Norway by the Numbers

I thought I would conclude this series of posts on traveling in Norway with the notes I took on my phone as the trip wrapped up.

4 cars: 2 cars to airport, 2 cars home
5 planes: 2 planes from Pittsburgh to Oslo, 1 from Bergen, 2 home
6 trains: 1 train from Oslo Airport, 1 to Myrdal, 1 to Flåm, 1 to Bergen, 1 train from Oslo Airport to town, 1 train to hostel, and 1 back to Oslo airport
3 trams: 1 to Geilo (odd for a long-distance route), 1 to university, 1 to museum
5 subways (T-Metro): 1 to university, 1 to dinner, 1 to hostel, 1 to university, 1 toward airport
1 ferry boat
2 buses at Reykjavik Airport, 1 bus to Voss, 1 to dinner and 1 to drinks in Oslo
1 gondola
1 funicular
1 taxi to the Bergen Airport after we missed the bus
2 walks, 1 hike
Countless waterfalls for me, +1 for E.R. (took a walk while I read a book by the lake in Voss)
4 museums (3 art, 1 history)
2 saunas
3 cups hot chocolate
2 scoops gelato, 1 scoop ice cream
1 huldra
0 trolls
1 pat down in the Reykjavik airport

Lost items: 1 sleep mask (E.R.'s)
Left items: 1 blouse (in the Pittsburgh Airport because the armpit seam had torn), 1 umbrella (in Oslo when it was needed in Bergen), 1 large bottle of shampoo (in Bergen Airport because it couldn't come through airport security), 1 pair of khakis (at my Oslo AirBnB because they were at the end of their life)

Gained items: second-hand Norwegian sweater, new Norwegian gloves, 3 kinds of dried sausage (whale, reindeer, moose), 2 jars cloudberry jam, 2 magnets, 1 postcard

Useful purchases: waterproof jacket to go with the waterproof ski pants I already owned, fast track at the Bergen Airport to get through security

Tried for the first time: Norwegian brown cheese, Bergen soup, reindeer and whale meat, whale/reindeer/moose sausage, cloudberry jam, lefsa, Norwegian pancakes, Dubai chocolate, Tupla chocolate bar (Finnish), ayran (Turkish milk drink), honey mead, and pretty much all of this Iceland Air lunch box

Tuesday: Vikings and Voss, Norway

We had a quiet Tuesday morning at our budget hotel in Gudvangen before going to the Viking Village of "Njardarheimr" right when it opened at 10am. This meant we missed the crowds from the first ferry boat, which hadn't docked yet, and that we could juuust catch an 11:40am bus to Voss, a 1-hour drive along a picturesque stream. While waiting for the 10:30 tour (in English), we looked around, tried the target sports, and sheltered under the eaves during a particularly heavy shower.

Viking Village to the left, bridge over the stream to the visitor center on the right.

Explanation of weaponry and how expensive it was to be a Viking. Our guide was an immigrant from Spain, if I remember correctly, whose English was reasonably good. Online reviews of the Viking Village were mixed, but we enjoyed it well enough.

The Norse women were able to make a variety of vivid colors using natural dyes and used handlooms to make intricate patterns.

Inside of the main long hall.

Learning about their totems and gods.

Partially buried style of house, with humans in the center and animals under the eaves.

Once on the way to Voss, there was a photo op at a hotel, which also gave us a snack:

"The adrenalin capital of Norway,"  Voss hosts an "Extreme Sports Festival" every year. We weren't interested in paragliding, rafting, or skiing--we just wanted to take a hike. So after dropping our stuff at the lake-side motel, we rode the gondola up Mount Hanguren.

Above: lower station, right next to the train/bus station.

Below: getting ready to step on board the continuously moving gondola car.

Above: the view on the 9-minute trip up the mountain.

Below: the view from the restaurant (hint: the windows look white not because of over exposure but because we were in the raincloud).

Above: we stayed at the budget motel with just a soccer field between us and the lake; each unit had a small kitchen, a bathroom, an open living room/bedroom, and a back patio with table and chairs.

Below: Fleischer's Hotel, the fancy-schmancy Swiss-style establishment built in 1889 that now owns and runs the motel where we stayed, and behind which is the train station.

Once back at our digs, I wanted to dry off and stop moving for a while, so I read a book on the couch while enjoying the lake view, and R.E. hiked to a waterfall. Then she cooked us a delicious dinner, and we turned in for the night.

Monday from Geilo to Gudvangen, Norway

Monday morning after grocery shopping for the day we joined other tourists waiting for the train from Geilo to Myrdal. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Once we finally got onboard, we realized from the overhead announcements why: other tourists were leaving the train at every stop to take photographs and taking too long to get back on. While the landscape from Oslo to Geilo was beautiful,  it became stunning as we made our way up into the mountains. At Finse it looked so inhospitable in June that we doubt anyone can live there year-round.

At Myrdal we disembarked with almost everyone else (old train in background). Because R.E. didn't want to ride Scandinavia's longest zipline, we had planned to hike 1.5 hours down into the valley and then rent bicycles for the 45-minute ride along the flat valley floor, but it was 40s F and rain-sleeting, and we had large backpacks with all our food, so we decided to eat the cost of the bike reservation and hop on the Flåmsbana for the 1-hour trip to our next destination, Flåm.

Built in 1920s and 1930s as a cargo and postal spur, it is now a tourist train. Over the 1-hour trip you descend 866 meters (2, 841 feet or 1/2 a mile), with a maximum gradient of 5.5% (steepest standard-grade railway in Europe). The 20 tunnels were almost entirely hand dug into the mountain by Norwegian workmen, since the Italians they brought in to start the job couldn't stand the weather!

We found seats across from two pharmacists from Chicago on the right-hand side of the train. Everything is gorgeous, but the better views of the valley are on the left-hand side when descending. Below you can see the old switch-back road as well the first of many gorgeous waterfalls through the window on the other side of the train.

Everyone got off at Kjosfossen to take pictures of this waterfall. On the train a video had been explaining to us about the hulda, a female spirit who lives in the woods. In Norwegian legends she sounds mischievous and even dangerous, but she's being re-habilitated to be family-friendly for tourist purposes. As we were preparing to re-embark, music began booming from speakers, and someone in a long blond wig and old-fashioned red dress stood up on an old building foundation and waved their arms around. I felt sorry for that person, who must have been very wet and cold.

After that it was one beautiful vista after another. Here's one of a high mountain waterfall, a farm, and the stream along which the rail line runs.

Once in Flåm, we ate a hearty snack while watching the activity in the port, including this enormous cruise ship.

Alas, we were unable to store our stuff at the visitor center, so we had to haul it with us as we hiked past farms and up to a nearby waterfall. It was much warmer down in the valley, so this process involved continuously shedding layers as we exerted ourselves.

Above: destination. Below: goal!

There was enough time when we got back to port to take advantage of the free local history museum.

Above: disneyfied hulda. Below: Naeroyfjord ferry.

Our day's journey was not over yet, because as late as we had planned the trip, there was nowhere to stay Flåm that was in our budget. Next stop: Gudvangen, reached either by 1-hour bus (boring!) or 2-hour ferry ride (stunning!). This was probably the highlight of the trip, and the photos don't do it justice. Remarkably, people have been living on the edges of the fjords for thousands of years.

Tuesday: Vikings!

Sunday on the Train to Geilo, Norway

Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast in our "apart-hotel" before heading for the station to obtain coffee and find our seats on the Vy train. Oddly for the length of the ~7-hour cross-country journey to Bergen, it turned out to be a Vossebanen tram with only two restrooms, one of which went out of commission partway to our destination, leading to long lines for the tiny restrooms at Hønefoss. The countryside was initially flat-ish with a river or lake before the rail line climbed into the hills.

Our destination was the ski town of Geilo (pronounced Yei-lo). When it's not ski season, there is hiking and biking and Sunday driving--on our way to the lake, we were passed by a number of men or couples driving vintage cars. We also saw a couple of sod-roofed houses, which is a local tradition. We stayed at the Geilo Hotel, a very short walk from the train station. Smaller than the big Dr. Holms Hotel across the tracks which had a "sportsman" energy that didn't vibe with us, even though it was originally founded as a mountain sanatorium. Instead, we loved the Nordic chic, hyggelig feel of this smaller establishment. The basement sauna was just okay, but the breakfast was excellent, and it was an easy walk to the lake path for a "hike," complete with the bucolic sound of sheep in a field with jangly bells around their necks.

The only complication was the due to rain, the lake was pretty full, so at one place we had to steady each other across a stepping stones to keep from getting wet, but at the second place, removing shoes and socks and rolling up our pants was unavoidable. After the "hike," we went through town to get to dinner and then our hotel. We walked by a contemporary church and graveyard, a couple (three) grocery stores to prep for shopping the next day, a traditional church and graveyard, and some public art, including a larger-than-life kick sled of the kind used throughout Scandinavia. Dinner was a fancy tasting menu with *excellent* soup, bread, and wine at a Stube. Then it was back to the hotel for relaxation, sauna, and bed.

Clockwise from left: melon, gravlax (smoked salmon), cucumber, brown cheese

Monday: a looong travel day with snow, waterfalls, and a fjord