It's Monday morning, 8:11 a.m. and a regional train takes us from Bergen central station to Voss, first part of the famous "Norway in a nutshell" trip, one of the most popular tourist routes.
This "Norway in a nutshell" tour takes you on a journey through some of Norway's most beautiful fjord scenery. Between May and September you can experience the scenic Bergen Railway, the breathtaking Flåmsbana (train), the Aurlandsfjord, the narrow Nærøyfjord and the steep hairpin bends of Stalheimskleiva. We take this tour from Bergen in direction to Oslo.
In Voss we change from the national train to a local buss to Gudvangen.
This part takes us through the valley of Stalheim.
The Stalheimskleiva Road, which twists and turns up through 13 hairpin bends offering views of the Sivlefossen and the Stalheimsfossen waterfalls, is the steepest stretches of road in Northern Europe.
Our bus driver savely drives us down this winding road into the valley.
A picture with this wooden viking shows that we have arrived in Gudvangen.
In this Viking-style restaurant - Gudvangen Fjordtel - most of our tourist groups have lunch before taking the boat through the fjords.
Here in Gudvangen also we take the boat - to Flåm.
On the fjord cruise you travel on the Aurlandsfjord and the Nærøyfjord, one of the narrowest fjords in Europe. This arm of Norway's largest fjord, the Sognefjord, is perhaps the most dramatic fjord in Norway and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
This boat trip also takes us passed the little village of Undredal. It is home to the Undredal stave church, the smallest stave church in Northern Europe, which was built betveen 1150 and 1199. With a population of approximately 84 people and 500 goats, Undredal is famous for the brown goat cheese (geitost) that is still produced the traditional way. The production of cheese is important to the local economy as eight farms produce 10 to 12 tons of cheese each year.
At about 2 p.m. we arrive in Flåm...
...where we get of our boat.
In Flåm we have some free time for lunch and a visit of the Flåmsbana Museet, the Flåm Railway Documentation Centre.
Two hours later we go on the Flåmsbana, a 20 km long train ride between Flåm and Myrdal with an altitude difference of 863 metres. It is "one of the world's steepest railway lines on normal gauge. The gradient is 55/1000 on almost 80% of the line, i.e. a gradient of 1:18. The twisting tunnels that spiral in and out of the mountain are manifestations of the msot daring and skillful engineering in Norwegian railway history".
Sourrounded by mountains up to 1,400 metres high, the Flåm Railway leaves the blue fjord arm of the Aurlandsfjord and starts its journey up to the mountains.
A stop at Kjosfossen.
Final stop at Myrdal, high up in the mountains. So now surprise that we end up in the middle of snow... in the beginning of May!
Here we have to change for our last part of the tour: the train back to Oslo...
... which takes us still for quite a while through the wide snow covered landscape.
After 4 hours in the train (uninterruptedly entertained by the sound of two "Super Mario" playing kids!) we are back in Oslo.
Initially a bit worried about the weather conditions and if the landscape would already be beautifully decorated with blossoming, green trees (instead of the leaveless, dull brown atmosphere), I guess this was a very beautiful and unforgettable trip.
Amore mio, spero che questo viaggio abbia piaciuto anche a te e che ti resti in memoria! Secondo me è stato proprio un bel viaggio!
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