The Fjords

I'm sitting in an almost empty train this morning and a boy with brown curls and amber eyes about 7 years old sits down with his dad a couple seats ahead. A moment later this boy approaches and asks me something in Norwegian. The only word I understand is wifi. So I reply with "I'm sorry" and he immediately asks in perfect English "is there wifi on this train?" His dad apologizes "I'm sorry I thought you were a local". So I think it's fun to be thought of as a local, but I am so jealous that this boy, so young, has the knowledge of at least 2 languages...but that is for another conversation. Back to why I'm sitting on the train this morning. I'm taking the Norway in a Nutshell Tour. A little shout-out to my friend Brett for recommending it!

It started with a 5 hour train ride west to Myrdal.

Ok, don't you just love the name on that sandwich? It's just ham and cheese. I think I will call ham skinke from now on.

Then we boarded a classic train to Flom. You start at a crazy number of meters above sea level and descend through valleys, beside frozen waterfalls and perched homes to 2 meters above sea level within an hour.

Here you wait an hour in the freezing cold dragging your roller bag around with you and talk to another traveller a girl from Japan who is studying in Finland and doing a little sightseeing herself before boarding the ferry.

Here is the Flom rail museum.

And here are some shots from our 2 hour ferry ride. Each moment was more spectacular than the one before.

Yes this is the view from my seat when I'm too cold to go stand outside.

Oh but outside...braving the cold is worth it.

Now check out what's ahead of the boat

That is a layer of solid ice. When the ferry hits and goes through the ice there is a crunching sound and for a moment I had visions of the titanic and "my heart will go on" going through my head. Here's a little close up of the ice meets ferry.

After a high speed bus ride and another train, I made to Bergen. I'm sorry to say I slept through much of the scenic bus ride, I took a little motion sickness medication for the boat and it worked a little too well.

And here's proof for my mom that I'm still alive.