Norway

After Iceland, we traveled to Oslo, Norway. Summers can be hot in Atlanta, so we wanted to visit another country with cooler temps. Norway is amazing! So much natural beauty and quiet.

We took a tour of the islands in Oslofjord (and learned it’s not technically a fjord because it was created via tectonic plate separation rather than glaciers). Here we learned about cabin culture in Norway: I think it’s around 80% of people either own or have access to a cabin. July is the main month for folks to retreat to their cabins where they enjoy nature and the nice weather.

One thing I found cool is that Olso’s public transportation (including the island hopping ferry boats) has been completely converted over to battery electric. Our guide told us that Oslo wants to be the quietest city in Europe. I think their work has paid off, Oslo was very quiet!

From Oslo, we headed to Bergen on the west coast via the scenic Bergensbana train.

The train route is famous for crossing the Hardangervidda mountain plateau where the landscape changes over to a more barren, mountain top plain (even though the elevation at around 1,500 meters is not extremely high).

In Bergen, our main event was a cruise through the fjords to the small town of Flam.

Flam is one of the more popular small fjord towns and is visited by cruise ships almost every day. The ships dwarf the town in both size and population.

From Flam, we took the train back to Bergen, traveling on the scenic Flam Line.

From Bergen, we headed north along the coast to the small island of Lilløy where we stayed in a converted boathouse.

Lilløy was my favorite part of the trip: we got to experience a bit of Norwegian cabin life, where we shared breakfast in the main house and cooked other meals in our small cabin.

This part of Norway is famous for rain, and it did rain almost every day while we were here. But the sauna kept us warm.

We had an amazing time in Norway! It was especially hard to leave behind the nature and cooler weather. We can’t wait to return someday.