North to Kongsvoll

Hamar is as good a place as any to pick up the 130-year-old paddle steamer, the DS Skibladner (t61 14 40 80, wskiblander.no), which shuttles up and down Lake Mjøsa during the summer offering wide views over rolling forested hills to east and west. Travellers heading north may find the trip to Lillehammer tempting at first sight, but the lake is not particularly scenic, and after four hours on the boat you may well feel like jumping overboard. The best bet is to take the shorter ride to Eidsvoll instead.

Sailings run from late June to mid-August. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the boat makes the return trip across the lake from Hamar to Gjøvik and on up to Lillehammer (just under 8hr; 320kr); on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays it chugs south to Eidsvoll and back (4hr 30min; 280kr); there’s no Monday service. Sailing times are available direct or at any local tourist office. Tickets are bought on board; one-way fares cost a little over half the return fare. In Hamar, the Skibladner jetty is handily located about 600m to the west of the train station along the lakeshore. In Lillehammer, it’s on the west side of the lake, across the bridge from the centre of Lillehammer, beside the E6.

In preparation for the 1994 Winter Olympics, the Norwegian government spent a massive two billion kroner on the town’s sporting facilities, which are now among the best in the country. Spread along the hillsides above and near the town, they include several dozen downhill ski trails catering for everyone from beginner to expert, floodlit slopes for night skiing, ski-jumping towers and multiple chairlifts, an ice hockey arena, and a bobsleigh track. There is even a special stadium – the Birkebeiner – where skiers can hone their skills before setting off into the mountains, which are crisscrossed by 350km of cross-country ski trails. As you would expect, most Norwegians arriving here in winter come fully equipped, but it’s possible to rent or buy equipment locally – the tourist office will advise, but note that advance booking is strongly recommended.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910) was a major figure in the literary and cultural revival that swept the country at the end of the nineteenth century. Bjørnson made his name with the peasant tales of Synnøve Solbakken in 1857 and thereafter he churned out a veritable flood of novels, stories, poems and plays, many of which romanticized Norwegian country folk and, unusually for the time, were written in Norwegian, rather than the traditional Danish. He also championed all sorts of progressive causes, from Norwegian independence through to equality of the sexes and crofters’ rights, albeit from a liberal (as distinct from leftist) viewpoint. Nowadays, however, his main claim to fame is as author of the poem that became the national anthem.

Carsten Ankers (1747–1824) was a close friend and ally of the Danish crown prince Christian Frederik, a connection that has given Eidsvoll national importance. Towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Russians and British insisted the Danes be punished for their alliance with the French, and proposed taking Norway from Denmark and handing it over to Sweden. In an attempt to forestall these territorial shenanigans, the Danes dispatched Christian Frederik to Norway, where he set up home in Carsten Ankers’ house in 1813, and proceeded to lobby for Norwegian support. In April of the following year more than a hundred of the country’s leading citizens gathered here near Eidsvoll to decide whether to accept union with Sweden or go for independence with Christian Frederik on the throne. The majority of this National Assembly chose independence, and set about drafting a liberal constitution based on those of France and the United States.

Predictably, the Swedes would have none of this. Four years earlier, the Swedes had picked one of Napoleon’s marshals, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, to succeed their previous king who had died without an heir. As King Karl Johan, Bernadotte was keen to flex his military muscles and, irritated by the putative National Assembly, he invaded Norway in July 1814. Frederik was soon forced to abdicate and the Norwegians were pressed into union with Sweden, though Karl Johan did head off much of the opposition by guaranteeing the Norwegians a new constitution and parliament, the Storting.