Norway in a Nutshell

Friday morning we got up early and headed to the train station to start our "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. Public transport can be a bit tricky when you aren't familiar with the area. Luckily we were able to get to where we needed to be when we needed to be in plenty of time. But as a recall, there were a few stressful moments and some major power walking involved. But once we got on the train we were pretty much sitting ducks for the rest of the day - enjoying the view of course! :) These two days were the highlight of our trip. Really the whole reason for our trip to Scandinavia. We wanted to be able to see the fjords and we did and it was fabulous! Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the other places we were able to visit as well, but this part was our favorite. So, be prepared for a ton of pictures...

The tour started out with a train ride. We must have been busy with the girls or we just weren't to the scenic part yet, because we don't have any pictures of that particular train ride. But after the train ride we took a bus, which took us to a ferry. The bus ride was definitely scenic, but difficult to get good pictures because of the windows. We did have to make one stop (thank heavens for a fellow tourist to have to utilize the toilet!) and it happened to be at a waterfall:

I was surprised on the buses in Norway and Sweden. Most of them had special seats that would fold forward at an angle and provide for a rear-facing car seat:

Going down this windy road in a bus made me a bit nervous. Especially because at each curve everyone would stand up and go to the other side of the bus to take pictures. Hello, was anybody worried about the bus tipping? I guess not and we did survive! :)

Definitely a nice view:
At the bottom of that curvy road the bus dropped us off and we got on our ferry ride through the fjords. Here we are at the ferry dock:
The view as we ferried away:
Enjoying a snack and some snuggles:
Pictures during our ferry ride:
Perfect time of year to spot lots of waterfalls:

We got off the ferry in Flam and had a short bus ride to Aurland, where we stayed in a waterfront cabin for one evening. And they weren't joking about it being a waterfront cabin (view from our kitchen window):

Ours was the first cabin:
We enjoyed some naps and relaxation that Friday afternoon. The girls also really enjoyed playing in the loft. Rachel also did a wonderful job sleeping up in the loft all by herself. We were wondering how it would all go. She was quite disappointed the next day when we left the cabin. The girls having fun:Pictures taken after dinner right out in front of our cabin:

Rachel loved the "balance beam" and I thought it was the perfect height! :)

As we were waiting for the bus the next morning we grabbed a cute picture of the girls:

Once we got back to Flam we had some time to kill before we got on the train, so the girls played at a park for awhile...

Rachel fell in love with this tire swing:

We also visited some souvenir shops and a train museum:

A picture of the girls and I outside the "real" train that we rode:

Audrey munching on an apple on the train ride. We are definitely a fan of train rides! It's much easier to keep the girls happy and entertained on a train. Cars and airplanes have quite a few limitations, but you can pretty much do anything on a train (you'll see some fun pictures below).

Lots of beautiful views. Can you imagine living in such a place???

We had a short stop at the Kjosfossen Waterfall. Audrey was fast asleep on me, so I enjoyed the waterfall from the inside of the train. Andy and Rachel got out and stretched their legs for a few minutes...

At Myrdal we did a train change. Our final train took us all the way back to Bergen.

During train ride from Myrdal to Bergen the girls had fun being goof balls and we had fun with them:

Up in the luggage shelf:
A few more pictures as we got back down to the valleys:

We enjoyed our Norway in a Nutshell tour. You can do it in one day - close to a 1o-hour day, but we were glad we split it up. It was nice to be able to enjoy and have a stop along the way in the fjords. We enjoyed our one-night stay in Aurland. It would have been fun to have had a few more nights there just to relax. But such is life! Sunday, May 23rd, we headed back to the airport to fly to Stockholm, Sweden.