norway Archives

One day Oslo self-guided tour

Oslo, the capital of Norway, sits on the country’s southern coast at the head of the Oslofjord. It’s known for its green spaces and museums. Many of these are on the Bygdøy Peninsula, including the waterside Norwegian Maritime Museum and the Viking Ship Museum, with Viking ships from the 9th century. The Holmenkollbakken is a ski-jumping hill with panoramic views of the fjord. Luckily enough, Ryanair was the reason to travel to Oslo due to its cheap flights from Paphos to Oslo (Rygge). I travelled there with 2 friends of mine in February 2014 in order to visit Oslo, then Bergen and finally visit Stockholm. We choose to visit Norway in winter in order to experience something very different from what we have up to now. The Hotel in Oslo We landed in Oslo and stayed there for 2 nights at the Anker Hotel, probably one of the best hotels I've been to. Clean and quite. We got a room on the 8th floor with an amazing view. Breakfast was excellent with a variety of things to choose from. The hotel is located almost in the city center and you just need to walk 10 mins to reach central station. The Wi-Fi is free and stable. A full day in Oslo We spent a full day at Oslo and visited most of the must see attractios while it was raining. Although it was rainy it didn’t stop us to tour around Oslo. We started from the National Opera & Ballet house and walked down to the Royal Palace and then the Akershus Castle and Fortress. We then passed by the National Theater and finally got the bus and visited the Bygdoy Peninsula, on the western side of Oslo. Here you'll find several museums such as the Norwegian Museum of cultural history and the Viking Ship Museum. We visited the Viking Ship Museum which is one of the main attractions. Here you will see displays on sledges and intact Viking ships. After the Viking museum we got the bus and went to the National Theater were we walked down to [...]

Norway in a Nutshell Tour

One of the most amazing experiences I had in my life. Norway in a nutshell. After visiting Oslo, the next stop while in Scandinavia was Bergen. On our way from Oslo to Bergen we purchased the Norway in a nutshell tour however we were unable to do this on the day we were travelling to Bergen since it was very windy and it was snowing therefore the train could not approach the Myrdal station. So we did the tour on our way back to Oslo. We booked our tickets via the official website a month before in order to enjoy Norway's magical fjords. So our trip begins from Bergen with a train to Voss. The scenery was magnificent since we were going through the fjords and it was snowy everywhere. We then reached Voss from where we got the bus to Gudvangen. Gudvangen and the Nærøyfjord fjord At Gudvangen village we got the ship for a cruise through the Nærøyfjord fjord which ended in Flam. During the cruise we enjoyed amazing scenery of the fjords. The Nærøyfjord fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site and its Norway’s longest and deepest fjords surrounded by towering mountains. During the cruise we enjoyed waterfalls which cascade from the mountain tops and some amazing landscapes. Flam In Flam we had to wait for about 2 hours to get the train to Myrdal station. We couldn’t do much in Flam though, since it was freezing and raining so we had lunch in a café near the station. Flam Railway - Flamsbana After waiting we got the Flam Railway. The Flam Railway is called Flamsbana and it’s considered one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. In winter the view is totally different from what you see in spring or summer. This is one of the steepest train lines in the world since most of the journey duration has a gradient (hill) of 5.5%. During the journey we could see steep mountains, waterfalls which were frozen, we passed through tunnel and through fjords. It took us about an hour to travel from the ocean [...]