Norway in a Nutshell

Taking a two day train and boat trip after spending a week on a ship looking at fjords and another week on the ground might seem like a bit much.  I like to think of it as dessert.  In fact, if you have only one day to see the fjords in Norway, this is the way to do it.  I stretched it into two days to make it a little more civilized, but you can leave Oslo at 7:00 am and arrive in Bergen at 11:00 pm having seen the best of Norway. As we cruised northward on the Hurtigruten ship, they laughingly told us that everything was “the northernmost [fill in the blank] in the world or in Europe.”  The northernmost store in the world, the northernmost gas station in the world, etc. etc.  Obviously, Norway’s mountains cannot compete with the Alps, so everything on this trip was “the highest [fill in the blank] in Northern Europe.  The train ride from Oslo to Bergen, which absolutely is beautiful, is the highest train in Northern Europe.  All right.

Seriously, the train ride is beautiful as it climbs from the lowland of Oslo over the mountains to Myrdal.  At Myrdal, we transferred to the Flamsbana (Flam Railroad) which descends steeply to Flam which sits on the tip of the Sognefjord.  The Flamsbana is the steepest regular gauge railroad … in the world?  in Europe?  in Northern Europe?  Who knows?  Anyway, it is so steep that it has three independent braking systems.  And what other railroad has a five minute stop for a photo op at a gushing waterfall?

My only complaint with the two train rides was that there were too many tunnels.  Those darn Norwegians are too modern and efficient.  I wanted to keep looking at the scenery. On the Hurtigrutten cruise, I said it was like sailing endlessly through Yosemite Valley, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Why not? I realized this week.  Yosemite and the fjords here were made by the same process of glaciation.  According to the official description:  

The Aurlandsfjord is a 17-kilometre arm of the world’s second-longest fjord, the Sognefjord, and starts in Flåm and ends at the mountain Beitelen, which separates the Aurlandsfjord from the Nærøyfjord.  Together with the Nærøyfjord, the Aurlandsfjord is one of the most picturesque fjords in the world. This stunning fjord is a part of the World Heritage area and is surrounded by high mountains that reach heights of over 1,400 metres.  The Nærøyfjord is the narrowest and best known of the many arms of the Sognefjord. Surrounded by towering mountains up to 1,700 meters high, this arm of the Sognefjord is amazingly beautiful. With its steep mountainsides, hanging valleys, towering peaks, snowfields, waterfalls, and small hamlets, this fjord is perhaps the most outstanding natural attraction in Norway. The Nærøyfjord is 20 km long, only 250 meters across at its narrowest and a mere 12 meters at its shallowest.

I agree completely.  From Flam we took an e-boat (the future of fjord cruising) up the Sognefjord that again felt like cruising endlessly through Yosemite Valley.  Doesn’t this look like North Dome? The mountains rise straight out of the fjord and even in late July, had patches of snow on them. So there were dozens of towering waterfalls on both sides. Periodically there would be a small town on a flat stretch on the bottom, and every so often, a lone house perched halfway up. It was stunning.

After the cruise, we took a bus back to the Oslo-Bergen railroad and continued on the train to Bergen where I got to spend another half-day with Jane.  First, however, I took the funicular up the mountain overlooking Bergen.  After dinner with Jane and her family, I took a quick flight back to Oslo.  And that is Norway in a Nutshell.

On my last day in Oslo, I got in a quick visit to the Royal Palace.  How many royal palaces does one have the opportunity to see in one’s lifetime?  When Norway finally became an independent country in 1905, they decided to become a monarchy but had just one problem: no local royalty. They needed a royal family and also needed protection from Sweden.  So they invited the grandson of the king of Denmark to be their king.  His advantages included a wife in the English royal line and a son and heir already in existence.  He had never been to Norway and did not speak Norwegian.  Minor problems.  He and his family moved to Norway and he changed his name from Carl to Haakon VII and changed his son’s name to the very Norwegian Olav.  And today, the royal family is beloved in Norway. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. Finally, I made a quick visit to the Nobel Peace Center.  Although the other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, the Peace Prize is awarded in the Oslo City Hall.

On one of my walking tours I did a double take when I saw this row of bicycles.  It turns out that this is a bicycle parking lot, and the metal sculptures are for locking one’s bike.  And finally one more thing I have never seen before:  A Roomba for mowing the lawn.