Norway in a Nutshell - Escaping the January blues
For my birthday last week I took an amazing trip to Norway, to spend time among the mighty mountains and frozen fjords in the depths of winter. I have uploaded a YouTube video on my channel with footage from the trip including some beautiful drone shots we took one morning as the sun was rising on the fjord.
I booked the ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ tour which I highly recommend. It is a self-guided tour so you are just booking the tickets for each section of the travel, which you can book all separately instead but I liked the peace of mind that all the timings had been worked out for me etc. It is a legendary tour using trains, buses and boats that takes you through Norway’s most breathtaking UNESCO-protected fjord and mountain scenery, as well as a trip on Europe’s top scenic rail journeys - the Flåm Railway and The Bergen Railway. It is designed to be able to do all in one day, but we decided to break it up into two days and stay overnight.
After flying into Bergen airport the first day and staying overnight (at Opus 16 - also highly recommended) we set off early the next morning for our first leg of the journey which was an hours train ride from Bergen to Voss. From Voss we then got onto a coach and headed for 45 minutes to the next section of the journey which was a winter fjord cruise on the Nærøyfjord and Aurlandsfjord from Gudvangen to Flåm. Gudvangen is usually where the cruise starts from however due to thick ice on the fjord the tour company put on an additional coach to take us from Gudvangen to the next town up and start it from there.
The boat ride was absolutely beautiful, and despite the freezing cold wind chill I spent most of the two hours outside on deck snapping hundreds of photos of the wild frozen scenery.
The boat docks at Flåm where we had booked an overnight stay, at the Fretheim Hotel (again - recommended). After the busyness of airports and Bergen, Flam seemed very very quiet and still. We had a quick Kanelboller (Norwegian cinnamon bun) from the Flåm Bakery before heading to check in to the hotel.
The next morning we took our camera and drone out to the fjord as the sun was rising around 10am to enjoy the scenery before the next leg of our tour. This was one of my favourite times on the trip, it seemed like we were the only people for miles around, watching the clouds move over the top of the mountains and up from the glassy water.
We then got on the Flåm Railway for an hour’s train journey climbing up the mountains snaking past frozen rivers and houses dotted amongst the thick snow. This was absolutely beautiful, and over all too quickly. You stop for a few minutes at a frozen waterfall, and then end the journey at Myrdal station. From Myrdal we then got on a local train which took us all the way back to Bergen, taking just under 2 hours. I actually think this part of the train journey was the most spectacular and otherworldly, it was just amazing seeing all these houses hidden in the snow. I spent the whole time trying to work out the route these houses had in and out, were they connected to roads, looking for footprints showing evidence anyone had emerged yet that day.
In Bergen the next day was really heavy snow, so we headed on the Fløibanen funicular up to Mount Fløyen - one of the seven mountains that Bergen is nestled between - to take a snowy woodland walk on the trails at the top. This was another huge highlight for us, to be so quick up the mountain and so close to a main city but feeling completely alone like we were in the middle of a woodland wilderness was amazing. We then walked/slipped back down on the 3km trail, which took just over an hour in the heavy snow but was very fun. There were a few locals skiing and sledding down the trail which looked even more fun.
My mind is buzzing with beautiful greys and and ink roll blends for skies and misty mountains, but January hibernation still feels heavy so for now it is back under my blanket with a book until I feel ready to start planning out more prints again in the Spring.