No fishing = time for Lom Stave Church

Really disappointed that Tim didn’t get his fishing trip but it’s time to start ticking off the 7 to 8 hours it will take us to get back to Oslo. The bonus being we could leave early today and fit in a side trip to visit Lomskyrkja (the church in Lom) - a stave church. None of us have seen a church anything like this one that dates back to 12th century, wood examinations reveal probably 1150’s and it continues to be a functioning church today. All wood from the massive wooden staves that frame out the church, to the walls, flooring, roofing and fit out except for the odd bit of metal in the font etc and of course the pipe

organ added in 20th century. Chunky St Andrew’s Cross shaped scissor braces hold things up inside. What amazing care the parishioners have provided over the centuries to preserve this stunning building, being wooden throughout there is an ongoing challenge to sensitively repair and replace. Although little done to it for the first 300 years, there’s been extensive additions and changes since then as the population grew and creature comforts considered, including heating - they must have been hardy souls with expert layering skills to survive masses prior to that. It seems this has always been a busy church, right back to pilgrims travelling through until the decimating 1349 Black Death Plague. Originally a much smaller rectangular barn like structure with bench seating around the walls only for elderly or sick, although they got through medieval masses much quicker than they do today. Some of the oldest remaining wood is the porch (see pic of little door top right page 93) but much of it added/renewed over the centuries. The ‘acanthus

baroque style’ carved wooden pulpit and sounding board above it were added in 1793. The candelabra donated by a parishioner in 1664. A group of farmers funded the altarpiece in 1669. The many paintings from 1710-1736.

It was a four hour drive from Trondheim to the stave church in gorgeous Lom, then another hour to Vinstra for our overnight stay in a low budget hostel level hotel, that the current owners are trying to breath life back into after years of neglect. Shared lounge and dining area have been brought up to good standard but our rooms remain very basic. Booking paid for a 3 in 1 room where I would have scored the bunk bed with my head a metre from the toilet = good language barrier score that I ended up with my own room and the choice of four places to sleep. Oddly enough had the best sleep since leaving NZ.
> Checking out that the lawn robot is doing a good job, Lom’s version of a bucket fountain, cute way of storing firewood, gentler landscapes now with farms and lifestyle blocks, another bridge and tunnel, cooking dinner in the shared kitchen at Peer Gynt ‘Hotel’ and hotel pics following page, note stack of communication hardware on roof that reflects how far out of town the hotel is.