AS of today, the 13th of January, the hunt for our Happy Bee Retreat is now over. After almost two years of looking up and down the west coast of Norway, including one year of visiting and researching prospects in Hardangerfjord, we’ve finally found our new home in a completely different part of the country – in Østlandet.
We are the happy owners of a house surrounded by forest and situated near a natural lake. Our new home is Landåsbygda, which means land (land), ås (the gods or a hill), and bygda (village). So depending on the translation, it could either be a country village on a hill, or the country village of the gods.
Landåsbygda is a part of the Søndre Land municipality, and belongs to the county of Oppland. Oppland is one of only two counties in Norway that is landlocked. The capital or main administrative centre of Oppland is Lillehammer. Travel distance to Oslo is two hours by car.
View of our home ‘Fjellhaug’ from the garden in winter snow
After having spent most of our time and effort researching Hardangerfjord on the western coast of Norway, what we know about Oppland is actually very little. We hadn’t included Oppland in our home hunting radius. Visiting the area was actually a last minute addition to our weekend viewing list.
It was one of those intuitive moments – from the very first glimpse of the property on Finn.no to our arrival in person last Sunday morning.
We really could imagine living here, despite it being a little further away and further north than we had anticipated. It was the peace, the view of the lake and forest, the pristine nature all around us, and the rural lifestyle that checked all the boxes for us. Of course, the house itself and the way the owner had renovated it, also played a large role. As you say in Norwegian, everything about it was and is koselig. Everything we had had on our ‘wish list’ was more or less there.
The drive up from Oslo went very quickly, and the various routes we took up and back, proved to us that reaching Oslo and also Gardermoen airport in the future, will be a piece of cake.
The investigation of our new home will now begin – a discovery in the truest sense of the word. We welcome you to the beginning stages of our Happy Bee Retreat.