Oslo and Bergen - Norway Trip part 1

Oslo is the start of our Long summer vacation to Norway and Switzerland.

We reached Oslo really late at night on Saturday the 13th, having spend the whole of Saturday on flights. We thankfully made our connecting flight despite some delays in SFO and managed to arrive in Oslo around 11pm.

We woke up relatively early on Sunday, with a mission to get our vacation started and our Jet lag kicked. It was a rainy morning, but a spectacular breakfast buffet at the Clarion hotel set us all up for a good start to the day.

We decided to walk over to the nearby Oslo opera house. We took in some views along the harbor, and decided to brave the slippery climb up to the top of the Opera house. We were treated to lots of scenic views of the city and the harbor nearby.

The rain was picking up in intensity, and the Opera house was not open to visitors, so we made a decision to visit the nearby Munch museum instead and spend the rest of our morning there.

The Munch museum houses the works of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, who is famous of course for his painting “The Scream”, but he has a larger portfolio ofcourse. We spent the rest of the morning walking the halls of the museum and taking in as much art and sculpture as our jet-lagged selves could handle.

After a brief snack at the museum cafe, we decided to continue our walk and headed through downtown Oslo. Being a Sunday morning, the streets and stores were empty and closed, but we managed to make our way to the Royal Palace. We saw the Norwegian version of the changing of the guard and walked around the grounds of the Palace.

Seeking shelter from the rain still, we walked to the Nobel Peace center, which celebrates Alfred Nobel, the Nobel prizes, and all the prize winners. We were feeling the jet lag pretty strongly, and this was pretty heavy material. We did our best to absorb as much of the history and the experience of the Nobel Peace center before leaving.

After a pick-me-up cup of coffee, the rain had seemed to have given up for the day, so we got to look around “Rådhusplassen” or City Hall Square.

A charming walk (not in the rain) through the city centre, across the Parliament building and by the Oslo “Domkirke” Cathedral led us back to the hotel.

Dinner that night was a nice Indian restaurant in a little residential neighborhood past the Munch museum.

We only had 1 day booked in Oslo. On Monday, we were bound to Bergen by a day train. The Bergen Line is a scenic ~7 hour train journey from Oslo to Bergen, and features a 10 Km tunnel, goes up to ~1200 m above sea level, and gives some spectacular views along the way. We had a private cabin all to ourselves, and spent our time sightseeing, taking pictures, visiting the cafe car, playing cards and games, and of course napping.

We reached Bergen with time to spare in the evening, and so we decided to accelerate the next days plan and take the Floibanen funicular up to Floyen. A popular destination it seems, since Floyen was packed with people. We enjoyed the nice views of Bergen, some goats, A outdoor ropes coarse, and each others company as we walked around at the top of Floyen.

Instead of taking the train back down, we chose to walk the trail back down the mountain. This afforded us more lovely scenery and views of the city.

Walking home after dinner, we walked past Tyskebryggen, a series of historic, colorful buildings that are part of the Unesco list of world cultural heritage sites. We were too tired to explore them that evening, and saved it for the next day.

The next day, fresh and bright we walked the alleyways and gift shops of Tyskebryggen and took in the sights.

A walk around town and to the other side of the harbor afforded us nice views of bergen.

This concluded our day in Bergen. Later that afternoon, we went to the airport with all our luggage, and … rented a car to drive to our next stop - Stryn. But thats the next write-up.