Oslo & Bergen, Norway

We. Love. Norway. It’s simply a gorgeous country. Photos are simply unable to fully capture its magnificence. Our only regret is that we didn’t spend more time here. Oslo seems like such a cool city, and being the capitol of Norway, it definitely has a modern and upbeat culture. Bergen, situated along the coastline, is a smaller city with a college town feel. Our hotel in Oslo was located within walking distance to the city center, which had a mix of old and modern buildings lining the sides of a pedestrian plaza and park. A few blocks away is the central shopping district leading up to the train station.


Across the freeway from our hotel, the Oslo Opera House seems to float along the shoreline. Everyone is free to walk the perimeter and up to the roof for a view of the city. Just offshore, sitting above the water, is a glass sculpture that at first looks like a pile of sea junk, but close up is really quite nice. A twenty minute bus ride through the city took us to the neighborhood of the Norwegian Royal Estate and farmland. There we went to the Viking Ship Museum to see real Viking ships! Over twelve hundred years old, the ships were discovered buried beneath farmland and are the best preserved ships to date. The ships, along with other artifacts such as textiles and tools, were truly magnificent. A few blocks away from the museum is a park that houses one of the oldest churches in Norway. At four hundred years old, it’s certainly a refreshing departure from the more traditional gothic and medieval churches. The looming wooden Stave church, with its rich color and texture, was indeed an exciting find. That and the Viking ships were on our list of things to see here. There were also original buildings and farm houses from around the same time. The structures were well worn and the roofs were overgrown with grass and weeds. The area certainly had a Tolkien feel to it.


The next day we boarded a train headed for Bergen. Along the way we were witness to the most beautiful countryside we’ve seen thus far. Every so often there would be a small town; maybe it could be considered a village. Kind of like a Nordic “Little House on the Prairie.” They were so quaint. Six hours later, we arrived in Bergen. We were hoping for good weather, but instead we were greeted with clouds and rain. Our hotel room was awful; I won’t go into any more detail other than to say that it was depressing. We made the best of the little time we had that evening by walking to the fisherman’s wharf and to the Bergenhus fortress. The wharf isn’t used as often by the fishermen anymore but is more a tourist attraction. It’s lined with souvenir shops and fish weren’t being sold at the time we were there. The Bergenhus fortress was once used as a royal residence and contains buildings that date back to the thirteenth century. On a clearer day, I’m sure it’s more spectacular. Unfortunately, we were too tired to read historic information placards in the rain. On the other side of the water lies the University, the shopping district and the largest church in the city. We walked through just to say we saw everything we could. Graffiti seems to be a well-respected art form all over Norway, especially stenciling. We saw many large works by the same three artists in both cities.


Our primary goal for traveling to Bergen was to see the fjords. Taking the advice of the well-traveled Rick Steves, we took the “Norway in a Nutshell” tour which takes you on a sightseeing train from Myrdal to Flåm, a boat through what Steves calls best fjords out of all the fjords, and then a scenic bus ride back to the train station. In all, the tour was eight hours long and totally worth it. The train made a few stops for pictures, and at one particularly large waterfall. The mountain sides had numerous waterfalls of all sizes fed by melting glaciers. At this point, the weather was still a bit gloomy and our pictures were not the best. But once we arrived at the boat, things were starting to clear up. It was just our luck that we had about an hour of sunshine, which afforded us an opportunity to get some great pictures. Unfortunately, none of them compare to what we actually saw. The mountains were so green and lush, we can only imaging (for now, at least) how gorgeous they are when covered with snow. Along the way, we passes so many remote villages, some with no roads and only accessible by boat. One of the oldest churches in Norway belongs to one of these villages, and it can hold thirteen people at one time. Our trip through the fjords was two hours long, and by the second hour the rain had returned. We hunkered down inside the cabin until it was time to disembark. The bus ride back to the station took us through the curviest and steepest road I’ve ever been on. I could hardly believe a huge tour bus could make it down the road safely. Clearly for my benefit, the bus had seat belts. Along the road was another massive waterfall that was quite impressive. We had a long day but it
was the most rewarding and exciting part of our trip so far.


On our way back to Oslo, we passed through a snow covered landscape that was green only days earlier. We didn’t expect to see snow so soon on our trip. It definitely got cold the last night we were in Bergen. I suppose summer is over for Norway. We accomplished exactly what we wanted to during our time in Norway. We both agreed that we will definitely visit here again and spend at least two full weeks to really explore the country. Mark has decided that our next trip here will be during ski season, which I think is a good choice. We would love to see snow covered fjords.

We are really excited to return to Norway some day!



















All aboard for: Hamburg, Germany


Oslo:

Bergen & the fjords: