itshalfempty

Last month my wife and I spend two weeks in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. We originally were going to road trip across Sweden and Norway, but decided to skip the car and instead get around on trains, planes, and boats. In hindsight, it was probably a good switch, as we spent a lot of time traveling between destinations on this trip.

• Arrive in Stockholm & spend a few days there
• Train to Copenhagen, and stay a couple nights
• Overnight ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo
• Train from Oslo to Bergen
• Fjord ferry from Bergen to Flam through Songnefjord, then take the train back to Bergen
• Ferry from Bergen to Stavanger
• Fjord cruise in Lysefjord
• Train from Stavanger to Oslo
• Spend a day in Oslo and then back home

Stockholm

We had several days to spend in Stockholm. Most of our time was spent walking through different parts of the center city. If we had another day or two, we’d have explored some of the neighborhoods slightly further away from the city - but I guess we’ll have to put that on the list for the next visit.

I was really charmed by Stockholm. The transit options were really surprisingly good - and the city was very walkable and bikeable. The architecture was really cool. It’s in a fjord and part of an archipelago. And there were parks everywhere! I’m sure I’d have a slightly different opinion if I visited during the winter instead of the middle of the summer, but Stockholm is definitely near the top of the list for places I would like to live.

Vasa Museum

There are a bunch of museums in Stockholm, but the Vasa Museum is by the most popular. The Vasa museum contains a reconstructed warship built in the 17th century that sank almost immediately on its maiden voyage. The ship was pretty well preserved on the bottom of the fjord until it was found in the ’50s, salvaged in the ’60s, and slowly reconstructed.

My expectations were not particularly high for our visit. I mean, how interesting can an old boat really be?

Turns out, very interesting. The boat is absolutely massive, and I didn’t know just how much of the Vasa was preserved and original. According to its article on Wikipedia, “Vasa is the world’s best-preserved 17th-century ship, answering many questions about the design and operation of ships of this period.” There were also a lot of displays showing what the Vasa probably looked like when it was new and fully painted, as well as displays of artifacts from the sailors, builders, and more.

Copenhagen

We didn’t spend much time in Copenhagen. Early versions of our itinerary gave us less than 24 hours in the city, but I’m glad we ended up adding an extra full day. We didn’t have a plan at all for what to do or see. We ended up walking all around the central city, which was gorgeous and full of tons of greenspace. We both really wished we had another day or two to explore a bit further out.

Coming from Stockholm, we were a bit surprised at just how limited Copenhagen’s public transit was. There’s definitely serviceable transit, but we didn’t find it convenient for the places we wanted to visit. In general, stops are relatively far apart. That said, there were tons of people traveling by bicycle, especially around rush hour.

Overnight Ferry - Copenhagen to Oslo

The ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo was great! We had a cabin booked, but I had no idea the ferry was actually more like a small cruise ship. It had restaurants and a duty free shop. I knew there was a buffet on board you could purchase, but we opted to bring our own picnic dinner on board instead. That said, the food at the restaurants looked good to me and was reasonably priced.

It was great to see both cities from the water, and I highly recommend taking the ferry in either direction. The only downside is that the terminal in Oslo was a bit of a hike on foot.

Sognefjord & Flam

If you look at all for fjord tours in Norway, you’ll come across Norway in a Nutshell. This packaging of tours is incredibly popular, although it turns out that you can just book the individual legs of travel independently, save some money, and get more travel flexibility. The original and most popular “In a Nutshell” tour takes people through Sognefjord and Flam, starting and ending either in Oslo or Bergen. Depending on travel direction, that means taking some combination of the ferry from Bergen to/from Flam, the Flam railway that connects Flam to Myrdal, and then regular rail transit connecting Myrdal to either Oslo or Bergen.

All of the train tickets are booked via SJ, and the ferry can be booked via Norled.

We started our trip in Bergen, ending back in Bergen at the end of the day. I was a little nervous that the ferry and Flam railway would be really crowded, and they kind were but it wasn’t too bad. We got to the ferry 30 minutes before boarding and there was already a very long line to board. There weren’t many window seats on the ferry, and because we were so far back in the line, there was no way we were going to get one. Perhaps worse - there wasn’t much outdoor space on the ferry, so it did get pretty crowded outside at times.

I spent most of my time on a narrow walkway at the front of the boat, which fortunately was pretty because it was so windy.

The views of the Sognefjord were nice, but at the end of the day, it was a ferry. The Sognefjord is only the second half of the 4.5h journey, and I think there are better boats and cruises that start and end in Flam. I’m still undecided if I think the ferry was worth the time and cost.

Flam itself is a tiny town that is essentially a way station for tourists. While some people do stay in Flam, there isn’t much lodging available and most people stay elsewhere. We didn’t book the first train out because we wanted to avoid the rush of people getting off the ferry. It was probably the right decision for us, but it meant we had quite a bit of time to kill in Flam. There are some nice hiking trails, but we didn’t have quite enough time for any of them, so we walked along the river for a bit.

The train ride out of Flam was really pretty. We sat on the right side of the train, based on recommendations from the internet, and had the best views for the ride out of the valley. But really, most people were up and moving around to get views from whatever side of the train had them. I struggled with glare from the windows showing up in photos, but I did manage to get a few OK shots.

The train does stop briefly at a big waterfall, where passengers can disembark for a quick photo op.

Bergen

We didn’t spend much time in Bergen. But it’s clear that much of the city exists to support throngs of tourists. There’s a funicular that we didn’t have time to ride, and the city itself is very pretty. But around the docks and the old town, it was just very crowded.

It would have been cool to see Edvard Grieg’s house, but unfortunately it’s not too close to the city itself.

Lysefjord Cruise

Unfortunately we were cursed with a bit of rain on the day of our cruise through Lysefjord. I took some photos, but for the most part I kept my camera out of the rain.

The fjord wasn’t as pretty as Sognefjord, but the boat was significantly nicer and it was clearly more of a fjord cruise rather than just a ferry. The captain narrated some of the sights and significance, and there were a few places where the boat went really close to the fjord walls.

One of the main “attractions” on the cruise is a waterfall. On some days I guess the spray can get folks on the deck wet, though the day of our cruise the flow wasn’t very strong and people were wet already. The boat actually gets very close to the waterfall, and they fill up a bucket with water that they let people drink. I personally won’t drink untreated water unless I know exactly where it came from, but to each their own.

Stavanger

We had about half a day to spend in Stavanger after our fjord cruise. Unfortunately, that time was on a Sunday. Most businesses were closed, but we still walked around and looked all the shops we wished we could go into. Unlike shopping districts in bigger cities, the central part of Stavanger was full of really interesting stores, not primarily big brands and touristy gift shops.

Oslo

We only had one full day to spend in Oslo. We spent it at the National Museum and walking around the city. One day is nowhere near enough time to really explore Oslo, but I think we both felt like we saw enough of the city. Maybe it was just travel fatigue at that point, but we both felt like we didn’t really need another day.

We ended our Oslo tour by walking through Vigelandsparken, a “sculpture park” with a bunch of weird sculptures.