"Splendid Museum Experience" Lillehammer by gubbi1

Every holiday has an end and my roadtrip through the southern part of Norway came in the phase of a slow end when arriving in Lillehammer. Here I planned to stay overnight to have some time for the excellent museums that you can find here. If you think it is about walking inside a building, then this is only a part of what I mean. Here in Lillehammer you can find the Maihaugen, which is a huge and fantastic open-air museum for historic buildings in a authentic environment. But before l decided to drive a little out of town in the north, were you can find the official museum of the road authorities of Norway. This museum is free of charge, what is really surprising once you have seen its size. It covers the development of streets in Norway throughout the history, has a huge exhibition of bicycles, a room about security aspects of traffic and an outdoor exhibition of vehicles used by the traffic authorities.

Just on the other side of the road, in walking distance to the traffic museum, there is another museum about the technics of blasting practice. You may wonder what this is about, but while driving around in Norway you will have found the solution to this question... plenty of tunels. I was hoping to see the practise of blastings here, but the museum tunnel was closed as the museum. But there is a large outdoor exhibition of old vehicles used to build streets, which is pretty interesting.

As mentioned before the most fantastic experience for me in Lillehammer, was the excellent open-air museum Maihaugen. You can easily spend a day here if you have the time. My visit was on a sunny day what makes the experience even better. The museum is structured in different zones. In a very nature like area you will find groups of farm houses that make up small hamlets. Many of the houses are open and fully furnished, which makes you feel like transfered into a different time. Another area is a historic street with shops, a post museum and a trainstation. Not far away you will come in a part of the museum, that is quite strange. Here you will find pretty new houses. The quarter looks like it is not the museum anymore and you might hesitate to go to the houses to look into the garden or the windows, you wouldn't do it in your hometown. But once you see the signs telling you something about the house, you remember that it is the museum. These new houses were taken away from an area where an airport was built. Instead of being teared down, they found their new place in the museum. Once you have enough of the houses a great exhibition waits for you in the main building. Walking through connected rooms, you walk through the history of Norway starting in the past. It is really excellent made, a great experience.