It has a few thousand people in its municipality, a river that tumbles through a gorge beside the main street and a wooden stave church that has stood for more than eight hundred years. The church, with its dragon-headed gables and dark tarred planks, is among the oldest in Norway, and its interior of carved pillars and painted pews is very fine.
The road from here is the Sognefjellet, Route 55, the highest mountain road in northern Europe, topping out at around 1,430 metres. It climbs through Bøverdalen, past the entrance to the Jotunheimen national park, where Galdhøpiggen, at 2,469 metres, is the highest peak in the north of Europe. The scenery is bare and wide, with glaciers, black lakes and snow patches even in July, and the bends are open and well banked, with a smooth surface. The road is closed in winter, typically opening in May and shutting in late October, depending on snow, and weather can be cold and wet at the top. Reindeer and sheep graze beside the road, so watch for them.
Lom has a quiet character, and its centre has an outdoor shop, a mountain centre with exhibits on the peaks and a bakery that is known throughout Norway, where travellers queue for cinnamon buns and sourdough bread. The surrounding valley farms keep goats and make cheese, and the old wooden storehouses on stilts, built to keep grain from rats, stand beside the farmhouses.
Fuel is available in Lom, and it is a good idea to fill up before the climb, since stations are sparse on the mountain road. Vågåmo, twenty-eight kilometres to the east, is the next village of size, and the west side of the pass drops towards Luster and the Sognefjord, with more services and the famous stave church at Urnes nearby.
Visit the church if it is open. The smell of old tar and wood is the smell of Norway's past.