We began the journey aboard a train from Bergen to the town of Voss. The railway hugged a massive fjord wall giving us a great perspective of the sheer steepness of these awesome ocean channels. Aboard the train we struck up a conversation with a nice French couple that was enjoying retirement to the fullest. This couple has been sailing throughout Europe for the past 11 years, basically going from country to country seeing the sites and then in the winter docking their boat, returning to the south of France for the remainder of the year and then boarding the boat again once they get their fill of time with grandchildren. Wow... I think they have life figured out if you ask me.
From Voss we boarded a bus that meandered through the countryside giving us a taste of how the people who inhabited these parts lived. We also saw a number of waterfalls and some really cool campgrounds that Jennifer and I said would be a great spot to return to 30 years from now while touring the country by motorhome.
Our travels by sea began in the town of Gudvangen and took us through the Naeroyfjord. Although our time at sea began wet with a steady rain, the fjord was no less beautiful and we were even blessed with moments of sunshine and blue skies that only made the terrain even more spectacular.
From Flam we boarded a train again and then off to Myrdal.
The trip to Myrdal was definitely the most scenic of the railways we crossed. We saw some powerful waterfalls gushing thousands of gallons of water a second, waterfalls that were thousands of feet tall, and various meandering rivers running through huge gorges. Henry was all smiles throughout the journey and kept busy by flirting with the young girl sitting across the aisle.
In Myrdal we made some wraps out of lefse and avocado and washed them down with a couple of over priced beers. We haven't really mentioned this yet, but for those of you planning to come to Norway, be prepared to take out a second on your house. This is absolutely the most expensive place we have travelled. We have spoken with other tourists who agreed but we were assured that the remainder of the countries we will be visiting are much more affordable. To put things in perspective, a coffee from a random coffee shop will run you $6 or so, our beers today ran us $13 each and meals are about $20-$30 per plate at normal restaurants. We're not complaining, just surprised that things are even pricier than we had read when planning from the states. I guess you don't become one of the wealthiest nations by selling cheap food and beer do you?
While eating our dinner, a group of asian travelers were showing some serious interest in Henry. One of the times when Sam was walking back from the bar, the lady reached out her arms basically demanding that we let her hold him. We obliged and before we knew it, Henry was being passed around, the ladies were all giggling and as you can see, he made quite an impression. I think these ladies may have enjoyed their time with Henry more than the unbelievable sites aboard the railway.
On our way out to catch our last train from Myrdal to Oslo, we struck up a conversation with a traveller from Arizona who also was quite fond of Henry. I don't know what this boy has going on, but he has quite good fortune with the opposite sex.
Our train ride to Oslo was approximately 5 hours and while not as dramatically scenic as the sites we saw earlier in the day, the trip was by all other standards very beautiful. We arrived at our hotel in Oslo a little after 11:00 pm and were a little disappointed to find that our room was bunk beds. Hey right now, we aren't too concerned as we are ready to crash for the evening, but hopefully tomorrow we can get something a little more cozy to come home to after venturing the City of Oslo.
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