Polar night and polar bear island - a Norwegian winter adventure

[Justinf]

There was a bit of a sameness about the scenery and it became very apparent that this was definitely also a commuter service.
Again, not to harp on the Alaska Railroad that was very much a scenic trip, although you could flag down the train from the side of the track, there weren’t a lot of passengers taking too much notice.

 

[Justinf]

I obviously didn’t learn from my mistake in Alaska, where I was constantly on the search for that perfect photo.
In the end I put the phone away and just decided to relax and take it in with my eyes.
So that’s what I did.
Once we were coming down from the mountains, there wasn’t a whole lot to see, but once I’d relaxed and just stretched out and accepted what it was, so was able to appreciate it more.

 

[Justinf]

Truth is I was done about five hours in of this seven hour trip.
The last couple of hours were going through a bit of suburbia and then when we hit the satellite cities of Drammen and Sandvika, I knew we were close.
And sure enough, right on 3.05pm we pulled into Oslo station.
It felt a lot quicker than a seven-hour flight.
So, did I enjoy it?
You’re probably thinking no.
But I did.
It was just completely unexpected than what I thought it would be.
It was certainly heaps better than taking a one-hour flight and I would absolutely recommend it.
However, as a few have suggested way earlier in this thread, perhaps the best option is to go as far as Myrdal and do the Flåm detour trip. And then it’s up to you if you head back to Bergen or continue on to Oslo.

 

[Justinf]

I am staying at Comfort Hotel Grand Central, but it was a bit tricky to find even though it was right there.
It was frighteningly cold. About -7 with a ‘real feel’ of -13.

 

[Justinf]

Checked in and it was what I expected. Nothing flash at all.

 

[Justinf]

The view out my window was of the bottom level of the train station, which is also a giant shopping mall.
Is that a Gastropub sign I see?

 

[Justinf]

Happy days.
I was pretty exhausted after a very early start and the fact that I didn’t need to rug up and brave -7 outside was an absolute bonus.
I went to said gastropub and it was humming. Packed to the brim, but I found a stool and a table.
My obligatory two beers cost $47 and I grabbed Burger King for dinner.
Tomorrow I have a walking city tour at 10am which leaves right outside where I am staying.
After that I booked a boat cruise through the Oslo fjord and although I’m not expecting much, it will be a good way to fill the penultimate day of my trip. I learned from Bergen to do the walking tour first.
On the final day I plan to visit the fortress and the Viking Museum.
I also booked the midnight layover tour of Doha during my eight-hour transit, which will still hopefully give me enough time for a shower at the Qatar lounge.

 

[VPS]

Those photos looked great to me and I am trying to imagine myself as being cold which is a bit foreign in Adelaide at the moment

 

[Justinf]

By the time I get home I will be 90 SCs away from Gold.
I have a return flight from MEL-HBA for the footy booked just before my year expires which will take it up to 630 SCs and also the one QF flight I need.
That leaves me with an awkward 70 SCs to get to grab Gold.
I’ll qualify for Silver, but that 70 is a tricky one as MEL-OOL in J is 60 SCs.

 

[Aeryn]

Green Tier could add another 50SCs. Are you close to loyalty bonus (first one kicks in at 500SCs from QF coded flights).

Or one domestic J return flight (i.e. SYD-MEL or MEL-ADL) will net you 80SCs.

 

[jastel]

The Fram Museum and Kon-tiki Museums are near to the Viking one...they are worth a look.

I did know the A Ha statue in Bergen...because I saw it last year.
It was about 15 degrees, people were wearing bikinis and sunbaking.
Your pix are a bit different.

 

[Justinf]

Woke up at 5am. Why I do not know, but that’s how it stayed.
I had a walking tour at 10am so I lazed around and the forecast, while clear, was for -5.
By the time I got outside it was -8 and according to ‘real feel’ it was -14.
And it felt it.
It was bitter.
The meeting point was right outside the hotel in front of the Tiger sculpture.



This bloke had some serious kahunas.

 

[Justinf]

It became apparent that there wouldn’t be just two of us today.
There were heaps. I reckon I counted at least 50, probably in the vicinity of 60, so it required a split into two groups and there would be two guides.
The first guide sounded South African and no offence to any Afrikaans here because our Australian accent can be grating as hell, especially when you’re overseas, but I was kind of glad to have the second guide, Suzannah who was originally from Poland (again), but has been here for 11 years.
There were half a dozen other Aussies, including a couple from Townsville in my group, but I think the others were in the first group.
Did I mention it was cold?
By jingos it was
Our first stop was in front of the opera house.
I didn’t take many pics on this tour.
Oslo is by no means bad, but it’s not the most exciting nor beautiful I have been to.

 

[Justinf]

There was a sauna place beside the water and some of the participants were jumping into the icy water.
Madness. Not sure my heart would be able to take it.

 

[Justinf]

To cut a long story short, we also visited Christiania Torv, Aker Brygge, City Hall, National Theater, Karl Johans Gate and some of the fortress.
Although cold, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours although we had a 15-minute toilet stop, which I thought was a bit extreme.
Even though the groups were halved, it was difficult to hear at times.
For $22, the tour was excellent value, but if that’s what Oslo has to offer, then I’m glad I’m only here for two full days.
It’s not a horrible place by any means. In fact it has character, but it so far just hasn’t grabbed me if you know what I mean?

 

[Justinf]

This building, City Hall, we saw from a vantage point like this.


And then we saw it from ground level.



Oslo had a public vote for the most ugly and the most beautiful buildings in the city.
This came No 3 as most ugly and it also came runner-up in most beautiful.
It’s deceiving. From high it looked positively hideous, but up close it was quite nice so I can kind of understand the results of the poll.

 

[Justinf]

A few more pics from the tour.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've just had a look at my own Begen/railway/Oslo TR from April 2017 and many of the pics are identical! Heaps of snow then too.

 

[Justinf]

I had a couple of hours to kill before my boat cruise around the city and a few of the inlets so I grabbed some lunch and went to my room to warm up
My right knee is absolutely swollen and causing a lot of grief.
I almost didn’t make it back out of the room, but I soldiered on and did the short walk to the dock.
This 1.5-hour trip was $62 and had audio commentary so I remembered to bring along my AirPods.
There weren’t a heap onboard and I knew this wouldn’t be mind blowing, but hoped it would at least be OK.

 

[Justinf]

And you know what? It was.
For what it offered and hat it delivered, it was accurate although the commentary app was unreliable.
What I found strangely, like the train trip yesterday, was that nobody was taking pics.
Thanks goodness the windows were clean and large and there was no need to venture out on deck.
There was a baby crying the entire 90 minutes - thank Odin for noise cancelling AirPods and most passengers were intent on talking or drinking.
In fact t one couple downed almost two bottles of white wine between them in the allotted time. A superb effort.
I was pretty much the only one taking lots of pics so here goes. Again, most of them are ordinary and I have have to crop and edit them to make them presentable to you.