Home Again!

Nothing like the business of wrapping up a long trip, re-packing while trying to make sure your suitcases don’t weigh more than your allotted 23 kilograms each, and then a long day spent on airplanes….anyway, we’re just now getting around to this “final” post.  (There may actually be more, as we sift through our 10,000 pictures and process impressions.)

Our last day was spent in rainy Bergen, where the only things open on Sunday are restaurants and museums.  We were feeling kind of museumed-out, so we mostly hung around our hotel room (luckily one of the largest ones of the entire trip!), doing the above-mentioned tasks.

The rain did stop in the afternoon, however, so we went out for a longish walk, since the next day was to be all about airplanes.

The plan for the day had been to take the Floibanan up to the top of the cloud-shrouded mountain in the background, to take in the beautiful panorama visible from the top.  However, the cloud cover made this seem less appealing, so we walked around the pond a couple of times instead.

And, they had changed out the flower beds since we were here six weeks ago—even on a gray day, the colors really popped.

Bergen’s Flesland Airport was a model of efficiency, especially compared to the chaos we encountered when passing through Oslo’s Gardermoen a few weeks ago.  Our flights went without a hitch, and our housesitter Evan met us at the airport and drove us home.

We both found the jet-lag a bit more of an issue coming this way than going…of course, going over, you’re just starting a trip and so you have some incentive to get out and do things.  Coming home, there’s less incentive to go grocery-shopping, pay the bills, add up the travel expenses, etc.  But it’s been a few days now, and we’re almost back to normal.  Though we both preferred the Nordic temperatures, especially above the Artic Circle, to Denver’s high 80s/low 90s!

Boats, Buses, and Trains (and Feet)

We had most of the day to spend in Flåm, so, knowing that we had a long day of boats, buses, and trains ahead, we took a 2-hour walk along the edge of the fjord away from town. Here's the view the giant cruise ship was hiding:

It was rather a misty, moisty morning:

At one point, Sheila spotted "something" out in the water.  An occasional, black, rounded shape would appear and disappear.  After several tries, Lars managed to get enough of a shot to make an I.D.:

It was two (or more) harbor porpoises, locally called "Nise".  Local info indicated that we wouldn't have seen them if the cruise ship hadn't left, as those big ships have to run their engines constantly, causing a lot of noise pollution in the water.

And, of course, there were some flowers:

Our last part of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour proved to be quite rewarding -- a two-hour cruise in two fjords and then a bus ride to Voss, where we boarded a local train to Bergen.

The tour boat was once a fjord ferry that could carry perhaps a dozen autos, a bus, and a semi-truck, all at the same time. Now it carries tourists and has a glass-enclosed area in case of really bad weather. This day, Norwegian weather reminded us that it can rain on a moment's notice, as it did, bringing out the rain gear.

The day started with rain showers and poor visibility but soon large patches of blue sky started appearing and the remainder of the day was fairly nice weather, if a bit cool.

We were not far from the dock when some members of the large Japanese tour group started feeding the "gulls" (kittiwakes) pieces of dried fish. Soon everyone was watching the suddenly much-increased number of birds competing for the free food and dive-bombing passengers about to toss more food. After a while, some of the remaining, now well-fed kittiwakes took a rest on the back end of the boat.

Riding slowly through the Aurlands- and Nærøyfjords gave us a new perspective on the spectacular Norwegian scenery:

The ferry has another purpose, to deliver mail to small towns along the fjord.

At the end of our fjord tour we boarded 3 or 4 buses, all "Norway in a Nutshell" buses, for the next segment of our tour. We boarded the buses adjacent to a fjord hotel in Gudvangen that demonstrates nicely some of the side-benefits of a turf/sod roof -- lots of pretty flowers on the roof.

But, the absolute best was yet to come. On the road  from Gudvangen to Voss runs past a famous hotel from 1885, the Stalheim Hotel.  The hotel has one of the most fantastic views!!

The buses drove slowly down a very steep, windy road ....

The bus driver went even more slowly than essential for safety on this 18% grade, stopping at every turn ..... so we got lots of nice pictures of one of the world's most scenic glacial valleys. Of course, there were some spectacular waterfalls, here is one.

After this, normal scenic Norway the rest of the way to Voss and on the train to Bergen was "not what it used to be"....

Norwegian Trains and their Tunnels & Norway In A Nutshell

Norwegian trains are different than most other trains because they spend a lot of their time underground, in tunnels – long tunnels, short tunnels, straight tunnels, curved tunnels, even S-shaped tunnels. In just this week alone, we have ridden trains through more kilometers of tunnels than in our entire previous lives. Norwegian trains spend so much time in tunnels ‘cause Norwegians don’t like to go around mountains, so they make long, more or less round holes in them, big worm holes that go right through mountains to the other side. And then they put railroad tracks in some and roads in others. No more letting mere mountains determine your path!!

Here is a picture of a red Norwegian train – they are all red, at least the state-owned ones – about to transit through a tunnel. Yes, this is a VERY short tunnel – you can see right through this one. Normally, here is what passengers see when a train is going through a mountain, instead of around it.

We much prefer the view OUTSIDE the tunnels, such as seen in these pictures on the way up to Hardanger Vidda and up on the vidda.

Frustratingly, long stretches of the inside-the-tunnel view are separated by tantalizing glimpses of the following, usually without time to get your camera ready.

And then nearly everyone got off the train at Myrdal …… where we were waiting for the green train from Flåm to come so we could all jam ourselves and our baggage into it for a short and scenic ride down the steepest standard-gauge railroad in the world.  Some parts of it are a 55% grade, and one of its tunnels makes a 180-degree turn!  It kind of spirals down through the mountain.

After the train winds down the mountain it ends up in the fjord-side town of Flåm.

We are actually on a sort of tour, or rather a package deal, called “Norway in a Nutshell”.  There are various routes you can take…we are using it to get from Oslo to Bergen.  First there was the regular train, from Oslo to Myrdal.  Then, as detailed above, we got off that train and got on the special one down to Flåm.  We had about a half-kilometer walk (with luggage) to the Heimly Pensionat, where we are staying tonight.  Tomorrow afternoon, we will get on a boat:

But not THIS boat (which annoyed us by covering up a lot of our view):

…and the boat will take us through two fjords for a couple of hours, whereupon we take a bus to Voss, and then the train to Bergen.