Bergen and Norway in a Nutshell

Bryggen, Bergen

Above is an iconic picture of Bergen.  It's the Bryggen area in the harbor.  This area was burned down many times and then rebuilt.  It's a popular area with tourists, with shops, museums, hotels and restaurants with outdoor seating.  Bergen is Norway's second largest city, with a population of about 400,000.  It's very popular with tourists because of its close access to the fjords.  What is a fjord?   A fjord is long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs that is cut out by glacier erosion.  You find fjords in many places around the world but Norway's fjords are supposed to be one of the most impressive.

I flew from Reykjavik to Bergen on Icelandic Air.  It took a little over 2 hours.  The Bergen airport is small and much less crowded compared to the chaotic Keflavik airport that I just left.  I took a city bus to the city center and was dropped off in the city center next to the lake.  I asked people where the hotel is and most of them couldn't tell me, even with the address.  They just pointed in the general direction but after struggling uphill through some cobblestoned streets, I finally arrived at the Klosterhagen Hotel.  Finding a hotel in Bergen during the peak tourist season is quite a challenge.  One thing you learn very quickly in Norway is that everything is expensive, including hotel rooms.  Most of them were close to $200 a night.  My single room at the Klosterhagen was a little over US$100 a night.  It's a very small room, with just 1 single bed and bathroom.  It was fine with me for 2 nights.

I stayed at this Klosterhagen Hotel

Fish Market

Seafood dishes offered by the vendors

Mixed Seafood Dish for about $25

Lake and Park in the City Center

Walking to the city center is easy because it's downhill.  It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the Visitor's Information Center, where I collected my tickets for a tour called Norway In A Nutshell
As the name implies, you can see some of the highlights of Norway in a day.  The tickets are not cheap (about $200) but it's definitely worth it, especially when you don't have a lot of time.  It starts with a train trip from Bergen to the town of Voss on the Bergen Railway.  This is the same train that will take you to Oslo.  At Voss, we got on the bus to take us to Gudvangen on a winding road downhill with many hairpin bends.  At the end of this bus ride, we are ready to get on a boat to take us through the fjords.

Sailing through Nærøyfjord

Village on the side of Nærøyfjord

 About two hours through the fjords, we arrive at Flam.  It's a small town but there were many people there.  Some were waiting to get on the boat to go through the fjord, the opposite direction from where we came from.  Others linger around to do some shopping while some waited for the Flam train.  This is the Flam Railway that goes through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.  It's considered as one of the 10 most scenic train rides in Europe.  I tried to do this in 2011 when I was in Norway but my traveling companion had different ideas.  When I knew that I was coming to Bergen, this is what I wanted to do - to ride the Flam Railway.

Flam Train Station

A hotel in Flam

Flam Railway

 The train winds through some gorgeous mountains, rivers, valleys, villages and waterfalls.  It's just a short one-hour ride.  We eventually arrived in Myrdal, where we changed trains; this time to get on the Bergen Railway, the one that runs between Oslo and Bergen.  This is the last leg of the trip, a two-hour train ride to Bergen.  Not as impressive as the Flam Railway but beautiful, nonetheless.  We finally arrived back in Bergen at about 6 pm.

A village in a valley on the Flam railway route

At Myrdal, we changed trains to the Bergen-Oslo Railway Line

Train Station at Bergen