Day 4 - Sunday, July 24 - Oslo to Bergen

July 24, 2022

The morning started with a mix of clouds and sun in the low 60s.

After some orientation from the Viking guide in the hotel, we walked across to the train station and to our train. We were surprised that it wasn't exactly on time at 10:09 - it didn't arrive until 10:21.

For the first part of the trip the train wanders up the hills through forests and some valleys with significant farming - we think wheat, oats and hay but it is difficult to tell from the train. Alongside the train were flowers similar to the Adirondacks, lupine just finishing blooming, purple loosestrife, daisies and ferns. The trees are mostly conifers of some sort, aspen and birch.

After about 4 hours, the elevation goes above 3000' and the terrain is quite barren, mostly rock with snow and glaciers near the top, going up to about 4000'. It is not any higher than the Catskill mountains but due to the northern latitude, it is treeless. The scenery is quite spectacular. We seemed to spend as much time going through tunnels as between them and many sections have covers over the tracks to protect from falling snow and rocks.

As we descended, there were streams, small rivers and cascading waterfalls with clear blue-green water.

We came through one final tunnel not far from the train station where we were met by a guide from Viking and taken by bus about 5 minutes to the historic Norge Hotel which dates back to the late 1800s but was completely renovated in 2016 as quite a modern luxurious hotel.

It rained off and on for the last 3 hours of our 7 1/2 hour trip but fortunately was only sprinkling when we went to the hotel.

The guide on the train had recommended the traditional Norwegian fish soup for dinner and we were able to find a restaurant very close to the hotel serving this. The soup was delicious.