Trondheim was a short flight from Oslo which we had reached by flying overnight from Newark, New Jersey. Unfortunately, our bags did not arrive until six hours later. In spite of rainy cool weather, we found Trondheim to be a delightful place to visit. I would highly recommend the The Palmehaven restaurant at the Britannia Hotel. Some attractions in were not open for the summer as of yet but if there is one thing to see in Trondheim it is the Ringve which houses Norway’s National museum of music and musical instruments with collections from the whole world. The young tour guide not only gave clear explanations of each interior room from the 1880s in the Great House but she also sang or played an instrument in each room. There was a Mozart room, a Beethoven room, a Chopin room, and of course a Grieg room.
I had heard about Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, for years. It was once named one of Europe’s 14 “secret capitals”. In 2005 we took a flight there from Copenhagen but the weather was so bad that after circling the fjords for an hour we ended up landing a few hundred miles away in Oslo. We almost did not make it this time either. The Boeing 737 from Trondheim was hit by a lightning bolt! It was an electrifying expedience. It would be at least three hours before an engineer could make it from Oslo to inspect the plane and so we were re-routed an another flight to Oslo and then a final flight over to Bergen, at last. It was worth the wait. (See photo gallery).
They say that 900 year-old Bergen has its feet in the sea, its head in the skies and its heart in the right place. We were fortunate to leave the rain in Trondheim and find sunny warm weather in Bergen. The mountain top at Fløien is roughly 1,000 feet above the city. We hiked the three miles or so to get there. The view was excellent and so was the beer! We rode the funicular back down. Mediterranean food at Mezzo capped off the day.
Rather than fly to Oslo, our next destination, we decided to take advantage of Norway in a nutshell. The train/bus/ferry combo takes you through some of Norway’s most beautiful fjord scenery. The Bergen Railway took us to Voss where we then took a bus down the steep (1,000 feet elevation to sea level) amid spectacular hairpin bends of Stalheimskleiva — 13 of them. If I had seen them in advance I would say that a bus could not navigate them and I certainly would not want to try them with a motorcycle. As the bus pulled out of Voss for Gudvangen, I noticed an Esso station — gas was $7.63 per gallon. Along the country roads we saw brightly colored farm houses, with sheep grazing in the fields on both sides of the river with the snow covered mountains above.
The bus brought us to Gudvangen where we boarded a ferry for a two-hour cruise along the Aurlandsfjord and into the Naeroyfjord, the narrowest fjord in Europe, to Flåm. Next it was back on a train –The Flåm Railway. The climb up the 2,841 feet in elevation to Myrdal was spectacular as we saw constantly changing mountain scenery and giant cascading waterfalls. The train ride was only an hour but the trip was one of those things that you have to experience to believe. The Flåm Railway is the steepest normal-gauge train in Northern Europe. It was completed in 1940 after 20 years of construction. The purpose was to connect the Bergen-Oslo line to the giant Aurlandsfjorden. It is truly an engineering marvel.
The train from Myrdal to Oslo took 7 1/2 hours and the 11 PM dinner was late even by European standards. The next day was all business — at Opera Software ASA. The company is doing some very exciting things in mobile and on the desktop. If you haven’t yet tried "speed dial", I highly recommend downloading the new Opera 9.2. When you double-click next to tab, you get a speed-dial page with your top favorite web pages.
The last day we spent some time at the Nobel Peace Center and had lunch at Aker Brygge. If you like seafood and get to Oslo, don’t miss the Solsiden Restaurant. I can say for sure it is the best seafood restaurant I have ever been to. After a comfortable ride on the Flytoget, it was an uneventful flight back home the next morning. Monday will be a business trip back over the Atlantic — this time to Russia. More on that soon.
- Other patrickWeb travel-related stories
- Photo Gallery
- Travel Photo Gallery – Norway May 2005
