7-20-2015: Trolly, Train and Bergen

Since we paid north of $100 bucks for a taxi from the airport it is a nice thought to know we are leaving Oslo by train. First challenge is to get from the hotel to the main train station. It seems they have a solution as there is a trolley right outside the hotel - maybe 50 steps away. However, it is over tracks and cobblestones that wheels on suitcases are not fond of traveling. And we are loaded with the usual stuff and bedding that we just had to have for our beds at home. Really - what were we thinking!?!

Here comes trolley number 18 and we jump, rather drag on and try to listen for main train statio and in Norwegian. It is not going to work so we follow the lead of the locals and when most get ready to leave at a stop we shout out, "Is this the main train station" and we get many "Yes" - so glad these folks all take English starting in 1st grade! But better still is a young lady with a scarf over her head from where I do not know - but she is an angel to us. She leads us to a better entrance to the train station with all our stuff and I try to wave her off with a thanks but she sticks with us - "I am going that way anyway so I will go with you". She finds the escalator for us and says, "I will meet you at the top" and she does and leads us to the big board with gate information. Along the way she tells me she lives outside the city and is working in a hospital but studying to be a lawyer.

So the Board says we are on track 4 so we go down a long ramp to the track and it looks like we have things under control. It is always good to make friends along the way and several of us are confused. So we talk to a Russian couple who are not sure because the sign says something else is on this track and we talk to two young Asian ladies that want to be sure they are in the right place. And an older lady checks in with us who now traveling alone since her husband had to cancel his trip for business reasons. Fine - until there comes an announcement the train will be delayed from 3:17 to 4:00. OK - until here comes our Russian friend that tells our train is on track 6! What - we run down to check the Board and sure enough there is a change in track but no change in time so we have zip time to make the change. We pass the Asian ladies and tip them off on the change and we tell our friend with the absent husband and we race off as the word gets round to the other folks and it is panic time. We push our bags up the ramp and round the corner to track 6 pushing and getting pushed.

We are in car number 1 which is down the entire train somewhere on the horizon where there is a clearing in the crowd. Bags and people are flying to the side and we know our Jim is making a run for it. Somehow the husbandless lady is with us and staring up three high steps with a bag she has no chance of getting up there. Quick stop and we throw her and her bag on the train and hit the gas toward car number one. Jim awaits and with a mighty grunt we heft the thousand pound bags up and into the storage bins and find our seats.

The seats are nice and we settle in for a 7 hour ride to Bergen on what is advertised as one of the most beautiful train trips in the world across the entire width of Norway. If you make the trip, be sure to get the seats on the left - or else you see a lot of hill sides. But it is a charming ride as we pass charming villages in rolling forests for miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seats on the right are a booth so we get company. Lucky she is a charming student that speaks perfect english and is reading Leo Tolstoy - a smart one is she, but fun and she also had to run to catch the train. As the train climbs we reach snow and glaciers and rolling hills and lakes and streams of glacier water. There are cabins here and our seat mate tells us folks have summer homes here and some have homes for skiing. It is quite a site.

 

Eventually we reach Bergen and it takes two small taxis to get us to the Clarion Hotel Admiral where we will stay for the next 6 nights with no particular plans. Our rooms are special but it is late so we find a spot to eat and go to bed.