Can you really pack a whole country’s sights into one day’s worth of seeing? Tabitha Lasley heads north to find out
As a fully paid-up member of the MTV generation, I’m the first to admit I’ve got a short attention span. Send me on holiday for a week and I’ll be tapping my fingers by day three. I met the recent news that longer working hours have put paid to the two-week holiday with a shrug, rather than with a shriek: I’d take the cultural smash-and-grab of a weekend city break over the sybaritic slow-burn of a fortnight in the sun any day. But even I baulked at the idea of taking in pretty much a whole country in just 24 hours.
The Norway in a Nutshell tour proposes to do just that, shuttling you from Oslo to Bergen and back again, via Myrdal, Flåm, Gudvangen and Voss, in one day. It sounded arduous, to say the least. Especially to the sort of pampered belle-lettrist whose idea of roughing it is getting an abrasive salt scrub at the nearest spa.
My similarly high-maintenance travelling companion blanched when she saw our itinerary. “What about washing, and things like that?” she wibbled.
Whoever dreamt up this cross-country schlep by train, boat, coach, train again then sleeper clearly didn’t believe that old chestnut about cleanliness being next to godliness. Yet this is Norway’s most popular round trip. And surely 50,000 tourists a year can’t be wrong? Telling each other that there was safety in numbers, we put aside our misgivings and boarded the 08.11 out of Olso.
The Bergen Railway
The first leg of our trip was the five-hour train journey from Oslo to Myrdal, which admittedly sounds horrendous. But travelling by train in Norway is a durable pleasure – carriages come with soft reclining seats, loads of leg room and huge windows to gawk out of. And gawk Norway’s majestic landscapes will take your breath away
you will. Northern Europe’s highest-altitude train line, the Bergen Railway has consistently been voted one of the world’s most rewarding railway journeys. Once we were past the perimeters of Oslo, the scenery slipping by the window was stunning – looming pine forests, deep, dark lakes and steep, rocky escarpments where little wooden dolls’ houses perch precariously on overhanging ledges.
As we progressed westwards, the scenery became more and more austere, and the farmsteads fewer and further between. My friend pronounced it “spooky” and she had a point – there is something eerie about a landscape that’s so utterly devoid of people. It was almost a relief to start the climb into the ski resort of Geilo, before unfolding ourselves and staggering off jelly-legged at Myrdal. One small pointer here – no matter how comfortable your carriage, you’re still travelling, so dress accordingly. Please don’t do what my companion and I did, and wear DVT-inducing skinny jeans (her) and five-inch wedge heels (me). Over the course of the journey, I lost count of the number of times we looked balefully at each other and said, “Why didn’t we just wear our Uggs and our track suits?”
The Flåm Railway
A little miracle of modern engineering, the Flåm Railway descends 846 metres in 50 minutes. Plunging down from Myrdal towards the fjord at an agonisingly slow pace, the train grinds to a halt every ten minutes so that passengers can hop off and take photos of the frozen blue waterfalls and cliffs hung with icicles. After the bleak majesty of the Bergen line, it was pure chocolate box scenery, and none the worse for it. Apart from the huldra’s no show, that is.
According to local folklore, the huldra was a kind of troll who lurked about caves concealing her cow’s tail and trying to ensnare witless boys into marriage. And during high summer, a dancer pops out at the Kjossfossen falls to re-enact the story for passing visitors. But unfortunately, she appears to go into hibernation in low season. Which may be no bad thing if you prefer your scenery served unadulterated.
Need to know
Be best prepared with a relaxing stay in Oslo and warm clothing
You’ve got an early start ahead of you, so get a good night’s sleep beforehand. We stayed at the Hotel Bristol (7 Kristian IV’s gate, tel. +47 22 826000, bristol. no, rooms from NOK 1,250/ ¤155) in Oslo, which does a nice line in old-school glamour, and has incredibly comfy beds.
You’ll need plenty of energy, so go for a decent dinner the night before. We ate at Bagatelle (3 Bygdøy Alle, Frogner, tel. +47 22 121440) which, despite its haute-cuisine credentials, serves decent portions of local food.
The tour takes you ‘along the rooftop of Norway’. So if you’re going at any time other than high summer, it’s going to get chilly – cosy Uggs (uggaustralia.com) and cashmere jumpers are the order of the day here.
There’s loads to see in Olso. We dovetailed our trip with a guided tour round the city, taking in the Viking Ship Museum, the Vigeland Sculpture Park and The Scream. See visitoslo.com for more details.
The Aurlandsfjord and the Nærøyfjord
Of course, the highlight of any trip to Norway is going to be sailing down the fjords themselves. Their sheer scale is breathtaking – cold fathomless channels hemmed in by impossibly sheer mountains that top 1800 metres in places. Occasionally, we saw what looked like seams of silver in the cliff face – waterfalls hurtling down over the rocks at breakneck speed. At one point we passed a tiny stovepipe church (built in 1147, it purports to be the oldest in Scandinavia), seemingly put there to serve as a reminder of the vast proportions we were dealing with.
Despite banks of grey cloud closing in, we piled up on deck. This is one leg of the trip unaffected by seasonal fluxes – it’s as impressive in February as in August. The best bit of our sojourn? Spotting two porpoises weave their way sinuously through the water alongside the boat – enough to melt even our hardened urban hearts.
From there, we made our way by coach up Stalheimskleiva – a stretch of mountain road with 14 hairpin bends that redefines the notion of ‘steep’ (so much so that the road has to be closed from October to April). It’s pretty nerve-wracking, but worth it for the view of the fjords you’ll get from the top of the hill.
From Voss, it’s downhill all the way, through lush, rolling farmland. By the time we reached Bergen, we were exhausted. They say babies spend half their time sleeping because they’ve got so much new stimulus to process, and I was swiftly starting to sympathise. And as initially feared, we never did manage to complete our toilette before pulling in to Oslo at 8 the next morning. But we did manage to get a handle of a whole new country in a day. A fair trade-off, I think, by anyone’s standards.
Even mine.
NL Over Noorse wegen
Kun je de pracht van een heel land samenballen in één dag? Tabitha Lasley zocht het voor ons uit
Als een volwaardig lid van de MTV-generatie ben ik de eerste om toe te geven dat mijn aandacht snel verslapt. Ik verkies een bruisende citytrip van een weekend meteen boven een luilekkere strandvakantie van twee weken. Maar een heel land op slechts 24 uur ontdekken? Daar schrok zelfs ik voor terug!
Toch is dat precies wat de uitstap Norway in a Nutshell aanbiedt: een reis van Oslo naar Bergen en weer terug, en dat op één dag. Dat leek me op zijn zachtst gezegd een wel heel moeilijke opgave.
En toch … Met 50.000 deelnemers kan dit met recht en rede de meest populaire tour van Noorwegen worden genoemd. Cijfers liegen niet, bedacht ik, en nam de 08.11 in Oslo.
De Bergen Spoorlijn
De eerste etappe van de tocht was de 5 uur durende treinreis van Oslo naar Myrdal. Als het hoogste treinspoor van Noord-Europa werd de Bergen Spoorlijn uitgeroepen tot een van de 20 mooiste treinervaringen ter wereld. Het landschap was magisch, met opdoemende dennenwouden, diepe, donkere meren en steile, overhangende rotswanden.
De Flåm Spoorlijn
Dit moderne mirakel daalt maar liefst 846 meter af in 50 minuten. De bevroren, blauwe watervallen en kliffen met ijspegels drijven de romantiek ten top. In het hoogseizoen springt een danser uit de Kjossfossen om de passagiers te vermaken.
Het Aurlandsfjord en het Nærøyfjord
Alleen al de afmeting van de fjorden is adembenemend. De koude, peilloze kanalen worden er ingekapseld door kaarsrechte bergen die op sommige plaatsen wel 1.800 meter hoog zijn. Deze etappe van de reis laat zich niet roeren door de seizoenen. Het is hier in februari al net zo indrukwekkend als in augustus. De twee dolfijnen die al kronkelend langs de boot zwommen, maakten het plaatje helemaal af!
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