Mental and physical faculties are taken for granted. Their ageing decline one long slippery slope, from which, none of us escape. It’s a question of relative degree. For some, it’s gradual and gentle. For others it can be like falling off the edge of a cliff. Most of us sit somewhere in between.
You know you’re getting too old, when a decade that you’ve lived through, is referred to as history. You find it easy to look back to a particular time and place as if it was only yesterday, yet you can’t remember where you actually were yesterday. When your stretching exercises consist of reaching up to get a plate from a shelf, or bending to do up your shoe laces; even then with some difficulty, as one arm seems shorter than the other.
Day 34 – Lillehammer, world famous home of the Winter Olympics in 1994 is our home for two nights. We arrive early afternoon. Go visit the Kunstmuseum [art]. Embed ourselves in a bit of culture for a couple of hours.
You know what it’s like when your plate arrives with something on it you’re not keen on. You have a choice. Bite the metaphorical bullet and down it first; mix it to try and disguise the flavour, or texture; leave it on one side to be thrown away.
Unknowingly and luckily for us, the bullet is first course on the menu. We’d paid our money, not giving a thought to what the Norwegians may consider to be art – was this going to be it? Argh . . .
One floor down, the gallery offers up a series of enchanting scenes.
A couple of hours whizz by and are topped off nicely with a sunny stroll back and forth along Storgata.
Day 35 – I can’t believe that it’s almost sixty years since I first put on a pair of skis. March 1967. Austria. Penny Lane & Ruby Tuesday were fighting it out for the top spot, along with many other greats from that sixties’ year. A ten day Easter experience that involved more time in a cafe listening to a juke box, than skiing. Almost every day a whiteout.
Our combined day ticket includes a visit to the Norwegian Olympic Museum. A state of the art complex combining a plethora of displays, brilliant wrap-around cinematic films with wonderful excerpts from past and present games, plus a biathlon simulator.
Earlier, we join an international group for the 11am guided tour of Maihaugen Open Air Museum. A chance to brush up on our ‘old timber houses’ database, as well as learn things anew. Simone, our know-it-all guide, holds the key to many of the structures to which the average punter cannot enter, along with answers to questions thrown at her from different parts of the world.
Anders Sandvig, a dentist – the brainchild behind Maihaugen. He foresaw the inevitable changes industrialisation and modernity were to bring and wanted to preserve the way life had been, for posterity. [obviously dentistry ‘paid’ even in those days!]
The site consists of traditional working farms, a typical small town with shops & businesses and a large post office that displays a fascinating timeline detailing the evolution of the Norwegian post.
It wasn’t dogs they feared then, but bandits.
The photographer was out for lunch, but his empty studio was soon put to good use.
