Sognefjord and the Flam Railway

Leaving Bergen

Worried about global warming

We booked a scenic tour package to travel from Bergen to Oslo  (about $225 apiece), traveling first on a (relatively) fast passenger ferry north along the coast in an inner passage until we reach Sognefjorden, the longest and largest fjord network in Norway. Ferry service ended at Flam, where we were to take the scenic Flam railway to Myrdal, and then at Myrdal we could catch the Bergen railway for the trip to Oslo. This is a popular tour, but most people take it in the opposite direction -- Oslo to Bergen -- so there was only a single time schedule we could use.

We grabbed a hearty breakfast, bundled up in lots of layers, and walked over to the ferry docks to catch the 8 AM ferry. The rear upper deck was crowded as we idled out of Bergen harbor, but the wind turned into a savage knife as the captain brought the ferry up to full speed and most of the crowd disappeared indoors to avoid the cold. I fired up a cigar and enjoyed the brilliant weather in the company of a tough Norwegian guy and a frozen, camera-happy Asian fellow.

Looking north about to enter Sognefjord

Salmon pens

It took about 90 minutes to reach the mouth of the fjord and head inland. The coast line was rocky and windswept, but there were snug little house scattered across most all of the larger islands in the archipelago. From time to time we passed the circular nets denoting salmon farms, and did pass an oil refinery, no doubt processing feedstocks recovered from wells in the North sea.

Car ferry in Sognefjorden

Man, it was cold out on that deck

   

Balestrand and Kviknes Hotel

The mountains along the sides of the fjord rose up fairly quickly and the channel continued to narrow, but the best scenery started as we neared Balestrand. Balestrand itself was extremely picturesque, and I imagined it would be a fabulous place stay if you wanted to hike and explore the countryside.

Lots of waterfalls

Looking SW down the Naeroyfjorden

The weather stayed clear until we were clear to Aurland, the last stop before we reached Flam, but then a little rain cloud closed in and chased all the way to the end. Fortunately, the rain never actually reached Flam. We had a 3 hour layover while we waited for the scenic train. At first we were a little frustrated when two other trains left Flam on the way to Myrdal, but later we appreciated that they made us wait at Flam because the Oslo train only passed through Myrdal in the early evening, and the Myrdal station barely deserves being called a station. There's more to do at the Flam station and the weather is certainly much more pleasant.

Chased by rain from Aurland to Flam

Rjoandefossen waterfall

Flam proved to be a nice place for a picnic lunch, but we didn't do much else but sit and soak up sun while we waited for the train. The Flam railway is widely known as one of the more scenic and steepest railways in the world. It climbs almost 900 meters over the 20 km run to Myrdal, and runs past a number of spectacular waterfalls, the tallest of which includes a 450 foot free drop. There's only one section of double track, which is just wide enough for the downhill train to pass while the uphill train waits. Near the top you can see part of the original railway construction road, popular with bikers and cyclists alike for the 21 tightly packed switchbacks. Damn, that would have been a fun ride!

Rjoandefossen waterfall (again)

Up the Flam valley

Just before reaching the top of the line the trains stops for a 5 minute observation break at an enormous waterfall (Kjossfossen) that drains a large lake about 300 feet up over the ridge. As is typical with scenic rides, the railway operators provide some commentary on the railway, its history and landscape features all along the ride. Just before reaching the waterfall the commentary discusses sirens of the forest who sing to travelers and lure them off into the wilderness never to be heard from again. So of course, about the time all passengers have gotten out some rather mysterious lilting music starts playing from off on a hillside somewhere and a couple of frolicking up near the waterfall, appearing and then quickly disappearing amongst the boulders. (What a job! Gi and I speculated that they have a little cabana up among the rocks where they can knock back a snort or two of aquavit between performances. It's damn cold up there with all the mist from the waterfall, and they've got to get up and dance twice every hour.) No matter -- it's an awe-inspiring place, and I'd love to go back, but next time it'll be on a motorcycle.

Retirement would be grand except for those damned trains

Glad for double tracks!

As previously noted, the Myrdal station is barely a blip on the Bergen line that mainly exists to serve traffic from the Flam railway. However, the station is perched up in cirque about 880 meters above sea level, and most of the basin was still covered in snow this first week of June. A few birds flitted across the south-facing slopes where some early grasses sprouted out from under barren trees, but otherwise the are was completely silent save the wind shushing through the branches

21 switchbacks and NO motorcycle!!!

Kjosfossen

The train from Bergen arrived a bit after 5 PM and whisked us all off for the 5-hour ride to Oslo. For the first couple of hours we passed through a bleak but mesmerizing landscape, climbing another 400 meters up onto the Hardangervidda, a large mountain plateau that's home to Hardangervidda National Park and one of Norway's largest glaciers. Small huts and the occasional mountain lodge (fjellstove) were scattered here and there along the route, but there was little movement or activity until we reached Finse, There were still a few cross-country enthusiasts to be seen about there, but it was clear that the snow quality was waning rapidly and skis were soon to be hung up in favor of mountain bikes.

Kjosfossen + Water Nymph

Myrdal station

Past Finse, we slipped down the mountains and snow gradually gave way to pasture which gradually gave way to farmed fields. The rhythm of the rails made it difficult to stay awake, and both of us nodded off with only the occasional station call to wake us up. Finally, the train pulled into Oslo Central Station a bit after sunset (11 PM), and the first thing we saw as we stepped out of the train onto the platform was a tall building blazing away to the north of the station, somewhere behind the bus station. Eventually, the two us bumbled out into the plaza in front of the station before finding the after hours entrance to the Scandic hotel right next door. The room was small and a bit more spartan than we had enjoyed the past few days, but bed was a welcome sight after a very long and memorable day.

Hardangervidda near Finse

Somewhere near Geilo

Lots of sheep

...and many red barns

Why can't WE have fast trains???

Welcome to Oslo! Fire near the bus station.

Wandering Bergen

We lucked out with the weather. Friday started clear and stayed that way, and it looks as if Saturday should be similarly nice for our trip through Sognefjord and the Flam railway. The basic plan was just to wander around town, letting our feet find whatever opportunity of interest they could. We started out wandering through the shops in the preserved wooden warehouses of the Bryggen wharf area right next door to the hotel where Gi couldn't resist posing with a couple of new friends. There have been businesses trading on this site for more than 700 years, but it wasn't really clear to me how old the present buildings have stood there -- fires have ravaged the area on numerous occasions, and it's easy to see why given how spaced they are.

We eventually walked around to the other side of the old inner harbor and out along the Nordnes peninsula to the aquarium (Akvariet). Not to be confused with the Georgia Aquarium, the Monterey Aquarium, the Shedd or any other big-time operation, we nonetheless enjoyed watching the penguins and the seal show, as well as walking around the indoor reptile and fish exhibits.

After the aquarium, we looped back around to near where we started and caught a lift on the Floybanen, a funicular (cable-drawn) railway that ends about 1000 feet up the mountain above Bergen.

We sat overlooking the rest of Bergen, east and south of the harbor area, and I had enough time to enjoy a cigar.

The mountaintop is a protected watershed area for the city water supply, but there are numerous trails winding through forests of spruce and beech. We opted for a short hike around a small lake called Skomakerdiket where a few people were grilling out or pushing strollers. If you want to get away from the city in a hurry for some peace and quiet, I sure this area is the perfect spot.

We had to head down off the mountain a bit early since we had purchased tickets for the symphony that evening and needed time to get to the hotel and get cleaned up. When we were looking at information about the Bergen International Festival online a few weeks ago I had noticed that the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra was celebrating their 60th anniversary with a concert that included Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor and a selection of his pieces from Peer Gynt. I have had a fondness for Grieg's Peer Gynt music ever since receiving a box set of albums one Christmas when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

Given the Grieg is one of Bergen's native sons, it seemed particularly appropriate to hear his music performed here live. And I wasn't disappointed -- it was particularly cool to hear some of the dialog from Ibsen's play, as well as some of the operatic solos, performed in Norwegian, a first for me. The concert was held in Grieghallen, a relatively modern concert hall (1978) that has excellent acoustics and holds about 1500 people. Gi and I guessed that it was probably at about 80% capacity for the concert, which was probably pretty good for a Friday night, but something of a shame considering the quality of the music.

Strangely enough one of my more vivid memories of the evening had nothing to do with the music, but in fact involved the audience. While waiting for Gi to return from the powder room I was looking around the crow and suddenly noticed myself feeling as if I had shrunk!? In every direction were men and women over 6 feet tall, most with heads of gray or even white hair, and many of them going over 6'4". I happened to look online later and found a report that the Norwegians and Dutch are now considered the world's tallest in average height (a bit more than an inch taller than the American average). The report discussed diet and improved health but frankly I preferred imagining that I was seeing some remaining vestige of Viking heritage running through that crowd.

Bergen - Gateway to Norway's Fjordlands

Mmmm ... I live for the breakfast buffet at the Radisson Blu at Arlanda, especially the smoked salmon. So after a leisurely breakfast, we packed and headed to the airport to catch a noon flight on SAS direct to Bergen. I have to admit that SAS didn't come off well compared to the Norwegian Airlines flights I took to and from Umea. The Norwegian planes were brand new 737-800s with free wifi access to the internet -- clean and much more comfortable. It looks like SAS will be in for some real competition in the years ahead.

Although I had a general understanding of Scandinavian geography, I couldn't really appreciate the uplifted granite spine that comprises most of Norway's land area until we flew over the top and could look down on the icefields and glaciers. Man, that's some rugged country! The picture doesn't really do the 3D scenery justice -- those narrow green valleys were carved at least 3000 feet deep in what looked like a solid rock shield running clear to the horizon.

I really didn't have a conception of what Bergen would be like before this trip. It was, in fact, a rather late addition to our itinerary and I'm pretty sure it was Gi's idea. I had mainly heard of Bergen as a place where you could catch a cruise to the fjords. I had also heard of something called the Bergen International Festival, which was some kind of arts and music event, and as luck would have it, we arrived smack in the middle of the festival. (No doubt this contributed some to the high prices for food and lodging, which the Swedes had warned us were at least 50% inflated from their own high prices, but I think it was mostly a result of lots of oil money floating around and the need to catch tourist dollars as efficiently as possible during the very short tourist season. As an example of what we were paying for food, at a mildly upscale pub on the wharf a light dinner order of fish & chips, a club sandwich and a half-liter bottle of porter was nearly $90. I would have expected to pay no more than $45 downtown in a large US city for the same meal. Fortunately, we knew what to expect before we went there.)

The city itself was lovely, but I struggled to find a comparable pace from memory. A cross between the seaport of Portland, ME and the mountains and money of Aspen came to mind. I also considered the possibility of a cold-water Punta del Este, but that wouldn't catch the working seaport nature of Bergen. I suspect that there are some strong similarities to be had with Anchorage and Juneau, but I haven't yet made it to Alaska and will so need to leave that comparison for the future. Also, none of these places could touch the history of Bergen given that the city has been around for more than 1000 years, and for a time was the capitol of Norway.

As we normally do when we travel, Gi and I hoofed it around central Bergen for most of the late afternoon and evening. After covering the wharf and castle area thoroughly, we headed to the central peninsula that splits the larger Bergen harbor and found our way to a botanical garden where a large collection of rhododendrons were in full bloom under the canopy of a conifer collection containing species from the world over.

Eventually, hunger took over and for some reason the chill air put me in the mood for Thai food. We happened on a place whose name escapes me at the moment in a small side street just out of the wharf area where I had red curry shrimp to die for. The proprietress was very friendly, which easily made up for the fact that she didn't speak a word of English. Of course, if we had really had any problems, we could have called on the lovely English teacher and her husband sitting at the next table. She was originally from Houston but had married a Norwegian and had been living in Bergen for the past 9 years. We were in complete agreement that the food packed the right amount of spice to drive the chill away.

I finished up the evening with an after-dinner cigar, watching the sunset (which if you look carefully at the clock tower in the background was a bit after 10:30). While I finished the last puffs, a beautiful 3-masted schooner sailed up and docked after a dinner cruise through the archipelago.

Meeting Gi in Umea

I've taken several interesting trips since my last blog entry

-- Porto Seguro, Brazil and Shenzhen, China last year to name a couple -- but all were work related, and also presented their own special barriers (e.g. no blog access from China) to updating this travelogue, But this year I promised Gi that when her job in Umea, Sweden ended I would take some time off to travel through some of Scandinavia with her. As usual, we waited until the last minute to finalize our plans, but the trip is now underway, and in the following entries I'll try to recount some of what we do as we leave Umea for Stockholm, then head to Bergen, Norway, circle through the fjords and by train to Oslo, then down the coast to Gothenburg, Sweden, before finishing up with a few days in Copenhagen.

I arrived in Stockholm with the dawn on Monday morning and then had to hang around Arlanda airport my flight to Umea left in the mid-afternoon. The weather was delightfully crisp in Umea as spring is just getting up a head of steam. The daffodils and tulips are in full bloom and the leaves on most the trees are just bursting out with that brilliant green that only spring can bring. All in all it was extremely welcome after the 90 degree days we've been suffering in Athens the past month.

We were fortunate that Bjorn Sundberg hadn't started working full-time at his new job with Stora and happened to be in Umea Monday night. Gi had made arrangements for us to get together for dinner, and we all enjoyed a lovely meal at Rex. The reindeer was cooked perfectly. I would have loved to keep the evening going longer, but the travel time was about 24 hours of which I slept little. Crash and burn came rather soon after dinner, and it was no surprise that Gi complained of my snoring the next day.

Tuesday was Gi's last day at work, so while she wrapped things up in the lab I went out to hike a bit further afield in Umea. It's been 9 years since my last visit and things have changed a lot, much of it in preparation for their turn in 2014 as European Capital of Culture. (Don't blame me for the spelling -- I think it should be Capitol, as well -- but I'm following what they say on multiple websites.) Anyway, the place looks pretty spiffy, and if they can just get the new rail lone finished in time it should be a great time, indeed.

Eventually I headed over toward Lake Nydal, which is just east of campus, following the lakeshore trail south until I found a little sheltered bench situated on a shallow arm of the lake that was more bog and fen than actual lake. I'm sure most of the locals ignore this area, but while I sat and smoked a cigar a pair of Eurasian cranes stalked the marsh across the way while arctic terns flew up and down the grassy edges ever alert for small fish in the shallows. A mob of crows came through at one point looking for trouble, but they were little match for the terns as aerialists and they soon beat a hasty retreat. Several insect hatches were on and while swifts flashed back and forth after the flies that made it aloft, mallards, scaups and buffleheads made easy pickings of the flies that almost made it. Leaving the lakeshore I nearly ran into an enormous red ant nest -- the thing was almost 3 feet tall and at least 4 feet in diameter at the base. The entire top of the next was alive as the ants swarmed out to take advantage of the sunny day. What a wonderful place to while away and hour or two, and it was only a 10 minute walk from the lab.

I wandered back to the lab around 2:30 to meet Gi's co-workers and to have some cake to celebrate her last day. It was a fun party, but jetlag finally caught up with me and I fell asleep on the breakroom couch when folks left to finish their work before heading home.

Tuesday evening was mainly a mad dash to finish cleaning the apartment (despite what the building super said afterward, the place was nearly spotless when we left -- no doubt she was looking to squeeze an extra dime out of someone), and then I played the home version of "Chopped" cooking a meal for six using every remaining mystery ingredient in Gi;s refrigerator and freezer. Gi awarded me penalty points for making every pan in the kitchen dirty. We both decided to hand up the towels sometime between the sun setting around 11 PM and the midnight twilight. Wednesday morning the taxi arrived at 7:45 and we made a quick dash to the lab to drop off several boxes of bedding and household items -- some borrowed and some purchased -- before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Stockholm. We were booked at the Radisson at Arlanda for the night, to make it easier to catch the morning flight to Bergen, but several free hours (and the late summer sunset) gave us plenty of time to catch a bus into Stockholm to wander around and catch dinner.

It's such a beautiful city, and we enjoyed wandering down the long pedestrian mall,

then past the guards at the royal palace,

and into Gamla Stan (Old Town) with its many sites of interest, including the Svenska Academien (location of the Nobel Museum)

and the sculpture of St. George slaying the dragon.

Fortuitously, we were able to meet up with Gi's boss, Ulrika, and some other colleagues later in the evening for a lovely dinner at Frippe, just behind the Royal Dramatic Theater.

I certainly hope we find a reason to return to Stockholm before another 5 years pass.