Ferries, Trains, and Automobiles

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We rubbed the sleep out of our eyes at the Bergen train station, and immediately headed to the fish market port to catch a Ferry Boat to the Sogenfjord (Norway’s steepest and longest fjord). We took a nice long cruise up the coast of Bergen and back inland toward Voss on the Sogenfjord. Keith and I both slept for a little while, but Jill and Ben enjoyed the view the whole time. In addition to the beautiful fjords, we saw sheep, small towns on the banks, glacier capped mountains, and amazingly tall waterfalls. At one point on the cruise, we were supposed to change ferrys and the other ferry had forgotten it’s gangplank so they were going to have us jump across from one ferry to the other. Just as Jill was timidly about to attempt the jump, the captain of our ferry called down and said that he wouldn’t allow the jump. So our speedy ferry dropped us off in a VERY small town (we’re not even sure that the town consisted of anything besides the platform that they left us on), and the other ferry picked us up to take us to Gudvangen. In Gudvangen, we got on a bus and headed back up the mountains on the Stalheimskleiva road, which twists and turns up through 13 hairpin bends offering views of waterfalls (and some scary moments as you look down the mountainside). This road is 18 - 20% grade, so it is steep enough that it closes down from October 1st to April 30th. This bus took us to Voss, where we then caught a train back to Bergen to spend the night.

The next morning, we headed out to the fish market area to take in the aroma of freshly killed sea creatures of all kinds. The stores were all open, so we did our souvenir and H&M shopping for the week, had lunch at the same little pizza place that Keith and I ate at last year and couldn’t wait to go back to (turns out it’s a chain and we could’ve been eating there all throughout Europe!), and walked along the Bryggen storefronts around the port. Jill’s father’s grandparents were married in Bergen, so she brought a little bit of him along on the trip to scatter his ashes along the Bergen coast.

Before we arrived in Bergen, they had just experienced the rainfall of hurricanes Maria and Nate. The forecast for our stay was more rain, but we were lucky and only got a light drizzle (and even a couple of snow flurries) as we headed back to the trainstation to go back to Oslo. On the train back to Oslo, one of the very quick stops that the train makes is at Finse, which at 1222 meters above sea level is the highest point of the path between Oslo and Bergen. As the train rolled to a stop, we quickly jumped ship (or train) and ran out into the snow in nothing but our regular clothes (no jackets, hats, or gloves allowed… but a few favorite scarves made it) for a very quick family picture, then jumped back on to the train before it left with our stuff and without us!

We arrived back in Oslo very late Saturday night, and headed back to the train station early Sunday morning to catch a train to the Oslo airport to take us back to the States.

(Be on the lookout for one final entry recapping the events of our month-long European Vacation.)

Keri, Keith, Jill, and Ben Freezing in Finse:

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