Bergen, a fjord cruise and an epic railway journey

We spent the next couple of days in the Folgefonna National park, home to the third largest glacier in Norway.

One hike led to a serene little lake and up the mountain in steep serpentines to another one.

The lower lake is very popular, since the path is pretty level and even, but there was no one at all at the one higher up!

The other trailhead was down a long and winding, single lane road, then up a 20% incline, snaking its way up the mountain in tight curves. From there a 6km track lead through a rocky valley and over a slightly swinging bridge to end at the foot of Svalgabreen, one of the arms of the Folgefonna glacier.

To the left in the background, that´s the glacier

The weather has been sort of cooperative now for a couple of days and it looked to stay that way for a little longer.

Which bode nicely for our visit in Bergen, Norway´s second largest city with close to 300.000 inhabitants.

Bergen is another stop on most cruise ship routes, which was evident immediately - the city was crowded beyond belief!

Right in the centre you can find the local fish market, which offers you a wide range of all things to be found under the sea. Huge king crabs, shrimp, squid and all sorts of fresh fish, of course. Also, some things you might want to abstain from, though.

Sea urchins, for example, also shark (a whole one) and whale meat.

Into the city by bike, through the longest pedestrian and bicycle tunnel in the world, 3km long

Not from the fish market but next door, a Reindeer Hot dog with Lingonberry jam - not bad at all!

The line for the funicular up Mount Floyen was a couple of hundred meters long. But, if you bought your ticket online, you could walk right past all those people and were whipped up the hill in no time at all.

The Floyen funicular is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country, visited by over one million people annually.
The height difference of 320m is overcome in around five minutes, with a distance of 848 meters covered. The incline is between 15 and 26 degrees.

The view from the top is stunning in every directions!

The historic, Hanseatic quarter Bryggen is a UNESCO World Heritage site, although it feels more like a tourist trap these days.

The small wooden houses are colorful painted and seem to hold each other up by leaning on one another. Each harbors a shop, café or restaurant, selling their items for exorbitant prices.

No visit to Norway is complete without a fjord cruise.

To tick this on off the list, we made our way to Gudvangen. From here you can take a two-hour ferry ride to Flam.

The Sognefjord is Norway´s longest fjord, it stretches inland for no less than 204km, with a jumble of branches spreading outwards into beautiful landscapes.
At it´s deepest, it extends 1300 meters down to the seabed, which also makes it the countries deepest fjord.

Carmelo letting out his wild side with this Viking

First one on bord

See those houses on the top? Now that´s what I call remote!

A viewpoint above Flam

And while we were in the area, we also made time for the Flamsbana, a 20km railway line which runs through the valley of Flamsdalen and is considered one of the most beautiful train lines in the world.

Over 10 stations, it gains 866 meters, runs through twenty tunnels and across one bridge.

While it was a regular train service when it started running in 1940, it is mainly a tourist train and the 3rd most visited attraction in the country today.

Our bodyguards for the night

Just so you know!

A brief stop on the journey up at Kjosfossen waterfall with over 90 meters of free fall

You can ride the train return, or make your way back down by bike or on foot.

Which, obviously, is the option my human chose. On the train the view is obviously restricted, so on the walk back she had plenty of time, 21km, to be exact, to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of this valley.

The Sognesfjellsvegen, also called the Tourist Route, for obvious reasons, is a must do drive when in Norway.
It begins by driving through the longest road tunnel in the world - Laerdal -, with 24,5km!

Sognesfjellsvegen is the highest mountain pass road in Northern Europe and runs from Gaupne to Lom, stretching for 110km with the highest elevation at Fantesteinen, 1434 meters.

It reminded us a bit of the arid and barren areas we drove through in the Highlands of Scotland. Similar weather, too!

In Lom, we stopped by one of Norway´s famous Stave Churches.

In the Middle Ages, there were probably more than 1000 of these churches, of which only 30 are preserved today, 28 of them in Norway.

They were built in times when paganism was slowly replaced by the Christendom and therefore carry symbols of both religions, like crosses and dragons.

Stave churches are now considered to be among the most important representatives of European medieval architecture in wood.
The small town of Urnes even harbors a UNESCO World Heritage Site stave church, probably built in the 11th Century and therefore the oldest one of it´s kind.

Not too sure what this is about; seems to show historic scenes

Back to the modern age, we had the next cruise ship waiting to photo-bomb everyone´s pictures at the tip of Geirangerfjord, arguably the best known fjord of them all.

The small town of Geiranger was here before the ships, but today it pretty much exists only to cater to cruisers and campers.

People come here mainly to marvel at the natural beauty, which is indeed stunning, to go for hikes (not the cruisers) and to count waterfalls, which is impossible.

Geirangerfjord

A real campground, for a change

The same mountain, photos taken 15min apart

Storsaeterfossen

You can go behind the waterfall!

In case anyone asks you...

The second campground in town; possibly the least charming one I have ever seen. But with a good view. Although you pay 12 Euro extra for first row lots!

By the way, let me know if and when you have seen enough waterfalls.

The area around Romsdalen is known for it´s great hiking options, so that is where we were headed next.

The Romsdalseggen Ridge in particular looked alluring, apparently one of the best hikes in the world!
No understatement there!
A lot of things here in Norway seem to be among the best, longest and biggest in the world.

It was another rainy day on the ride over here, but it was clearing up in the evening and we were hopeful for the next day, regardless of the weather forecast.

At 2am, I was rocking so much on my suspenders from the gale force winds coming off the ocean, that we actually moved to a nearby car park that provided at least a little more shelter.

And this was what we woke up to in the morning.

Needless to say, there was no hiking that day.

So instead, with no weather improvement in sight, we moved on in the direction of Trondheim, over the Atlantic Way.
You will have seen photos of it, I´d say. And although it is fun to drive over those bridges, the view from above is more spectacular then when you are on the actual road.