Brussel Spouting: November 2009

Our last few days in Norway were spent in a region known as the western fjords. We used the town of Flam, which sits at the head of Aurlandsfjorden, as our home base. The trip to flam was pretty amazing. We took another train from Oslo to Myrdal and then took the Flamsbana Railway for a ride through some wild scenery. We decended 864m and went through 20 tunnels on our way to Flam. It was difficult to take pictures because the train was going too fast, but we did get to stop by a huge waterfall and get out.

We rented an apartment that was right on the water's edge. It gave us magnificent views of the Aurlandsfjorden. We were finally free from the ship and on our own. This place beautiful and we all wished that we would have been able to spend more time there.

We took a ferry from Flam to Gudvangen the following morning. There's no shortage of spectacular scenery around here!

After Gudvangen, Rick and I walked 6k along a road to Undredal, a quaint village known for its stave church and its brown, sweet, goat's cheese (I thought it was kind of strange). The road took us through a beautiful valley. There was not much traffic, except for some goats and a few horses. The horses came down from the mountain and followed us a long way on the road. I was a bit nervous because it seemed like the horses were fearless. I felt like they were stalking us. They were not phased at all by humans or cars. One of the horses took a liking to Rick. At first, we thought it was Rick's good looks and charm that attracted this horse to him. Later, we realized that the horse was really interested in an apple that Rick had in his backpack. It was pretty funny!

Here are some pictures of the cute, little village of Underdal. The main attraction is a stave church built in 1147. It is the smallest house of worship that is still operational in mainland Scandinavia. They only allow a few people in at a time with a guide. The guide gave us really interesting explanation of the church's history. We were hungry after our long walk and visit to the church, so we tried some crepes filled with the sweet, brown goat cheese. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stave off our hunger because we were put off by the funky cheese. This may be the first time I met a cheese I didn't like! Then, it was back to Flam via a fast ferry.

A view of our apartments as we approach Flam on the ferry.

Having some drinks at the AEegir Brewery in Flam. You know Rick can't visit a place that has a local brewery and not visit it!

Our cruise started in Bergen. We traveled for 7 days. A few days in, we passed the Arctic Circle and experienced almost 24 hours of daylight from then on. There is a statue of a globe that marks this point, but I never saw it as we passed by at 7am one morning. As I mentioned in the previous post, we made a lot of short stops to small towns along the way. I've decided not to post pictures of every place we saw and just stick to the more signifcant sights.

We were hit with amazing scenery from the start. Our first stop was Geirangerfjord, a World UNESCO Heritage Site. The fjord is famous for the Seven Sister's Waterfall, a series of 7 waterfalls flowing next to each other (see 4th picture). The other special feature of this fjord is the blue/green water.

The ship docked for 3 hours in Bodø one afternoon. That gave us enough time to see the Saltstraumen Maelstrom, which happens to be the world's largest at 3km long and 150m wide. This is an interesting natural phenomenon in which tides cause one fjord to drain into another, creating whirlpools. Over 400 million cu meters of water shift one way, and then another, every six hours. It's difficult to capture the movement in a photograph, but we tried.

The Lofoton Islands are separated by the mainland by a fjord. There are 4 main islands, each with several small picturesque villages. We only stopped at one village on Lofoton and just long enough to walk around for about 20-30 minutes and take pictures. I could have spent days exploring these islands as they are all supposed to be beautiful and offer a lot of outdoor activity. Oh well!

At about 10 or 11pm one evening, we reached Trollsfjord. We bundled up and went out on the top deck to enjoy the view. In celebration of the event, the crew served up some "troll soup". It was basically a creamy seafood soup, which I thought was very yummy. Trollsfjord has tall, sheer cliffs and is much narrower than Geirangerfjord. It was fun watching our huge vessel navigate through it.

One of our longer stops (4 hours) was in Tromso, the largest town in Northern Norway. Tromso has two nicknames: The Gateway to the Arctic and Paris of the North. It is a really "hip" university town that has a lot going on. It claims to have more pubs per capita than any other Norwegian town. It even has a small brewery. Aside from the "party scene" and numerous cultural options, the amazing, snow-capped mountains surrounding the town are great for hiking and skiing.

We finally had some time on our own and what a place for it! We took a cable car to the top of one of the mountians for a spectacular view! We also took a short hike around the mountain. We would have liked to hike longer, but were still thankful to have some freedom. After our hike, we had a little time left to see the Arctic Cathedral (more impressive from the outside) and to drink a beer at the Mack Brewery. Over all, one of our best days so far.

At 71 degrees N. latitude, Honningsvag was the most northern point on our trip. This area is actually habitalbe, unlike most places at far northern latitudes. The terrain changed after leaving Tromso. The tall, snow-capped mountians gave way to flatter, more barren land.

We went on a safari to an offshore bird colony on the Gjesvaerstappan Islands, where there are an estimated 3 million nesting birds. The excursion was really good. I don't think I've ever seen so many birds at one time! We saw puffins, skuas, razorbills, kittiwakes, gannets and white-tailed eagles. The puffins were so cute, but it was difficult to take pictures of them because they move pretty fast. As an added bonus, we saw several reindeer from the tour bus going to and from the safari. A group of them actually walked right in front of our bus!