Trains to and statues in Oslo

We left Bergen after another awesome breakfast and boarded the train for Oslo. We were excited because this train ride is supposed to be one of the most beautiful rides in Europe... which is a huge claim! There are 180 tunnels throughout the ride.

We were nearly an hour late leaving, and we couldn't get wifi to work, which was a bummer because we wanted to get work done. We had assigned seats for the approx 6 hour journey: a cluster of 4 seats around a table, so two people sat forward and two sat backward. 

Once we got through the early delays and up into the mountains, it really was beautiful. I'm sure other people stop in Mydral to hike / enjoy the Naerofjorden Verdsavarpark area - it is mountainous and gorgeous.

Shortly after that it started to rain and we had a harder time seeing. But we did peek at some cool rivers and scenery here and there.

We didn't get off the train for any stops - all of them were very short. The girls read books and played games while Jason and I tried to get some work done on our phones. 

At one point, Rachel got up to use the bathroom and came back to report that she suddenly felt sick - all that riding backward for her - and ran to the bathroom to vomit. Poor kid! It's just like her to not complain at all until she is really in bad shape.

Eventually we made it to Oslo, but it had been a long journey! We got our bags and walked to our hotel, happy to get out and walk around the city to move our bodies.

Oslo for a night

We didn't have much time in Oslo - just a few hours before bed to walk around the city before an early morning train to Stockholm. But we enjoyed seeing a Fortress and the Royal Palace. We went to Vippa for dinner, which was like an indoor food court with awesome stalls of international fare. We each chose from a different 'country' and shared our food. Yummy! There was a thunderstorm while we were eating, and sometimes while walking around we took cover for a few minutes to avoid the hard downpour. Another highlight was seeing the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibit building, which was closed, but still cool to see where it was and read a bit about the history of it.

4:50am wake up 

We woke early and checked out of the hotel, getting some breakfast to go, and walk to the train station. When we arrived, we saw on the board that the Stockholm train was canceled. Oh no! What do we do? We couldn't figure out how/where/when to catch the 'bus for train' substitute the board was suggesting. But as we were looking at our e tickets trying to figure out how to rebook or find the bus, we looked closer at the tickets. The tickets weren't for Wednesday! They were for Thursday! 

Good news: we hadn't missed our train! Months ago, when booking the train tickets, we had accidentally booked the train for the next day. So we re-arranged some things, grateful for a refundable hotel in Stockholm, and went back to our hotel to book a second night in Oslo. So now we ended up with one extra day in Oslo and one less day in Stockholm.

Bonus Day

Rachel and I went for a long walk to an outdoor park full of statues. It was a warm and sunny day - hurray! Jason and Ava met us there a little later, after he got some work done. The statues were really neat - all human forms, mostly about different stages of life from babies to old age to death. I'd recommend checking it out if you're in Oslo. 

 

Good night, Norway.

It really is time for us to go to Sweden now.