It’s quite a while ago already since I visited Lillehammer for the Norway vs. India Davis Cup tie in September 2022. While I shared my review of the the famous Maihaugen with you in July 2023, it took me quite a while to complete my review of the Norwegian Olympic Museum. It is located in the main building of the open air museum.
Norwegian Olympic Museum – Location & Admission
The Norwegian Olympic Museum is located in the main building of Maihaugen. I already introduced you to the access to this amazing place in its review. Maihaugen is located Southeast of Lillehammer city center. You can walk from there, take a bus (Maihaugen stop, line B7) or park your car on the museum’s parking lot (for a charge). During my visit in 2022, the parking fee was 40 NOK.
The museum’s opening times differ by season. From June to August, you can visit the Norwegian Olympic Museum daily, 10:00 to 17:00. In the second half of May and September to mid-October, the times are 11:00 to 16:00, Mondays closed. The remaining season (about from Christmas Market times), Tuesday to Friday times are 11:00 to 15:00 and Saturday to Sunday times are 11:00 to 16:00. Admission to Maihaugen and the Norwegian Olympic Museum is 215 NOK (roughly 19 Euro) in summer and 165 NOK in other times. However, the Norwegian Postal Museum is closed at that time.
Norwegian Olympic Museum – The Visit
The museum is not overwhelmingly large, but the presentation is rather nice. Most of the documentation is bilingual, Norwegian and English. However, it is about sports anyway and thus, language issues are rather limited anyway. The museum starts with the history of the Ancient Olympic Games and the beginning of the Modern Olympic Games. There are some interactive screens which allow you to learn about the Olympic statistics of the country you are interested in. Overall, despite there are a lot of original items like equipment, the sports museum tries to be interactive and attractive for young visitors as well.
Not too surprisingly, there is a certain focus on the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. One room features big Olympic athletes, majorly with a domestic focus. This also means that you mainly have winter sports items in the displays – but you also run into big Norwegian summer athletes like track & field athlete Trine Hattestad, whose javelin is visible to you. As you see, the presentation is really nice. Due to the limited space, you typically won’t spend more than 30 minutes in the museum.
Norwegian Olympic Museum – Services
There is little memorabilia in the Maihaugen store.
Norwegian Olympic Museum – My View
I am very interested in Scandinavian sports. Thus, it is not that surprising that I overall enjoyed my visit. Nonetheless, I would have loved to have some more showcases about Norwegian athletes and more stories about the 1994 Winter Games. Nonetheless, sports fans will definitely enjoy their time at the Norwegian Olympic Museum.
Olympic Games
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Flyctory in Innlandet, Norway
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