Holmenkollen is a Ski jump and cross country ski festival located in Oslo. We went to Oslo in Svens car on the Friday and met the rest of the group, including the Norwegians at the Fram museum which houses the Fram; a polar expedition ship and is full of exhibits on polar exploration. Whilst the museum is very interesting Sven and I had already visited it during our trip to Oslo at New years and so we did not see very much that was new.

After the museum we went up to the camping area which was a short way from the jump but had the cross country track winding its way through the tents.

Over the weekend we visited the Ski jumping museum which gave an interesting insight into the history of Holmenkollen and to both ski jumping and cross country skiing in general. We also watched both the men’s and women’s ski jumping, we were able to watch the qualifiers from the stands but would have had to pay to enter for the championships and so watched from the hill over the road. We also watched the start of the men’s cross country race from there and then walked back to the campsite to watch them go past. Unfortunately the only competitors from the UK were fairly close to the back, but we cheered them on regardless.

The entire weekend was a good insight into how important skiing is to the Norwegian lifestyle and heritage. It was also a good opportunity to get to know the Norwegian students as we had not really spent much time with them.