The small passenger ferry that crosses the Glomma between the New Town quay and Gamlebyen is not just a way to get across the river — it is one of those travel experiences that are disproportionate in their pleasure. The crossing takes roughly two minutes. You step aboard a flat-bottomed vessel with room for perhaps thirty people, cross a working river busy with smaller craft, and step off into a cobblestoned street inside a 17th-century fortress. The transition is abrupt and surprisingly moving.
The ferry runs frequently throughout the day and into the evening in summer. The fare is minimal. It is, by some distance, the recommended way to arrive in Gamlebyen — not through the road gate, but from the water, as generations of soldiers, merchants, and townspeople did before you.