Our Rick Steves' European Tour – June 2019
Driving out of Oslo, we were soon passing through farmland,
on our way to the Maihaugen Open-Air Folk Museum and our overnight stay in the mountains.
Norway's Rural Countryside
Maihaugen Open-Air Folk Museum
The Open-Air Folk Museum is located up a hill, above the town of Lillehammer. We spent most of our time in the "Rural Collection," where buildings and employees, dressed in period clothing, reenact life in farm villages of the past.
I am so grateful to Ylva and Leif (our bus driver)! They took me down the steep hill by bus to an ATM in Lillehammer so that I could buy a beautiful, handwoven scarf at the cash-only home crafts shop run at the museum by local women artisans. Yay!
Lom Stave Church
Dating back to 1158, the stave church in Lom still has the original wood carvings that characterize these medieval churches. Vikings, with their shipbuilding expertise, built over 1000 of these. Today, preserved as heritage sites, only a few dozen remain.
Renovations and modifications have occurred, as the once pagan church became Catholic and then Lutheran.
The church is still used and is popular for weddings.
Elvesæter Mountain Hotel
On our way over the Jotunheimen Mountains from Oslo to Bergen, we spent the night at this medieval family farm turned hotel. It was billed as rustic and creaky and that it was! Still, it had a lot of charm, and the beautiful setting couldn't be beat!
