Our 4th and final country was Norway. The fjords were meant to be the capstone of our trip and we were excited!
Day 1
We had flown to Oslo the night before, and said goodbye to Heidi as she left to finish packing things up in Singapore.
To start off our full day in Oslo, we picked up a 24-hour Oslo pass and meant to make the most of it.
National Theater
Nobel Prize Museum
We took a ferry over to the peninsula that houses most of the museums, Bygdøy. It was fun to see a relic from last year’s Olympics among the other boats stored at the harbor.
Olympic Sailing Boat
Our first stop was the Viking Ship Museum. They say they have the best preserved Viking ships.
Viking Museum
There were three whole boats in the museum, and each were discovered in separate burial mounds. When the owners’ of the ships died, the ships were buried with them to help them on their journey to the realm of the dead. Each of these ships were from 800-900 A.D.
It was neat to see the amount of detail in each ship and how important that was in their culture.
We walked a little further on to the Nordic Folkmuseum, an outdoor, living museum set up as a village.
Schoolhouse
Farm Courtyard
We had really wanted to see the stave church, which is a round-style church. These were once quite common in northwestern Europe, but most of the surviving stave churches are here in Norway.
The details on the church were just as spectacular as the actual Viking ships.
Top Details of the Church
We were then able to hop on a bus to our final two museums on the peninsula. The first was the Kon Tiki. The Kon Tiki is actually the name of the raft used by Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition from South America to the Polynesian islands to prove that people from South America could have settled Polynesia.
Heyerdahl had many different expeditions on different boats, many that he built. Each expedition had a reason behind it – another voyage was on the Ra II (also in the museum), a papyrus boat, which crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco. They wanted to prove that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing the Canary Current.
Fram Museum
The Fram Museum was just next door and told the story of many Norwegian polar explorations. The Fram was actually the name of the first ship especially built in Norway for polar research.
Norwegian Explorers
After a full morning of museums, we decided to make our way back to Oslo’s center and catch an English-speaking tour of City Hall.
City Hall
This is where the actual Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony (before they head to Stockholm for the banquet) takes place every December.
Main Hall of City Hall
Waiting for the Tour to Start
My favorite part of our tour was in the last room, where the tour guide explained the significance of their patron saint, Saint Hallvard.
St. Hallvard in Tapestry
Hallvard, a woman, and her unborn child were killed by arrows by the hands of thieves. Hallvard’s body was thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck, but the body refused to sink. Hallvard was revered as a martyr. So, in the seal, St. Hallvard always has a millstone in one hand and 3 arrows in the other.
Seal in the Cabinet Room
Day 2
Our time in Oslo was through, so we packed up early and headed to the train station. We had a four hour trek to Myrdal, but the hours flew by as we rested, talked, and just enjoyed the scenery.
At Myrdal we got off and waited for our next train to Fram.
Mom & Haley Waiting for the Train
This train actually served as a tour. They gave us prerecorded information for most of the hour trek, as we looked out the windows and took pictures.
Train to Flam
The view was truly beautiful.
View from Train
At one point, the train stopped and they had us disembark to see the Kjosfossen Waterfall.
Kjosfossen Waterfall
Back on the train, we seemed to go through all types of different weather and seasons.
FrozenWaterfall
Frozen Lake
Breaking Ice
Spring
When we reached Flam, it was green and sunny again, although not by any means, warm.
Station in Flam
We were excited to get to spend two days on the fjords. Our first day was spent on the Sognefjord, the largest fjord in Norway and the third longest in the world.
We went into two little branches of the fjord, as we rode the ferry – Aurlandsfjord and Naeroyfjord.
We had a couple rainy patches, but we were blessed to have such blue skies on a day when the weather forecast had been dreary.
Our final destination for the night was Balestrand. As we disembarked, we felt like we were on a little island, but it’s just a small town in the fjords.
We got checked into our hotel and went exploring.
Balestrand Hotel
View from Front of Hotel
Getting in Some Rick Steve’s Before Exploring
The Church of St. Olof, or the English Church, was a short stop. It was neat to see another stave church . . . that was actually in operation.
St. Olof’s Church
Top of Church
Length of Church
Church Piano Corner
Our hotel had made dinner reservations for us at the other local hotel, the Kviknes Hotel. They have a smorgasbord that is famous in the touring world.
Kviknes Hotel
While we waited for our reservation time, we enjoyed the views from the front of the hotel.
Panorama from Front of Kviknes Hotel
Everyone we ran into in the little town were so friendly. We learned that the two hotels close for the winter and the workers are only there for the summer. Our waitress at dinner was from Lithuania and the family running our hotel are from the Bay Area in California. It must be quite dead in the winter.
Sunset at Balestrand
Day 3
The following day was a less busy day. We didn’t have to leave until 11:00 a.m., so we enjoyed a leisurely morning before having to check-out of the hotel. To pass the time until the ferry arrived, we took a stroll down the road, the opposite way from the night before.
Burial Grounds
We came across some Viking burial grounds that, according to legend, held King Bele.
King Bele
King Bele Legend
It was also interesting to walk along the road and see the dragon-headed homes.
Dragonhead Gables
Dragonhead Details
Further down the road, we came to a ‘little’ public beach area where we combed around for colored rocks for the kids.
Small Boat in a Big Fjord
Shell Art
By the time we walked back to our hotel, it was time to head to the ferry.
Ferry Stop
We rode back to Flam and got on a bigger boat to ride through Nærøyfjord, also part of the “Norway in a Nutshell Tour” that we were on the previous day.
Our second day on the fjords wasn’t as sunny as the first, and we did hit a bit of rain as we rode, but it was still beautiful.
Even though it was cold, windy, and rainy, Mom stood outside of the cabin for most of the ride and enjoyed the scenery. This was what she had been looking forward to the entire trip.
Mom Hunkered Down Enjoying the Beauty
We had a continual flock of gulls following us for most of the ride. I couldn’t figure out why they stuck around, until I saw some of the tourists feeding them and taking pictures.
Feeding the Birds
Braving the Wind and Cold
It was neat to see all the waterfalls as we went along – some falling from the top and others winding their way down the hills to fall towards the bottom.
It was kind of funny when I overheard an older man say to his wife, “Maybe it’s bad to say, but it seems if you see one fjord, you’ve seen them all.” I had to laugh. I don’t know how they can tell them all apart . . . the scenery and views all seemed similar. I can’t imagine how hard they must have been to map, without getting lost!
The little villages that we passed just amazed me. One of them even had their own little church, right by the shore. It must be a hard life, especially when winter comes.
Village at Waterfall Base
When we got off the boat, we boarded buses with the rush of the other tourists. Thankfully we were one of the few that were getting off at the Stalheim Hotel, one of the first stops.
Stalheim Hotel
The view from our hotel windows were great as we got the valley views, which are highly sought after. This Nærøydalen Valley is listed as a World Heritage site.
Nærøydalen Valley
Up the Hill the Other Way
Day 4
Again, we had a later departure time than previous days, so we took some time in the morning to sleep in, have a late breakfast, and then hike up to the look-out point above the hotel.
Hotel From Look-out Point
While we were touring the fjords, we heard many stories about how Kaiser Wilhelm II was one of the best-known continuous visitors to the Norwegian fjords. It was interesting to find a memorial stone for him at the look-out point. Kaiser Wilhelm stayed at Stalheim many times, I guess.
‘To commemorate the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Stalheim’
As time got close, we went back to the hotel to check out and wait by the bus stop sign.
Bus Stop
Mom was a little afraid the bus wouldn’t see us and stop. However, there were a couple other people needing transport that morning as well so we were hard to miss.
Gathering at the Bus Stop
When the bus picked us up, we made our way down the hill. That hill is quite possibly the narrowest and curviest road in Norway! I can’t believe the bus maneuvered it so well!
Windy Road Down
We got off the buss in Voss and then got the train to Bergen. We had to quickly catch a taxi there and head to the airport. Thankfully we were plenty early, because our flights had been moved around and needed to be reorganized.
Us Girls in Norway
I had a great time spending two weeks with the Stephenson girls. It was great to get to know Jed’s wife, Heather, and learn about Scandinavia together. I was very happy to get home and see my family. I had missed a lot and was glad that they didn’t seem to have any hard feelings for missing their final award ceremonies or music concerts. Although, I did get the following note from Cami:
“Dear Mom,
I missed you so, so much and I was really sad. I love you so much. We all miss you!
Love Camille”
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