Bergen and the Fjords of Norway, plus Oslo
Day 1
We arrived from Copenhagen by plane and even though it was an hour late, we were better off than on our arrival to Copenhagen with the mess on the trains.
We took the smart, efficient light rail from the airport to the Bergen city center. We huffed it half a mile with our suitcases to the hotel and got settled. We took a walk to look around and get some dinner. We walked over a hill, then down again, and made it to the picturesque Bryygen area around the harbor with the fish market.
We were enjoying ourselves but decided on the wrong thing for dinner. We ate a few yucky bites and then left it behind. We walked closer to our hotel and made the second bad decision about dinner. We walked into a Thai restaurant and while the food wasn’t too bad, the staff was having a private party. It was like mayhem and we ate and left as soon as we could.
Day 2
Sundays in Norway are quiet, so after yet another delicious Scandic Hotels buffet breakfast, we lingered in the room waiting for a shower to finish outside. Then we walked surprisingly close to our hotel to pick up the hop-on bus. We rode for about half the loop then got off to ride the funicular. There were stunning views from the top. We were petting some goats who live up there for the sole purpose of eating the wooden benches and being petted. Of course everyone, including us, were posing for pictures when I saw a raincloud on the horizon. We hustled into the cozy café, ordered cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, and very soon after, it poured down rain for about 5 minutes.
We finished our snack and since the rain had ended we took some photos and rode the tram back down the mountain. We hopped on the bus, finished the tour, and took some time to relax in our room. We have two long fjord touring days coming up and needed a quieter day.
After yet another rainstorm, we took a long walk along the cruise and industrial harbor. By pure luck, we discovered an arts center with a cafe and had a glass of wine waterside. It was perfect. Note that “perfect” in Norway in August also involves wearing puffy jackets because it is quite cool out.
We walked back and found a little French café and ate a deluxe burger and pasta.
Day 3 – Norway in a Nutshell Day
Every day from April to October, thousands of people make this particular Norway in a Nutshell trek, probably because Rick Steves (the European guidebook writer) says to do it. The tour is unguided and you either follow the crowds or your printed instructions. My instructions were only screenshots on my phone because the tickets came to my mom’s email, and I didn’t realize that until after we’d left and couldn’t print them out. But all was well, and we didn’t miss a beat in the long day of switching transportation and viewing the sites.
First, we walked to the train station and found our nice Vy Norwegian state-run train to Myrdal. We met some Americans from Indiana who we saw in Flam later that were on a different order of tour than us. It’s an international mix of travelers like no other place. During the 12-hour day, I heard people speaking Chinese, Japanese, French, German, English (all versions), Hindi, Spanish, Russian, and Norwegian.
After two hours of gasping at the fjords, waterfalls, cute towns, rivers, and mountains, we got off the train and got on the Flamsbana, another much older train that took us 20km to Flam. It is a famous scenic train ride and it didn’t disappoint. There was a stop where we all got off the train in front of a massive, raging waterfall. There was a stone house ruin about halfway up the side of the waterfall. This experience was really impressive as we were all getting soaked from the mist and listening to the pounding water. Then loud music started playing and a woman in a red dress with long white hair came out of the house and started dancing. She periodically went behind a rock or in the house and seemed to appear elsewhere. It was clearly several performers dressed alike but the illusion was ghostly and clever. But since we didn’t have a guide (some tour groups did so we over-listened) we had no idea to expect this and I thought it was weird.
Here’s what Google says about this experience: “Here, as passengers disembark on the viewing platform for a short break, a mysterious woman with long hair and a red dress emerges from the forest, dancing to a Norwegian folk song. She is the Huldra, an elusive forest spirit from Norse mythology.”
We got to Flam and had three hours to wait till our fjord cruise. We ate our picnic lunch under a gazebo because it was sprinkling. We had a glass of wine in a pub and then walked around the little town and lake/fjord arm where the boats picked up passengers for their cruise.
The whole day was starting to feel a little like my recent DMZ tour in Korea – very managed but interesting and very beautiful as well. So, next was our fjord cruise on a huge electric ferry boat.
We could see our large ship docked and ready to take us on the fjord trip while were resting and enjoying views of the fjord. When it was about time to get on the ship, we walked to the front where there was previously no one in line, but the latest contents of about 750 people of the Flamsbana had just jumped in line in front of us. No worries – there was space for everyone. We got on board and we soon took off on a beautiful trip through the fjord. The electric vehicle was amazingly quiet and we could easily hear the thundering waterfalls all along the trip. We were wearing all our cold weather gear when outside. That means long puffy coats, hats, gloves, gaiters, and hiking boots. It is August so it’s hard to imagine how cold it is in winter here!
We ended the cruise at a parking lot filled with buses. We got on one and rode to the bus to Voss. Then we got some snacks in Voss and got on the train back to Bergen. We walked to a pizza place and had a good pie, then collapsed in bed at our hotel after a very long, but scenic day. So that is the Norway in a Nutshell tour, and honestly, I think there must be a better way to see all that, though it was efficient, and I’d prefer any tour that includes a guide.
Day 4
We had given ourselves a Bergen day and it was especially rainy so we took it easy. We walked to the University of Bergen’s Natural History Museum. It was outstanding. The displays included the animal and plant life in Norway, the geologic history, and some interesting tech and science exhibits. We ate lunch in the cafe watching people and crows pass through a park in between showers.
We walked to a shopping center in the middle of town called Xhibition. It was housed in an old office or factory building. All the typical Scandic shops were there including Flying Tiger and Normal. As usual, there was a grocery store in the basement.
We had a fine dinner in a neat restaurant called Lola. When we left we got soaked in a big rainstorm walking back to our hotel. All this rain would make our tour the next day better because the waterfalls would be cranking.
Day 5
Today was another long day that started early. We were on a Viator tour on the same motor coach all day with a guide from Spain called Nakema and a driver, named Christian. We stopped first at a couple of waterfalls, including one where you can walk behind the falls. We had the most lovely sunny weather for this part of our trip. The sun shone through the water of the falls and we got some great photos behind the water.
Then the bus drove onto a ferry to cross the Hardanger Fjord. We were able to get off the bus while we crossed and the views were lovely.
Our main destination of the day was the Folgefonna National Park and glacier. Here we had a three-hour stop for a 1.5-mile walk to the alpine lake and a better view of the rapidly-receeding Folgefonna glacier. We enjoyed our lunch with some other guests and started walking back to the bus. Unfortunately, our extraordinary good luck with the weather ended there. It started raining on the way down and we were all pretty wet by the time we got back to the bus. Thank goodness for waterproof Columbia puffy jackets and our sturdy hiking boots.
We got stuck in traffic coming into Bergen and sat for an extra hour. It added to our long day. We walked by Opera Cafe and had some dinner.
Day 6
Again we had to set an alarm to make our train to Oslo. It was a dull, wet day and though the scenery on the train was fantastic, the trip was held up by a broken-down train ahead of us. We were only a half hour late this time. I think since we had already seen the fjords and mountains on our two different day trips, I would have taken a flight instead of the seven-hour train.
We took the high-speed train from Oslo Central Station to the airport, then the hotel shuttle bus. We had two nights in this extremely spare Best Western but we managed. I call this a repositioning night – in this case two nights – so you are close to the airport before an early international flight.
Day 7
We had our day trip to Oslo today, but it was raining so hard that I’m not sure we got the best impression of the city. We rode the hop-on bus around but the windows were so steamy we couldn’t see much. There didn’t seem to be a historical section of the city. We did stop at the wonderful National Museum and saw lots of decorative art, tech of yesteryear, and a collection of Edvard Munch paintings. His “The Scream” is displayed there and while he seemed like a talented painter, I’d need some further explanation of why that painting is famous.
We returned to the airport area, had a last dinner at the nearby Scandic hotel, packed again, and got ready for our early flights leaving Scandinavia the next day.
