Bergen via the Norway in a Nutshell Tour

On Thursday Nicole and I went to Bergen with the Norway in a Nutshell Tour.  This tour takes you from Oslo to Bergen on the Bergen Railway, the Flam railway, through two fjords on a fjord cruise and then a bus trip along Norway's steepest road and then back to the Bergen railway for the final leg to Bergen.

It was very touristy but okay, what can else can you expect.  The Bergen Railway was very scenic, fjords, mountains, lakes, small towns, really pretty.  But the Flam Railway was spectacular.  This 20km railway line descends 850m through through 18 or more tunnels including some loops inside a mountain.  It is quite steep but offers great views of the Flam valley. Once in Flam we boarded a ferry for a 2 hr fjord cruise.  We had found a great spot to sit and look out but it was so great that everyone else was constantly walking by us, in front of us, it was a bit irritating, but oh well.

Waterfall we stopped at with the Flam train

Looking across the valley through the train windows (my window would not go down).

Flam Valley from the Steepest Road in Norway

While on the fjord cruise

It was a bit of a long day, we left Oslo at 8am (which meant getting to the train station at around 7:30 so up quite early) and did not arrive in Bergen until 9pm, but it was nice.
In Bergen we stayed at the Skansen Pensjonat, a beautiful B & B (with Breakfast included) on one side of Bergen with a great view).  We had a fantastic late dinner at Escalon, a tapas restaurant, that was a really nice meal.

We had all day on Friday to look around Bergen.  We checked out the Bryggen (old Hanseatic Merchants warehouses), saw the theater, looked at Rosenkrantz Tower and Haakon's Hall (only the outside though as it did not open until noon).  We also went to the Natural History and Cultural History museums at the University (free for students).  That was nice and interesting but I saw more stuffed animals than I ever wanted to see, pretty much one of everything from mice to lions and giraffe's.  The Cultural History museum showed some things from Bergen in the past as well as a small Egyptian mummy display which was pretty great.  Nicole and I were still feeling like we'd had enough of museums though.  We checked out the fish market, and had another nice meal.
Then on Saturday morning we had to fly from Bergen at 7am so we were up around 4:30 or so (had to catch a bus at 5:15)

The Bryggen

Theater

A church

All in all our holiday to southern Norway was very nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Up next: Tromso.