Gjøvik sits on the west shore of Lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, with a compact centre, a working railway station, and a waterfront that looks across to the farms and low hills of Innlandet. It is not one of Norway's showpiece towns, but it has a handful of very specific reasons to stop.
The strangest is Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall, an ice-hockey arena blasted inside the mountain for the 1994 Winter Olympics. Down by the lake, the white paddle steamer Skibladner still calls in during summer, giving Gjøvik a link to the old age of lake travel. Above town, Eiktunet preserves timber farm buildings and makes a good walk when the weather is clear.
Gjøvik works best as a gentle day between bigger Norwegian stops: arrive by train, see the cavern hall, walk through the centre and the lakefront, then climb to Eiktunet for the view back over Mjøsa. It is quiet, but not empty.