingleshus to Furuhaugli

Miles walked: 9

Lodging: 400 NOK

First we backtracked on the trail to the train station. Carolyn decided she did not want to walk, but instead wanted to take the train to Dombås. We had 30 plus kilometers to walk, and no way we could actually get there at our slow walking speed. 

I was ambivalent about walking....with the walking conditions we had seen thus far, I was worried I would get tired and hurt something. Nevertheless, we set out on the trail, and started up the mountain. Immediately there were the streams and muck to avoid, but I panicked at the first fence climb over we encountered and decided I would rather take the train.

So we walked back down the hill where we ran into Carolyn who was still waiting for the train. We spent a few hours trying to find a bus or other conveyance to get us to Dombås, but were unsuccessful, so took the train, one short stop.

In Dombås, the thought was we might hitchhike to our lodging (many km away), but the entrance to the road was narrow and there was no pull off for a few km. We voted and the cab won. So we spent 421 Kroner to get from Dombås to Furuhaugli where we had the driver drop us off outside of the property so we could be seen as hiking into get the special pilgrim rate.

This property was quite nice, and typical of a lot of the places we stayed. There was a hotel portion, a cabin portion,  and a place where trailers hooked up. The cabin itself was spacious with our own bathroom and kitchen and a bedroom and living room. Now this was living!

Furuhaugli is the beginning of the area with musk oxen. Apparently these were native to Norway many years ago, but went extinct. They were reintroduced from Greenland and again went extinct and then finally they were sent over from Canada. We did not see one, which is good because they are supposed to be pretty nasty to deal with.

Carolyn and I had dinner at the restaurant...Laura declined because they didn’t have enough vegetables on the menu.

I had the single most unhealthy dinner, utterly devoid of vegetables, but it was something I’d wanted to try since childhood at the Norway club: romergrott *sp*. It is a pudding made from sour cream and is a traditional Norwegian dish. You eat it with cinnamon and sugar and I am convinced this is the source of my obsession to eat crepes with sour cream and cinnamon sugar. It was served with a side of sausages and hams — more health food! It was really quite good, and it did fill me up until breakfast. I am happy to have tried this dish at long last.

Traditional Norwegian dinner

Day 7

Miles: 5.7

Favang to Hundorp with a driveby at Ringebu
Cost: 300 NOK 

We’d had about enough of the trail after the sheep paddock incident so set out on the main road which was flat and next to the river. We walked with cars whizzing by on the major highway. Perhaps we’d have made it eventually. My goal was to see Ringebu and the famous Stave church there and I was willing to separate from the group to do so. 

So we had a plan to maybe meet up in a day or two when voila, a car stopped to pick us up hitchhiking. He was going to where Carolyn and Laura were going (Hundorp) and he said he’d drop me off at Ringebu. Hurrah. Our savior was traveling up north to help organize a music festival....an outdoor festival that apparently sells out in one hour and which features local Norwegian rock bands. 

He kindly stopped at the Stave church and said he would give us 20 minutes, so that was great...I didn’t have to separate from the group. 

The church is supposed to be the one that was featured in the fiction, Kristin Lavransdatter, a story about living in 14th century Norway. It was started in the 1100s, but restored in 1921. Because it was Sunday, folks were attending church in their Brunad...traditional clothing.

The charming stave church at Ringebu

Church interior

After a quick look at the church, we were whisked to our next lodging in Hundorp. This is an official pilgrim’s lodging where we were greeted with coffee by the staff. 

The location of this lodging is historical..Dale -Gubrands Gard...it is allegedly where King Olaf brought Christianity to the pagans...they had a standoff where Olaf proved that Christianity was the superior religion.

We ate at the historic hotel next door. It was somewhat disappointing because they were hosting a group of Koreans on a bus tour, and didn’t want to serve us. We finally talked them into giving us the same meal they were giving the Koreans....not traditional Norwegian food as promised....

A musk ox head from the restaurant at Dale Gubrands-Gard

One of the pilgrim center guides wrote a new itinerary for us so that we could get to Trondheim without carrying too much food. It included when to take the train and when to walk. 

Day 6, Tough Mudder Challenge! Abort Abort

Miles: 7.1
Pilgrmsloftet Borkerud (outside of Trotten) to Mågålivegen Camping (outside Favang)
Cost: 500 NOK (divided 3 ways)

We spent a long time in the morning talking with Gertrude and visiting the chapel so that we didn’t set off until after 11:00 am. She told us that the walk today to Favang would be very easy, even though it was twenty km. We were optimistic.

It was a lovely day with temperatures in the 70s and everything was fine until we got off the pavement and hit what seemed like the tar pits coupled with multiple climbing challenges. We were walking through sheep and cow paddies and had to dodge mud pits seasoned with very wet cow pies so the mud was not only unsightly, but smelly. It took us an hour to go a single km in these conditions. On top of the mud, were the fences. They had little contraptions built so that you could easily climb over the fences rather than opening and closing gates. These often required a pretty high lift of the leg on one side, a straight-legged swing with the other, to reach the other side of the fence, and then a jump down with pack. Top this off with the fear of electrocution should the leg of your pants brush against the top of the fence, or at a minimum, a tear from the barbed wire.

After we finally escaped the mud pits, we found ourself on a road, hot sun beating down, and of course we were walking up. The trails only go down under dangerous wet conditions any more. We could not find the turnoff for the trail, although my gps clearly indicated there should be one. Laura stopped and asked a farmer, who sent us through a sheep paddock and told us there would be a sign and a bridge.

The sheep paddock was steep, steeper than one could safely walk down without toppling over and rolling down. I steadfastly refused to move when we lost the trail, but then backed down because I hadn’t the strength to walk back up. We ended up following a fence (something to hold onto) partway down the hill, although there were low overhanging trees, so we had to stoop down. This was a favorite resting spot for the sheep, so unfortunately we cleared the room.

We finally located another path that went across the paddock and then miraculously the tree with a sign on it. We followed the trail now and found the bridge. But what? The bridge was closed and boarded up. Signs said to follow the detour. what detour? No signs.

So we walked back across the paddock and down to the lower fence. We could see a campground below, but no way in. Finally we spotted a clothesline and then found a gate. We walked through some one’s yard, and found a road down to the street below. We weren’t certain what to do, but we were at a campground that was listed in the pilgrim book, and got a cabin. Our reservations were for a place many miles away which we were never going to get to, so we booked, and cancelled our original reservations.

The sheep paddock from below. It’s steeper than it looks.

Ugh.

Day 5

Miles: 10.3
Lillehammer to Oyer (bus)
Oyer to Trotten (walk)
Cost: 400 NOK

We started out slowly by taking the bus to the town of Oyer and from there it was to be an eight mile walk. It took only a few moments to dispel the myth of an easy day...after a kilometer or so we began Our relentness ascent up to the Church and then to Skaden Gard where we had Our lunch. (note: the capitalization provided by the Scandinavian keyboard I am using.)

Our lunch view in Skaden Gard

The trail took us through forests and paddocks, mostly uphill. We were often inside the paddocks, along With the sheep and the mud.

A view of horses overlooking the Gudbrandsdalslagen River

This is a very small and furry Norwegian cow, I have dubbed the Norwegian Fjord Cow.

Carolyn scrambling over a stream With Laura looking on.

It was hot...I swear 76 degrees is like 90 back home because the sun is so up Close. I think my body must have been extremely salty after multiple sweating sessions. Oh and my poor big toe was hurting quite a bit. Poor us.

The Place we were staying, Highly recommended, was far away from Trotten, and up. Up, up. We were soaked in sweat and parched. I actually telephoned the Place to make certain we hadnæt missed the turnoff on the road and they offered to come pick us up, but thankfully it was not needed.

It turned out the Place was almost Worth it. Our hosts, Alv and Gertrude, were lovely, and their compound was just as lovely. She served us a delicious dinner of cod, potatoes, and carrots...Yum!

Below are some photos of the Homestead.

 The barn, it has multiple beds for pilgrims and a long table when lots of guests are present

Here we are at the dinner table waiting for cod

This is Gertrude

This is a stack of flatbread irons. Her basement is used as a Kitchen for breadmaking and has the giant rolling pins and Boards for flatbread.

This is an old, 16th Century stable brought Down from the Mountains and rebuilt as a chapel on the compound.

Here is the inside of the chapel. The benches are covered With sheepskins and there is a baptismal font and you can light candles. You may notice that they have icons rather than statues. The icons were painted by a former guest from the Ukraine.

Side view of the chapel

Kristiansand and Family

We took the train down from Oslo.....of course the trains are fast and clean and the view the whole way is of forests and lakes. The trains have a family car which includes a large area with pull down seats and places to secure baby carriages. They also include an enclosed, carpeted area where children can play and a little climbing area. How much easier to travel with children when they are not required to stay in ther seats and sit still!

Frithjof, the grandchild of our great uncle, picked us up and took us to their lovely home in the family compound of three homes side by side, where the children of Lilly live with their families. The homes all have dramatic views of the fjord and remind me of Seattle. It was hard to shake the feeling that I was in Seattle.

Johan

So Johan was our great uncle and the grandfather and great grandfather of all the family members. It turns out he was a bit of a character, and dare I say it, an “asshole.” One of his son in laws used to swear he would give Johan two black eyes one day! This was quite a revelation for us because we had been told that Johan was a wonderful person. He did visit Seattle and met both Laura and Carolyn as well as my mother and sister Jenny.

We heard a few stories about him during our stay...

His early career was in the military, the navy, and he sailed around Cape Horn for which he received a certificate. By the 1920s he worked as a diver in the harbor at Kristiansand repairing ships underwater and retrieving dummy torpedos from the ocean bottom for military practice. 

Preparing for Sail on tall ship. 


Johan is the tall one in the back row.



Some diving photos


Johan graduating from Navy

Another Johan story. Apparently he was celebrating a birthday when he was contacted by his military group to report for duty. He said, not yet, it is my birthday! It turned out to be the German invasion in 1940 and he was really needed.

After his town was bombed by the Germans (Kristiansand?), he passed a house that was bombed and found a severed leg on the property. A practical Norwegian, he buried the leg. Years later the leg was discovered and made the newspapers as a mystery. Hmm.

Our Family

So you heard about Frithjof, but he has a sister, Marianne, and a brother, Harald. Marianne is the traveller in the family and had been to Seattle to visit family many years ago. 

Frithjof and his wife Ose were amazing hosts. Their house is gorgeous, decorated in Scandic style, with a lovely view of the fjord. Marianne and Asmund live next door and also have a beautiful home with a stunning view of the fjord, and next to them lives Harald and his wife, who we did not meet.

We also met Birgitte, Marianne and Asmund’s daughter, and Brage, their son. 

Ose prepared two incredible dinners and breakfasts for us. She must have had to sleep for a week afterwards. Pre-dinner wine glass was not used at dinner! And there was dessert right after dinner and then we went to the other room for new wine. A bit later, coffee and cake were served. This is apparently a Norwegian tradition.

Ose worked so hard with multiple sets of dishes and glasses and cutlery and wonderful Norwegian food. Thank you!!!

Birgitte took us on a tour of the town of Kristiansand. We saw the family graves, and the beautiful town as well as the waterfront where Johan did his diving. We also went into the brand new opera house. 

Birgitte at the church where family buried

We had waffles with brown cheese and milkekake at the home of Randi and John. They had a lovely long-haired Siamese cat and are into genealogy, so we got more information from them. 

Randi and kitty

The lovely spread

We loved Kristiansand and our long lost family and hope to connect again.

Frithjof holding welding equipment owned by Johan