Norway!

 Early Tuesday morning, we walked over to the airport from our hotel and caught our flight on RyanAir to Oslo Torp airport in Norway. We took a shuttle to a train station and then immediately got on a train that turned out to be going the wrong way! Fortunately we were able to get off pretty quickly and get on a train going the right way which took us to the place where we could catch the train going across Norway.

At first the train ride was amazing. We saw lots of rushing rivers, green mountains with picturesque towns. After a few hours, we got to the high plateau where the water was looking pretty frozen, despite it being the end of May.

I don't know what the high plateau looks like in August but the growing season is obviously very short in this area of the world. I believe that reindeer live in this area but we were not lucky enough to see them.

After the high plateau, the train started being less interesting. We went through a lot of tunnels and couldn't see much. After about 6 hours of travel, we arrived in Bergen which is on the west coast of Norway. To see it on a map: we started at an airport a little south of Oslo called Oslo Torp (where all the budget airlines go) and traveled across the country that day and arrived in Bergen.

When we arrived in Bergen, we decided to hike Mount Floyen. It's right next to the city but has a nice trail that people use to exercise on regularly. Unfortunately, Google did not send us to that trail but took us through the very steep streets of the residential neighborhood nearby which is built very much into the mountain. Eventually we found the right trail.

Look at that retention wall:

Something we really noticed in Bergen were all the rhododendrons. SO MANY RHODODENDRONS. And they were gigantic. It seems to be their major landscaping shrub. Apparently before 1680, there was only one species native to Europe but seeds were collected in North America by an English missionary and sent home and now they are very common in Europe. With our travels in the month of May to Tacoma and northern Europe we got to see blossoming rhododendrons for a solid month, which was fun since we never see them in Utah because they don't grow well here.

I love these roofs:

Here is the view at the top of Mount Floyen. There were lots of people up there. I was really hungry so we got some really delicious pastry at the cafe on top and I also got a yummy hot chocolate with whipped cream on top.

Here's a memorial to those who fought in World War II:

They had a troll garden on top.

The next day, we got back on the train and traveled an hour to Voss, then took a bus to get to Gudvangen, stopping along the way to get this amazing view at a hotel. We almost didn't need to get on the boat.

Then in Gudvangen, after waiting a couple of hours, we got on the boat that took us through the Naeroyfjord. The gift shop in Gudvangen entertained us while we waited.

Waterfalls were everywhere. We thought we would be cold but we were plenty warm. Scott didn't need his beanie. The weather was quite pleasant.

These sheep seemed quite stranded on the shore but I guess someone takes care of them.

The boat trip was nice although I think we were getting a little tired of endless travel. When we arrived in Flam, we got an apple dessert that was too much crumb topping and not enough apple.

At Flam, we got on the Flamsbana to Myrdal. It was an historic train that is supposed to have some of the most beautiful scenery of any train ride. It was definitely scenic.

In the middle, the train stopped at this huge waterfall where a couple of women took turns dancing to some music. The one closest to the waterfall was chained to the rock so she wouldn't slip off.

When we arrived in Myrdal, which has basically a train station and a small cafe and nothing else, we had to wait a couple of hours for the train to take us back to Bergen.

It was a long day of traveling--we left about 8am and got back to the Airbnb about 9:30--but we had the classic tourist fjord experience and we enjoyed it.

The next day, we stayed in Bergen. We first went to visit Edvard Grieg's house. He is a famous Norwegian composer and it was interesting to learn more about him. But first some more rhododendrons:

Apparently this Steinway grand piano was snuck into his house one night by friends to surprise him (or his wife--I can't remember which). It is pretty hard to imagine sneaking a grand piano into a house.

This is the amazing view from the back of his house:

He and his wife were both very short, around 5 feet tall or less, and he lived with a collapsed lung for most of his life due to tuberculosis:

This was his composer's hut. Apparently everyone in Norway needs to have a hut.

The inside of the hut:

Another cool roof:

The cool napkin in the little cafe:

After the Grieg museum and house, we went downtown to see a collection of buildings that were in old Bergen. It was actually not that interesting and not worth the effort. It is underfunded and undersubscribed. We watched a little skit they put on:

Afterwards, we went to the city center and walked around a little then got a fish dinner.

Here was the sky outside our Airbnb at 9:30 that night. The sun set at 10:45 and rose at 4:25.

For our last day before our flight to Copenhagen, we decided to climb Mount Ulriken which has a lot of steps, 1333 of them, which comes after you hike a while. I think the elevation gain is about 1500 ft and the total distance is about 1.5 miles. It was definitely a workout and we saw quite a few Norwegians doing it for their exercise.

You can get tacos at the cafe on top! They have a thing about tacos apparently.

We took the cable car down.

We took a plane to Copenhagen that afternoon and slept on the 11th floor of a hotel next to the airport. Early the next morning we got on a plane to Paris. I saw this plane on the way. Who knew Greenland even had their own airline? And red?!!

The flight from Paris to SLC felt very long but we felt fortunate to be able to see so many places in such a relatively short period of time. It was amazing to be able to go on such a memorable trip together.  And good to get back home and take care of our responsibilities here.