2014 England and Scandinavia - Oslo and Bergen, Norway

Sunday 6 July - Train journey from Stockholm, Sweden to Oslo, Norway. 

Our hotel (Radisson Blu Waterfront) in Stockholm was in part chosen for its collocation with the central train station. Even better the train to Oslo left from platform 12, the closest to our hotel. After checking out it was just a quick drag of the suitcases across the road, through the revolving doors, down the lift and we were there - 10 minutes before the train arrived, much to the pleasure of my travelling companion.

"Wow look at that scenery"

The train arrives and it's a mad scramble. We were fine as we had allocated seats with enough room to store both our suitcases behind our seats - much to the pleasure of my travelling companion. Unfortunately I had picked up a cold from one of the millions of tourists that we have come across. So a good day for a comfortable 6:30 hours of train travel across Sweden to the capital of Norway, Oslo. The flat undulating lush countryside continued to be heavily treed with some grain crops growing and the traditional maroon and white trimmed farmhouses still prevailed. All this monotony got to me, the one with the cold, so I dozed off for a while, while Julie took photos of me "enjoying the scenery" - much to the pleasure of my ex-travelling companion.

Arriving in Oslo fully refreshed from taking inappropriate photos of me sleeping, Julie was keen to see the sights, while he who was even sicker than when he started out in the morning, was sicker.

Oslo hotel and public art out front

Royal Palace

Julie inspecting the guards

Public art down at the harbour

Parliament house

Julie was worried about me so she turned into a doctor for a while, said 'you'll get better' and we were off for a walk to the Royal Palace, the harbour, Parliament House and finally dinner before walking home where I decided I wasn't getting better today and went to bed.

Monday 7 July - Oslo. 

The weather forecast was not good - if it wasn't going to rain it was to storm. It did both. So before the rain came down we walked as far away from the Hotel as possible to Frogner Park so that when it did rain or storm it would have its greatest effect on us. So with a fine breakfast under my belt, topped off with panadol, sinus tablets and cough lollies, "the Doctor" said I was OK to go to work for the day. 

"Bad Hair Day"

Frogner Park is a beautiful 45 hectare park in Oslo set high on a hill and filled with dozens of sculptures all done by one man - Gustav Vigeland - that's why its called Frogner Park. It is the world's largest sculpture park made by just one artist and attracts 1-2 million visitors per year making it the most popular tourist attraction in Norway - that's why they call it Frogner Park. It looks like Gustav just sat in a park one Sunday when it was filled with families playing and he then made sculptures of them, with all their clothes off. Even though I was sick, but 'going to get better', it was a very impressive park. The most famous/popular sculpture is of Baby Screaming and it is very good.  The Vigeland Monolith, the centrepiece of Vigelandsparken,  is a 16 metre sculpture composed of 121 large figures all carved into one piece of stone.  The sculptures depict Vigeland's interpretation of life.  

"Which  Child will I Keep"

Vigeland Monolith

"Hide and Seek"

"Screaming Baby"

After wandering around 100's of statues of naked families frolicing in the park it was time for the rain and storms to arrive. We headed home only to make it to the back of the Royal Palace when the sky opened up and down it came. We huddled under our umbrellas under a huge tree, because that's where you stand when there is lightning about, and waited for the downpour to abate. "The Doctor" gave me the rest of the afternoon off to hurry up and get better.

Tuesday 8 July - feeling like yesterday but not game to tell my travelling companion, we set off to catch a ferry to the Kon-Tiki Museum. Having both read the story at high school of Thor Heyerdahl and his five co-adventurers crossing the Pacific from Peru to near Tahiti in 1947, a distance of 7000klm, we were keen to see the actual vessel. Thor also crossed the Atlantic in RAII in 1970, after RAI fell apart the year before. RAII (the original) was also in the museum. Thor's incredible expeditions proved that Norwegians could have settled Polynesia or America if planes and ocean liners weren't invented by 1947. It was a fascinating exhibit to see the actual balsa wood and reed rafts he used.  Very interesting.

RAII

Kon-Tiki

Balsa logs of Kon-Tiki

On the way back towards our hotel we wandered through Akershus Castle and Fortress and then along the waterfront to the new and impressive Norwegian Opera and Ballet Centre. A good day was had by all.

Oslo harbour from Akerhus Castle 

Just loves inspecting the gun

Oslo, as a city, has stacks of museums and in some ways has a better and safer feel about it than Stockholm. It has lots of great public art and fountains.

"Stealing a child's teddy" 

Wednesday 9 July - crossing Norway by train from Oslo to Bergen.

Since arriving in Scandinavia we were yet to see a hill of any significance. Denmark's highest point is 170.86 metres above sea level and whilst Sweden's is over 2000 metres, that is located way in the north of the country. We were craving to have to look up. Today our cravings were satisfied and some.

Last nights sleep was interrupted by: heat (it was warm), daylight lasting until 11pm and starting again around 3am and the desperate need for the council to cut across stone in the pavement in front of our hotel at 3:15am (because it's light enough to do so safely at that time). 

Up and off early to the train station our train arrived 30 minutes before departure time to Bergen. The train was fully booked out. We found our allocated seats in carriage No1, which is the 2nd carriage because the first carriage was No 10, then the carriages after us were 2, 3 then 6, 7 and 8. This numbering method confused the passengers no end as well as the conductor who had to be educated by Julie who then tried to explain the carriage numbering to a few 100 people all carrying suitcases and bags. 

The following scene was repeated at every station we stopped at to pick up additional passengers. If you were on a seat in carriage No 10 then you would naturally board at the end of the train. After the train took off the people who were in 'your seat' informed you that your real seat was at the front of the train. Five minutes after the train left the last station a little group of passengers loaded with suitcases walked past us rocking side to side with the trains momentum on their way to carriage No 10 at the wrong end of the train.

Views from the train

Photo of a tunnel

The first sign of a gorge with a waterfall and out came our cameras. The train travelled west and slowly gained altitude passing through many extremely long tunnels. Glacial lakes and steep sided valleys started to fill our view out the window. We passed through snowfields as the temperature dropped from 32 degrees to only 14 degrees. The landscape just became more and more spectacular - hello Norway. 

We pulled into Bergen and caught a cab to our hotel located right beside the famous (if you know about it) Bryggen (wharf) World Heritage listed buildings dating back to 1702. Bergen began its life way back in 1070 but none of the original buildings have survived the numerous fires that destroyed this old fishing village.


Although quite hot, around 32 degrees, we set off to explore Bryggen and the local area. We started by getting the key to the top of the hotel's clock tower, which gave us a great view of the town. We then wandered the wharf precinct and through the backstreets of Bergen.

View from our hotel - Bergen

Bryggen, Bergen

Thursday 10 July - Bergen from on high.   Bergen is on a Fjord and is surrounded by seven mountains so we spent most of today up two of the seven mountains. The first was scaled by way of a cable pulled car (funicular), similar to the one in Katoomba, NSW, Australia. Facing down hill we were pulled up backwards at a 55 degree angle. The views at the top were spectacular. Being the first car up Mount Floyen for the day, this very popular attraction was empty except for four other people - the other earlybirds. 

The walk down

After drinking in the sights, we took 40 minutes to navigate a scenic walking path down to the water's edge and jumped on a double decker bus heading to the base of the other mountain, Mount Ulriken. This mountain is adorned with a cable car which we got into and were taken up even higher than the first mountain. This had the effect of making Bergen look even bigger as we could see over all the hills to the bits of Bergen located away from the tourist area where we were staying. From this height we could see where most of the 270,000 plus population were living. 

Morning tea overlooking Bergen

After wandering around the top for a while we returned via the cable car and the bus to the wharf precinct where we had lunch at one of the many restaurants in Bryggen.

This afternoon, we timed our planned walk to the bus depot for tomorrow's early morning adventure to make sure we had the fastest route mapped out in our heads.   




Friday 11 July - Today's adventure was all about seeing some of the magnificent fjords that Norway is famous for. After a fair bit of research we decided to head slightly south of Bergen to see the famous (if you have heard of it) Hardangerfjord. By the end of the day we had walked a couple of kilometres to the bus station in Bergen, rode a bus for 1.5 hours, caught a high speed ferry and rode around on it for over 3 hours, caught another two buses, caught a train from Voss to Bergen and walked 1.5 kilometres back to the hotel - and everything came together like clockwork.

The whole day was just spectacular. The buses took us along the sheer cliffs of fjords, up and over ski fields, through numerous tunnels (longest being 7.5 klm) and to our ferry in Norheimsund.

Views down the fjords

Lunch views at Eidfjord village

The ferry travelled the beautiful fjord with some of its high peaks still covered in snow patches  Waterfalls tumbled 400-500 metres down the sheer rocky cliffs to small farms lining the shoreline. The day was perfect with clear skies and temperatures up around 28 degrees. The light winds and few boats out on the water provided glassy conditions and lovely reflections across the waters to the glacial carved mountain walls of the fjord.

Rest spot views looking back towards Eidfjord

Around noon we were dropped off in the pretty village of Eidfjord were we had lunch and went for a walk along the shoreline. We spied a little path down to the water's edge that had a lovely grassy area shaded by tall pines and no people. We relaxed there for an hour or so drinking in the spectacular views. Back on the ferry, and heading to our drop off port of Ulvik, for a couple of kilometres the captain ran the ferry at high speed within 20 metres of the sheer cliffs that plummet into the water.  We caught the bus to Voss, then the train back to Bergen.  We've never been on so much public transport in one day.

High speed cruise along the fjord cliffs

Leaving Bergen at 7:25am and arriving back at our hotel at around 6:20pm, the day might have been long but what a great day it was.


Tomorrow we start our two week walking tour of Norway, so we will end this post here in Bergen.