Norway, May 20-25, 2015

As soon as we moved to London, my mom talked about this amazing train ride through Norway. We literally Googled best train ride and this exact trip popped up!

You can book everything separately, but for convenience and ease we booked the Norway in a Nutshell trip. Looking back I am very happy with this decision and would not have changed it. They booked hotels, and all our travel.

We left London and flew into Oslo in the afternoon. We took a train from the airport to the central station, and our hotel Clarion Hotel Royal Christiania. This hotel was fantastic! Our room was huge! Like 2 tvs huge! Right downstairs was a TGIFridays and they delivered to the room. We found this to be very funny!

We walked around Oslo. It's very beautiful, but Norway as a whole is VERY, VERY expensive. This free walking tour (by Josh) was perfect, and so was the weather. My mom was not excited for all the walking that was planned, but she did it! (It ended up being about 7 miles!)

We were surprised how close you can get to the Palace. They have guards, but I felt like I could walk right in the front door. There were hardly any people around and we got to see a changing of the guards right before our eyes.

Next stop was the Vigelandsparken sculpture park. This was a beautiful park filled with 212 bronze and granite sculptures. Many are nude with children in interesting poses.

The next morning we headed to the central station for our train to Myrdal. The train was very comfortable. Good thing because it was a long ride. We started with cool weather, went way up in the mountains, and saw tons of snow.

Ready for the train ride

Josh's birthday

Getting off our train

In Myrdal

In Myrdal we caught the Flam Railroad to take us down to Flam.

Flam from the train

Made it to Flam

A cruise ship had Flam as a port

Our hotel

Midnight and the sun is still out

View from our room

Flam was a tiny town right on the water nestled between mountains. It was breathtaking. We spent the night at Hotel Flamsbrygga, it was so cozy on a cold night. 

Breakfast at the hotel

Rainy day in Flam

Shopping with Granny

Harvey was not a fan of the troll

Local cider

Fresh fish from the fjord

After lunch we got on a ferry boat to Gudvangen. It was not the best weather, but the views were still awesome. My pictures don't do it justice as it was breathtaking!

Harvey's first boat ride

Our boat is in the distance- arrived in Gudvangen

Viking boat

Viking carved out of wood

 After a short photo session in Gudvangen we boarded a bus. This is a famous bus ride with 13 hairpin turns and goes straight down the mountain. It was like a slow roller-coaster ride. This is where is got a bit crazy. The bus was supposed to take us to Voss where we would get on a train to Bergen. Well, there was a huge mudslide and we had to take an extra train, boat, and bus to go around the mess.

Crazy turns

Looking over the edge

Train station in Voss

Waiting in Voss

Second boat ride

Another train ride

Made it to Bergen...in the rain with a broken umbrella

We arrived in Bergen pretty late due to re-routing around the landslide, but the sun is still out. We were ready for bed at Clarion Collection Hotel no. 13. The next day was set for exploring Bergen.

Harbor in Bergen

For lunch we tried Zupperia. They had tons of different soup, even reindeer soup. I got the Goulash and it was fantastic! Mom got the clam chowder, and she LOVED it!

Yummy soup on a cold day

Lobster in the soup

Cable car up to the top of Bergen

 The Floibanen was a ride up to see the view of Bergen. Again breathtaking! This is a travel system used by the locals who live up the mountain. I can't imagine having to do this daily as a commute to my house, but what a view you would have.

 Harvey's first tram ride

We tried out a local spot, Peppe's Pizza for dinner. It was interesting...not the best pizza I have ever had.

First time in a highchair

My little marshmallow

 The next day was our trip back to Oslo. Of course we had to deal with the mudslide issues again.

Much happier with this troll

Norway was an amazing trip. It was so funny to go from cool weather up to snow within a few hours. We feel so lucky to have had the chance to go. We would never have seen this beautiful country had we not been living in London. The people were so friendly and helpful. They are well educated and speak so many languages. They greet you with "hi hi" and we thought it was so cute we have started doing it. Norway was very clean and easy to get around. Again I will say it was very expensive so pack your own snacks to save money!