Norway - Scandinavia Part 4 (July 3 - 8, 2023)

James flew from Denver to Chicago on July 1st where he boarded a 9 hr flight to Helsinki.  After arriving in Helsinki on July 2nd he had a connecting flight to Oslo and arrived in Oslo that evening.   We upgraded his airline seat so he had plenty of leg room and was able to get up and walk as needed to stretch is hip.  He spent the night at the Scandic Holberg.

Monday, July 3, 2023.  The girls and I arrived in Oslo by ship around 10 am.

James was waiting for us at the DFDS dock in Oslo and we were all so happy to see him.  

He looked amazing for what he had been through 3 weeks prior.  We took our bags to the hotel, Scandic Holberg...

then took the tram to have lunch near a harbor.

After lunch we took a ferry to another island, just to ride it and see the city from the water. 

After a little rest time at the hotel we went for dinner near the central train station then walked back to our hotel. Oslo is a very clean and beautiful city.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023.  Happy Independence Day to America!  The girls were not so happy to be celebrating the 4th of July in Norway.   We boarded a train from Oslo to get us to the Fjords.  The train ride was 5 hours and the scenery was gorgeous. 

We played Uno a couple of times

relaxed

had lunch from the cafe car

and watched the amazing scenery go by. 

As we got closer to Myrdal, it got snowy and COLD. We had to get off the train at the Myrdal station 

to catch another train down the mountain to Flam.  

The train ride to Flam was incredibly beautiful.  I was not sitting by a window so I didn't take any pictures. (I pulled these off the internet)

The train stops part way down the mountain for 5 minutes at a waterfall called Kjosfossen.

Music starts playing and a "fairy" comes out of the mist and dances. See her in the red dress?  She was by the house, then suddenly she was by the waterfall. The girls think there are several fairies that pop out at certain times because she would suddenly reappear.  Or was it Norway fairy magic?  We later learned her name is Nora.

When we got to Flam we had an hour before boarding a ferry to Balestrand where we were staying a few nights.  

The ferry from Flam to Balestrand took us through Sognefjord.

First "ice cream o"clock " for James

Balestrand in the distance

We came into Balestrand around 5 pm.  It is a small little town with about 800 residents.  The views looked like a painting.

We had rented an Airbnb in Balestrand on a farm just out of town. We stopped by the grocery store to get a few days of food before taking a taxi to the farmhouse.  It was such a cute house.

We took a walk after dinner.  The light that night was amazing and it looked like a troll forest.

The girls arranged flowers and Ani made us a snack plate before bed.

The view was unbelievable.  It looked unreal...like a movie set or painting.

Wednesday, July 5, 2023.  We had planned on going to a glacier but with James' injury we decided to just have a relaxing day at the house.  After breakfast I did laundry in a super sketch basement and hung it out to dry

while James took the girls on a walk 

then they made us lunch.

We had a little down time.  I finished hanging out laundry and took a little nap. The girls played near the house. 

Then we walked into town.  It was a lot longer walk than we had planned (took us 2 hours) and everyone was hot, crabby and hangry by the time we got there. 

We had dinner and looked in a church

then a quick stop at the grocery store and taxi back to the house. The sunset from my bedroom was so beautiful that night.   The sun never actually set...it did get a little darker than this.  

Thursday, July 6, 2023.   We took an early ferry to Vik to see a stave church.  The ferry came into Vic at 8 in the morning but the church we were going to see didn't open until 10 so we had breakfast buffet at a local hotel.  We had to catch the early ferry since there were only 2 ferries a day that left from Balestrand.

After breakfast we enjoyed a nice walk (2 miles)

to see a stave church called Hopperstad.  It is one of only 28 stave churches that remain in Norway. It was built around the year 1020.

We walked back into Vik and took the ferry back to Balestrand...

...had lunch at the house, packed up and took a taxi back to Balestrand for our next ferry to Bergen.

We had ice cream while waiting for the ferry.

The ferry ride was relaxing.  We had dinner on the ferry (we packed our own), the girls watched Frozen, and we played Uno.  

In Bergen, we walked to our next Airbnb which was in the city center.   This place was interesting.  Very European.  No lift.  It was an older building and the apartment was a bit of a maze. First the living room, then a doorway to a bedroom that you walked through to get to the kitchen... then a LITTLE bathroom that led into a back bedroom with another double bed.  The floors were sloped a little.  But it was close to what we wanted to see and it was clean.  We lived on the second floor of the pink building. 

This was what the neighorhood looked like.

We were all tired after a long day, so everyone went straight to bed. I walked to the corner store to get a few groceries for breakfast. It was about a 1 minute walk.  One of my favorite things about Europe is that stores are so close and convenient.  

Friday, July 7, 2023.   We walked a few blocks to the Bergen fish market for post breakfast pastries

then we went shopping in the main tourist area

We walked back to the fish market for lunch.  The girls had McDonalds

James had paella

I had THE BEST fish and chips I have ever had ... I didn't think to take a picture first.

After lunch we walked up to the Floibanan which is a funicular.

We rode it up to see Bergen from a lookout point.

There were a lot of things to do like play at a troll park and visit with goats.

Then we rode back down,

had ice cream and finished some shopping (Ani wanted to go back to buy a troll she had found). James bought some delicious smoked Norwegian salmon and we got a few other things from the corner grocery to make a dinner in the Airbnb.   

Saturday, July 8, 2023.  We slept in then packed up and took our bags to the train station (leaving at 4 pm for the train back to Oslo). 

We had lunch (pizza) and walked around Bergen

We hung out near a fountain, relaxed and had ice cream.  

Peach Fanta...it was SOOO good

Then back to the train station to collect our bags before our evening train to Oslo.  We loved everything about Bergen and I wished we had a few more days to explore more.

This time we planned ahead and packed dinner for the train ride.

The scenery was beautiful.

As we boarded the train, they told us that we would have to get off about an hour from the Oslo station due to track repairs. So, at around 10 pm we had to get all of our luggage and transfer to a bus that got us into Oslo around 11:30 pm.  We walked to our last Scandic hotel of the trip, Scandic Oslo City, for a quick overnight stay.   This was the smallest Scandic hotel we had on this trip and NO air conditioning. It was a little hot, but we were only there 10 hours to sleep and shower. 

We got our last hotel night free.  We signed up for the Scandic rewards program and booked all the nights on the app so we earned points as we stayed. By the time I was in Copenhagen we had enough points to cancel the Oslo hotel and rebook the exact same room the last night using points.  We saved over $200 doing this.  

Sunday, July 9, 2023.  We had our last complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel, then took a train to the Oslo airport for an afternoon flight to Helsinki.  

Norway was such a beautiful place with its mountains, waterfalls, and fjords.  It was also nice to be able to experience it as a family.  James planned the week in Norway and I was happy that he was able to come and be with us.  I also loved that we did a variety of things.  Balestrand was quiet, rural and relaxing.  Then we moved on to Bergen which was a city with lots to do and a great market.   Oslo was also a beautiful city on the water that I would love to go back to someday.