NORWAY - Log Book Excerpts

An Unexpected Halt in Hamar

It all went wrong in Hamar for the train group as we soon found our train was fully booked and the next train to Dombås was at 3.55pm; so we had an unexpected 6 hours to spend in Hamar. We arranged to split up and meet back for lunch in two hours. For the first hour we spent walking around the town, checking out the sites and talent. Then an unexpected 'Comedy Jones' moment sprang up when Michael and I found a lingerie shop despatching mannequins into a skip. The man doing the despatching started talking to us in Norwegian so I used my ever-useful phrase: "Jeg snakke ikke Norsk; jeg snakke Engelsk."

The helpful fellow then said: "If you take these," indicating the legs, "you can stick them out of the window which is amusing." So both of us took a pair and the next hour passed quickly as we amused ourselves and others (Jake the Peg impersonations, dual leg duels, etc), getting a lot of attention from the pre-mentioned talent. Later another woman (carrying a torso section under her arm) told us that we could put snacks and sweets into them and give them as presents to our mothers. Needless to say we walked off!

The rest of the group liked our new legs and we ate our lunch, including a Swiss roll from Rob! We also found a roundabout to play on. Alasdair had a close run-in with a crazy woman trying to slap him. There seemed to have been some misunderstanding in his enquiry (in Norwegian) after further body parts.

After lunch Rob, Sam, Joycey, Alasdair and myself went to find the Olympic ice rink; unfortunately we failed, ending up on the railway sidings, so we went off to the beach for more talent spotting and to bathe our feet.

Finally we caught our train, put our feet up on the luggage racks, settled down for the long journey with our legs, which earned some unhealthy interest from a couple of strange men, and watched the Norwegian scenery change from rolling fields of harvest gold, to rocky, pine clad hills, deep gorges and rushing, foamimg streams and rivers. We looked forward with some trepidation to our walk along the Pilgrim's Way.

GAVIN

VSL's Personal Log - Tirsdag 13. August

Phew! What a scorcher this day turned out to be. An unexpected chance to explore Hamar due to all places on the Dombås train being booked. Interesting method of booking seats, too:-

Pick up phone in booth where ticket counter used to be; speak to girl about train times and reservations; book seats; receive booking number (write down) and cost; have chat with girl about her good English, one's own (poor) standard of Norsk, where we've been, where we're going, etc. It certainly felt that I was being chatted up! Anyway after a good 5 minutes or more, hang up - with regret - and go to the newspaper kiosk in the station shop and buy tickets, first quoting booking numbers. It was all rather efficient actually - and certainly pleasant.

So we had 6 hours to kill. We stashed our unrequired kit bags in the luggage lockers at the station, meet times for lunch and train departure were set and memorised, and keeping fingers crossed I let loose the group to do their own thing on an unsuspecting Hamar (nobody to be left alone, the only stipulation).

Matt, Rich and I swiftly tracked down a bank for cash and coffee shop for refreshment. We then strolled out along the lakeside to the north of the town centre, viewing all the 'posh' houses which overlooked the beach areas and lake. For several kilometres in the very hot sun we strolled not meeting many people on our travel along the wide 'boulevard'. We eventually came upon the old Hamar cathedral - stone ruins, now covered with a huge prism-shaped glass roof structure. It was still used as a place of regular worship; nearby were other buildings which housed a museum and information visitor centre. We also discovered a marker stone for the Pilgrim's Way - 488km to Nideros (Trondheim).

The lunchtime meeting time curtailed further dalliance and we headed back to Hamar town centre at a pace not ideally suited to the now sweltering heat.

Lunch purchased, we found a park and ate in the shade of a wooden outdoor stage. Gav and Joycey's newly acquired legs kept us amused over our leisurely lunch.

The rest of the afternoon I spent at a cafe table on the main street watching the world go by and attempting to sketch a variety of scenes.

At 3.30pm we all met back at the stasjon, collected our rucsacs and boarded the Dombås train, which provided a few more sketching opportunities when not watching the Norwegian countryside rushing by or reading the next chapter of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin".

We achieved Dombås only 20 minutes or so after the bus group so the delay in Hamar worked out quite well in the end. Provisions purchased in the main supermarket, Pete ferried us all to the Rolstad campsite, some 5km from the station.

Tents were soon pitched, stories of legs in Hamar and overheating minibuses in Lillehammer exchanged, and soon we were tucking into our first camp meal proper as a full group. The reeds and bushes along the banks of the cold river provided excellent humorous opportunity for 'leg-scenes' which caused some canoeists to nearly capsize at one point!

That night we were entreated to some spectacular skies as storms rolled over the nearby mountains and combined with the sunset to give some awesome views.

The Minibus Group's Journey North

Whilst looking forward to a reasonable lie in we slept unaware of the many troubles that were about to happen.

To start the day off, we were awoken from our extended slumber by Adam who 'mistakenly' woke me, Dales and Andy along with the train party, who had to leave by 8am. Unfortunately, Chris wasn't aroused. With Pete chauffeuring the train group the 50 minute drive to Hamar station, this left Adam "in charge". The net result was everyone got hassle to get all the remaining jobs done, kit sorted, bags packed, etc; all of which found us all sat on the porch with a mountain of kit bags and stuff waiting for Pete to return from Hamar. Once Pete arrived the huts were checked by Ernst - of course they passed muster - final farewells said and we were on our way!

Most of the journey to our first destination of Lillehammer, location of the 1994 winter Olympics, consisted of sleeping, snoozing and dozing, so time passed quickly and uneventfully.

At Lillehammer we stopped for lunch with Pete worrying where to park as he was anxious not to get a ticket. We arranged a meeting place and went off on our separate ways (in one group!) - highlights included the girl with the high-split skirt, buying a thimble for Dales' sister and a phone call from Sam saying that the train had been delayed by 6 hours. Us cynics naturally thought this was a leg-pull, so a text message was dispatched by Adam to that effect. It turned out however that there was a 6 hour delay and we were made to eat our words!

After lunch the excitement had only just started, when we attempted to drive the minibus to the top of the ski-slope but whilst attempting this amazing feat, the minibus started to overheat and us mere mortals were forced to retire back down the hill and take pictures from the museum.



The rest of the journey passed uneventfully with even more sleeping from everybody (except luckily Pete who was driving!).

We arrived at Rolstad camping, surprisingly ahead of the other group who were to arrive no more than 20 minutes later, when it was legs all round.

RICH E

Taken from Daily Log Book Entries