06-25 Full Day in Bergen

We are in Bergen after Part 1 of our Norway in a Nutshell Tour. Yesterday we took the train, another train, a boat, a bus, and another train from Oslo to Bergen. Later today we’ll head back to Oslo.

We went to bed to rain and woke up to rain. Alternating between heavy and a down pour. This continued all day today.

Last night we had thought that possibly we might get to go up in the funicular today, because we had such a nice view of it out our room window at 9:30pm, but no, the fog rolled in and stayed.

We started out walking over to the Hanseatic Museum. The English tour isn't until 10:30, so we do a couple of shops in the old Hanseatic area.

For nearly 400 years (1500 – 1900) Germans (up to 2,000 of them) were the primary residents of the Hanseatic (German Dock) area – a sort of city within the city of Bergen. They would fish for cod in the Lofoten islands, 135 miles north of Bergen, and they would bring the fish to Bergen where it was dried and stored and eventually sold. The smell of fish was still in the air in the lower floors where it was stored.

They were not allowed to marry or socialize with the Bergen residents. Life was not easy and working was hard and tiresome in the summer months. The apprentice workers seemed to be treated poorly and living conditions were harsh. These were “beds”, where 2 apprentices would sleep in each bed.

Like they said in all the guides books, the Theta Museum is very hard to find. And it should be, since it was the home of the Bergen Resistance during World War II. Ironically, we found this museum deep in the bowels of the old Hanseatic (German) section of the Bergen dock area.

Up here...

Down this corridor...

Up another set of stairs to the door on your left...

When we arrived on the third floor to an open door, an older gentleman welcomes us in and says to sit down.

We were the only ones there and we got a 45 minute interactive talk about this room, the guys who used it and how important they were to Norway's war efforts.

The name Theta was a call sign assigned to them by the British intelligence community for means of communicating with them in the future.

The entrance was rigged with explosives. If you didn't operate the door correctly 10 kg of TNT would explode in the room.

The guy in here actually knew one of the guys and he was very knowledgeable. He told us about Jan Dahm who asked his mom for a place for "club meetings". She didn't want to know any more.

They received messages there and made plans, but sent messages from different locations with a portable radio. They went over to London on Norwegian fishing boats to get training and food, first aid supplies, and money. They smuggled film of pictures they took of a big destroyer, the Tirpitz, the Germans were hiding near Trondheim.

He told us of the ones that were captured and sent to prison camps. The guys had a reunion in the 80's and one of them wrote a book about their story and drew sketches of the room, so they could recreate it. It was a very interesting and enjoyable museum.

So we did ALL of that before we took the train back from Bergen to Oslo. We went back to hotel and gathered our one backpack and headed to the train station in the rain.

On the ride home we opted for a meal from the cafe train. Meatballs and potatoes and a pizza bread to go please. They were both delicious.

The ride home was long, about 6 1/2 hours, and it rained most of the way, so pictures out our window were poor and the view was a repeat of what we saw on the way TO Bergen.

06-24 Norway in a Nutshell Part 1

Today is one of those days that you look forward to on your vacation - kind of like the Pulpit Rock hike. You read and read about it and you decide that that would really be a cool thing to do. The Norway in a Nutshell Tour will take us from Oslo to Bergen on day 1 and then back the next day.

The route consists of a 4 ½ hour train ride to Myrdal, a 1 hour train ride to Flam, a 2 hour boat ride to Gudvangen, a 75 minute bus ride to Voss, and finally a 75 minute train ride to Bergen.

Up early this morning and we pack one backpack with stuff for overnight for the both of us, bringing both of our pillows. We check out of our room and put our luggage in the locked storage room at the Thon Hotel Astoria and then head to the hotel's breakfast. Same stuff here. Why do they eat beans and wieners for breakfast??

On to the train station. We find an open grocery store and after checking out the first one, the second one has some sandwiches for us. After getting two sandwiches and two cokes, we check to see which track we are on - track four. OK, 5 minutes and our train will be here.

We have reserved seats and there are a lot of people boarding this train. Most of the trains we travel on have 6 cars: Engine, 2 passenger cars, a café car, and then 2 more passenger cars. The Oslo to Bergen run has 1 more passenger car at each end for a total of 8 cars. We did not upgrade to Komfort class this time, but we were assigned a seat number which is wonderful, considering how many people are standing on the platform to board.

Here is something amazing to think about. The train enters the station about 10 minutes before it is scheduled to depart and hundreds of people are able to store their luggage and find their seat before the train departs ON TIME. Tickets are checked by the conductor AFTER the train is underway. This whole scenario happens 10’s of times per hour in these busy train stations. Why can’t we do that on airplanes?

We are traveling through lots of trees and farms. There are so many trees and so much water that it feels like we are in Western Washington.

Eventually we hit 4,000’ and there are no trees and still snow on the ground.

It is 46 degrees out when we reach Myrdal at 2,840’ elevation at 1pm. The train arrives from Flam and it’s a scramble to get a seat with your loved ones even though there are plenty of seats when everyone is settled.

The ride down to Flam at sea level is wonderful. The stop at the Kjosfossen waterfall was thrilling. The train stops for 5 minutes and everyone scampers out of the train to take a picture and then the whistle blows and back into their holes the mice scurry.

The train continues to descend through the Flåmsdalen valley.

We passed another Flam train going up the hill to Myrdal.

There are waterfalls falling off the mountains and waterfalls falling over rocks in the river. It’s as lovely as we wanted/imagined it to be.

We arrived in Flam. Then got onto a boat to cruise a couple of fjords to Gudvangen. It’s a beautiful sunny day and a rain storm struck us and then THIS happened! A rainbow on the water.

Buses were waiting for us in Gudvangen to take us up over the mountain to Voss. Along the way there were spectacular waterfalls that were posing for us.

From Voss we got back on a train going into Bergen. The neon sign inside the Bergen train station was pretty nice looking.

It’s 9pm and it has been a long day. Fortunately, the Thon Hotel Bristol is only a half mile walk and since we only have the one backpack it’s easy – so was getting to sleep.