Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Pining for the fjords
It seems the rain has followed me from Bergen to Oslo, despite the fact that Oslo is meant to have nicer weather. On account of the moutains to the east. Norway is a lot like a mini-Canada. Which may be why I like it.
So I'm again dodging the rain by updating you on my travels. When I last left you, I was all prepared for my Norway in a Nutshell experience, which is the most popular tour in all of Norway! It begins with a train from Bergen to Myrdal, then a train down 866 m in 20 km to Flåm, a boat ride down two fjords to Gudvagen, a bus ride to Voss, and then the train back to Bergen. It's a long tour, but very pretty. I managed to book it all at the train station the night before, so no getting stuck for me. Unfortunately we didn't have the best weather for it. It was cloudy, so you couldn't see very far. The train from Bergen to Myrdal is quite beautiful, climbing up into the mountains, with lots of great valley and rock face shots. I am sure there is awesome climbing. In Myrdal it was snowing, and I was very glad the woman at the train station wouldn't let me book an earlier train. I had plans of taking the train before the one I ended up taking, and poking around the town a bit. One, there isn't really a town at Myrdal anymore, just a collection of hotels and summer homes. Two, it's closed in the winter. Even the ticket office for the train to Flåm is closed, you have to buy it from the conductor. After fourty minutes of taking pictures we got on the marvel-of-engineering train down the mountain. Easily the best part of the trip. Lots of gorgeous views and frozen waterfalls. Once we got to Flåm, we discovered that it too is closed for the winter. There was one souvenir and one café open. Luckily, it's not really a place you need to waste time inside at, and I wandered about, taking pictures. It's right at sea level (or 2 m above it) with these 900 m cliffs surrounding it. I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer, but I am partial to ice and snow, and so all this made it breath-taking. (Or maybe even magical...?) Next came the boat, which couldn't make it all the way to Gudvagen because of ice on the fjord, so it was a bit shorter than scheduled. The boat had an upper outside deck and a lower inside heated deck. When we got on the boat, everyone was squeezing onto the upper deck. It was about five degrees out, no wind. I had no luck getting a seat, or even a place to perch, so I resigned myself to a two hour standing boat tour. (You couldn't see all that well from inside.) About three seconds after we got started going down the fjord, and it got windy, half the seats opened up. I zipped up my coat and enjoyed the amazing towering cliffs. I made it most of the way outside, but in the end I had to take refuge in the warm interior. So much for my arctic tolerance! Last was the bus to Voss. At this point it had started to rain quite heavily, and the bus can't take the scenic route in the winter because the road is closed. The views from the highway were pretty and all, but nothing compared to what we had just come from. I had every intention of staying in Voss for awhile, but when we got there it was pouring, I was tired, and I just took the train home to Bergen and my warm bed. It didn't look like that pretty a place. And my guide book had one thing to do that wasn't downhill skiing. So, I missed the cathedral. I will regret this always.
This morning I had an early train to Oslo. The Bergen-Oslo train line is meant to one of the most beautiful in the world, as it climbs through the mountains, and it was quite pretty. Though I've never taken it, I'm sure the VIA train through the Rockies is just as beautiful though. It was snowy/rainy/foggy the whole way, but despite this, it was a nice ride. The first half of the trip my car was full of Norwegian teenagers all set for what seemed like a pretty serious cross-country ski trek. They were loud and roudy. I was glad when they got off. Finally we arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon. Here's my complaint about the off-season in Scandinavia. Nothing is open. I got here and settled by 4, but all the museums that I want to see close at 4. In fact, most of them are only open 10-4. This makes it tricky to see more than one in a day, and as I'm only here three days, I can't see all that I want to see. Oh well, I will have to settle for wandering the streets, looking at the pretty. If only it weren't raining...
I forgot, in my ode to Bergen last time, that it is also like Eureka. I cannot believe I could have forgotten this! It too has fjords, and what seemed like the same topography as Eureka, just with houses and streets and trees. Lots of steep streets and switchbacks. It also reminded me of San Francisco for that reason - they had a few Lombardy-style streets. Anyways, to sum up, Bergen is awesome.
So I'm again dodging the rain by updating you on my travels. When I last left you, I was all prepared for my Norway in a Nutshell experience, which is the most popular tour in all of Norway! It begins with a train from Bergen to Myrdal, then a train down 866 m in 20 km to Flåm, a boat ride down two fjords to Gudvagen, a bus ride to Voss, and then the train back to Bergen. It's a long tour, but very pretty. I managed to book it all at the train station the night before, so no getting stuck for me. Unfortunately we didn't have the best weather for it. It was cloudy, so you couldn't see very far. The train from Bergen to Myrdal is quite beautiful, climbing up into the mountains, with lots of great valley and rock face shots. I am sure there is awesome climbing. In Myrdal it was snowing, and I was very glad the woman at the train station wouldn't let me book an earlier train. I had plans of taking the train before the one I ended up taking, and poking around the town a bit. One, there isn't really a town at Myrdal anymore, just a collection of hotels and summer homes. Two, it's closed in the winter. Even the ticket office for the train to Flåm is closed, you have to buy it from the conductor. After fourty minutes of taking pictures we got on the marvel-of-engineering train down the mountain. Easily the best part of the trip. Lots of gorgeous views and frozen waterfalls. Once we got to Flåm, we discovered that it too is closed for the winter. There was one souvenir and one café open. Luckily, it's not really a place you need to waste time inside at, and I wandered about, taking pictures. It's right at sea level (or 2 m above it) with these 900 m cliffs surrounding it. I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer, but I am partial to ice and snow, and so all this made it breath-taking. (Or maybe even magical...?) Next came the boat, which couldn't make it all the way to Gudvagen because of ice on the fjord, so it was a bit shorter than scheduled. The boat had an upper outside deck and a lower inside heated deck. When we got on the boat, everyone was squeezing onto the upper deck. It was about five degrees out, no wind. I had no luck getting a seat, or even a place to perch, so I resigned myself to a two hour standing boat tour. (You couldn't see all that well from inside.) About three seconds after we got started going down the fjord, and it got windy, half the seats opened up. I zipped up my coat and enjoyed the amazing towering cliffs. I made it most of the way outside, but in the end I had to take refuge in the warm interior. So much for my arctic tolerance! Last was the bus to Voss. At this point it had started to rain quite heavily, and the bus can't take the scenic route in the winter because the road is closed. The views from the highway were pretty and all, but nothing compared to what we had just come from. I had every intention of staying in Voss for awhile, but when we got there it was pouring, I was tired, and I just took the train home to Bergen and my warm bed. It didn't look like that pretty a place. And my guide book had one thing to do that wasn't downhill skiing. So, I missed the cathedral. I will regret this always.
This morning I had an early train to Oslo. The Bergen-Oslo train line is meant to one of the most beautiful in the world, as it climbs through the mountains, and it was quite pretty. Though I've never taken it, I'm sure the VIA train through the Rockies is just as beautiful though. It was snowy/rainy/foggy the whole way, but despite this, it was a nice ride. The first half of the trip my car was full of Norwegian teenagers all set for what seemed like a pretty serious cross-country ski trek. They were loud and roudy. I was glad when they got off. Finally we arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon. Here's my complaint about the off-season in Scandinavia. Nothing is open. I got here and settled by 4, but all the museums that I want to see close at 4. In fact, most of them are only open 10-4. This makes it tricky to see more than one in a day, and as I'm only here three days, I can't see all that I want to see. Oh well, I will have to settle for wandering the streets, looking at the pretty. If only it weren't raining...
I forgot, in my ode to Bergen last time, that it is also like Eureka. I cannot believe I could have forgotten this! It too has fjords, and what seemed like the same topography as Eureka, just with houses and streets and trees. Lots of steep streets and switchbacks. It also reminded me of San Francisco for that reason - they had a few Lombardy-style streets. Anyways, to sum up, Bergen is awesome.
// posted by Annemarie @ 10:28 AM 
