Day 2
Breakfast was delicious. There were lots of cereals, but also continental and some local goodies (fish in three sauces (curry, tomato and sour) and local cheeses and hams). It was amazing to learn that the ski-lodge is only stocked once a week. They surely know what they are doing. After breakfast we also got a complimentary thermos of coffee and could make a lunch pack to take with us on the glacier.
After breakfast we went for a little stroll around Finse. We spent about half an hour standing in front of the webcam, trying to get our shot taken, which we eventually did. Then we visited the Rallarvegen Museet (the Railway Museum), that contained a large snow-clearing train. Pretty impressive. What was even more impressive was the fact that the entrance to the museum had been completely carved out of the snow. Only the roof was visible. The whole of the building was buried in snow, two storeys high! We had never seen anything like it.
Since we still hadn’t received our luggage (with all the warm clothing, gloves, boots, etc…) we were very lucky that today was a warm and sunny one. This enabled us to venture on the ice. But since they had four meters (!) of snow the week before during an unprecedented snowstorm, we needed to hire skis. That was tricky since most of us had never used them before and those who had, had only used regular skis.
These were cross-country skis. So climbing the glacier, but also coming down, was hard labour for most and dreadful for the rest. Four of us turned back after two kilometres, three more gave up after three. The rest got up to 4 kilometres, having to turn back a couple of meters before reaching the Appelsinhytta (the orange cabin), a red cross cabin where you can rest and enjoy a drink. But the weather was very clear and those who climbed the final kilometre got their first glimps of the Hoth Battlefield in the distance. It was all worth it!
When we got back to the lodge, Merete, the friendly innkeeper, had made a few calls on our behalf and learned that our luggage had arrived in Oslo, but would not be forwarded to us, because Brussels Airlines refused to pay for it on a Sunday (or some such crap story). Thanks for nothing, Brussels Airlines! We’ll wear our clothes another day, no problem.
We had duck for dinner and the weirdest dessert I had ever had.
