Upon arriving in the tiny town of Lillehammer we walked 4 blocks to our hotel. It was cold, like minus 5F kind of cold! I had to stop and exchange my leather gloves for my ski gloves. That was the last time I'd wear the leather gloves on this trip.
Our hotel was perfectly situated right in the center of town. We checked in and found our rooms, both with small balconies and views of the lake. Then we bundled up & went out for a walk around before the sunset (3pm).
The streets were empty except for a handful of people & 3 cars. Snow was piled high in yards, on fences & on trees. The light and the sky reminded me of a watercolor, our cameras didn't do it justice. We passed cozy houses almost all with pretty Christmas lights in the windows & smoke rising from the chimneys. The town is really small & quaint.
We headed up to the Olympic Park, home of the '94 winter games. Although the center was closed there were still some interesting sculptures outside as well as the 2 big ski jumps to see. Some kids sledded on small hills while others played hockey on an outdoor rink.
By the time we got back to the hotel the sun had set and it was way too cold to be out. We got cozy in our room, opened our Christmas gifts and started happy hour. Soon after we took a bottle champagne (that we had chilled on our balcony) down to the lobby where they had a big fire going. The smell of burning birch was so homey!
Since the only restaurant in town that was open was in our hotel we had a short commute to dinner. A little dinner, some aquavit & a nightcap or 2 back in our room. The next morning we were off on another train ride headed just north of the arctic circle!
By the way, isn't Lillehammer just damn good fun to say?
More pretty pictures here
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment