I almost forgot this summer adventure when Debeli took me on a romantic ride on the lake.

It was mid August, the weather was typical Norwegian (you never know which way is going – sunny or not :), but we didn’t care. We jumped on a local train and drove to nearby town Hamar, some hour and twenty minutes from Oslo.

Hamar is a small town in Hedmark county situated on a lake called Mjøsa. The lake is the largest one in the country and one of the deepest lakes, both in Norway and Europe. With an average depth of 153 meters most of the lakes volume is under sea level.

From its southernmost point at Minnesund in Eidsvoll to its northernmost point in Lillehammer it is 117 km long. At its widest, near Hamar, it’s 15 km wide.

That’s where we boarded the paddle stemaer Skibladner.

Skibladner is a sidewheel design, and her maiden voyage was on 2 August 1856, making her the world’s oldest paddle steamer still in timetabled service. Pretty impressive, right?

Anyway, the steamer was used to transport passengers between major towns on the lake, but today the majority of them are tourist, both foreign and domestic ones.

Our ride from Hamar to Eidsvoll took around 3 hours, and we passed by some sightseeing that we didn’t quite understood what it was, because the tour guide was explaining in Norwegian. Better luck next time 🙁

What we did understood was the farm that we passed used to deliver strawberries for boat. Speaking about the food; the menu for the lunch served on board haven’t changed in the last 162 years, since the beginning of the operating of the ship.

We passed under three bridges near Edsvoll, which was our final destination: Minnesund jernbanebru built in  1879, old Gamle Minnesundbrua from 1959 and Minnesund bru (Nye Minnesundbrua) that was opened in 1994, for the Winter Olympic games.

The trip is a fantastic one day trip if you have some extra time while in Oslo. Just make sure to bring good wind jacket, because it can get chilly on board.

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SKIBLADNER

Skoro sam zaboravila na ovu avanturu kad me Debeli odveo na romantičnu vožnju jezerom.

Bila je sredina kolovoza, vrijeme promjenjivo tipično za norveško ljeto, a nas dvoje slobodni od posla sjeli smo na lokalni vlak i odvezli se do Hamara.

Hamar je mali gradić u pokrajini Hedmark, udaljen nekih sat i dvadeset od Osla. Smješten je na jezeru Mjøsa, koje je najveće jezero u zemlji i jedno od najdubljih u Europi. Jezero se proteže preko 100 km u dužinu, a prosječna dubina mu je oko 153 metra, što znači da se velika količina vode nalazi ispod razine mora.

Na najširem dijelu jezera, oko 15 km, leži gradić Hamar gdje smo se mi ukrcali na najstariji parobrod koji još uvijek funkcionira po stalnom rasporedu.

Svoje prvo putovanje parobrod je imao drugog kolovoza 1856., što znači da već 162 godine služi kao prijevozno sredstvo između gradova što leže na obali jezera. Doduše, većina putnika sad su isključivo turisti, što strani tako i domaći koji izaberu neku od ruta, od kojih ona što povezuje Lillehammer, na sjeveru jezera, i Eidsvoll, na jugu, znači preko 3 sata vožnje.

Parobrod operira ljeti, a mi smo se ukrcali na njegovu zadnju vožnju prije zatvaranja sezone.

Mali od palube nešto je pričao o usputnim zanimljivostima, ali naše znanje norveškog dopuštalo je samo da uživamo u pogledu.

Ono što jesmo razumjeli da smo prošli pored farme koja je nekad direktno dostavljala jagode na brod za desert poslije ručka čiji se meni nije mijenjao od prvog dana.

Pred sam kraj vožnje, pred Eidsvollom, parobrod prođe ispod tri mosta od kojih je najstariji, onaj željeznički, sagrađen 1879., a najmlađi 1994., taman uoči otvaranja Zimskih olimpijskih igara u Lillehammeru.

Izlet parobrodom je savršen ako imate viška vremena dok ste u posjetu Oslu, samo se dobro obucite jer može biti friškasto na palubi.