Norway in a nutshell

We arrived in Norway in a city called Bergen. We didn't stay there very long, though, since we were really only there for the scenic trip to Oslo via Flåm.

The tickets we organized for the journey to Oslo were from what's called the Norway in a nutshell package. Ordinarily we don't do package tours, but this one wasn't quite a package tour.

The Norway in a nutshell tickets (NIN) are a set of tickets comprising various modes of public transport, mostly scenic. We chose the one which goes from Bergen to Oslo via Flåm - the famous Flåmsbanna (I say famous, but I'd never heard of such a thing before).

Booking websites can be such a pain. The NIN website didn't give us any options as to what train we would catch - the one we ended up booking actually left before our plane arrived in Bergen, and we were booked to arrive in Oslo the next day at 11:45pm or so. This state of affairs obviously wasn't going to work, but other websites suggested that the tickets were flexible, only needing to be used on the correct day.

Arriving in Bergen was easy enough, as was arriving at the train station. Not so easy, however, was finding out how to get to Flåm, where we were booked to stay the night. Eventually asking the right questions got us success. The tickets were flexible - to a point. The train to Voss was fine, as there is no assigned seating, the bus to Gudvangen, ferry to Flåm, train to Myrdal were all fine, just the last leg, that pesky train to Oslo had assigned seating. Which was all booked. We were repeatedly told that we'd have to ask the conductor in Myrdal if there were any free spaces available, so we'd have to chance it.

The train to Voss was uneventful, if a little scenic. The bus to Gudvangen however:

Views like this.

The photo might not show it well, but this is probably the steepest road that I've ever driven down (in a bus at least)

The bus stopped for various photo ops with various waterfalls, and then we were in Gudvangen.

Leaving Gudvangen

The fjords: Nærøyfjord and Aurlandsfjord are world heritage sites, and are rather narrow at points.

Kayaks for scale

It was raining on and off while we were on the ferry, hence the misty look in some of the photos.

It was all very majestic

There were a few other boats on the water, but on the whole, it seemed quite empty.

The ferry stopped at little fishing villages along the way.

 

Arriving in Flåm (which is pronounced Flom, like flop) this is the view that we had from our (expensive - booking early can be a good idea sometimes) accommodation:

The next morning we left early to catch the earlier train from Flåm, which would link to the earlier train to Oslo, just in case we could get on.

Yay!

The train goes up the side of a mountain, and was originally used to transport goods to the fjord, for shipping elsewhere, but these days it seems to only haul passengers.

Rail journeys are a time for contemplation. Will we get on the train to Oslo?

They're also a time for looking at scenery like this

and this.

We arrived in Myrdal, and the first thing we find out is that the train to Oslo has been delayed by half an hour or so. So we wait.

When it finally arrives, I run up to a helpful and official-looking guy, who informs me that he is the conductor, but that they have no seats left.

Anna, with a stroke of genius, asks if we can stand. The helpful and official-looking guy says yes, as long as we don't get in anyone's way. We ask no more questions, in case he changes his mind, and climb aboard.

The thing about not having an assigned seat in a train full of assigned seats is that you're at risk of being unseated at the next stop. We found a place for our bags and wandered down the carriages, looking for a likely couple of free seats, ready of course to vacate them when asked.

We found a carriage full of rowdy teenagers who were on their way to Oslo for a football competition, and who spent most of the trip butchering the lyrics to English language pop songs.

Ordinarily that would mean we were annoyed with them, but this time it seemed they kept whoever owned those seats from coming down to claim them. We were very thankful that we were on the train, let alone with a seat, so the music seemed like a minor inconvenience, barely mentionable. We were able to sit there for the whole trip to Oslo, although for the first few stops we kept standing up, and standing in the area between carriages, so as to avoid an awkward confrontation in case someone came to claim their rightful inheritance. When the man checking the tickets came around, he mumbled something in Norwegian, and stamped our ticket anyway.

Of course, the train journey to Oslo was scenic too, with:

Lakes

Glaciers

So many lakes.

There were tunnels too.

It was good to arrive in Oslo in time to get the keys to our AirBnB apartment. While we appreciated being able to sit in their noisy carriage, we were glad when the train rolled into the Oslo central station, so we could at last get some peace and quiet. Unfortunately we hadn't seen the last of the rowdy football-playing teenagers.