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| The Fjords of Norway |
Delightful Bergen
I had never heard of Bergen before I started planning this
trip. Now that we were going all the way to Baltics we did not just wish to be
restricted to the places where the cruise would take us. We had a few days
which we could spend in Northern areas. The thought of going to Laplands did
enter the mind but in June there are no Northern lights visible due to long days
so we turned our attention towards Norway. The name of Bergen railway figured
in many forums that I went through and many described it as one of the most
scenic rail journeys of the world. I also read about the Fjords tour from
Bergen and that sounded really good. The decision was made that we would fly to
Bergen from Stockholm after the cruise. This is exactly what we did.
We planned disembarkation in such a way from Cruise ship so
that we could go directly to the airport. It was a short flight from Stockholm
to Bergen. The Norwegian Air plane did not fly very high and sitting in the
window seat I got spectacular views of
the areas and the eye pleasing views of green landscapes would give way
to views of snow and glaciers. Scandinavia is wonderfully beautiful and these
untouched parts of lakes, rivers, glaciers and mountains made this flight a
spectacular one.
I had been following Bergen’s weather pattern and throughout
the temperatures were around 6 deg C less than other places like Oslo,
Stockholm etc. They were predicting rain on the day we were to take the Fjords
tour. I hoped that this prediction would be wrong.Eventually the prediction
wasn’t wrong but while it rained in Bergen we were already exploring the Fjords
and it did not rain where we were.
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| The colors of Bergen |
First impression about a city and country always helps in forming an opinion. The taxi guys advised that we should take a large taxi as with 7
people and luggage we would save money. They even organized a larger vehicle for us ! Our hotel was right in the middle of centre and we just checked in, dumped our
luggage and were out on the streets. It was already 4 PM so I could not go and
collect the tickets for the Fjords journey , as on Saturdays the ticket window shut at 4. Neverthless I
went strolling to the station to see its location as I would have to go to
station earlier than rest of us to collect the tickets before our journey the
next morning. It was just a 10 minute walk and with this out of mind I decided
to explore the town.
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| Salmon and Caviar |
I did not venture very far from where we stayed. Devicka and
Sanya went shopping and Kartik decided to relax. I walked towards the
waterfront and came across the tourist centre
from where I got some information about the town. The fish market was
very interesting and it was full of people. There were a few stalls outside
selling Nowegian food and a few shops selling lovely Salmon, Caviar and crabs.
I spent a lot of time here tasting the salmon and other interesting things and
seeing how they were marinating the fish. The evening time was here and the
pubs were getting louder. There were quite a few of them near the waterfront.
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| Busy pubs on a saturday |
I walked back to collect the family so we could go up the
funicular to the mountain top for spectacular views of the city.
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| Scary if you stand as train goes down |
The colourful
buildings, river and mountains looked really lovely from the top. We went into
the woods nearby and took a nice walk. It was beginning to get very chilly so
it was time to get back. We skipped the bars and the pubs which had really come
alive by now and there were people everywhere. We had to get up early in the
morning so had a nice Thai meal and got all set for the Fjords tour.
Norway in a Nutshell
This is the name of the tour which we took. We boarded 8.43 AM Bergen rail till a town called
Voss. We boarded a bus at Voss which took us through spectacular scenery and scary hairpin bends to a place called
Gudvangen. This journey was full of natural beauty and there was snow, waterfalls and mountains. The Japanese girl sitting next to me the window seat kept clicking pictures throughout.
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| One of the many villages we passed. The average age of these villagers is highest in the world. Credit goes to quality of water and quality of life. |
At Gudvangen a nice looking boat awaited us. I secured my seat at the top deck but ensured that I was well clad. It would get very cold when the sun disappeared and it would be nice but cold when sun shone albeit weakly. The rest of the gang chickened and stayed confined to the covered area downstairs. I must say that they missed out on a lot. Fjords are the mountains which rise from below the water and go right up. The boat was turning and twisting to go through the passages.
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| The turns in the Fjords would bring another spectacular landscape for us |
As the boat would sail between the Fjords and make a turn there would be an audible gasp which collectively would go up as some spectacular vista would appear before our eyes which was hidden earlier. The boat made many such turns during these 2 hours and we stayed glued to our seats waiting for the new scene which would inevitably be more exciting than the last. The boat stopped at Flam where we had our lunch.
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| The waterfalls are exciting to watch as they gush down the Fjords. There were many waterfalls along the way. |
The town of Flam was sleepy little town and we spent a couple of hours there. The idea of cycling came to the kids but by then we just had 30 minutes of spare time and the guy wouldn't give us cycles for less than 3 hours. It was working out too expensive for just 30 minutes. We were to catch the Flam railway from here .
Flam Railway (Flamsbana) is a spectacular train journey that offers a panoramic view of some of the wildest and most magnificent nature in the Norwegian fjord landscape.
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| The sleepy town of Flam made famous by Flam Railway |
Flamsbana is one of the steepest train lines in the world on normal tracks, where almost 80% of the journey has a gradient of 5.5%. It takes an hour to cover just 20 km and even stops on way for tourists to get very close to one of the huge waterfalls.
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| The tourists were taken by surprise when the train stopped at a huge waterfall on the way and suddenly the entertainment came with dance and music |
As we came close to town of Myrdal, the entire landscape got covered in snow as we were climbing up from Flam. This snow stayed with us for quite some time even after we boarded the Bergen rail from Myrdal till Oslo.
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| At Myrdal railway station. Beautiful. |
So, as you can figure out had we not taken the Norway in a Nutshell Fjords tour, our Bergen railway would have come straight from Voss (where we had got off earlier) to Myrdal and proceeded towards Oslo.
We had taken a detour to see these spectacular views. Those coming from Oslo do this Norway in a Nutshell in reverse sequence. We reached Oslo at 10.40 PM. It was still bright. We were in Scandinavia in middle of June after all.
I think this decision of going to Bergen and doing this Norway in a Nutshell tour was one of the best decisions we had taken. The beautiful scenery and landscapes we came across in one day would remain unforgettable in memory. Through the journey on Bergen Railway till Oslo our eyes stayed out of the window as this journey was also fantastic. Once the snow ended other landscapes appeared . I had carried a book to read but hardly turned a page.
Many people have wondered how we manged to do all this with our suitcases ? Walk-train-bus-boat-flam rail-train and then walk to the hotel was involved in a day which had started at 8 in the morning and ended at 11 at night. Well, we actually did not carry our suitcases. If we were to carry our luggage then all the fun would have been lost and it would have been a cumbersome journey. We had booked a service called
porter service (porter@porterservice.no) in advance who had picked up the suitcases from our Bergen hotel at 6.45 in the morning and delivered them to Oslo hotel before we reached. There was a price to pay but our comfort level was much more than 250 NOK which we paid per suitcase.
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