Bryggen (the waterfront) in Bergen
(‘Home away from home’ is a new series being started by Inquirer Property. It will feature scenic tourist spots, picturesque communities, and interesting homes from travels abroad – Ed.)
They say the best way to experience the beauty of Norway is to take the scenic train or the Flam Railway.
You can finish the tour in one day, but since I was with my family, my brothers and I decided to take an overnight stop halfway of the tour in Flam.
We started the tour at the Oslo train station. Just a couple of minutes away, spectacular views would surprise you.
Lakes surrounded by houses turn into ice as our train went up the mountains. It’s a six-hour ride to get to our first stop, Myrdal, and we have to transfer to another train to get to Flam.
From Myrdal to Flam
There are only 400 people in Flam’s small town. We were able to go around the quiet village in one day. They have a small grocery store, a shopping mall, and a couple of coffee shops that significantly attracted tourists like us.
From Flam, we cruised through the fjords, passing through small villages. In their brochures, they say you can actually see Orcas when you’re lucky. I believe that depends on the season as well.
The scenic train ride from Myrdal to Flam
Adrenaline capital
The normal route would be to take the train straight to Bergen after the boat cruise. But we were there during a transportation strike.
They closed one train stop so we had to take a bus going to Voss and another bus going to Bergen. It was a pain, but good thing that they provided bus transportation for all tourists.
The upside was that were were able to stop at Voss due to the transportation strike. Voss is considered the adrenaline capital of Norway—not a bad stopover, after all.
Train tour
Bergen weather is what I can’t forget. One of the “kababayan” servers at the marina restaurant mentioned that it rains almost 90 percent of the time in a year. Add to that the freezing weather they have. Here, we stayed in one of the hotels near the train station for a couple of nights.
Again, because of the train strike, we had to take the long route going back to Oslo.
A bus ride to Voss Station and a train going straight to Oslo. Here, we booked first class and spent the night.
This Norway train tour is for travelers who love nature and photography. There’s no malls, no fancy restaurants, colorful lights and anything you see in big cities. I would say it was just the right time and age for our family to do this kind of tour.
If I were 10 years old, I would have hated my parents if they brought me to Norway. Now, we all felt that the tour was too short. We needed way more time to take photos.