Norway

Outrageously Breathtaking!

I was fortuatate enough to once again take a lovely, spectacular trip with the AWBS women's group to Norway.

We travelled for 3.5 days through Bergen, Flam and Oslo. Some of the pictures below capture the beauty of this stunning country. We traveled by plane, trains, boats, snowshoes and automobiles!

BERGEN

We first came to Bergen (Norway's second most populated city) and went on a walking tour through this picturesque town and stopped to learn about the Northern Norway fishery life. They caught, dried and shipped fish to all over the world and lived in very humble circumstances. These dried fish could last for years..even decades when treated and dried correctly.

This is Alyson upstairs in the fish mill where the Hanseatic people lived, educated and worked. Boys from Germany were sent up to make money and become "men" and earn money for themselves and their families for around 10 years (between the ages of 15-25ish).

The living room area

Their tiny short beds - where 2 boys would each sleep different directions to fit inside.

Bergen's shopping street next to the harbor.

Beautiful ships everywhere...

A picture next to their cod fish mascot with Alyson and Geraldine Scott.

Inside the fish market where I tried fish cakes -- a bit like a dumpling --

Inside the first train ride to Flam

The next morning, we boarded the train.

The railway from Bergen to eventually Oslo is approximately 500 km long and was completed in 1909.

It's Northern Europe's highest stretch of railway.

We traveled this way for a couple of hours then got on a boat and sailed to

Flam through the A-MAZE-ING fjords! Wow!

Our cruise liner is on the left of this picture, with a view of the beginnings of the fjords.

We could go out on the ship's balcony and hear the ice crunching and

feel the cold cold air as we sailed down the river.

Here is a picture of a few of us braving the cold weather.

Ann, Susan, me, Karen, Sandhya and Beth

You could see waterfalls all around you.

It was such a rush to see the reflections of the mountains in the water and

soak in the beauty everywhere we looked.

Norway's flag

Katie, Cara me and Sandhya

FLAM

Flam is a tiny village (under 400 people--smaller than my home town of Lewisville!) located in the mountains/river side. It is inside the Aurlands Fjord where over 760,000 cruise people visit every year! Here is were we went...

SNOWSHOEING!

me and Chrysa

Sandhya, Chrysa, Beth, Alyson, me, Susan, Kathy and our tour guide

The initial climb was HARD!!!! It was straight up!

Recovered from the initial accent...Beth was ready for action!

Beautiful scenery--and Alyson caught my happy feeling!

Our guide brought up tiny sleds for us the go down the mountain on--seriously dangerous haha!

The village sign where we ended our snowshoeing journey

Pausing on the way back to the hotel for these majestic views.

Me, Karen, Ann, Beth, Chrysa, Sandhya, Susan, Kathy, Alyson and Stephanie

Beautiful harbor and village

Alyson and Michelle as we were getting aboard the scenic train the Oslo.

Switchback trails all the way down the mountains!

We went through 20 tunnels; and 18 of them have been dug out and built by hand!

Geraldine and Fiona (our trip organizer)

BR-Fiona, Geraldine, Kathy, Karen, Stephanie, Vanessa, Maxine, Kelly, Jenny, Katie, Beth, Cara, me, Traci, Kathy, Alyson and Karen

FR-Chrysa, Michelle, Kelli, Sandhya, Stephanie, Anne and Susan

OSLO

"The city built on a hill near the mouth of the river"

City Hall

The Royal Palace where King Harold and Queen Sonya live.

The palace is located at the top of Karl Johans Gate (Street)

Main city centre - complete with a public ice rink

The Grand Hotel where the Nobel Peace Prize Award is given, (which is awarded with 10 million Swedish Krone's to the winner!)

The dining room and entrance to the Grand Hotel

Walking along the pier looking at the old Akershus Fortress and Castle. Really spectacular

I just love how this picture turned out with all the ships docked in the harbor.

Alyson and I found the most MOST amazing sushi house called Hanami. Seriously, the BEST I've ever tasted.

Truly a culinary delight. It's supposedly the best outside of Tokyo.

Entrance to:

VIGELAND Sculpture Park

Gustav Vigeland's lifework with more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron.

All of these sculptures represent life in all its forms - good and bad.

The detail was exquisite - some ingeniously thought out and designed to represent and emotion.

The Angry Boy is a popular one and I believe his hand is shiny because you receive good luck if your hold it.

My friend Ann said this was me! Juggling four children! haha

This is the "circle of life" section with the men carrying the weight of the world's problems on their shoulders.. The trees all have human figures in them from babies to the elderly and then dying. Quite powerful. None of the figures are dressed to give the display a timeless feel.

All these statues lead to the main sculptures of "relationships". At the center is the The 46ft high Monolith is made up of 121 human figures rising towards the sky. It took him and two other sculptures 14 years to finish this piece.Thirty-six other marble statues surround the Monolith.

We drove to their Winter Park sporting grounds and saw the Biathlon athletes in action...in case you didn't know... it Involves Cross-Country Skiing With Rifles. I haven't seen it done before. We walked up to their tallest viewing tower to see the track and its racers, and it was such a white out, you couldn't see ANYTHING!!!

I found this moose on our visit though the museum.

(I thought Spencer would like it--I'm guessing he'd be friendly to a Canadian).

VIKING SHIP MUSEUM

Vikings ruled this land the the waters surrounding it for over 200 years.

These viking ships were massive and were built around 800 AD

These boats were built ingeniously with both ends being a front or the rear of a ship. That way, if they got stuck in too narrow of a river way or an enemy was coming ahead, they could "reverse" by instantly going the opposite direction without having to turn around!

Looking down into one of the ships.

Norwegian Folk Museum

Most interesting was the collection of 150 dwellings from all over the country in the grounds of this 'museum',

including one listed as the world's oldest wooden dwelling from around 1250.

A Christian wooden stave church with it's beautiful handcrafted woodwork.

The wooden carvings were intricate and very ornate.

Inside the churches

Living in much simpler times, this outdoor museum represented a people and a time where only the hearty survived. It was a wonderful collection of a wooden built community.