From
Brussels a quick flight and just a couple of hours later we landed in
Oslo. After an express train ride and quick walk we found our
accommodation. Our afternoon consisted of very little except a walk
through town back to Central Station to collect our “Norway in a Nutshell”
tickets. A couple of days of travel that will take us through the more
scenic Norway which we leave for on the 17th November.
Very
strange that the sun sets between 3.30pm and 4.00pm at this time of the year so
we got home in the dark feeling like it was 9pm!
The
next day we picked a few things that we wanted to see and do - the first of
which was Vigeland Sculpture Park (Frogner Park). This park is the
world’s largest sculpture park created by a single artist (Gustav Vigeland
1869-1943) and is his life’s work with more than 200 sculptures in bronze,
granite and wrought iron. Vigeland was also in charge of the design and
architectural layout of the park which was mainly completed between 1939 and
1949.
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| Famous statue - 'Angry Boy' |
Most
of the sculptures run along the centre (around 850 metres) and are made up of
five areas – the Main gate, the Bridge with Children’s playground, the
Fountain, the Monolith plateau and the Wheel of Life. The most famous
statues here are the Angry Boy, the Monolith (made up of 121 figures struggling
to reach the top) and the Wheel of Life.
The
park was wonderful – the sculptures were everywhere, lots of people in various
forms of interaction or alone – happy, angry, playful, you name it! It was
a pretty special place and even in just a few degrees lots of people enjoying
it. We counted ourselves pretty lucky as everywhere we’ve been lately the
statues and sculptures are being covered up (or put away) for the winter as are
the fountains.
Very
unlike us the next couple of sites were museums. The first was The Viking
Ship Museum (purpose built) where the world’s best preserved Viking ships are
housed, as well as the unique artefacts found in the ships graves. The
three ships here were all used as ocean going vessels before they were hauled
ashore to be used as burial ships for the era’s elite. The first ship was
the Oseberg Ship which was built in 820AD. In 834AD it was used as a
burial ship for two powerful women who were found with a plentiful selection of
burial gifts including elaborate sledges, a wagon, animal head posts and much
more.
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| Oseberg Ship (820AD) |
Then
the Gokstad ship built in 890AD. This ship was used as a burial ship for
a powerful man and was highly seaworthy and well suited for voyages across the
open sea and finally the Tune Ship (910AD) which was discovered in 1867 and was
the first Viking ship to be excavated.
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| Gokstad Ship (890AD) |
Our
final stop for the day and second museum was The Fram Museum (also purpose
built). The museum tells the story of polar exploration, in particular
Norwegian exploration and holds the original exploration vessel Fram.
The ship is said to be the strongest wooden ship ever built with the ability to
withstand being stationery in the ice and the subsequent crush of it. It
was built in 1891 (first voyage 1893) and broke all previous farthest north and
farthest south records at the time.
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| Fram (1891) |
Apart
from the amazing mountain of information in this museum (including two short
films) you can actually go inside the Fram and see its original interior.
Engines, bedrooms, leisure rooms and other nooks and crannies were all open and
it was great to get an inside look. The second part of the museum houses
the Gjoa (1872) – another ship that completed a three year journey of the
Northwest Passage in 1906.
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| Inside the Fram |
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| Gjoa (1872) |
By
the time we emerged just before 4pm it was dark and raining. We caught
the bus back into town, found somewhere to have an early dinner and headed
indoors for the night. Some repacking to do to get what we need in our
small bags before our adventure into the Fjords commences tomorrow.
Day
1 of our “Norway in a Nutshell” trip is by train on the Bergen Railway from
Oslo to Bergen, the trip is approximately 500km long and took almost 7
hours. The railway was completed in 1909 and about 100km of it runs
through the Langfjellene Mountains and the Hardangervidda Mountain
plateau. The line is exposed to all kinds of weather conditions including
strong winds and heavy snow – to keep it up and running Norway has invested in
skilled workers, efficient equipment, tunnels and snow tunnels to make it safe
and comfortable.
We
were in for a treat… in less than two hours we started to see the snow and it
was an absolutely beautiful day. Gorgeous blue skies, sunshine and
blankets of white snow with green trees – definitely looked like a painting (if
you could squint through the sunshine to see it :o)
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| Huge frozen lakes |
Up
into the mountains the views just got more spectacular and we have never seen
anything like it. Thousands of pine trees and leafless deciduous trees
blanketed with the white stuff – seriously looking like a painting. Every
now and then you would get a glimpse of a raging river (stunning), frozen lake
(both icey and covered in snow) or frozen waterfall. If this is winter
wonderland then we absolutely love it (of course from the nice warm inside of
the train!).
Back
down to sea level we arrived in Bergen to the rain and 5 degrees (snow is so
much prettier than rain). We walked for about 25 minutes before arriving
at our hotel at 3pm and by 4.00pm it would be dark (dark like it would be at
10pm at home) so we went out for a quick walk.
Bergen
is Norway’s second largest city with a population of just under 280,000 – it’s
known for its mild winters and lots of rain. We didn’t have time to see a
lot but did manage to have a nosey at Bryggen which is a series of historic
hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the Harbour.
Around a quarter of the Bryggen houses date back to the early 1700’s, and
the rest predominantly consist of younger structures (there are however some
stone cellars that date back to the 15th century). The
“Bryggen” are a wooden wonder, not very straight but very picturesque.
Day
2 of our tour saw us back on the train for an hour to a little place called
Voss. The scenery was no less scenic and in Voss we transferred onto a
bus for an hours ride through the valley, along the rivers and lakes to our
boat meeting point. On the way we travelled through the mountains and
were again treated to a huge snowfall. The cars and other stationary
items easily had 2-3 inches of snow settled on them and large snowflakes were
falling in their tens of thousands. It was really pretty.
We
arrived at the boat and set off down the Nærøyfjord and Aurlandsfjord
which together create one of the most picturesque fjords in the world. The fjords are
surrounded by high snow-capped mountains that reach as high as 1,400m and
1,700m respectively, beautiful valleys, cute and tiny traditional farms, an
1859 church and waterfalls (running and frozen). The Nærøyfjord is the
narrowest and best known arms of the main Sognefjord at only 250m wide at its
narrowest point and 12m deep at its shallowest. The two hour cruise was
serene and beautiful, even on a cloudy/rainy day.
We
arrived in Flam at 2pm and are here for around 24 hours before the final leg of
our Norway in a Nutshell trip begins. The initial impressions of Flam is
that it is tiny (pop ~350) and very cute. It’s located at the very end of
the Aurlandsfjord and is where we will be staying the night. Looking
forward to having a nosey around town (probably tomorrow as it’s getting dark
again!) and fingers crossed the rain would have subsided a bit.
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| Frozen waterfalls - one of many |
Finally
it came time to leave (2.45pm) and we boarded Flåmsbana (the Flåm Railway) – construction
began in 1924 it opened in 1940. Said to be one (if not the) most
beautiful train journeys in the world it runs for ~20km (50 min’s) from Flam at
sea level to Myrdal mountain station at 867m and is one of the steepest train
lines in the world on normal tracks (maximum gradient 1 – 18). The
scenery is breathtaking – rivers cutting through deep ravines, waterfalls,
steep mountains, 20 tunnels, snow and mountain farms dotted along the route.
There
was one stop on the hour long journey where we disembarked for 5 minutes to
view Kjosfossen Waterfall. In 1951 a stopping platform was built for the
railway to give passengers the opportunity to see it up close – it’s 670m above
sea level and has a visible drop of 93m but an actual drop of 225 metres.
It was beautiful and the smaller side arm was frozen which is pretty magical.
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| Kjosfossen Waterfall |
Opting
to get off for a couple of hours (as opposed to sitting at Myrdal station for
that time) we stopped at Vatnahalsen Hotel. It’s a stop all of its own
and the hotel can only be reached by train, foot or bike. Wow – multiple
feet of gorgeous powdery white stuff in every direction – so stunning.
The hotel is at 820m and is the only thing there, apart from the gorgeous views
of course. It’s a family run hotel and super relaxed and
comfortable. Tea and cake was in order before we continued our journey on
to Myrdal and our connecting train back to Oslo.
The
rest of the journey was had in the dark and we arrived back in Oslo just after
10.30pm. A big day but what amazing and beautiful sites we have
seen.
Our
next adventure started the following day with a flight to Tromso (in the far
north of the country) and our chasing lights endeavour. The flight was ~90
minutes long and we flew over the most beautiful landscape as we neared our
destination. The mountains capped with snow were glowing pink due to the
setting sun (just after 1pm!). From the airport we got to our apartment on
the 10th floor of a building with the most amazing views where we
were treated to the most spectacular sunset which was all done and dusted by
about 1.45pm. Tromso is having the last few days of its winter sun before
it goes completely. It’s not immediately pitch black as there is residual
light although the sun never gets above the horizon so from the 27th
November to the 21st January the residents here will not see the
fiery round ball in the sky.
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| Sunset in Tromso (~1pm) |
A
short walk to the mini-mart was all the afternoon consisted of to ensure we had
something to eat before our first Chasing Lights excursion. Collected at
5.50pm (with 12 others) we drove for around 90 minutes to get away from the
light pollution of the city and find ourselves some nice clear star sprinkled
sky. Our guides David and Ola then helped us get into Arctic suits (good
to minus 20 degrees) and get our cameras set up on the correct settings to
ensure that we could capture the lights if and when they made an appearance.
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| Northern Lights - amazing and speak for themselves |
What
an amazingly beautiful phenomenon. For hours after we first saw it the
sky continued to play, mainly in green but occasionally a hint of pink,
completely mesmerising and fascinating us all. The lights move, or more
appropriately ‘dance’ through the sky making different shapes continuously
through the evening. There were also so many stars that those alone would
have been a sight to behold. Eventually we stopped snapping the cameras
long enough to have something to eat and catch up a little around the fire –
all the while though keeping a close eye on the show that continued around us.
We
left the site at 12.30am (the following morning) and arrived back in Tromso just
prior to 2am. Can’t express enough how lucky and thankful we felt for
seeing something so naturally beautiful – something that is 100% mother nature
and unlike anything we have seen before. Had a bit of fun trying to calm
the brain down long enough to go to sleep!
The
next day we were down to three hours of daylight with sunset at 12.50pm.
We visited the Chasing Lights office (to book a Whale Watching excursion after
a recommendation from someone on the previous night’s light chase) and went for
a wander around one end of town, into the tourist office and back to the
supermarket for supplies. The town is located on the island of Tromsoya
with parts of it also situated on the mainland to the east and on another
smaller island to the west. Tromsoya is connected to the mainland by
Tromso Bridge and the Tromsoysund Tunnel which allows travel around town
underground all the time but specifically for times of extreme snow and ice.
They have a whole road network made up of underground tunnels linked by large
roundabouts – it’s pretty significant and relevant given the climate here.
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| Tromso Cathedral |
Ready
for our second night of chasing lights we set off just before 6pm with a new group of people and new guides
- Evalina and Tom (both from Poland). Evalina was full of enthusiasm so much so it was infectious - in
fact she had only intended to do one season guiding the northern lights chase
and has been here for 4!
We didn't get very far into the journey out of town
before she spotted something so we hauled ourselves out of the car and set up
our cameras on the side of the road - shortly thereafter the lights became
visible with the naked eye and we ended up on the side of the road for almost
an hour.
Second time round they are still nothing short of
sensational and a true wonder.
After they'd settled down a bit we were back in the
van heading to one of Evalina’s favourite spots by the water, nice and
secluded. We couldn't have
wished or hoped for what came next... a corona (or crown of the gods) where the
light radiates and dances enthusiastically across the entire sky (when this
happens you really don’t know where to look as there is just so much activity
going on).
They are rare and the viewer is considered extremely
lucky as the corona is considered the most spectacular form of a rayed aurora,
appearing directly overhead with all shafts converging to a centre point. Even our guides were completely blown away by what we were
seeing - the colours and the movement almost impossible to capture as the
shapes, colours and shadows in the sky changed so rapidly.
Evalina managed to capture it on video (although it
doesn't do it anywhere near the justice it deserves). She did pretty well though (as she was free holding a pretty
special camera) to capture any of it at all!
Dinner and toasted marshmallows around the fire and
we were all in heaven. The lights continued
to play even after the corona had finished, all the way until we decided to
leave just prior to midnight. Simply amazing.
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| Guide photo - much better camera, more experience! |
The next day was a free day so after some exercise
we went for a wander around the town, checking out the mall and some other
quaint shops before heading to Ølhallen pub - Tromso's oldest watering hall and
highly recommended by almost everyone!
It was established in 1928 as a men's only establishment
and is located in the cellar of Macks Bryggeri, the most northerly brewery in
the world. In the 1970's it
opened its doors to women (not sure by choice) and still keeps the same hours
it always has (from 10am to 6pm). You go simply to be part of the authentic original bar and to
drink beer – The local Mack's entire selection is available among some 70
others.
After a couple we headed home and spent the rest of
the night in. Worth mentioning here the 3 x 500ml & 3 x 300ml beers cost us
708NK or $117.75 NZD.
Whale watching day! We were collected at 9am and after a 20 minute drive arrived at
the pier where our RIB boats would leave from. It was snowing; the first time this winter (in Tromso) and the
locals were pretty excited about this. Needless to say we were taken inside and decked out with hats,
boots, full body 'arctic' suits, gloves, ski goggles and life jackets. Feeling quite like 'Michelin men' (as we still had multiple
layers of thermals and our Down Jackets on as well) we waddled outside and took
our seat for the next few hours.
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| Ready for whale watching |
Within ~15 minutes we were in sight of Orca - lots
of Orca and within 10 or so more minutes we were surrounded by them. We weren't the only boat out as there were other tourist groups
and a research boat as well but the Orca have nothing to fear so they go where
they wish getting as close as 2-3 metres from the boats. They come here at this time of the year to feed on the millions
of herring that happen to be here - so many of which that they don't hunt anything
else (the only breed of Orca to solely survive on fish), at this time of year
they share the bays with Humpback whales.
We were also lucky enough to see multiple Humpback
whales - they are harder to spot as they stay underwater for much longer and can
swim 100m with three tail movements, however they were farther away so harder
to get good pics of. It was beautiful
though to be surrounded by so many whales, in every direction - a really good
feeling that the species is doing well.
After hot chocolate and cake in amongst our whale
spotting we started back to shore. All up around three hours out and another really memorable
excursion.
The next day it was sadly time to leave Tromso and
we had decided, almost surprisingly, to head 1000km further north (2,313km
north of Oslo and 15,278km from Auckland), to Svalbard well inside the Arctic
circle (in particular Longyearbyen). Longyearbyen is the world's northernmost city (78 degrees north
and just 1,338km from the North Pole), the tourist centre and Svalbard's only
town with more than a handful of inhabitants (~2000 in 2015).
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| Christmas decorations in Tromso |
The flight was a couple of hours and we were soon at
Basecamp (our hotel). We discovered on
arrival that it is customary not to wear shoes here (pretty much anywhere) so
pretty quickly we were asked to remove ours. Felt a bit weird at first but within half a day it's pretty
comfortable and we felt right at home.
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| The only sun Svalbard will see until mid January - high above the clouds |
The other quirky thing about the town is the
requirement to carry a gun. If you live here you
have to know how to use a high powered rifle and must have it with you anytime
you leave the settlement - it is a safety thing (self-defence) in case one of
the 3,000 polar bears that live around Svalbard decide to venture into town. Killing the animals is the absolute last thing they want to do
but precautions need to be taken. You are not allowed however to take the guns indoors anywhere.
Svalbard lost the sun at the end of October and
won't see it back again until late January. We wouldn't have believed it if we weren't experiencing it
ourselves - but the polar night is pitch black (all day and all night). It really throws your body clock out and funnily enough you
sleep longer too. It's quite the
novelty though and we're glad we are getting to experience it.
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| Budget's with his new friend 'Moose' |
Upon waking the bare ground had turned completely
white with soft dry snow that appeared to have been falling most of the night,
or at least early morning. It was still snowing
and quite beautiful so we decided to head to the Svalbard Museum (shoes off at
the door). It's a museum of
natural and cultural history and their main exhibition called 'Life in Light
and Ice" presents Svalbard's natural and historical place in Norway and in
the Arctic. It goes through a
chronological history providing lots of information from the first whalers in
the 17th century through to trapping, arctic expeditions, mining and their seed
bank / vault to present day living and tourism. It was a great way to get to know Svalbard and to spend some
time.
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| Longyearbyan in the middle of the day |
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The animals on display at the Museum died accidental or natural deaths
Arctic Fox
|
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| Puffins |
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| Reindeer (the Santa kind!) |
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| Walrus - tusks close to 2 feet long... so huge! |
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| A 500kg Polar Bear |
Our big event for today is dog sledding. We were collected at 4pm and after a 12km ride out of town we
arrived at the husky kennels. The excitement
started to build as the dogs, all with their own individual kennels, started to
realise what was happening and the barking and jumping around began. It's pretty hard not to get excited when there are 96 super
excited beautiful dogs barking up a storm.
The dogs were selected and loaded into a transport
trailer to take us where we would start our journey. As there isn't enough snow yet (quite unusual for this time of
year) we would be sledding on a cart with wheels instead of rails. The dogs
were harnessed up and we were ready to go - the only thing stopping us from
moving at this point were the brakes as the dogs were keen as mustard to get
going, and still as noisy as ever.
As we started moving the dogs stopped barking and
set about their work - they are really strong and all you can hear now is the
padding of their paws on the ground and the wheels turning. Gary was driving our cart (Lesley the passenger) and we were
being pulled along by six dogs all super keen and extremely happy that they
were out doing what they love. Apart from managing
the cold (minus 5), it was all about smiling, watching and feeling the power of
the dogs pulling us along through the darkness.
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| Such beautiful dogs |
Back to the kennels and into their wee homes things
were a little less rowdy and we went to see the puppies that were 6 months old. They were almost as big as their adult counterparts although
much lighter and less muscle at this age. All they really wanted to do was jump on us and have cuddles, of
which they got plenty. We were gone for
around three hours (about an hour sledding) and it was the most amazing
experience. The best part
without a doubt was the noise the dogs made and the excitement and sheer
exuberance of them knowing they were about to get out for a run.
The following day we spent catching up on some
'admin' and then in the evening headed out for our trapper’s dinner. Interestingly enough today (being Saturday) the town held a 10km
run (although Gary only found out about it 5 minutes before it started so
missed it), and the kids a much shorter one. We saw them running past the hotel - tiny tots to adults all
rugged up (it's minus 8 today) - not sure how easy it would be to run in 4
layers whilst watching the icy and snowy ground as well!
The
Trappers dinner was not particularly eventful and to be honest a little
over-rated and expensive! We headed back out to where the dogs are and
inside the hut that is a replica of what a trappers hut would have been
like. Dinner was good but simple – reindeer stew and mash and a small
piece of cake for dessert. We thought we were in for a night of stories
from real trappers but that wasn’t the case so it really was just a casual
dinner.
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| Dog sleds, awaiting more snow |
The
following day was time to leave and to be honest Lesley is probably finished
with the darkness (couldn’t live like that for months on end). We are
both full of colds so doing anything at the moment is hard work and we spent the
entire day waiting around in airports. We were collected from the hotel
at 12.45pm (after waiting for the shuttle in -10°, feels like -18°) and then
our flight from Svalbard was delayed. It was a rush through Tromso
airport to make sure we got onto our connection and we finally ended up in
Oslo, at our hotel just before 10pm. Interesting day though as the planes
had to wait for snow clearance both in Svalbard and Tromso. In Tromso
they seem to have had a months’ worth of snow in a few days so we had to wait
while they washed the plane down with a soapy liquid fired from 2 trucks with
water cannons a couple of times (the final rinse coming right out on the runway
just before take-off) and cleared the snow from around it, as well as clearing
the runway of snow. Quite a novelty and a good indication that these
climates provide an additional level of complexity for air travel.
Norway
is simply, even in these limited daylight hours, a beautiful country and has
planted a seed that there is definitely something special about winter when it
is cold, dark and snowy.
What
we will remember about Norway:
Northern
lights
Short
sunshine hours and polar nights
Powdery
white soft snow
Frozen
lakes
Frozen
waterfalls
Flowing
waterfalls and rivers
Ice
Huskies
Tromso
bridges
Noisy
cars on the road – ice rivets in their wheels
Just stunning, thank you so much for sharing
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, and you are very welcome
ReplyDelete