Norway

Tonight he cooked dinner for me and the other guests, who are from all over..currently Sweden, Amsterdam, France, Canada, the Phillipines,, and Nepal. Some live there, some stay for a few weeks, some are like me, only for a couple of nights. And we finished off dinner with schnapps! Trond is a great host, loves to cook, but I think he was right to put me up in the pension a couple of blocks away. Visiting with the others, particularly an older woman and a couple of daughters from Amsterdam, was very interesting.

I caught the bus to the Viking ships nearby. Again, these were things I’d wanted to see forever! A couple of them have been pretty much restored, and they were burial ships, not sailing ships, but the carving, the grace of them was fantastic.

I then went to the nearby folk art museum but it was a lot of walking and my interest in folk art is limited

After a nibble, I went out to the Vigelund park and then back. Lots of walking, but I made it and am now flopped out. Many many many many kids, it’s what I would imagine spring break would be but much more proper. Lots of boys in suits but loosened collars by now, and downing beers. Many many girls in national dress. I would say seventy five percent of all the women I’ve seen all day are in some variety of national dress, maybe ten percent of men or less.

There was one group I saw early this morning, of mama and papa in national dress, and three girls, one in n.d. And the other two in dress up clothes that really, a whore would wear, and all three of the girls were smoking!!! I guess only one dress gets handed down, so the others could choose their wardrobe!

I was struck by how every shop had a Danish flag, every kebab seller had a Danish ribbon.  Kids of all colors wearing national dress!

From Oslo to Myrdal

Although I know from long experience that pictures taken through train windows may evoke a memory for me, they really aren’t very interesting to others, but now I can remember what the scenery going up to Flam is. It’s gone in a breath from totally blue skies to overcast in spots, blue in spots. Many birch forests, anemones carpeting swaths of land along the tracks. And of course conifer forests, interspersed with lakes, and with farmland. We are going higher and it’s getting cooler outside. I see a tunnel being built going into the mountain, and then we are in a tunnel in the train.

And then we emerge, higher and probably colder outside, with rapidly running rivers and falls, and snow caps in the distance.

I’m in the family car of the train, with two little ones across the way but they are happy because they can roam, and at one end is play area, where half a dozen preschoolers gather and bounce.

…

From Myrdal to Flam

Onto another train, a spur from the main Oslo Bergen line, and we proceed through steep passes and past many waterfalls, down to the water’s edge from 4000 ft above. The sky is blue and the air is mild. The scenery is spectacular. And when the train arrives at the harbor of Flam, it is positively balmy.

From Flam to Godvangen

And then ensue two more hours of incredible scenery, going through the fjords between the mountains that come straight down to the sea in an adequate working car ferry/boat. Waterfall after waterfall streaming down the sides of sheer cliffs. I am aware of a couple of Japanese tour groups who haven’t been noticeable before.

Finally we arrive at Gudvangen and transfer directly to busses. Another hour of dramatic scenery. I realize that all the rivers and waterfalls are in full spring flood, that this is the very best time to see them. Some have overrun their banks in little lakes, sort of vernal pools I guess. Part of this trip involves going up a mountain and coming down in hairpin curves, one after the other. I’m not convinced this was a necessary passage but it was indeed dramatic.

And the last leg is a transfer to a train again at Voss, on the way to Bergen. I’m on my last legs too! This one is supposed to be fairly undramatic. I may fall asleep.

Two things come to mind. How many dramatic scenes do I need to capture to give the feeling of this incredible trip?? And.. At last, dammit, I have my pictures of spring waterfalls, after having ruined my chance at Yosemite falls when my film didn’t wind, many years ago.

[p.s. – we were seeing spring runoff, meadows near the rivers were flooded, but no damage. I come home to reading about flooding south in Germany, and hear later from travellers who planned the trip a week after me that flooding had cancelled parts of the route. I was lucky! I was also lucky that the weather was beautiful – if it hadn’t been, I’d have been chilled to the bone and gloomy!]

The breakfast, part of the deal at this pricey Bergen hotel, is truly outstanding. Lasted me much of the day. And the weather was outstanding too. They say Bergen has sixty clear days a year, and this was one of them. After that breakfast buffet, I set out for the tourist info place a few blocks away, on the harbor, through the pedestrian way on Torgallmenningen, past the modern monument that shows how many ways the Norwegians have used the sea. (look at those closely!)

I figured I’d get the lay of the land without exerting myself too much, and I did. Trouble is, the land isn’t very interesting. Much or most of the town has been destroyed and rebuilt, most recently in WW II. There is a string of old buildings along the waterfront that house souvenir shops (lots of trolls and elk/moose, there is confusion there, but also sweaters of the Norwegian sort.)

I took the funicular up to the top of the hill overlooking town, and spent some time there just having a coke and relaxing, along with much of Bergen. It was Sunday, and everyone was enjoying the lovely weather. I had a nice early dinner at a restaurant on the Bryggen, the Main Street that runs long the harbor and has the ancient old houses which have been burnt and restored repeatedly. I had an appetizer of “elk steak” and asparagus and cloudberry garnish, and then a small bowl of bacalao, codfish soup.

Fish soup, which is usually creamy, not tomatoey though the bacalao was, is the speciality in Bergen and is very good. I walked back to the hotel but ran into an older woman from Connecticut who is travelling with her granddaughter and whom I had met on the ferry the day before, so we visited a while.

Next morning, I walked along the Bryggen and to the Bryggen museum, which explains the history of Bergen as a center for the Hanseatic League, mostly German. I’m not sure Bergen was a Norwegian city much at all, for many years. I then went back along the Bryggen and got sweaters for Jeannette and Evelyn and Sarah.

I was supposed to leave on a night train from Bergen to Oslo and then Stockholm, but I realized that I had no reserved seat on the Bergen-Oslo leg. When I checked at the TI I was told that it was completely booked. I did manage to get a seat on the early train out the next morning, so I went back to the hotel and got a room for one more night, an outdated back side room, which cost $353!! (but that has apparently been changed) At an early breakfast before leaving I managed to make myself a lunch sandwich from the buffet.

The weather had clouded over and there was some rain last night, but today, heading back into Oslo, there are clouds one minute, sun the next. It is retracing the rail part of the Nutshell, so it has been spectacular scenery. Now on to Stockholm, only a few hours later than I’d expected!