Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Norway in a nutshell

Getting up after the beers for an 08:40 train in town was NOT easy but I managed it with plenty of time to spare. The train departs Bergen and within 10 minutes you are looking at beautiful scenery punctuated by long spells in tunnels between fjords. After about 90 minutes the train arrived in voss where a coach took us across the hills to Gustanven via an amazing mountain road with huge waterfalls and an amazing view down he valley.

In Gustanven we boarded the boat and headed North up Norway's narrowest and steepest fjord, some of the cliffs reaching 1800 metres in height. 2 hours later we had arrived in Flåm where the mountain train awaited us. The railway has to be seen to be believed. As it clings to the valley wall (and cuts through them via 20 tunnels) it climbs 865 metres in a mere 20 kilometres.

Finally the train arrived in Myrdal where I re-joined the Bergen to Oslo train in time for it to pass over the tops of the mountains (my GPS recorded well over 1200 metres). At 22:30 I arrived in Oslo and having been put on the wrong train by a very friendly station worker, I arrived at the wrong hostel. Another short and very expensive cab ride later I arrived at the correct place only to find it was an absolute dive! Nevertheless, I got some sleep and left 1st thing in the morning to explore Norway's capital.

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