Norway in a Nutshell: Gudvangen-Voss-Oslo

We woke up for our last full day in Norway and headed for the bus stop. We had to take a 45 minute bus ride to the town of Voss to meet our train back to Oslo. It was sad to leave those beautiful waterfalls.

 

We had 2 hours in Voss before our 6 hour train ride back to Oslo so we went for a walk by this lovely lake, explored the downtown, and bought some provisions for the ride.

 

Cute little church.  

I didn't take any pictures on the train ride back to Oslo because we had already passed through 90% of this exact route, and because we were not seated in a family car, so we had to more closely manage our children.  This included taking turns walking them to the family car at the other end of the train so that they could play for a half hour now and then with these two adorable, but loud, little British boys.

 

We got back to Oslo around 7 pm and I felt that we hadn't really SEEN Oslo yet, so I insisted we try to do that before heading back to our apartment for the night.  (With suitcases in hand. Thankfully we packed super light- just 2 carry-ons for all 6 of us, for 4 nights.) Rob wasn't sure this was a great plan, and it didn't make it any better that we were turned around and initially set off in the exact wrong direction, but we managed to do a whirlwind tour anyway.  Here is the Domkirke, which dates from the 1690s.

 

And here is the view down Karl Johans Gate to the Royal Palace.  The flag was flying (though it isn't visible in this photo,) which means the King was in the country.

 

Parliament.

 

Kiddos still hanging in there!

 

City Hall.

 

Along the courtyard pictured above are these carvings of stories from Norse mythology that I really wanted to see and thought the kids would enjoy.  Each had an explanation in Norwegian and English.  This was Jake's favorite- Thor on his chariot with his hammer in hand. 

Near City Hall Rob found an Indian restaurant which cheered him up considerably.  He ordered takeaway for all of us while I slowly headed toward the tram stop with the kiddos.  We met up there and headed to the apartment for another 10 pm dinner followed immediately by bed.

 

The next morning we took our time getting up and heading to the airport.  We crammed a whole lot of Norway into a few short days and we came home exhausted... but we are super happy we made the trip.  And I feel like we should get a sticker or badge or something for managing all of those transit connections with kids and luggage in hand in a country we had never been to before.  But I guess that is just how we roll!  

Happy campers in Gudvangen

I had fairly low expectations of the Gudvangen campground, but it delivered big time.

 

We had a two bedroom cabin with loft and pull out sofa.  And 3 channels of TV. (The kids loved BarneTV- the children's programming.) And wifi.

 

We used the sofa because we couldn't feasibly have 2 of our kids sleep in that loft with nothing to stop them from falling 8 feet in the middle of the night.

It also had a pretty great kitchen.  So Rob walked to the nearest grocery store/gas station and bought some provisions. (Our standard travel fare: yogurt, granola, sandwich stuff, milk, bread, fruit.  In Gudvangen this bag of groceries cost us $50, but I digress.) Meanwhile I made up the beds with the rented linens and showered the children.  We finally ate dinner at 10 pm.  It was still completely light out.

 

The next morning we woke up around 8, ate breakfast, and let the kiddos check out the playground in front of our cabin, while we sat on the porch and soaked up the scenery.

 

We could see 9 major waterfalls and countless smaller ones just sitting in front of our cabin.

 

This was our home for two nights, the one farthest to the right.

 

Swinging.

 

Soccer.

 

Then we headed out to explore the area and look for a decent hike.  We walked along the river back into "town." Gudvangen has been around since the middle ages, but I read somewhere that everyone died during a plague in the 1200s and the town wasn't re-inhabited until the 1400s. Besides subsistence farming, it was a stopping place for the mail carriers back in the day.  Now, of course, the main economy is tourist driven.

 

And took some more photos by the fjord.

Viking (Ninja Turtle) Bear.

 

Anderson is a great Norwegian name... except it isn't.

 

The only problem with these spectacular cliffs is that there wasn't a clear place for us to hike up them.  We did however find a lovely walk past this sheep farm.

 

To the base of the waterfalls that we enjoyed looking at from our cabin.

 

And we loved being away from the crush of the Nutshell tourists and out on our own.

 

Back in Gudvangen we ate lunch and drank hot chocolate at the only restaurant/cafeteria in town.  We also asked someone to take this (comical) family photo for us, bought some souvenirs, and experienced the two things that happen to us everywhere we travel in Europe.  Someone counted our children "ein, two, dre, vier." And several Asian tourists smiled and waved at our children and took photos of them like they were celebrities. Everywhere we go.  

After lunch, we headed back to the cabin and ALL collapsed for 3 hour naps. We were so completely exhausted!  When we woke up it was raining again, so the kids watched some BarneTV while Rob and I sat on the porch.  Then we ate some basic dinner and ice cream bars from the campground office's shop and went back to bed for the night.  We had a bit more traveling to do the next day and needed our rest.

Norway in a Nutshell: Oslo-Myrdal-Flam-Gudvangen

Those Norwegians, they are clever, I tell ya. They know that most of us normal folk can not afford their country, so they created this travel plan that lines up various legs of public transit options and they sell it as a "tour" of Norway. You can actually do the entire Nutshell in one day (if you leave Oslo at 6:25 am and return to it at 11 pm and spend no more than 20 minutes in any one location.) Our plan was to go as far as Gudvangen in one day and then spend a few nights resting there before doing the return leg. So we left our apartment at 5 am and rode the bus to the main train station in Oslo where we boarded that 6:25 train for the 5 hour ride to Myrdal.

 

When I bought our tickets, I noticed something called a family car, so I chose seats there.... Score!!  The family room has a playroom type lounge with cartoons, picture books, and a little climbing area.  The kids spent most of the ride there (playing with a little boy from State College, PA!), which meant that Rob and I enjoyed a surprisingly peaceful ride.

 

The highest altitude point of this train ride is in Finse.  The train stopped for 15 minutes so we could all pile out and take some photos at 1,222 meters above sea level.  See the itty bitty cross country skiers?

 

Lovely day for shorts, isn't it? 

 (The kids opted to stay in the playroom.)

 

 

Sometimes we made them take a break and look at scenery out the window or eat a snack.  Amelie was the only one to take any sort of nap at all.

 

At Myrdal we switched trains to the Flamsbana railway which would take us us back down to sea level in about an hour.  The train stopped at this beautiful waterfall, where again we all piled out to take some photos (kids included this time.)

 

Pictures like this are priceless. Do I really need to say that it was wet and windy right there?

 

To add a layer of surrealness, some tourist board thought that what was needed here was a person spinning and dancing in the mist while they blared folk music at us.  Very strange, but oddly amusing.

 

All the way down we just snapped pictures of the incredible views out the windows.

 

Until we finally reached Flam. 

 

Here we arrived at the famous fjords!  

Formed by glaciers, the fjords can be as deep as the surrounding peaks are high and actually get more shallow as they approach the ocean (as the glaciers melted and were less thick and heavy.)  

 

We boarded the next ferry headed to Gudvangen. This took us up one side and down the other side of a V shaped route (the Sognefjord and Naereyfjord).

 

Not long after we got on the ferry it began to drizzle, but we were still smiling.

 

We bought the starving children some sausages wrapped in bacon and cheese and juice boxes.

 

When the rain really started to come down the kids took shelter in the dining area and colored their free coloring books they received on the Flamsbana train.

 

Rob and I kept our eye on the goal which was to SEE the fjords, so we took turns venturing out to gaze at misty mountains and waterfalls... and to take photos.

 

We found a fellow BYU grad to take one for us as well. (Don't worry, we could see the kids at all times through the big glass windows of the dining room.)

 

At the end of our 2 hour ferry ride, we arrived in the teeny tiny town of Gudvangen, population 120. From here we had to walk about 2 km to the Gudvangen campground where we had booked 2 nights in a family cabin so that we could explore the area a bit more on foot.  The first leg of our Nutshell tour was complete!