Touring Norway - trains, boats, and busses

Once Ed had a couple of days of jet lag recovery, we had our first week of adventuring. The first day was the train from Bergen to Oslo, with Norway in a Nutshell in the middle. That was as beautiful this time as ever. We took hundreds of pictures this week! I guess I'll spare you most of them...

Here we are in front of the falls on the Flåm railway.

This is a great shot showing how Norwegians live on the fjords, where the small towns hug the coastline with mountains and glacier valleys behind.

The train continued on to Oslo over the highest section, and the vacation homes (hytter) were windswept but not really lonely. They clustered together near the train stations.

Eating. An important thing! Travel guru Rick Steves recommends eating well at the breakfast buffet at the hotel, so we did. Check out this breakfast buffet!

The next way to eat more cheaply is to have picnics. This was in a park overlooking Oslo.

We ate all the shrimp and bread we could eat on a three-hour cruise of Oslo harbor. (Background music: Gilligan's Island theme) At the farthest part of the cruise, where we weren't sheltered by the harbor, the wind and waves really picked up. People were getting sprayed by waves over the bow. The crew had to take away the table centerpieces, since they were sliding around. It was fun!

Oslo is huge. We were in suburbs for an hour on the train before arriving. Downtown is like an American big city - lots of shopping and neon. Vigeland Park or Frognerparken is one of the highlights of Oslo. It is 80 acres of sculptures by one sculptor - Vigeland.

But our favorite sight in Oslo was the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. It had lots of interesting exhibits about how people around the world live in slums, how global warming could affect us, and interactive exhibits of the winners. The coolest thing was a book that you could control what is written by pointing to symbols on the pages. It was all about Alfred Nobel's life.

Our next transportation mode was an overnight train to Trondheim. The cabin had bunkbeds and a sink, a couple hangers on the wall, and a ladder to the upper bunk. We got to sleep okay, but at 3 am, the loudspeaker told us we had 20 minutes before we all had to get off the train! There was no power on one section of track, so we had to transfer to 4 busses for an hour, then back onto another train. That train was heading south from Trondheim to Oslo. When we got to the station where we got off the busses, the other train riders were trying to put their luggage in the busses' holds at the same time we were getting ours out. Yet, it all worked out. We got on the new train on the same car number and cabin number. It had been slept in by the southbound people, but heck - we fell asleep right away anyway. We actually arrived at Trondheim only 2 minutes behind schedule. They've done this before!

Trondheim has the most northern Gothic cathedral. It is beautiful. St. Olav's festival was going on while we were there. Lots of street music and booths and people in medieval clothes to be seen.

Our next mode of travel was the Hurtigruten, the Coastal Express ship, from Trondheim west and south to Bergen. Ed proved he is "sensitive" by getting seasick. He didn't have much fun on the day and a half trip, or the half day afterward when we got to land. We also had an adventure on the ship - engine problems! They had a lot of problem whenever we would pull into a harbor, stop, and have to get going again. They cancelled several stops and sailed straight to Bergen after Ålesund so they could get repairs. It took 45 minutes after we reached Bergen harbor to maneuver into dock!

On the way, we passed a Tall Ship heading for Bergen. The sailing ships race from Liverpool, on the far side of the UK, up to a port in Norway north of us, then sail down to Bergen for a 4 day party. The town is jammin'! There are about 75 huge sailboats moored here, with open houses, parties, street performers, 3 music and ceremony stages, and maybe 100,000 people. Our apartment looks right over all the fun, including fireworks last night. WooHoo! (Yes, those are sailors hanging from the yardarms in the left picture!)

Our apartment is in the white building directly behind the tall white ship.

Ed and I hiked to the top of Floyen Saturday morning. He is a convert now. He says he did not appreciate how beautiful is is here from my pictures and letters. But now that he's hiked Floyen, he can't stop raving about it.