Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.    Eddie Cantor

January 17-19
Another alarm to awaken me from my sleep…and probably much needed beauty sleep at the moment…..oh this early -extended  night-time of Scandinavia where the sun does not rise til 930am is  soooo nice to sleep to….I generally keep sleeping. Marc laughs at me as he knows when we go home, with daylight saving and back to summer I will once more resume my non sleeping routine because it is light! For the moment, I love the darkness of the northern hemisphere!
And onto the Norway in a Nutshell tour!

How do I describe this tour/ journey…..which we took over two days using public transport!
I would say that it is 100% worth every cent we spent in our experience of such awe inspiring natural views. It’s an easy way to see Norway’s famous natural beauty in a day (in summer – in winter, definitely enjoy it over two days): deep lush fjords, waterfalls, tiny villages, towering canyons. – (and Marc did not have to drive at all! ) I guess that’s why they call it Norway in a Nutshell.
One word –SPECTACULAR!
Ok – end of blog!!!

But… if you can, try and picture nothing but a snow covered mountainscape from Oslo to Mryndal; scenic railway scenes on the Flam railway, a stay overnight at a most gorgeous hotel in Flam, a smooth ferry ride for two hours through the glacier fiords to Gundvangen (important for me not being a boat person at all),  an hour bus ride back up the valley to Vos and then the final part of the journey to Bergen by train..that’s what we did!
Yes, it sounds like a lot – and I admit, we both dozed off in the last part of the journey -, and rolling-( more like hard dragging your baggage in the snow since the small wheels on suitcases do not work well in the snow -) from one form of  transport to another was not fun, but the whole tour was worth it!

Visualise us travelling in the ‘komfort ‘class carriage of the Oslo to Myrdal train consisting of allocated seats with huge windows to espy the rolling white countryside of stunning scenery , enjoying the contentment of the heating  and partaking of the  free hot chocolate offered  (yep definitely loved that – definitely not losing weight this part of our trip either). Envision us stepping out to the white landscape of an isolated railway station in the middle of nowhere – rolling our luggage from one side to the other to board the Flam train. No seats allocated but it really did not matter as the train was not crowded and we could sit, stand, walk from side to side as various views were announced as we navigated our way down the mountainside to Flam.

What was interesting in this part of the journey, the train had a slideshow going that you could watch as you went from side to side of the train trying to take that perfect photograph of views too hard to envision or describe …. but each time there was a significant aspect of the journey to observe, the slide show had exactly the same scene but in summer! Two different worlds. I wonder if they did the same thing in reverse in summer for those tourists??

Arriving at Flam, we made our way to the Fretheim Hotel which was huge. In summer, they cater for all the usual summer tourists plus, the up to 3000 extra visitors that pour off each cruise ship to spend a day in Flam. Tonight, they were honoured with only 7 of guests for the night! Still, the small amount of numbers did not make any difference to their hospitality or comfort!

And of course, we went for a walk.( How unusual … After all I am travelling with Marc )……to the old town of Flam- This time for an eight kilometres round trip in the snow-covered valley tracks. I even had to use my spikes on my new winter boots bought in Akureyri, to negotiate this ice-covered trail. But we made it, took the photographs of the brightly painted school we saw, and negotiated our way back again to the security of the hotel and dinner awaiting us. A good night’s sleep, the serene cruise around the glacier fiords –( Marc stayed outside most of the time, I had to go inside to warm up), the interesting public bus trip up the mountain and the final stages of the journey the train trip ( back in komfort class I might add) and our arrival at Bergen. Lots of travel. I must add- all completed by public transport. No private coaches at all!. You had to find your way all the time to the next point of transport.

Our scenery is too much to describe so I will not bore you as I really hate travel logs…..and I don’t want this to be, but this trip to Norway was  a significant part of our travels that was purely remarkable ! That’s all I can say!
Now I will really end this blog!