January 15th blog

Bloggers: Nikki Middendorf and Elizabeth Anderson

After waking up and eating yet another delicious hotel breakfast that consisted of eggs, meats, cheeses, fruits, and juices, we hopped on our tour bus and headed to Lillehammer. On the way to the city, we were able to stop and visit the 1994 Olympic ice-skating arena. I think its safe to say that we were all amazed by its size – it was huge and absolutely beautiful inside! We had a tour guide who told us a bit about the arena and the process the constructors went through for building it. Towards the end of our time spent inside the arena, we got to see what we assume to be a school class ice skate. Some children had regular skates on, and some had speed skates. It was fun to see the ice being used! We also noticed that there was a man getting his picture taken on the rink. The tour guide told us that this was the President of the Ice Skating Federation. He later came up to talk to our group. He told us that he came up with the starting position of how each speed skater starts their race. After our tour, we got back on the bus and soon arrived to the Radisson Blu hotel in Lillehammer, Norway. Most, if not all of us are in the basement floor of the hotel; it’s a bit chilly down here! Upon arrival, we headed to lunch right in the hotel, which was a large buffet, which we were all excited about and definitely took advantage of.  Some of us ate smoked shark. Due to a vast amount of snow falling throughout the day, our bus couldn’t drive on the roads so we headed off to an Olympic museum via our own walking feet. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and the museum was actually closed. We hope to be able to get a private tour of it tomorrow night! From here, we got freedom to go explore the quaint little town.

A couple of us took a detour to the town. We walked through a wooded path and saw a bridge over a small river. It was peaceful to walk around while the snow lightly fell down. Lillehammer is a beautiful town, the streets are decorated with garlands and gold stars. We first went to a small bakery on the edge of town. Many of us got a delicious chocolate or cinnamon treat. It was one of the best desserts we have ever tasted. As we were walking down Main Street we saw cameras toward a restaurant. We found out they were filming the TV series, “Lillehammer.” Dr. Banks tells us that this is one of his favorite shows that he watches on Netflix. The actors were on the second floor and we watched from outside for a while. The main actor noticed that we were looking up at him and yelled and waved at us from the window. Dr. Banks said that the main actor was the lead guitar player for Bruce Springsteen. Some of us are going to watch the TV series after the trip. A couple of us later went to a restaurant called, “Nikkers.” It was fun to socialize with the group and eat the wonderful food. After that we went back to the hotel. Many of us went swimming in the hotel. We had a lot of fun today. Tomorrow we have the choice to go skiing, dog sledding and snow shoeing.

Steven Van Zandt from the TV show Lillehammer (and Bruce Springsteen's band):