Bergen to Oslo Norway
We are writing this while sitting on the training in Bergen
waiting. Just as the train was set to
depart, they made an announcement that for many people, a portion of their trip
together was canceled due to a rockslide, which has left a chunk of the road
impassable today. These folks were scheduled
to take the train partway, and then taking a bus down to a small down and a
boat through the fjord over to the little town of Flam. This is billed as “Norway
in a Nutshell”, the most popular tour in Norway. Whoops!!!! Luckily for us, we are set to take
the train directly to Flam. People are
confused and in a panic. It’s not really
like most people can just rebook for several days down the road. The train company didn’t handle this very
well. We are leaving 20 minutes late
–just started going with less people aboard.
We don’t know what they are going to do.
We hope this won’t affect the number of people who will be trying to get
the small train down to Flam.
Whatever. There is nothing that
we can do…and our trip will be minimally impacted. Just another day on the road.
The train ride to Myrdal went well, with more of the lovely
scenery, countryside, mountains, little towns, farms, bike paths….just pretty,
pretty sites. And some pretty long tunnels.
We caught the little train down to Flam-standing-room only in some of the cars
due to the extra folks who were supposed to go the other route. This route took us from around 3000 feet to
pretty much sea level in quite an astounding train trip. We were scheduled for about a half hour to stare at the
scenery at the bottom of this mountain.
Wow!!!! And can I say again, Wow!!!
Park way down, we had a stop at a spectacular waterfall,
where we were entertained by three young women portraying some type of mythical sirens who would try to lure us into the waterfall. A pretty good gig on a nice day. Pretty nippy if it was raining or cold. Every half hour all day long they need to do
a 3 minute dance. We hope that they have
somewhere warm and dry to go in between sets.
But it was fun to see them.
Because of our late leaving time, we had only about 15
minutes down at the bottom in the town of Flam before we had to leave. We traded taking a very early 6:30am train or
getting back to Oslo at nearly 11pm for having a short time at the bottom. It is really all about priorities…We soak in
the beauty of the small village at the bottom of the fjord, and then we piled
back on the train for the ride up the mountain. The ride up was also
wonderful. Dick talked to a guy about
the process that they have where a B&B rents bikes to people for the 10
miles downhill bike ride to the bottom.
Then you can ride the train back up.
It was be really lovely. Maybe
next time. We got off that train to catch the train back to Oslo.
It was so much easier to find our same hotel in Oslo than it
had been four days ago. Hop off the
train, and walk a few minutes. This time
with just our two small bags, having checked our luggage at the hotel. A very good move!!!! Crazy little hotel, but it felt a bit like
home. We got some great middle eastern
take out from across the street and then turned on the World Cup Finals for
soccer. Following the commentary in Norwegians makes it interesting. It has
been quite interesting to be in Europe for the whole of the World Cup. This is a huge deal, and everyone is quite
excited to have Germany in the finals, as well as having the Netherlands come
in third.
We are coming to the tale end of the trip. One more real
full day of site seeing and then the next day is when we go home. We feel like we have been gone for a long
time.
“There
are so many important lessons I’ve learned in my journey to now. Trust your
instincts, follow your bliss, make plans, work hard, learn to let things go.
Don’t be late. Remember that fortune favors the brave. Live. If you need to
run, try and run toward something. Study for tests. Laugh at silly cartoons. Be
organized. If you fall seven times, get up eight. Always carry an extra pen.
Believe you can do everything. Find your key. And the most valuable lesson I’ve
learned will forever live in my heart, right beside my husband. Love the one
who proves to you that happily ever after is only the beginning.”
Nina
Lane, Awaken
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