High clouds, Mostly sunny;
Hi Temp 62;
Sunrise 6:03, Sunset 8:55
It was a beautiful day in Bergen. Not too cold, Not too hot, High clouds and light breezes made for a perfect day to … go for a train ride.
Today’s adventure was a train trip from Bergen to Oslo – one of the most beautiful journeys in all of training.
Leaving Bergen on the west we climbed to 4,058 ft before dropping back to sea level in Oslo 7 1/2 hours later.
And the weather was perfect! High puffy clouds accented the view and made for great photos – which is generally not what you’ll see here.
Leaving our hotel at 10:45 we arrived at the station at 11:05. (Our guide commented that we could have walked more quickly.)
Then we waited till boarding time at 11:30. We were rolling right on time (11:49).
Shortly after leaving Bergen our guide (yes, there was a guide who rode all the way to Oslo with us and flew back to Bergen after we were safely in our Oslo hotel.) handed out box lunches – a huge platter with pasta, a small half sandwich, a small half wrap, some veggies, and a pastry for dessert. She also plied us with water and vouchers for hot drinks from the bar car (coffee, tea, cocoa) and she occasionally came by with a bag-o-chocolate.
As you can see from the map there are quite a few stops along the way. These were short stops, not often picking up or dropping off passengers and they weren’t much of a problem.
So that’s the background. Now for some pictures.
These are not pro-quality photos. They were shot from an aisle seat with some amount of glare and ghosting, but you should be able to get an idea of what we saw. Sorry they aren’t better.
Right away we saw a beautiful lake hidden in the trees. 
Farms scattered throughout the hillsides 
There’s almost an alpine feel to the scenery 
We followed the course of a river in our climb 
Occasionally it tried to imitate the Main Payette River. 
As we approached the treeline we saw the first hint of snow. 
And waterfalls 
Above the treeline the rocky outcroppings came out to play. 
Snow melt in a glaciated valley 
Snow fences (in case you were wondering if they got snow) 
High mountain reservoir 
High snow field still in August 
The ‘road’ below is actually The Rallarvegen cycling route. It attracts around 25,000 cyclists a year. If you look closely you can see 2 cyclists. 
Alpine lake among the glacial rubble. 
This would be a killer shot if it weren’t for the water bottle and coffee cup. Sorry.
That took us to the top. The Finse Station (4,010 feet) is the highest station in Norway. The highest point on the line occurs inside the Finse tunnel. Incidentally, there are 182 tunnels on the line. Someone (not naming names here) complained to our guide that the tunnels were interfering with the scenery. She actually thought I was serious until Cheryl set her straight.
The next 3 relate to the top.
It’s hard to see in August, but cover it with snow and you might recognize the setting for the Ice Planet of Hoth. 
Speaking of snow, sometimes you have to clear the track. 
Lots of bikes at the Finse Station. Do you rent them to ride down? By the way, there are bike racks in the baggage area of the train.
Past Finse we started our long decent to Oslo and the sea.
As we moved into the more populated areas we took the opportunity to nap and read some, occasionally looking up when the scenery promised to be interesting.
We found our room, and found our luggage already there (I’m guessing it came by truck last night.), made a quick stop,
Walking back to the hotel we saw some plaques in the cement.
Back in the room it was time to sort thru pictures, post the blog, and head for bed.
Tomorrow’s a late morning so we’ll get up at a normalish time so I can finish studying before our afternoon city tour.
Till then,
R
I don’t remember seeing you document plaques denoting Nazi kidnapping in other countries- that was a shocking and disturbing new detail for me.
I love all the bifrost bridge representations throughout the northern world! So cool!
Sadly, now that you know about them you’ll start seeing them. And every time it will make you stop and think.
What a _lovely_ train ride!!