Expat Travel Mom

Nine days, one rental car, and a route that took us from Oslo up into the mountains and back down to the fjords, this was one of those trips where every single day gave us something we're still talking about. No kids on this one, just us, the open road, and a country that turned out to be far more layered, and far more welcoming, than we expected. This is a LONG 9 day post for the ultimate road trip, so settle in with a coffee or tea and enjoy the adventure.

Oslo, Where It All Began

We kicked things off with a walk along the Akerselva River, once the industrial heart of Oslo and now a green corridor cutting straight through the city. Our first real stop was Mathallen, an indoor food market tucked inside an old brick factory, instantly overwhelming in the best way, with options we simply don't get at home. Fair warning: prices in Norway run close to Singapore levels, dining and drinks aren't cheap here.

Following the river further, we stumbled onto Wermuteria for a drink overlooking Nedre Foss Park, packed with locals soaking up the last of the summer evening. Then came the real highlight: as we continued walking along the river, we heard faint music that turned into a full-on live concert at Blå, one of Oslo's most iconic venues, headlined by Norwegian musician Bjørn Eidsvåg. We had no idea at the time just how big a deal that was. Eidsvåg is a genuine institution in Norway, an ordained Lutheran minister turned singer-songwriter who's been recording since the 1970s and has released nearly 30 albums. Norwegians of multiple generations grew up on his songs, "Eg Ser" and "Skyfri himmel" among them, and a Bergen newspaper once nicknamed him "rikstrøsteren," roughly, "the nation's comforter." He's known for weaving his background working in psychiatry into deeply personal lyrics, and for a stage presence that makes an arena feel like a living room. We stumbled into a Blå show that plenty of Norwegians would have planned months in advance for. We loved his music!

The next morning, before heading out of the city, we walked to the waterfront for a view of the Oslo Opera House, a sleek, iceberg-like building you can actually walk across the roof of. It's a genuinely remarkable piece of architecture, designed by the Norwegian firm Snøhetta, which won an international competition beating out 350 other entries, and completed in 2007, ahead of schedule and under budget. It's the largest cultural building constructed in Norway since Nidaros Cathedral was finished around the year 1300. The whole point of the design was to blur the line between architecture and public space, the sloping roof was built to be climbed by anyone, any time, giving Oslo an entirely new kind of public plaza rising straight out of the fjord. Quiet, calm, and the perfect send-off before the real adventure began.

(Practical note: look up parking rules before you go, and download an app like EasyPark, it'll save you a headache.)

Lillehammer and the Olympic Hills

Arriving in Lillehammer felt like stepping into a postcard, Olympic rings greeting us at the edge of town, sparkling water below, ski jumps rising in the distance.

We spent a full morning at Maihaugen, an enormous open-air museum. You could lose an entire day wandering the outdoor village trails (complete with goats) before ducking into indoor exhibitions covering everything from Norway's Olympic history to one man's staggering antique collection. One quiet highlight: stepping inside Queen Sonja's actual childhood home.

We checked into our Airbnb after a long afternoon (OMG cutest thing ever). By late afternoon we wandered into Lillehammer's old town, stopping first at the Vinmonopolet, Norway's government-run liquor store, since anything over 4.5% alcohol can only be purchased there, and only before 6pm. A quirky cultural detail that caught us off guard. Dinner was kebab plates to warm up after a full day of travel, and we turned in early, knowing the next day would be a big one.

A Morning With the Ski Jumpers, Then Huskies

We were lucky enough to be staying within walking distance of the trail up to the top of Lillehammer's Olympic ski jumps. A brisk morning walk got us to the top just as athletes were finishing a practice session, and for about an hour we stood in genuine awe watching jumpers soar through the air. We even met members of the women's ski jump team, who train here under a partnership with the U.S. (Tip: there's a chairlift up, or about 800 stairs if you're feeling ambitious. We split the difference.)

We grabbed lunch back in town, having one of the best loaded baked potatoes since our kumpir in Istanbul! Some more walking around town while we killed time waiting for the evening. The real highlight of the day came in the hills above town: a husky tour with Sjusjøen Husky Tours, near Lake Hornsjøen. Before booking, I did the deep-dive research ethical travelers do, and learned that Norway has some of the strictest animal welfare laws in the world. Kennels are inspected. Dogs get proper shelter, vet care, and exercise. These animals are treated as athletes and family, good owners won't run them above 11°C, and in summer, some kennels even rent dog parks in two-hour blocks just so the huskies can play and burn energy. We didn't even know if we'd be able to do the tour until the night before, even though I booked it months prior, because it all depended on the temperature that day. 

What struck me most was how obviously these dogs love their job, tails going wild, bouncing straight up in the air, yelping with joy the second it's time to run. Sjusjøen is small and family-run, they know every single dog by name. You can cuddle puppies, walk them in the mountains, or head out on an actual sled tour, no rigid trails, just freedom and fresh air. 

The Long, Beautiful Drive to Lom

Travel days in Norway are their own kind of experience, every bend in the road reveals a new jaw-dropping view. We broke up the drive with a stop in Otta for the famous cinnamon rolls (kanelsnurrer) at Ødegården Bakery, genuinely worth the detour. (Pro tip: if you're there in August, the winter-gear shops run massive sales, 50-70% off, worth a browse if you need to stock up. Don't know if this is normal, but we encountered so many sales!)

By afternoon we reached Lom, staying nearby in Garmo at this Airbnb. With check-in still hours away, we wandered into town and were struck by how quiet and peaceful it was, we'd timed our trip well enough to mostly avoid the crowds. The first thing that caught our eye was the Bøvra River and its waterfall lookout, right in the center of town (the town is tiny, you'll see it!). Just beyond it, the Lom Stavkyrkje, one of Norway's largest stave churches, glowing against the late afternoon sun, dark wooden walls against blue sky and green hills. We arrived just after closing and had the outside completely to ourselves.

First built in the mid-1100s. Stave churches take their name from the vertical wooden posts, or "staves," used in construction. At their peak, Norway had over 1,000 of these churches; today only 28 remain, and Lom's is one of the largest. For centuries it served pilgrims traveling to Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. Inside, much of the painted decoration dates to the early 1700s, the work of church painter Eggert Munch, a cousin of the far more famous Edvard Munch, several generations earlier. Standing surrounded by centuries-old timber and painted biblical scenes felt like stepping into a living piece of Norway's history.

Stave churches are Norway's own contribution to world architecture, and there's nothing else quite like them anywhere. They were built almost entirely by former Vikings, newly converted to Christianity but still working with the only skills they knew, shipbuilding, which is why the churches often look like upside-down longships, dragon heads curling off the roof gables just like the prows of Viking ships. As many as 1,000 to 2,000 were built across Norway between roughly 1030 and the mid-1300s, all timber, no nails, just interlocking wooden joints, and yet many survived storms, fires, and centuries of Norwegian winters. Today only 28 remain standing in the entire world, nearly all of them in Norway, which makes every single one you visit a genuinely rare thing to see.

Lom's Bakery, a 900-Year-Old Church, and a Dinner We're Still Talking About

The next morning started at the legendary Lom Bakery, founded in 2004 by baker Morten Schakenda, who trained at Norway's Culinary Institute before returning home to champion traditional Norwegian baking, wood-fired ovens and all. Their cinnamon rolls and custard buns are a national treasure for a reason. We arrived right at opening and had the place to ourselves.

 

We also visited one of the oldest grain barns in Norway, dating to the 1600s, a relic of Gudbrandsdalen's farming heritage, once considered the breadbasket of the country. Then on to the Lom Bygdemuseum, an open-air folk museum founded in 1907, preserving traditional log houses and tools, a walk that felt like a history lesson and a nature hike at once. 

We crossed the river, but not without stopping for some jaw dropping photos of the most beautiful river I've ever seen in my life, and stopped by the Fossheim Steinsenter, home to one of Norway's largest mineral collections.

Finally, Lom Brewery, where master brewer John, despite being closed for the season, invited us in for a private tour anyway, explaining how he uses local water and regional grains for his lagers. Brewing has deep roots here, tied historically to farm life and even Viking ritual. He has a gin on the way! I would recommend calling ahead to see if their restaurant is open, and if their brewery is open for tours. 

But the highlight of the day was dinner at Brimi Sæter, a mountain farm beside Lake Tesse, 870 meters up at the edge of Jotunheimen National Park. I was so excited for this experience, knowing it would be an absolute highlight that would be near impossible to put into words. A sæter is a traditional summer farm, where families once moved their livestock into the high pastures each summer for grazing and cheesemaking, a practice that goes back centuries in this valley and is still, remarkably, a living tradition: only around 700 of these summer farms remain active in Norway today, and in 2024 the entire sæter tradition was added to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Brimi is a name that carries real weight in this region, the family runs a small network of farms and eateries across the Lom and Vågå area known locally as "Brimiland," including one restaurant helmed by the well-known Norwegian chef Arne Brimi. This particular sæter has kept the old ways fully intact, milk from their own cows, cheese made by hand, animals you can walk right up to. Long wooden tables filled with Norwegian families, friends returning year after year, and we were the only "foreigners," as they called us, warmly welcomed right in.

Before the meal, we toured the farm: animals, cheese aging in the storeroom, a barn tucked beneath the restaurant itself. Then came the signature meal, known here as "Skråpå-tå," a four-course dinner built entirely around melting the farm's own mountain cheese on handmade tabletop grills at the long communal tables. Goat cheese on flatbread, trout soup pulled from their own lake, grilled meats, and dessert built around our first taste of brunost, Norway's beloved brown cheese. A young server, studying the music of his grandfather Hans W. Brimi, played traditional fiddle throughout the meal, carrying a family legacy forward one note at a time. At our table, local women shared stories of growing up in the valley and why they still return, decades later. It wasn't just dinner, it was being invited, for one evening, into a tradition that's been quietly passed down for generations and somehow, in 2024, earned recognition from the entire world for it.

The Road to Flåm

One of the longest, most beautiful drives of the entire trip. We stopped first at the Sagastøyla Statue, created by Wilhelm Rasmussen in the 1920s to honor Norway's history, blending Viking sagas and medieval kings, right beside the Elveseter Hotel, which felt like something out of a Disney film. Across the valley, we caught a glimpse of Galdhøpiggen, the highest mountain in Northern Europe at 2,469 meters.

The drive continued through the mountains, passing sheep, snow, and going around more hair-pin turns than I cared for, lol! But it was gorgeous. I mean sheep EVERYWHERE on this trip...especially in the middle of the road. One complaint locals have is how tourists drive, not realizing how dangerous their roads can be, especially with the furry companions sometimes just having a lie down in the middle of the road.

We crossed by ferry at Mannheller, stopped at Laksen Bakery, famous for its own cinnamon rolls, in what was once a thriving salmon-fishing hub. Rather than take the long Lærdal Tunnel, even though many blogs swear by it, we opted for the old mountain road for the views, and at the top, stopped at Stegastein Viewpoint, perched 650 meters above the fjord. Crowded, yes...kinda, but worth every minute. We were lucky to find parking relatively easy, and get our photos. The narrow road down into Flåm was its own adventure, more hairpin turns and patient waiting for oncoming cars.

Flåm, Fjord Safari, and the Real Arendelle

As soon as we arrived, we checked in for a fjord safari across Aurlandsfjord and partway into Nærøyfjord, a UNESCO World Heritage site so narrow that motorized boats can't go further. Our guide shared the history of tiny fjord towns like Flåm, Aurland, and Undredal, along with a local legend of two brother trolls who shaped the landscape. We even spotted a porpoise and a colony of cormorants.

For any fellow Disney fans: the town of Undredal genuinely inspired Arendelle in Frozen, while a grand stave church further down the fjord inspired Elsa's castle. Disney simply put the two together on a map and added glaciers. That made this Disney fan pretty happy to see how they got the ideas!

The tour also introduced us to Stigen Gard, a mountain farm perched impossibly high above the fjord with no road access, only reachable by boat and a steep climb. Even today, the farm there has no plumbing or electricity, yet families have kept the farm alive for centuries. (see the second photo, that tiny white house on top of the unrelenting mountain climb)

Dinner back in Flåm, was unfortunately, not what we expected at all. We chose Ægir BrewPub based on some other blogger's recommendations. For the price $$$, and based on reviews, we thought this would be another special experience of our already magical trip. However, it was impersonal, rushed and the overall sense was one of turning tables for the next guests. It has the potential to be wonderful, but I think it has to do with this area being a cruise ship port of call. The mentality seems rushed, and we weren’t even there on a cruise ship day. Servings were relatively small as well. We walked around the rest of the town, checking out the shops (more winter clothing shops with great discounts), and the troll you must say hi to, and retired for the night at our Airbnb.

(Honest note: f you're doing Flåm yourself, check the cruise ship schedule before you go and just stay there on non-ship days...easy, and skip the Flåm Railway if you're already road-tripping, you'll see the same stunning landscape at your own pace.)

Beating the Crowds: A Morning in Flåm Done Right

Knowing a cruise ship was docking at 9:30am, we planned around it, and it turned into one of our best days. First stop: Flåm Kyrkje, a tiny wooden church from 1670, simple and beautiful, and at 9am we had it entirely to ourselves. You could just sit in there in absolute peace and get lost. As we drove away, down the road towards town, you could already see the ship goers walking towards the church, as it's a stop of the must do/see day planning.

By 10, we drove up to Otternes Bygdetun, a cluster of 27 wooden buildings perched high above the Aurlandsfjord, reached by a steep, narrow gravel track that made us grateful for a small rental car. We were the only ones here, again, beating the cruise ship crowd. It's absolutely worth getting your early start. This is a "klyngetun," a clustered farmyard, most of it built between 1700 and 1800, when Otternes was actually four separate family farms sharing pastures, barns, and storehouses rather than one single property. At its peak, more than 60 people lived and worked here, following the old Norwegian rhythm of transhumance: winters down in the valley, summers moving the livestock up to mountain sæters, not unlike Brimi, just a few days earlier. The farm was fully abandoned by 1996, then passed into public stewardship starting in 1974, and it's now protected right down to its gardens, stone walls, and footpaths. 

Walking between the weathered timber houses, Guttormstova and Eilertstova among them, with the old road between Flåm and Aurland running straight through the middle of the site, felt like wandering into a village that simply stopped one day and was never touched again. We enjoyed waffles with brown cheese (read more on this at below!) and coffee on a bench overlooking the valley, unforgettable. (Tip: waffles usually start around 11, so place your order and then wander the site until then.) 

From there, on to Aurland, the "biggest" town in the region, still tiny and charming. We browsed shops, including the original Aurland shoe (the penny loafer!), and had jewelry made at a local studio for our girls. It's a really charming town, it's also one of the only place for miles that you'll find anything like a SPAR for groceries or medicine (which comes out of an automated machine), so stock up if you need anything on your road trip. Although, there is a grocery store of sorts near the campground in Flåm, so you can go there too. The Aurland Kyrkje and its old cemetery were another highlight, names tying straight into Norway's history.

Arendelle...I mean Undredal!

Finally, Undredal itself, the real inspiration for Arendelle, a fjordside village of only around 70 year-round residents who are wildly outnumbered by their own goats, more than 400 of them. When you think about 400 goats, it doesn't sound like a lot, but then you SEE 400 goats, you realize the enormity! Goats literally walked past us on the road into town, stopping us actually. 

After parking, we walked around the town amongst the everyday homes and marveled at the simple, majestic life these people were living. We visited the tiny church, Norway's smallest stave church, built in 1147, then settled at Undredal Brygge, run, we later realized, by our own Airbnb host, right on the water. If you plan ahead, you can even use their sauna! Lunch was unforgettable: Diabola pizza topped with brown cheese, plus a charcuterie board of local goat cheeses and meats, all while overlooking the water. The beauty of it...cruise shippers often don't know about this place, nor have a way to get here, so you can enjoy the peace and quiet and beauty of the fjords. (Tip: buy some cheese while you're here...you won't be able to buy it in other parts of Norway!)

Until 1988, Undredal wasn't even reachable by road, only by boat, which is probably exactly why its cheesemaking traditions stayed so intact. Three family farms here operate together as Undredal Stølsysteri, and the co-op holds a real distinction: it was the first dairy in Norway fully authorized to produce and sell raw-milk goat cheese, both the white and the brown, across Europe. That's not a small thing, in 1991 Norwegian food safety regulators tried to force all cheesemakers here to pasteurize, and Undredal's producers fought to keep making it the traditional raw-milk way, a fight recognized today by Slow Food's international Presidium for defending small producers' rights to make cheese the old way. Brown cheese itself, brunost, isn't cheese in the traditional sense at all, it's made by slowly cooking down whey until the milk sugars caramelize, which is exactly where that deep amber color and sweet, almost fudge-like flavor comes from. Locals are serious enough about their claim to the tradition that there's a goat statue standing in the middle of the village honoring it. 

Farewell, Norway, Flåm to Oslo

Our last full day started with one more stop at Flåm Bakery, packed thanks to a second cruise ship, but well worth the wait. Packed up and back in the car, we skipped the Lærdal Tunnel again, trading speed for scenery, sparkling lakes, waterfalls, winding roads, and sheep wandering wherever they pleased. Along the way we made an unplanned stop at the Gardnos Meteorite Crater, a 5-kilometer-wide impact site formed roughly 546 million years ago when a meteorite an estimated 200 to 300 meters across slammed into the Norwegian bedrock. For decades geologists actually assumed it was an old volcanic crater, it wasn't confirmed as a meteorite impact until 1990. It's considered one of the most accessible meteorite craters on Earth, you can drive straight into the center of it, tours were closed for the season, but we explored what we could.

Our real destination was Hadeland Glassverk in Jevnaker, Norway's oldest industrial company, founded in 1762 and still producing glass today. We arrived just before closing, catching a glimpse of the giant ovens before the doors shut, and a kind staff member let us in for one last look at the shop, where I picked up some beautiful Norge glass storage jars. Dinner that night, recommended by the staff at Hadeland, was at a local pizzeria, and it turns out Norway does Italian-style pizza astonishingly well.

We drove back to Oslo for one last night, same Airbnb in which we started, packed our bags, and the next morning grabbed breakfast at Papegøye. Lovely cafe with simply delicious food and drink. Great for gluten free and vegan. I had the most amazing oat/flax/chia breakfast (wish I knew what was fully in it to make it at home!), and a spiced latte (oh my yum!). Highly recommend. And of course we grabbed a cinnamon roll to take home to our daughter, because Norway is famous for them. 

We will be back. There's still so much of Norway left to see, the tiny cabins, the outdoor adventures, the places best explored slowly. But what stood out most, more than any single view, was the kindness of the people, always willing to share their stories and their history. Takk, Norway. You were unforgettable.