Norway

We had a weekend in Oslo staying with some distant relatives of Steve’s Mum (Torrun and Leif). They were so lovely, and we enjoyed our time with them immensely. Their English was perfect and they made us feel very welcome. We had lunch one day overlooking Oslo harbour, and the next day Nikki rested whilst Steve went to the Viking Ship Museum and the Flam museum (on polar exploration).

On the Monday we caught a beautiful train trip from Oslo to Myrdal, where we changed trains to go down a really steep train track to Flam. From there we caught a ferry and enjoyed being on the Fjord whilst we traveled to our hotel in Balestrand (which overlooked the Fjord – it was spectacular). In Balestrand we rested a bit (the trip from Oslo took a bit out of Nikki), but spent one day driving around the Fjords and catching a slow boat up the Narrow Fjord which is World Heritage Listed (the guide book said that the deck of the boat would be slippery from the drool of all the tourists – and we agree, it was stunning).

Overall we LOVED Norway, but were really shocked at how expensive everything is (roughly three times the price of things in Australia).

We finally caught a boat to Bergen stayed the night before flying back to Germany via Oslo. We had one night in Leige before we picked up the girls. We stayed in a hotel which we thought would be nice, but turned out to be backpackers party central – right outside the door of our room until quite late at night, and early the next morning (we must be getting old).

p.s. thanks to Nikki's brother Steve for the internet cafe suggestions.