Norway in a Nutshell

My last full day in Norway was a busy one. My Rick Steves' guidebook said that if you go to Norway and didn't take the time to see the Fyords, you should have your passport taken away. Wish I had read that before going to Norway so I could have planned it a bit easier, but challenge excepted Mr. Steves. I was going to do Norway in a nutshell, and that involved an early start and a bit of planning. My day started at 6:31, catching a train to the small country town/train station of Myrdal, a roughly 5 hour trip to the countryside to the West of Oslo. From there I hopped on another train, for a slow, scenic route, through the mountains. Seriously, the conductor would even keep the passengers up to date with what waterfalls we were about to pass, and which way to look for good views of the valleys below. At one point we even stopped for 5 minutes to let everyone out to take pictures of a particularly large and beautiful waterfall. By 1pm we reached Flam, a harbor town on the shores of Sognefjord Fyord, the second largest fyord in the world.

From there I hopped on a ferry, which brought us down the fyord for a little over two hours with periodical announcements from the captain/crew about the small towns (I can't emphasize 'small' enough, some were just a handful of homes) along the banks on either sides. The views the entire trip were breathtaking, and cameras were never put away for even a minute. Even saw seals at one point.

The ferry then dropped us off at Dudvangen, where we took a bus through the countryside back to Voss, where I took a train back to Oslo to arrive around 10:30 at night. Long day, but worth every bit of tiredness the next morning, when I woke up early again to make my 7:25 train to Stockholm!



(So clearly that was from a while ago. Next comes my blog about my short but sweet stay in Stockholm...)

- Matt

Location:Norway