Category: Norway

Our train from Voss to Bergen was at 2 this afternoon, so we had time this morning to walk to the Voss Folkemuseum. It was really interesting to see the 16 old farm buildings some of them date back to the 17th century.

One of the interesting things we have seen throughout Norway is the variety of roofing material. We have seen a lot of sod roofs on both old buildings and new. In many areas we have also seen a lot of slate roofs.

In Bergen we are staying very near the harbor. This afternoon we enjoyed exploring.

In the fish market we saw many interesting fish but I have never seen crab as big as the enormous king crab in the market.

For dinner we had fish sitting at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.

The breakfast room in the guesthouse where we spent the night last night was built in about 1620. It has been in the same family ever since. The room was full of beautiful old folk art. The breakfast room is on the right in the picture below. Our room is in the upper left.

Our train ride today was stage two of our five stage train trip from Oslo to Bergen. We went two stops in about thirty minutes and are now in the town of Ål. In winter Ål is a ski destination with a biathlon and cross country stadium. According to the guide book they have two of Norway’s longest toboggan runs. This afternoon we hiked up a steep trail to a lookout over the town.

One of the most amazing things we saw was theses mushrooms. To me they look like they came right out of a fairy tale. I’ve never seen anything like them.

We had a very good dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Then we went for a walk around the church next door.

The train ride from Oslo to Bergen is supposed to be one of the highlights of visiting Norway. We are going to do it in five stages. Today we took the train from Oslo to the little town of Nesbyen. It is about a two and a half hour ride.

We walked the mile or so from the train station to the guest house where we are staying. This town is charming. The colorful houses, neatly manicured yards and the forests remind me of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

After checking in we went for a walk, admired the scenery and bought some food for a picnic dinner in our room.

Now we are sitting in our cozy room reading.

Today is a beautiful day in Oslo. It is clear and calm and the high temperature was 70 degrees. Yesterday we walked a lot so today we basically took it easy.

We started out at the National Gallery. It is not a big museum but had some wonderful works of art arranged by time period. The museum also had a special exhibition of Gerhard Munthe work.

The National Gallery tickets also gave us entry to the National Architecture Museum so we visited there next.

For dinner we ate outside at a seafood restaurant. As a starter we had whale. It tasted pretty much like sashimi. Apparently minke whales are hunted for two months a year here.