I’ll start by sayings a job well done to Slartibartfast. It really is a very magnificent landscape and a pleasant cruise from Bergen to Flam and the answer is still 42.

Anyway, we left Bergen early in the morning for our cruise to Flam up the fjords. It was overcast and raining as usual but the weather forecast had promised some clearer weather. After a couple of hours, we finally reached the mouth of the Sognefjord with it’s high mountain peaks on each side covered with snow and the weather had cleared up slightly, although the wind was freezing. We then spent the next few hours cruising up this fjord through the rainy, misty landscape before turning into Aurlandsfjord which was nicely covered in mist as well to continue on our way to Flam.

Upon arrival in Flam, it was nice and sunny which made it perfect for some picture taking and 360 action –

As quickly as the sun had come, it was gone, replaced by rain and then what appeared to be half melted snow. It was in this weather that we boarded the Flam Railway for our 20km journey to Mydral Station. The Flam Railway climbs from Flam 2m above sea level to Myrdal 866m above sea level, which makes its one of the world’s steepest unassisted climb railway lines.
As we started to climb, it started to rain then we entered a tunnel. Upon exiting, we had risen another 100m or so and the landscape was covered in snow and the rain had turned to snow. It was actually SNOWING! We then stopped near the top of the line at what would have been a very spectacular waterfall except it was still almost completely frozen. Whilst looking at our frozen waterfall it started to lightly snow which I found very exciting. As you’ll be able to see from the picture included, when we reached Mydral station it was covered in snow along with the rest of the surrounding landscape.

After waiting about an hour at Mydral, our train to Oslo arrived and we spent the next 3 hours travelling through a snow covered landscape before entering a tunnel and emerging to a lush green landscape with a beautiful lake (as pictured below). This trip was said to be one of the most spectacular rail journeys in the world and I would agree with this statement. Riding through the snow covered landscape at speeds over 100kms/h is pretty spectacular and it gives you an idea of how nice the area would be in summer with the many waterfalls and valleys to see. Next time I come to Norway, I’ll take the train from Oslo all the way to Bergen as you’re suppose to get some spectacular views of the fjords from the train.

Once we arrived in Oslo, we were keen to get to our hotel as we’d spent the whole day travelling from Bergen and were very tired. Sleep was required to enjoy another new city the following day.

Farvel

Bergen, the first stop on the Scandinavian leg of our journey. We had a delicious meal at a restaurant in Bergen called Pygmalion. This is where we got a taste for how expensive Norway (and the rest of Scandinavia will be). We had a slice of lasagna each and two glasses of apple juice plus a toasted cheese/tomato bread slice, all of which cost 515NOK (90AUD). This was to be our first and last dinner out in Norway. Whilst the food was delicious, we would quickly be broke if we kept expending money at such a rate, therefore dinner for the following nights were premade sandwiches, drinks and desert from Deli Da Luca (it’s like Pret in London/Gloria Jeans in Aus) costing a grand total of about $30AUD.

The weather in Bergen wasn’t great, it was raining when we landed and continued to be overcast/drizzly for the rest of the day and the rest of our time in Bergen. Nevertheless, we still managed to get a bit of a look around Bergen. We’d didn’t have any activities planned for Bergen as it was intended as a stopover point before our cruise up the fjord on our way to Oslo.

We went up the Fløibanen Funicular to the top of Fløyen mountain where we had a good view over the city of Bergen –

At the top of the mountain there is also a large network of hiking/cycling trails with some leading back down the mountain to the city. As it was cold, windy and raining, we took a quick walk to a little lake which was still semi-frozen, before getting the railway back down the mountain where we caught a sightseeing bus around Bergen and learnt that Norway only has 5 million people, Bergen in particular has an issue with fire and buildings burning down (Norway as a whole seems to have this issue as well), Bergen has houses known as Chimney Stacks due to their construction which is wooden on the inside encased by an external concrete wall, thus when the house caught on fire, the concrete wall acted as a chimney for the fire. After our short bus trip, we stopped off for supplies at Deli Da Luca, spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep, repacking our suitcases, surfing the Internet etc as it was still raining outside and cold. Hoping for some clear weather for our cruise up the fjord tomorrow, as well as train trip down to Oslo.

Farvel

P.S. Yes, that is a sheet of Ice I’m holding in my hands in the picture below. This was taken from the semi-frozen lake pictured. As I was walking around the lake you could hear the ice cracking and grinding against itself. Very eerie…

We hired a car in Reykjavik and took a day trip into the Interior. After driving around in circles for about 20mins, we finally managed to get on the right road out of Reykjavik and were heading for the Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir and the Þingvellir National Park (This trio of destinations is more commonly known as the Golden Circle tour/daytrip). In total we did about 550kms of driving (the car we hired was brand new, when we got it, it had only done 130kms 🙂  ). About 20 mins out of Reykjavik we were driving through lava fields covered in snow with mountains on both sides, first stop Geysir –

The wind here was aboluestly freezing, the car told us it was only 4C outside, but it felt more like it was in negative digits. My hands were frozen from standing in the cold waiting for the geyser to erupt.
Did you know Iceland gave the world the word “geyser” after their own Great Geysir. This is what’s called an ‘eponym’—something or someone that gives its name to everything of its type. Another example is, every volcano on Earth is named after the volcano ‘Vulcano’, off the coast of Italy.
After several minutes I finally managed to get a video of the geyser ‘Stokkur’ erupting and quickly hurried inside for a warming cup of hot chocolate to help defrost my hands before continuing our journey onwards to the Gullfoss (translates as “Golden Falls”) waterfall –

It was even colder here than at Geysir and it also started to rain so Freya sat in the car whilst I went down to the waterfalls. It was quite spectacular and would have looked even better in sunshine. Next we went onwards to the Þingvellir National Park –

This is the ancient site of the Icelandic Parliment (the Alþingi which translates as [the] all-thing) which first meet here in 930AD and held meetings here until 1799, before moving to Reykjavik. This makes it the oldest existing parliamentary institution in the world. This site is part of the Þingvellir National Park (translates as Thing Fields National Park) which is Iceland’s 1st national park. The park has the islands largest natural lake – Þingvallavatn.
The Þingvellir National Park also sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the edges of the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate are pulling apart at a rate of about 2.5cms a year. This has formed the clearly defined ridge/canyon you can see in the two 360s I’ve put above and below and is frequently the cause of earthquakes in the region –

The wind here was freezing and my face was frozen. Freya had a headache by this time in the day (probably from the cold winds and some dehydration) so she stayed in the car whilst I went for a walk along the fault line. It was a really spectacular place with the lake and mountains surrounding us. Apparently it’s very popular with Icelanders in summer for picnics, but I couldn’t quite picture it getting warm enough for this.

We then continued on our way back to Reykjavik for a nice warm shower and bed. It would have been nice to have had some more time in Iceland as there is so much to do, I could have booked myself onto a Glacier walk tour or visited some places in Northern Iceland, but this will need to wait for next time

Bless

We’ve landed here in Reykjavik, Iceland (Island is how you spell Iceland in Icelandic, but it’s pronounced Is Land). After the 40mins bus trip from the airport to the city, we checked into our apartment, and went for a walk down to the shore. Here’s the view (It was windy and cold so the image might be a little blurry) –

Our apartment here is very nice, only 5 mins walk from the centre of town. It’s very spacious, has cooking facilities, excellent heating and hot-water that smells likes sulphur.(The Icelandics drill for hot-water like some nations drill for Oil. The entire of Reykjavik is heated with hot-water from a nearby geothermal power station, making Iceland one of the greenest countries on the entire planet) Our apartment also has an excellent Internet connection, even better than at work/home. (Edit: Out of all the hotels so far up to/including Sweden, Iceland has had the best Internet connection in terms of speed, reliability and ease of connection)

We attended a concert at The Harpa (it’s the large building by the sea in the 360 above, and is their main entertainment building here, it has 4 concert halls) of traditional Icelandic songs introduced in English which was very nice. We’ve been up to Pelan (a revolving restaurant and observation deck on top of the city’s hot-water storage tanks). We also went up Hallgrímskirkja (this is the main church in Rekyavik and is located on top of a hill, giving a good view over the city from the top of the bell tower, pictures included below).

Iceland is very cold and I somehow managed to lose my scarf and gloves in the hire car in England, so one of the first stops was a bit of shopping to purchase a new pair of gloves (with touch sensitive fingers so I can use my iPhone with my gloves on) and a scarf. Freya also told me the beanie I had brought wasn’t very stylish, so a new beanie was also required. Iceland have a tax free shopping scheme for visitors so most of our purchases entitled us to a VAT refund at the airport which equalled about $40 – 50 AUD total, which we then converted straight away into Norwegian Krone ready for our next stop.

Reykjavik is a nice little city and the Icelandic people are very friendly and most have very good English which helps to make you feel more welcome. We hired a car and went for a drive into the Interior (covered in my next post) which was very exciting and interesting to see some more of Iceland.

On our last day in Reykjavik we went for a drive out to the Blue Lagoon and took a dip. Apparently the silica and minerals in the water are suppose to have good healing and rejuvenation properties for your skin. After a thorough soaking, it was back to Reykjavik for one last night before we headed off to Bergen, Norway on our 8am flight.

Bless

Back in London after our travels around the English countryside. I’ve had a great time, and the weather has been really good, it’s only just started getting cloudy/drizzly this afternoon before we fly to Iceland tomorrow.

I’ve been using an app I’ve had on my phone for a while but never really used called “360 Panorama” to make the 360’s in this blog. It’s really easy to use and helps to capture the “whole” picture.

I’ve been to the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Oxford St, Regent St and the Tower Of London. I’ve walked, cycled, bused, tubed and ferried my way around London. The cycle hire scheme in London (Barclays Cycles) is very handy for making quick trips around London and getting a bit of exercise in, it’s also nice way to see Hyde Park.

I also visited the Tower Of London and saw the Crown Jewels (Sorry, no pictures allowed   🙁   ), visited Tower Bridge and ate some very yummy Italian food –

Did you know there is free public WiFi spots all over London. I was able to connect to a service provided by O2 and access free constant WiFi all the way down Oxford and Regent street whilst travelling on a bus. They’ve installed WiFi antennas on every 2nd/3rd lamppost all the way down the street.

360 of Trafalgar Square –

Only 1 1/2 weeks till Eurovision. We’re heading off to Iceland now hopefully we’ll have some nice weather, possibly snow.

Cheerio