Norway - Fjords, Trolls and Vikings

Day 1 - Midnight Sun in Oslo

Our day began at a reasonable time with the Stena Lines ferry leaving Frederikshavn, Denmark at 9:15 am. As we spent the night before in a nearby hotel, we thankfully had just a short walk down the pier to board. This crossing was scheduled to arrive in Oslo, Norway at 6:30 pm. We had arranged for a small cabin as this would be a convenience for storing our luggage and would be nice to retreat to if we wanted a rest. After dropping our luggage off in the room, we explored the ship, which didn’t seem to have as many amenities or as much entertainment on board as the Viking ship we were on between Tallinn and Helsinki and then again from Helsinki to Stockholm. Nevertheless, we settled on having a sandwich and coffee in the café for breakfast, followed by shopping in the duty-free store before finding a quiet lounge playing 80’s music videos on the TV screen. We ‘old-timers’ had more fun than we care to admit watching the nostalgic videos for a few hours, while writing our Denmark blog. The 80’s turned into 90’s music at 1 pm, which also signaled the opening of the lunch restaurant, where we ate a nice meal of steak and chips with a glass of wine. After lunch, at around 2:45 pm we headed up to our room for a rest. At 3:50 pm an announcement was made, stating that all passengers with a cabin had to vacate them by 4 pm, so they could be cleaned for the next group of passengers on the return trip. This was an unwanted surprise, as we believed that we had use of the cabin for the entire journey, like we did with the Viking ship! So annoying and we really wish that we could have sailed again with Viking for this journey, instead of Stena line.

Norwegians enjoying the (late) summer sun

We arrived into Oslo on time at 6:30 pm, still in the European heat wave and asked the hotel receptionist whether any rooms had air conditioning. We remembered how difficult it was to sleep without it in Copenhagen and had visions of sleepless nights. Unfortunately, they did not, but offered to send a up a fan and gave us a room that was on the side of the hotel with ‘less sun’. Admittedly, we were expecting the worst and while we were checking in, we overheard another guest loudly complaining about how hot his room was! Thankfully we had nothing to worry about though, as the room was quite comfortable when we entered it, and we didn’t use the fan for the duration of our stay.

After settling in, we went for a walk down to the harbour, which had great views of the flat, iceberg-shaped Oslo Opera House that was built in 2007. The building is both beautiful, with its glass, marble and white granite exterior as well as unique, in that the roof slopes downward and you can walk up onto the top of the building, which we did. We also went inside and admired the beautiful curved, oak wood walls whose warm tones were a contrast to the cool exterior.

From the top of the Opera House you could really see that Oslo is a growing city, with tons of construction happening all around. It’s a bit of a dusty construction site at the moment, but the neighbourhood by the Oslo harbour is going to be really great in a few years!

We then walked across a pedestrian bridge to an adjoining harbour neighbourhood which had a lot of trendy restaurants. We noted they were super-expensive and decided to buy a pre-made sandwich from the 7-eleven which we ate back in our hotel room at 10:30 while it was fully light outside still. In fact, there was still a bit of light when we went to bed at 12:45 am, and then at 3:45 am it was full daylight again. We can’t imagine how dreadfully dark it would be here in the winter!

Day 2 - City Hall, National Gallery, Munch Museum

After a delicious breakfast at our hotel (Norwegian buffets are hard to beat!) we headed out to experience some culture. First up, we walked towards Oslo’s main street, ‘Karl Johans’ gate, which led to the Royal Palace. For some reason, the surrounding streets were lined with giant, inflatable teddy bears all in different colours. It reminded us of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade! As we weren’t going to go inside the Royal Palace, we just took some pictures of the exterior.

We then back-tracked towards Oslo City Hall, which is not to be missed! The red brick building with two towers is simple enough, but the artwork both on the outside and inside was really quite exceptional. Whilst Stockholm is where most Nobel prizes are awarded, it is here in the Oslo City Hall that the Nobel Peace prize ceremony is held each year. Along with visitors like us, there were also many wedding parties using the space both to take photographs as well as to hold receptions. We marveled at the size of the great hall and how similar the council chambers were to those at Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto’s City Hall). As we entered the adjoining room where executive sessions are held, we heard angelic singing and we could not figure out where it was coming from. As it turned out, aside from us there were two other couples in this room, and it was one of these couples (mostly the female) who was just walking around singing, while wearing her full-size travelers backpack. Their voices reverberated and echoed around the room leaving us transfixed by the beautiful melodies - we were really inspired by the music and filled with emotion. Alas, they were done visiting the room and moved on, so our impromptu concert was over. Somehow, this moment has become the new highlight of our trip so far!

🙀 Melissa vs Munch 🙀 — 🙀 Melissa vs Munch 🙀

We then went to the nearby National Gallery which held works of art by Norwegian artists as well as other works by Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, and Rodin. The highlight of this museum was definitely the Edvard Munch paintings, including one version of ‘The Scream’. Aside from being a great piece of art, this painting is probably as famous for having been stolen from this gallery in 1994 and then recovered again. Judging by its popularity with the crowds, it definitely earns its reputation as the ‘Mona Lisa of the North’. In the same room as ‘The Scream’, there were other works of art from Munch. Munch often created different, but similar versions of his work and there are in fact four versions of ‘The Scream’. At this point in the day we were quite tired and ready to do something other than visit another art gallery, but we decided to walk the 30 minutes (uphill!) to view two additional copies we understood to be held in the Munch Museum across town (the fourth copy is privately owned, having been sold for $120 million USD in 2012). We paid our admission, stored our bags in a locker and then proceeded through security before entering the exhibition rooms to admire the works. It was interesting to compare these versions with their slight differences in colours, to those we saw earlier at the National Gallery. After about four rooms and 50 paintings we were back at the beginning. “Where are the two versions of The Scream?”, we asked the guard. It turns out that although this museum ‘holds’ these pieces, they are not on display. Apparently one of the versions was also stolen from this museum in 2004 (and also later recovered), and the paintings are under tight security until the museum is moved to its new location near to the Opera House. We were sure glad that we didn’t start our day at this museum, as we would have been a little disappointed.

Day 3 - Norway in a Nutshell (Oslo to Flåm)

In the morning we caught an early train from Oslo to begin our first leg of what is called the ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ tour. Although this tour is mainly self-guided and uses many various forms of public transit, savvy marketing people have packaged it in such a convenient way that you can buy it through a company who gives you all of the tickets at once, and it can be modified to suit your tastes by adding additional stops or adventures. This first leg took us to a small-town called ‘Myrdal’, which is located at an altitude of 866 metres, where we caught the Flåm railway. This had us descending down the hill, winding our way through tunnels, past a waterfall, finally arriving in Flåm in just under an hour. On the banks of Aurlandsfjord, Flåm is a bustling little town with a population of 400 people, which probably multiplies at least ten times over during the summer months, with cruise ships docking and other tourists like us arriving via train. We walked around enjoying the fresh air, ate dinner in a local pub and spent the night in a cozy hotel called Flåmsbrygga, with a small balcony overlooking the fjord (well, first it overlooked the docked cruise ship which we went and waved off at 6 pm).

Day 4 - Norway in a Nutshell (Flåm to Bergen)

The next morning, we had another scrumptious breakfast buffet at our hotel before setting sail on a 2-hour fjord cruise which would take us the 20 miles or so to Gudvangen. The scenery on the water with the high mountains and waterfalls all around us, and little communities dotted along the banks was completely spectacular. It seemed as if we snapped 10,000 pictures between us (we promise we will only share a few!) and agreed that each and every morning for the rest of our lives should start off with a fjord cruise. We had just 45 minutes to explore Gundvangen, before catching a bus which would take us to the village of Voss. It’s always interesting to travel by different means. For example, whilst the train and boat allow you to see rugged, unspoiled scenery, travelling on the road gives you a different perspective by taking you directly through the little towns and communities. This bus also took us along a 1.5 km stretch of very steep road called Stalheimskleiva, while the driver expertly maneuvered the bus down through the 13 hairpin bends with views of mountains and waterfalls around every turn. Arriving in Voss we then transferred onto a train which took us to Bergen where we would stay for a few days, thus ending our ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ tour.

In Bergen on our first evening we took a walk along the nearby harbour with its colourful warehouses and arrived back to our hotel just as the rain began. It’s worth noting that but for a very few exceptions, this was the first significant rain that we encountered on our entire trip so far. We have been so lucky to have picture-perfect blue skies for our photographs! At this hotel, a simple dinner was provided each night which was good for our tummies and our pocketbooks. Tonight, it was lamb stew – Mmmm!

Days 5 to 6 - Beautiful Bergen

We rose early and had breakfast at the hotel, which was lovelier than any that we had before on this trip. This buffet had grilled vegetables, grilled and smoked fish, along with the usual breakfast fare of cereals, bacon and eggs, etc. We made ourselves a couple of little sandwiches to have for lunch as well. Since our laundry situation was becoming quite dire, we made a much-needed visit to the laundromat in the morning. It was a rainy day anyway, so afterwards we relaxed in the hotel lounge writing our blog and sneaking out for a quick exploration of our neighbourhood, when there was at last a break in the weather.

Colourful warehouses of the Bryggen neighbourhood of Bergen

The next day started off quite overcast as well, but we wanted to take the funicular up to Mount Floyan. We bought our tickets online and joined the long, long queue before deciding to come back later in the day. We were gambling that the crowds would be thinner and the sky clearer later on. So instead, we walked around the harbour again, where Melissa enjoyed a pastry on the patio of a bakery, while Colin explored the nearby Bergenhus Fortress. Delaying our visit by a few hours proved to be the right decision as the skies were clear and the crowds were only a third of what they had been earlier, now that the tour bus and cruise ship crowds had gone. Upon arriving at the top of Mount Floyen we were afforded panoramic views down towards the town of Bergen, its harbour and the surrounding fjords and mountains. While there we did a bit of hiking and came across a herd of goats used to keep the vegetation clear. These were some of the most relaxed goats we’ve ever seen, lying down across the path and allowing themselves to be petted and scratched by all – They were adorable, and we enjoyed meeting and spending time with them. We reluctantly left the mountain and decided to see if it would be ‘quicker’ to wait in queue to take the funicular or to walk the three kilometres down. Melissa chose the former and Colin the latter. Melissa was the clear winner, beating Colin back by about 15 minutes, but then again, there is something to be said for the road less traveled.

Day 7 - Travel Day (false start)

On our final day in Bergen, our flight to Reykjavík, Iceland was due to leave at 1:55 pm. We checked out of the hotel around 10:30 am and took the 1-hour long journey to the airport by the convenient (and cheap!) tram. At the airport we waited in the long queue to check our bags, then another longer queue to go through security and then the long walk to our gate.

We still had about an hour to wait when we received an unexpected text, advising that the flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for the next morning! This was because there was a technical problem with the incoming aircraft from Reykjavík and that flight had to return to Iceland. The text also advised us to make our way to the service counter near where we checked our bags to receive information about overnight accommodations and meals that they would provide for our inconvenience. Staring at the phone in disbelief, we looked around to see if anyone else waiting at the gate was aware of this development and no one seemed to be. We looked at the departures board and since our flight had not yet been announced as ‘cancelled’, we were reluctant to leave until we were absolutely sure. It should be noted that Bergen airport is quite automated, in that you don’t speak to anyone to check your bags, nor do you speak to anyone to board the aircraft. As such, there was no one ‘official’ around to ask. Finally, someone did show up and as she was advising the other passengers of the situation, we scooted off ahead to retrieve our checked bags and make our way to the service counter to beat the crowd of other passengers. While it was really disappointing to lose that day in Reykjavík and it took a few phone calls and emails to re-arrange our plans with the airport transfers and hotel in Iceland, we were understanding of this delay, for safety’s sake. Icelandair took care of us well, in that our accommodations were suitable, and we were given lunch, a dinner buffet and breakfast in the morning. We spent a very quiet day as there really wasn’t too much else to do in an airport hotel.