Norway had long been on my list with the beauty of ature that the country offers. I gave birth to Isla back inMarch and wanted to fit a trip in during my maternity leave. Steve and I had Maui booked but as I had thought about it more and more, breastfeeding in the heat did not appeal to be at all so we cancelled Maui and booked Europe! I had received all the packing with an infant tips from my friend Allan who I had met in 2004 while in passport control in Prague.
We flew KLM, a very kid friendly airline to Amsterdam then continuing on to Bergen. It's known to rain over 270 days of the year in this part of the region but we were blessed with two days of sunshine during our visit. Norway has two populated cities/towns: Bergen and Oslo. With the time we had, we chose to skip Oslo and chose Bergen, a beautiful harbor town as our base. We spent our first couple of days getting over the fatigue of travel and exploring all that Bergen had to offer.
Bergen is a cute and charming harbor town. Some would say it's too touristy but I like it. I like the cheerful crowds, seeing people take advantage of the sunny days we had by enjoying meals and drinks outside and just the culture of it all. We spent out time in Bergen walking the infamous harbor, the small narrow lanes up the hills and even took the funicular to Mount Floyen. Bergen would also be the town where I had my first sushi meal since pre-pregnancy and it was delicious minus the whale sashimi on our platter. We gave a hard no on that one!
Next up: the fjords! For convenience without a car, I chose to base out of Balestrand for our fjord adventure. Balestrand is a sleepy town and probably one of the bigger village alongthe fjords in this area. While this town has a handful of restaurants, the gem is called the Cider Hurst. We spent our arrival day taking in the town. The next day, we hopped on a smaller boat to tour the fjord.
After two nights in Balestrand, we took on an epic day of transfers to cruise the Naeroyfjord. We departed Balestrand to catch the 830am boat to Flam then from Flam, we caughtthe premium carbon fiber boat cruise to Gundvagen. The carbon fiber boat did not disappoint. You might see fliers trying to sell you to the "classic" boat.. resist the nostalgia and go for the new and sleek carbon fiber one especially if you're traveling with an infant! From Gundvagen, we took the bus to the town of Voss (as in Voss water except I never saw any in Norway) before boarding a train back to Bergen.
The quiet and picturesque beauty of the fjords was a nice break from the town of Bergen. It's not easy to get to if you want to stay overnight but it is well worth the logistic inconvenience.
