Southern Norway – Oslo, Bergen, Ålesund

We girls had talked about going on an international trip for years, but never made it happen until now. Now that some of the kids are older, and I’m retired with no restriction in the number of vacation days, we finally made it happen. As we were trying to decide where to go, everyone was asked to submit their “wish list”, and at the end of the day we decided on Norway to see the Northern lights. The majority of the trip planning was ultimately left up to me as everyone deferred to my judgment. Instead of spending our entire 2 weeks in the Arctic, I decided to allocate some days in the southern part of the country. This may or may not end up being a big mistake, as we shall realize later in the trip.

This was also the trip where everyone was introduced to the world of points and miles, which ended up saving each of us close to $2k in hotels through Choice, and airfare through AirFrance.

To get a taste of Norway, I opted for a day in Oslo, 2 in Bergen, and 2 in Ålesund. Personally, I would have preferred spending all those days hiking, but as the lone hiker in the group it was not possible.

Oslo

Vigeland Park – reminds me of Central Park in NYC, but on a much smaller scale. I can imagine it being a beautiful park in the summer.

The Munch museum was the major attraction in Oslo for us.

The rest of the night was spent at Wallman’s celebrating Munerah’s 49th.

Bergen

To get to Bergen the next day, we took the six and a half-hour scenic Bergen Line. Again, possibly a beautiful route during the summer.

Whiteout conditions all around us, with not much to see.

Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, is known for its fjords. It was the capital of Norway before Oslo took its place.

As a coastal city, trading settlements were established in as early as 1020s.

Bryggn, a UNESCO heritage site, is a series of parallel trading tenements dating back to the medieval times.

One of the attractions in Bergen is to catch a bird’s eye view of the city from the Fløyen viewpoint.

The easiest way to get up and down the hill is via the Fløibanen funicular, which was our initial plan.

However, due to a series of miscommunications, we ended up hiking up to the top – Yay for me!

The simple Scandinavian designs along with the vibrant colors around town make for a beautiful contrast against the grey skies.

Ålesund

To add a little interest to our trip, I thought we’d get from Bergen to Ålesund via a cruise boat. Hurtigruten runs a cruise along the Norwegian western coastline, from Bergen all the way up to the northern tip of Norway. Instead of taking the cruise all the way to Tromsø, we got off at Ålesund after an overnight stay on the boat.