Just over seven hours today to cross the Norwegian peninsula from west to east. Ship docked at Bergen at 7 a.m., and I checked out at 9.30 after enjoying my last buffet breakfast on board. Train left Bergen at a comfortable 15C; it was down to 2C up in the snowfields, and then shot up to 36C when we reached to central plains. This was an area of mainly forestry and sheep farming. Then about 100km from Oslo we moved into farming country, and it was 32C when we reached the city at 5.30 p.m. Some very nice scenery along the way, though I was surprised at how much of the route was via tunnels. For example, almost the entire last 30 minutes into Oslo was in tunnels. It is a very mountainous country.
Hotel is handy to the central station; clean and comfortable, although the aircon is not up to scratch.
Have done a short wander around the area before having dinner. Food prices here are absolutely outrageous. I checked out the menu at several restaurants before resigning myself to the fact that I was going to have to pay and grin if I wanted a meal. Ate at a nice place called Fridays (ring a bell? and it looks the same). Had a window table overlooking the 5-ways near the station: chaos. Half the traffic lights weren’t working, and trams, buses, cyclists, pedestrians and the occasional car all just dodged each other. They need our famous dancing cop from the Gabba to fix things up! And as I looked out it struck me that the people looked no different from home. The stereotypical Nordic Scandinavian was nowhere to be seen.
A good night’s sleep and will walk the city tomorrow to see as much as I can.
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