Why Norway? Seems to be a popular question! Short answer: because it was the cheapest flight into Europe I could find. Long answer, and more to the point: because we are going to a wedding in Austria. Yep. A friend is getting married in Austria, so we flew into Oslo. Makes perfect sense, right?!? It seemed silly to come to The Continent and not see something new, and we didn’t want to be a bother for two weeks visiting our friends as they prepared for their wedding, so we decided to do a 13 day jaunt around Norway using public transit, and then take a hop flight over to Austria the week before they get hitched.
Our itinerary is as follows:
Oakland, California to Oslo, Norway via plane
Oslo to Oppdal, via train
Oppdal to Åndalsnes, via the Rauma Railway
Åndalsnes to Geiranger, via bus and ferry
Geiranger to Ålesund, via Hurtigruten ship
Ålesund to Bergen, via Hurtigruten ship
Bergen to Gudvangen, via train and bus
Gudvangen to Flåm, via ferry
Flåm to Myrdal to Oslo, via train
Oslo to Vienna, via plane
It seems so simple all written out like that. And it would’ve been, if we hadn’t run into a host of unexpected occurrences, like our credit card being flagged for what was actually fraud two days before we left the US, and the train tickets being sold out for the first leg of our journey, and the fact that daylight that goes on forever allows a person to cram a whole lot more into their day than they normally would…
But the majesty and astonishing scenery have more than made up for the rough start. It’s amazing here! And photographs won’t even begin to do the actual place justice. It’s like a thousand Yosemite Half Domes every ten miles.
Stay tuned for the story. Maybe it’ll be interesting. Or help you plan *your* trip to Norway. Or make you laugh! We are laughing, because travel is funny, even when it seems like it’s not.