The Lonely Planet guidebook said dimissively of Hamar that "there is little to detain travellers here for long. . . ." We only visited Hamar because an old picture showed that Ken's family originated in this small town a few hours north of Oslo on Lake Mjøsa.
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How wrong the guidebook was! We regretted that we had only planned to spend one day. Hamar is small with only 23,000 people. However, it is very engaging. Best of all are Lake Mjøsa, the Cathedral ruins and Hedmarks Museum that includes items from the Iron Age through the 18th century. This museum displays the oldest ski in Norway and perhaps in the world. The ski is 2000 years old!
Of course, as in so many other cities, there is an Open-Air Museum with 18th and 19th century farmsteads. The building to the right looked something like the one in Ken's family picture (except that the old house was covered in three feet of snow!)
