HawaiiTrvlr

I see Bergen has a Starbucks. Love the pictures of the trip so far. I am Norwegian (father's side of the family). I am not sure where my ancestors are from in Norway though.

andreirublev

So that shower....

SFO777

Thank you very much HaaZe and for taking time to comment. Bergen was nice to visit. And I'm sure we hit all the tourist trap food stops.

Thank you Andriyko.

Thanks so much daftboy. I didn't realize that it was in a movie. It just seemed to interesting when I saw it.

Thank you cefiro. I found two companies, fonnafly.no and helitours.no but decided to go with helitours as they were more responsive and had more substantial choppers, although fonnafly had an in city landing location.

Thanks happymom2008.

Thanks LANDJ999. Indeed, that was a very strange bathroom/shower situation.

Surprised that they didn't do it sooner. And 50% was a good night.

Thanks very much cmd320. Yeah, looking forward to today's La Première experience. Interesting that in OSL, we were singled out for special treatment even though we were in European Business. Check-in agent asked if we would like an escort thru security and to the OSL Lounge. And the gate agent held the other Business Class pax back and let us board first. Overheard him mention to the FA "Ils sont La Première".

Thanks again Genius1. In fairness to UA and the other US carriers, it was not a meal time flight. They would have served a meal if it was mealtime. As to the quality, well that's for another time.
Agree about those slopey seats. But it was convenient and something I thought would be interesting to try. Mrs. SFO has already weighed in on future flight selection.

Thank you Fredrik74. Yeah, filling the middle seat in Business would turn me away from SAS. As bad as other Euro "Business Class" is, at least they keep the middle open.

Thanks HawaiiTrvlr.

Yeah. Very strange.

SFO777

We left the hotel at 8AM for the 10 minute taxi ride to Bergen Station and the first leg of the Norway in a Nutshell Tour.

• Local train from Bergen to Voss
• Bus from Voss to Gudvangen
• Fjordcruise from Gudvanger to Flam
• Flam Railway from Flam to Myrdal
• Regional train from Myrdal to Oslo











Quiet place until one of the commute trains arrived. Whoa.



Bergen to Voss
NSB Local Train
8:43A-9:56A
September 15, 2015

OK, not the most luxurious train but there weren't a lot of pax so we were able to spread out in facing seats at the front of one of the cabins.



Nice teaser scenery along the way.















Voss-Gudvangen
Touring Bus
10:10A-11:20A
September 15, 2015

Reasonably comfortable bus especially since we found open seats beside each of us at the back of the bus.





























And just over an hour later, our bus arrived at the harbor in Gudvangen.



Gudvangen-Flam
Fjordcruise Ferry
11:45A-2:10A
September 15, 2015

Despite the overcast conditions, it was actually a nice day to be on the fjords if you came prepared.





Inside seating and small café.































Time for lunch. Not many options when you are out on the water.













The ferry also serves at the Postal service carrier stopping at a few communities along the way to deliver mail.









This gal was the funniest thing on the trip, snapping hundreds if not thousands of selfies with various poses.







Not everyone was impressed with the scenery.











Some 2 1/2 hours after departure, we arrived at Flam where it was already post-season for most of the restaurants in town.

SFO777

Flam-Myrdal
The Flam Railway
4:05P-5:03P
September 15, 2015

Self-proclaimed as one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world, it was pretty scenic and interesting as we climbed nearly 1,000 meters in 20 kilometers.

















































Very cool falls where the train stopped for photo ops.







And Miss Selfie still looking for the perfect pic.











We parked ourselves in the small station café for the hour waiting for the train to Oslo. Yeah, they had free Wifi. At around T-3, we headed out to wait for the train and to get close to Car 1.

Myrdal-Oslo
The Bergen-Oslo Railway
Regional Train
5:54P-10:25P (sked)
5:56P-11:00A (actual)
September 15, 2015







For NOK 90 (around US$11) we upgraded to Komfort Class seating which feature more legroom and power outlets.



Car 2 was the Family car.







And Basic class.



Steady rain gave us precious few good views tonight.









Time for a trip to the food car.



And dinner. LOL.



Wifi was free and worked reasonably well.



Not exactly the TGV or anything remotely close. More like the TLV. With a few stops along the way to "track repair", we lost about 30 minutes on this excruciatingly long trek.





Will this ever end??



Finally arriving at Oslo Central about 11PM.










For more pics and an HD version of the report please visit SFO777.com.

Andriyko

OMG, the views are amazing! When I am reading your trip reports SFO777 it seems like I am there. The picture with your wife under the umbrella is just beautiful. Thank you so so very much for sharing your adventures. I know I asked you so many times to marry me, but how can I compete with you gorgeous wife? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Your trip reports open something that I would not have seen otherwise.

Flyingfox

Yes, so even in Norway you can buy crap coffee. Gross.

LANDJ999

Thank you so much for making this trip. Always wanted to see the fjords and now I don't have to schlep all over Norway!

kannon99

Nice pictures, I was looking to do the same trip but from Stavenger. Would you say it was worth it? I was debating doing this tour or just taking a flight on Oslo. Also how did it work with your luggage? I assume you had to lug it through all your connections?

bj27

My family and I did the reverse version of this tour back in July... We went:
Oslo to Myrdal via Train in Komfort Klass (well worth the supplement charge for such a long journey)
Myrdal to Flam via Flam Railway,
Flam to Gudvangen via ferry,
Gudvangen to Voss via bus,
Voss to Bergen via train...

We didn't want to lug around luggage but the transfers didn't look too difficult... They connections are coordinated so you never have to walk too far. It WAS much nicer not having to deal with luggage. The porter picked up our big bags early morning and delivered them to our hotel In Bergen before we got there... We felt it was worth the $25/piece charge. You can book at Porterservice.no by shooting them an email and coordinating pickup and drop off. No online reservations... Seemed very old world but was perfectly executed. They also take credit cards which is great. We would recommend the porter service if you don't want to deal with your luggage. My parents are getting a little olde so it was a nice convenience.

Highly recommend the Norway in a Nutshell. I did the legwork and purchased all the tickets separately independent of NiaN (saved $500 USD for the three of us) but worked great. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Smiley90

I recommend everyone going to Bergen to spend a couple days renting a room/camping/RV'ing in the surrounding area. The nature near it (well, everywhere) is amazing. Trekked there all the way from Oslo, one of the greatest trips I've ever made.

roadwarrier

offerendum

Very interesting trip!

SFO777

Thank you very much Andriyko. Will let you know if anything changes.

As in most countries around the world.

LOL. Thanks LANDJ999.

Thanks so much kannon99. If you've never seen the fjords, it's a great way to do it. As bj27 notes below, there is porter service if you have multiple and/or large bags, or just don't want to be bothered with schlepping them around.

Thanks very much bj27. And good job on saving money by booking the legs separately. We were going to use porterservice.no but decided against as they wanted to pick up the bags more by 6:30AM, more than two hours before departure. In the end, since we only had carry-ons, we were happy we just took them with us. There is ample space to store bags on the trains, bus and boat if you don't mind rolling them around in between.

Thank you Smiley90. Not sure Mrs. SFO would go for your suggestion though.

Thanks offerendum.

Bretteee

My aunts went to Norway 30 years ago in June, and they had a "heat wave."
Quite unexpected.

They loved their trip but said the food was mediocre.
Would love to go there one day.

I assume you went in September and the weather was already bad / raining.

So I assume it's better to go July / August.

However the midnight sun I think is in June. Not sure.