Bergen - A Nutshell

Breakfast is part of the deal with this hotel and they have scrambled eggs! Then time to get sorted and head off for today's tour - Norway in a Nutshell. It's not actually an organised tour but rather a series of transports to take you to highlights of Norway. The website is a bit confusing and then the tickets arrive and they're also a bit confusing.

I'll just take it one step at a time. First step - get to the train station. What a pretty walk!

And the station is fairly obvious...

Then I ask at information if the train is that one - they must get asked that a lot! It is the right train. I get on and we're off for the next hour. And of course I'm sitting on the wrong side for the pretty stuff so I keep moving across. There's lots of tunnels but there's also lots of this... Stunning! Though my camera isn't showing it to its best, unfortunately.

We arrive in Voss...

..and transfer to the bus for the next segment. The bus has a few people already on it and I can't believe no one has sat in the front seat. So I take it! It's now a 50-minute drive through some amazing scenery along lakes, past mountains and just more pretty...

We go through a long tunnel and come out in a deep valley. I couldn't quite get pictures to show the depth and beauty of it.

Next stop is Gudvangen where we have a pit stop at a gift shop and cafe.

Then it's on to the Lady Elisabeth for a two-hour fjord cruise on the Sognefjord. Mother Nature in all her glory...

There are cute little towns or settlements along the way. Some of them only had the fjord for transport before the roads went in - and that wasn't that long ago...

I have discovered the joy of inserting myself into people's selfies. I have the "look at that!" face. The "ew, what's that smell?" face. And then my regular 'trying to smile at a camera' face - which is guaranteed to be horrid. I'm imagining myself in frames all over the world!

One more...

We arrive at Flam, yet another picturesque spot, to wait for the Flamsbana - the Flam Railway - a railway that is apparently one of Norway's best tourist attractions. And it's easy to see why...

It is spectacular!

We stop for a picture stop at a magnificent waterfall and continue on...

After about 45 minutes we arrive at Myrdal...

..where we wait for another train back to Bergen.

This part of the journey is basically to get back to Bergen and the light is fading. So for the first part, until we get back to Voss I can see and it's gorgeous but it won't photograph from inside the train! And in fact not many of my photos really captured the magnificence of it - give the gist, though. Just a beautiful place.

There is a group of nine very loud Italians who are going to look at their group photo from the train and see me smiling and waving at the back!