I’m pretty into trains, so a trip on the Rauma Line was at the top of my Norway list. And we were not disappointed! Despite nearly falling asleep on the train trip due to poor sleep the night before combined with a ten mile hike, it was amazing. Eric finally realized if we stood in the vestibule we could dash back and forth between the large windows, and we were less likely to nod off. So we dashed back and forth, enjoying the soaring cliffs and the beautiful scenes that we passed. It seemed like many of the folks on our train were locals, because no one was impressed. Although we were on the latest train while it was still light – it left at 20:16 and arrived at 21:34 – in July, it was plenty bright enough outside to see the waterfalls and the sheer cliffs. The train enters a “turning tunnel” during the trip, makes a circle inside the mountain, and comes out in the opposite direction! It’s amazing!
Honestly, words and photographs can’t begin to define how awesome the scenery is in Norway. It’s one shockingly gorgeous vista after another and it really doesn’t get old. This stretch of the railway opened in 1924, and took 12 years to build! The route from Dombås to Åndalsnes takes an hour and forty minutes, and covers quite a bit of ground, including giant waterfalls, sheer cliffs, and follows along the Rauma River for much of the trip.
The train ran right on time and we arrived in Åndalsnes ready to get a meal and hit the sack. Departing the train station, the town was somewhat of a letdown, although we were so tired we didn’t really walk around while hauling our gear. We were here to attempt to hike the Romsdalseggen Ridge in the morning, so we didn’t much care about the town (sorry, town). After hiking up another hill (Norway has no lack of hills to hike up, and their definition of flat is not similar to the American definition of flat) we arrived at the Grand Hotel Bellevue!
Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication about the restaurant hours during check in, and by the time we dropped our bags in our room and washed our faces, the restaurant was closing. The hostess ran back out and told us they’d changed their minds and would serve us, but it didn’t inspire confidence. I was so tired I opted to go straight to bed without dinner. Eric decided to join me after considering going out for what we heard was passable Thai food at 10pm. We also heard that the other open restaurant which was a Chinese/Sushi/Thai place was slow and not particularly good, although we didn’t try it either. The long days (literally light until well after midnight) make it possible to cram in more stuff than is wise, and I certainly made that mistake early in this trip.
The hotel room at the Grand Hotel Bellevue was creepily similar to the Oppdal Turisthotell, same furniture and carpeting, slightly crappier bathroom (the shower door opened into the toilet, so to use the toilet you had to awkwardly wedge yourself into a corner even when the shower wasn’t in use). Eric slept well, but I felt like the incessant noise of the sea birds was a problem. (Seabirds screeching is a theme in Norway!) They carried on until the middle of the night and started again hours later. We did have the window open, because it would’ve been too hot otherwise, but you might want to ask about sea birds if you’re a light sleeper (who knew?!?)