8/14/2025-8/15/2025

Because Gdansk has an international airport, we decided to do an overnight to Norway to see some of the fjords. We were able to get a cheap non-stop flight to Bergen. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip, but totally worth it! In 36 hours, we did every available mode of transportation… TWICE! It included 2 planes, 2 boat rides, 2 bus rides, 2 trains, and 2 tram rides!

We arrived in Bergen and walked around the town for a bit and had an amazing lunch. After lunch we found the quay and located our boat. We had just enough time to sit by the pier and have a glass of wine before boarding. Our boat ride was about 4 hours. There was a lot of beautiful scenery, but we only got a handful of good photos because it was pretty cloudy for much of the trip. We traveled on the North Sea and through the Sognefjord.

We arrived in Balestrand at about 8:30 and docked right outside our hotel. Grady booked us an amazing room with a huge balcony right on the water in a historic hotel. It was BEAUTIFUL!

We had dinner reservations right when we arrived for a 4 course set menu and wine. The BEST meal of the trip thus far! Admittedly, the first 2 courses were pretty tiny, but they were AMAZING! I was a bit worried that all four courses would be that small, so I dove face first into the bread. The main course and dessert were both grown up portions… so I regretted stuffing my face with the bread!!

The next morning we relaxed and drank coffee on the balcony for a while before heading down to the hotel restaurant for a huge, delicious breakfast! Sidenote… We are getting so fat!

We walked around the tiny town and saw the St. Olafs Church which was the inspiration for the chapel in Elsa's coronation scene in the Disney film Frozen.

We boarded the boat and cruised the Aurlandsfjord from Balestrand to Flam. The landscape was stunning! Basically mountains on each side of the boat with the occasional waterfall. The morning started out very cloudy, but cleared up after a while into a gorgeous sunny day!

We had about an hour in Flam, so we walked around a bit and then hung out at a really cool brewery.

Next up was the Flam scenic railway from Flam to Myrdal.

The Flam railway is considered one of the most beautiful train rides in Europe. It was gorgeous, but I personally still think the Douro Valley in Portugal was prettier. Part way through the train ride we made a stop at the Kjosfossen waterfall. We were able to get out and take photos. While we were out there, music started playing pretty loudly and up on the mountain ridge a lady dressed in what I assume was traditional Norwegian garb (maybe my Norway friends can confirm?) emerged and was dancing around. We looked it up later and learned that she was “Hulgra” a mythical forest creature. We couldn’t decide if we thought it was cool or lame! The waterfall, however, was definitely cool! The waterfall has a total fall of 93 meters and is only accessible by train.

The views on the train were amazing, but difficult to get very good photos because of the glare on the windows, but we did our best.

Once we arrived in Myrdal, we only had a few minutes to switch trains and continue on to Bergen. The scenery on the second train was almost as beautiful as the first. Grady missed most of it because he was napping!

Once we arrived back in Bergen, we had a little time before getting the tram to the airport, so we hit a wine bar (of course!). Then made the flight back to our temporary home in Gdansk Poland. It was an AMAZING couple of days. But we were wiped out when we got “home”!

Overall Assessment - We probably aren’t the best people to give an assessment since we only spent 36 hours there, but in our opinion, Norway and the the Fjords are AMAZING! It is very expensive and the weather is pretty hit or miss, but well worth seeing.

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Fjords, Norway