Voss to Oslo - Norway (Day 8)

-
Next day morning, the breakfast was quite good though. We drove to Fleischer’s hotel, returned the car and walked to platform in time to catch the train to Oslo. The train journey was about 5.5 hrs and the initial portion of the journey was through the snow-covered mountains and it was quite spectacular to see the terrain through with the train was going. It felt like taking a train to the NorthPole! The whiteness and the wilderness were a bit scary sometimes, but quite dramatic.
The Oslo station was one heck of a busy location. The Forenom Aparthotel was quite modern with just enough amenities for a reasonable price, way better than the Voss Hostel! The location of the hostel was not that far from the train station and the city center. 
After checking in, we walked around and took a bus to the Viking Museum. It was a modest museum with mainly 4 actual Viking ships that were excavated and preserved for the viewers. Since we arrived with less than an hour before the closing time, we were given a discount for the entrance fee. The time we had was actually quite sufficient for us and it worked out great!
We got back to the city center and took a stroll again around Oslo waterfront. It was a sunny day with a wonderful view of the opera house. There was an event happening along the shore that was kind of an amalgamation of food, music and art, though we were not able to find anything vegetarian. We had our fill of falafels wraps in another part of the city and called it a day.

That was a wrap for our Norway trip!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Belize (Feb 2024)

-
Image
We decided to go to Belize as it happened to be an escape from the chilly Northeast for a few days. It turned to be a wonderful trip not only for the climate, but had so much to offer for such a small country. It has the Caribbean vibe with sunny beaches, historic relevance with its Mayan ruins and greenery that feeds a diverse flora and fauna. After landing in Belize City, we took a ride to San Ignacio that took about 2.5 hours including a lunch stop at a ‘ Cheers’ (with a tropical twist 😊 ) on the way. The meal was refreshing with a view of their lushy farm in the backdrop. By the time we reached the Crystal Paradise Resort Hotel , it was almost dark. Checked in and had dinner right there as this place was away from the town. During dinner, we indicated to the concierge that we want to combine bird watching on our way to the Caracol Mayan Ruins. Caracol The trip was only for the two of us and the guide AbimaelMoralez was an excellent guy who has keen eyes and ears. Just the
Read more

Iceland - Land of Fire and Ice (August 2018)

-
Image
Iceland was a relatively recent quest for us after seeing the videos of its unique landscape and hearing from some of our friends who have visited recently. It was a really difficult choice to decide on what to cover during our visit – Do we do try to drive along the coast (mostly) of the entire island, like many do?! Do we select only a few spots and immerse in its beauty?! In the end, we decided to do only some selective spots as we didn’t want to strain ourselves too much in setting up some lofty goals like touring the entire island. It’s a small piece of island, but still the span is too much to drive around and still take a breather to enjoy each location. So, it turned to be a good choice for us! For the people closer to the east coast of US, it was just 5+ hrs from Boston. IcelandAir seats are relatively more roomier than typical American airlines. One you land in Reykjavik, you can see how big a tourist destination Iceland is by the sheer size of the huge queue for immigrat
Read more

Northern Lights Trip to Iceland (Feb 2019)

-
Image
Wanting to see Aurora Borealis would be in the wish list of many travelers, but the certainty of seeing one seems to be a challenge. Several factors like solar activity, clarity of skies and outside temperature (that can be bearable) all seem to play equal roles to make the sight an enjoyable one. Initially, we explored the possibility to try either in Finland or Norway, but the logistics of travel from NY to these regions made it very challenging. On the other hand, Iceland is like <5hr flight and can be done with a really cheap airfare (Luckily, WOW air was still in business when we traveled!). Iceland is probably known for its relatively warmer temperatures than upstate NY. Late February is when we went and it was certainly warmer than Albany, NY area. The entire trip is for 3-4 days and it started with a cloudy day. We booked a 2-day trip via Troll Expeditions to do the South Coast again, but this tour included a trip to Ice Caves, which we were not able to do during our s
Read more