Oslo to Bergen

On the Bergen Railway

After leaving Dahkla we had to catch multiple planes, first to Casablanca then to Gatwick, where we spent a night before jetting off to Oslo. After arriving in Oslo we caught the train into town and then the tram to our Airbnb. The quality of the public transport in Oslo cannot be over exaggerated.

Being back in Europe, we were staying in a small ground floor apartment with the kids back to couch surfing. We stayed in the area of Majurstuen which was close to downtown but still residential enough to have grocery stores and laundrettes.

We had a few days in Oslo, day 1 we had to do some shopping, we needed some warmer clothes, some snow boots for the kids, to fix the infamous Nintendo Switch and to get some new suitcases. It was an expensive day.

Day 2 was beautifully sunny so we went sightseeing downtown. We first went to the Akershus Fortress which is on the water with stunning views over the fjord and the city. It was at one stage the seat of the Norwegian Kings back in the day when they required a little more fortification. Following this we walked down the waterfront to the Oslo Operahouse, with a quick waffle stop on route. The architecture is outstanding and you can walk up the slanted roof right up to the top for even more incredible views of the city. We then headed to the national library and finally off to find some food.

Day 3 we headed off to the Vigeland sculpture park, once again we had been blessed with outstanding weather and we were beginning to doubt all our recent warm weather purchases. We walked our way through the famous outdoor sculptures and ended up at the cafe at the end of the park for lunch. The sculpture park was beautiful, huge rolling lawns and big trees. Locals running in the autumn sunshine, dogs being taken for a walk, it was really idyllic.

These substacks tend to be highlight reels and what they don’t show is the everyday life things, like trying to find grocery stores on a electric scooter. It doesn’t show trying to download the app to rent the scooter and then not knowing how to get the thing moving, or having to ride said scooter all the way back downtown to try and find your children’s Minecraft keyrings which they left on the counter at the 7 Eleven. It doesn’t show the washing machine that didn’t work, forcing us to have to go find a self service laundry in the rain and try to wash and dry our clothes before our next departure. The hours spent on busses and trams and waiting for busses and trams. A lot of things happen between the photographs that we don’t get to share.

Our first impressions of Oslo and Norway were both expected and unexpected. It is incredibly quite, firstly because over half the vehicles are electric and secondly because the Norwegians are quite reserved and a quite bunch. With our two rumbunctious kids we felt like we were going to be arrested for disturbing the peace. Everything works, everything and everyone is beautiful, there are a lot of immigrants in the city, you are just as likely to see a Somalian or a Thai family as you are a blond haired Norwegian. There is a great sense of peace and safety, coming from the bustling medinas of Morocco is was quite the culture shock. We found the Norwegians to all be incredibly thoughtful and well educated, in Morocco many people couldn’t place South Africa on a map and we share the same continent, in Norway we didn’t find anyone who didn’t know where South Africa was and most knew where Durban was.

Once our time in Oslo was done, we hopped aboard the Bergen Railway, a seven hour train trip though the mountains, consistently voted as one of the most beautiful train rides in the world. We boarded our train at around midday and set off to climb out of Oslo towards the mountain peaks and before dropping down through the beautiful Fjords and winding rivers before arriving in Bergen at around 7pm. We had been looking forward to this trip for some time and had booked tickets three months in advance to make sure we could get a seat. Luckily the train was not overly full and there was plenty of space to stretch out and enjoy the ride. We also sampled the catering car and jumped off to stretch our legs at some of the stops along the way.

We only had one full day in Bergen, before picking up our campervan. We used the time to walk through the city and take the famous funicular railway up to the top of one of the seven surrounding mountains. Once at the top we took in the local goats, and went for a walk to a beautiful mountain lake.

We also took time to soak in the street art and admire the local shops. Before long it was time to pack bags once more because we had a 10 day epic road trip ahead. More on this in our next post.

Until then, thank you for reading.

Lots of love,

The Grow Travel Family.