Gobsmacked

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It's really the only word I can think of to begin to describe the sensation of taking the train from Oslo to Myrdal and from Myrdal to Flåm. You slowly ascend through the gentle rolling farmland of southern Norway, thinking "oh, this is pretty". But then you climb into hills and forested craggy mountains dotted with pristine lakes and you say "this is spectacular". And still there's more. You burst into the clouds onto a high plateau of eerie rock and snow landscapes, obscured by rain and mist. Now you say "I have no words to describe this". And STILL there's more. You transfer trains at this lonely spot in the clouds and begin a steep descent through an intensely green fjord valley, cut with dramatic ribbons of gushing waterfalls and spotted with percariously situated farms. Both Megan and I were speechless and giddy like schoolchildren, hopping up and down to make sure we weren't missing the next awe-inspiring view. We were, in a word, gobsmacked. In a daze we arrived in the pretty port of Flåm.

Keyed up we quickly checked into our hostel and set forth to hike in the dripping wet hills, taking a strenous and muddy route up to Brekkefossen Falls and a view of the fjord that made us say: We are in Norway.

The funny thing is that the best was yet to come.

The next day we boarded the ferry to Gudvangen, a trip that would take us through two arms of the Sognefjorden. Flåm is at the end of the Aurlandsfjorden, which is in and of itself quite dramatic. Soaring mountains and isolated villages and farms (one on such a steep incline it required a ladder to get to the farm house) and the like. But as we gloried in the view, we turned into the other branch of the fjord, Nærøyfjorden. And then we entered the land of the gods. The cliffs soared and tightened around us, the waterfalls crashed, the winds howled, and the mountain tops were lost in ancient mist and clouds. I felt very small and insignificant, fearing I'd never be able to appreciate the beauty of any other place. We were, once again, gobsmacked.

To finish the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour, we had to take a bus up to a town called Voss and catch the last stretch of train on to Bergen. We assumed -- which we really need to stop doing -- that the bus ride would be a piece of cake after the ferry adventure. But no, we had to zig-zag up a narrow, and frighteningly two-way, road to the top of a valley. Again, the eagle-eye view was enough to make us drop our jaws. Another of those moments where one thinks "and just when I thought I'd seen it all!"

By the time we got into Bergen, our senses had been so overwhelmed all we could do was hunker down for the rest of the evening and write. We didn't even go out to explore the new city. Simply, gobsmacked...

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Comments

[Daddy]

Hi Jame, Enjoyed seeing Norway and Meghan. Wish we were there. Look for Sheila's Mark. Mark is hiking in Norway by himself right now. Have more fun. Love, Dad