On the way to and on the way back from Svalbard, we made a stop in mainland Norway. We visited three cities while there; Oslo, Tromso and Bergen. Plus, of course, we didn’t miss the famous Norwegian fjords. Norway impressed me in, at least, two ways. First, the Norwegian fjords are indeed very beautiful; the pictures here do not do justice of the actual scenery. Second, almost everything in Norway is easily twice as expensive relative to the price in the good ol’ USA, in some cases, even more. On the first day we arrived, we experienced a major sticker shock. After a while though, we simply stopped converting prices into US currency anymore. I read somewhere that the cost of living in Norway was only 30% higher than that in the USA. I found that information is off, way off as far as eating-out concerned. Well, it doesn't surprise me considering that the Norwegian sales tax is 25%.

Oslo is a typical European Metropolitan and while there we visited only three attractions, Wiegeland Park, Kontiki Museum and the new Opera House. However, near the hotel at the Gardemoen Airport, wild lupines grow in abundance along the road and they were definitely worthwhile capturing. We also walked around in Tromso, a seemingly more “authentic” Norwegian town after we disembarked our ship from the arctic expedition. Bergen is famous for its old town section of Hanseatic houses and its fish market.

From Oslo, we took a regular train to Myrdal. We experienced an incredible train ride from there on the Flam Railway. Only a stretched of a little over 20km, the railway boasts a steep decline from 866mm on the Myrdal Plateau to practically sea level in Flam where the Auerlands Fjord begins. We travelled through twenty tunnels and saw numerous gorgeous waterfalls on both sides. The train stopped at the biggest waterfall, Kjosfossen. After staying in Flam for the night we enjoyed a breath-taking ferry ride to Gudvangen along Auerlandsfjord, a tributary of the Sognefjord, one of the deepest and longest fjords in the world. From Gudvangen, we took a bus to Voss, where we boarded a train to Bergen on the west coast of Norway. Although the view from the bus was marvelous but we didn’t make any stop for any photo opportunities.

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