Before we left on this trip, many people asked "why Norway?" For whatever reason this is not a popular destination for young travelers, but I was so excited having seen pictures from my parents' and grandparents' trips and because of my Norwegian heritage. After our 8 day trip, I will be back and am convinced Norway should be added to everyone's bucket list, especially if you love natural beauty.
Arriving late in Oslo Saturday night, {our first Ryanair flight was a success, although the hour plus bus ride outside of Paris makes it only worth it in extreme cases} we walked through the city on the way from the bus station to our hotel. Leaving our hotel at 8am the next morning meant we had the entire city to ourselves for quite a while. We saw Parliament, the National Theater, the Royal Palace, the harbor, and the city hall--pretty ugly even though that's where the Nobel Peace prize is awarded every year!
Next we visited famous Vigeland Park, full of unique sculptures about the cyclical nature of human life.
We walked through some beautiful back streets before catching a bus to the Viking Ship museum. Very small, informative museum, which included three Viking ships and many artifacts from Viking life found at Viking burial sites...pretty awesome.
We took the ferry back to the main harbor where we grabbed some lunch and met up with Line and her boyfriend for some coffee. {Line is a distant Norwegian relative...neither of us are sure how exactly we are related, but we've been pen pals since grade school and have remained in touch.}
Then it was off for our 5 hour drive to the mountain/fjord region. Stunning beauty, even in the mist/fog, but we have learned that there are no real interstates in Norway which means it takes a long time to get short distances. Nick was especially happy when we arrived at our adorable cabin for the night, nestled in the Jotunheim mountains.
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| Picnic on the road and the ski jump from the Lillehammer Olympics |
Day 2: Northern Fjord area
We awoke to clouds and fog, so we decided to ditch our original plan of hiking in the mountains and instead drive north toward the Geirangerfjord area. We stopped to check out the stave church in Lom. These churches were typical in medieval Norway, and there are only a few remaining now. Although there are more famous ones in the fjord area, this is the only one we stopped at.
As we drove north through beautiful mountains, we noticed the weather was actually clearing a bit and decided to make it the day we actually visited Geirangerfjord. We began by taking the Dalsnibba toll road all the way up to 1500m, which gave us our first stunning glimpses at the fjord, and also provided beautiful lake and cliff views.
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| Picnic lunch break as we wound our way down into Geiranger |
Our two hour fjord cruise started right about the time the rain and fog started, but we think it actually made for a more dramatic ride. Beautiful waterfalls, crystal blue water--yes, it was really that color depending how the light hit it--towering cliffs above us, and nature everywhere. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking {but of course, it was even more beautiful in real life}. We even saw several dolphins and baby dolphins hanging out near our boat.
After another beautiful drive {theme of the trip here} and many tunnels, we arrived at our apartment for the night. Side note: Norway has got to be the country with the most tunnels relative to its size. So.many.tunnels. And you can see some of them are just barely big enough to accommodate two semis that meet. Our apartment offered beautiful views over the lake, perfect for a night in cooking and watching the rain pour down on the lake.
Day 3: Jostedal glacier & Sognefjord
Despite waking up to thick fog, this day could accurately be named "the day we never put the camera down for more than 5 minutes at a time." We arrived at the Briksdalbreen arm of the Jostedal glacier (largest glacier in mainland Europe) just in time for the fog to clear and to beat the hoards of tour busses. The hike up to the edge of the glacier was filled with waterfalls, goats, and stunning beauty at every turn.
The glacier itself was pretty awesome to see. Next time, I think we'll head to the Nigardsbreen arm and actually do some hiking on the ice!
Our three hour drive to the southern fjord region began with stunning views out from the glacier that we had missed on the way in due to the fog.
And the views didn't stop there. It seemed that every turn in the three hour drive had something new to capture: views from above, more glacier, more fjords, farms, just amazing. And the pictures really just "aren't real life", as was often my comment after taking a picture and feeling it didn't live up to what I was really seeing.
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| Our drive included a car ferry and driving through the world's longest tunnel |
Since the weather stayed so nice and was forecast to change the next day, we decided to try and catch the last sight seeing boat of the day between Flam and Gudvangen on the Naerofjord. We made it with only 15 minutes to spare but were able to buy tickets and found out this is the best boat to be on of the day. There were only about 15 total people on our boat compared to 120+ the day before. Perfect for snapping photos to our hearts' desires!
The entire trip was breathtaking and relaxing. This fjord is the narrowest and one of the deepest. At the narrowest point it's only 250 m wide. No dolphin sightings today, but we did see a harbor seal.
Happy and pictured out, we stopped at the grocery store for some dinner essentials before checking into our cabin just outside of Aurland for the night. What a perfect way to end a perfect day....view of the Sognefjord from our porch, a home cooked meal, some beer, and some cards.
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