Tuesday 7 May 2013

Visiting the nature by train, incredible!

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres. You can imagine there must be lots of things to see at this large area and indeed there is!

To start, Norway has a very extensive coastline which faces the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, which is home to its famous fjords.

So a fjord is in fact formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. A well-known fjord in Norway, Sognefjord, reaches 1,300m below sea level. So if you have the chance to catch a glimpse of this fjord, I would definitely recommend it. It’s a shame we didn’t have the chance to see it.

In Norway, the most beautiful places of interest all have something to do with nature.

There are even natural sites that are mentioned on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Just imagine, the mountain plateaus and beaches we walked on, were once travelled by the great Vikings!

So in short: Norway has everything for people who love nature with a little bit of history!

And fortunately, the five of us love a bit of everything.

As we all  love altitude and nature, we took a trip with the Bergen Railway. This is one of the highest altitude railways in Norway and even one of the highest of northern Europe.

We travelled with the Bergen Railway from Oslo to Bergen and back. On the website of the Railway, there is a very interesting quote, namely: “When you buy a train ticket to Bergen, you are buying a ticket to one of Europe’s most spectacular adventures. We’re talking about the Bergen Line, one of the highest railways in Europe.” And I have to admit, it was the most spectacular Railway ride of my life!

Another Railway we used, was the Flam Railway. I have to admit, we were a little bit lazy in Norway. But who wouldn’t be? Walking across mountains for hours or sitting in a train and seeing much more, we knew what to choose! So the Flam Railway. This was a rather short trip, but I have to admit it was worth its money. This railway showed us some of the most spectacular mountains in all of Norway and also the cascading waterfalls. What is even more is  that the railway company has special sightseeing and event tours, you can for example participate at the rock & blues cruise. This is the same tour, but with live music on board.

The last thing we visited was a waterfall, we saw lots of them by train, but that just isn’t the same experience. We went to see the Stalheimsfossen, this is one of the most famous waterfalls in Norway. This waterfall has a height of 126m and I have to say this is very impressive if you’re standing on top of it. I find the natural landscape of this area very unique, and I believe I am not the only one. It was very crowded near the Stalheimsfossen, so I imagine this really is a hot-spot destination.

We didn’t really visit very much in Norway, but this is our final point. The company had arranged lots of meetings for us, and this was in fact the aim of our trip, doing business.

With my last blog being written, I would like to thank our company for the great opportunities. I have seen parts of the world I would have never seen on my own. I got to know lots of new people and the band between my colleagues and me has definitely improved.

I hope you all enjoyed reading are blogs, and I would definitely recommend visiting one of the countries we visited.

Bye bye!

 


                                                  Flam Railway
 
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord
http://www.norway-travel-guide.info/Norway/PlacesOfInterest.html
http://www.nsb.no/BergenRailway/
http://www.visitflam.com/flam-railway/
http://www.visitflam.com/visartikkel.asp?art=580
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalheimsfossen

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