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