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OVERLAND TO BERGEN, NORWAY

by Nell Raun-Linde

Photos by Louis Raun-Linde

Long ago, I was a young piano student enthralled with playing Edvard Greig's Hall of the Mountain King. As I pounded the low minor chords, I imagined a Norway of great mountains with echoing caves, ice and snow, and big, thundering people who lived there.

Later, far into adulthood, I traveled to Norway -- first stop, Oslo. There, I stayed high on a mountain, but in a hotel overlooking the magnificent Oslo fjord, not in a cave. There was no snow in summer, although misty rain. Gentle people with glacier-blue eyes lived there among the wharves, the castles and the ancient fortresses.

After three days of poking through ship museums, taking tram and bus rides to parks and more museums, my husband pushed for a jaunt to Bergen, seven hours away by train.

Tagged as one of the most scenic and spectacular train rides in Europe, the train weaves through the forests and mountains, past waterfalls that feed the rivers running through meadows. The train climbs to 4,300 feet, above the tree line in this northern land at the 60th parallel. There, fluorescent chartreuse lichen covers the earth and gray-green moss rests on the rock boulders.

Norwegian trains (NSB) travel the 300 miles from Oslo to Bergen several times a day during summer, and pass an occasional village and mountain resort along the route.

We saw a small lakeside village, Ustaosat, and its sprouting, sod-roofed farmhouses. That village with one hotel came into view and then disappeared -- shut out by one of the 100 tunnels along the mountainous route.

When light broke through after one long, long tunnel, passengers were startled by brilliant white glaciers beside the train track, seeming close enough to touch, and small icebergs floating in a nearby lake.

At Myrdal, five hours out of Oslo, we travelers had the option of taking a dramatic detour by transferring to a small cogwheel train and riding down into the Flam Valley, dropping 3,000 feet in 12 miles. The train has 5 different braking systems, each one capable of stopping the train, a comforting thought. On the route down, we saw waterfalls kicking up spray so thick they created clouds of white froth.

A refreshing walk around Flam at the head of Aurlandsfjord made us want to stay and breathe that fresh, cool air, but we had a train to catch, so it was back up the mountain to connect with the next Oslo-Bergen train that passed through Myrdal. (An alternative mode of transportation, more expensive but probably worth it would be to have ferry reservations to sail through the fjord and on to Bergen.)

The train's arrival in Bergen, the fjord capital of Norway, capped the day's sights. Bergen lies nestled among seven mountains and many canyon-cutting fjords and is bounded by islands at the edge of the North Sea. The city bustles with activity along the harbor: open-air fish markets, flower markets and food markets. One thousand years of culture and history are preserved in its museums and buildings.

Bergen's historical center is Bryggen, a well-preserved wharf area that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site with three museums that give life to its thousand-year heritage.

Bryggens Museum, the recommended place to start a visit, is a new building built on the site of the Bergen founded in 1050 a.d. This archaeological site was excavated from 1958 to 1971, and the artifacts found in the harbor and beneath the museum are displayed. They span the centuries from 1100 a.d. to the 1600's. Among them are 12th century Runic inscriptions, an ancient chess game, jewelry and pottery.

Two row-houses along the wharf area are set aside as museums. The Hanseatic Museum shows how German traders lived and worked here in the 14th to 17th centuries.

German merchants from Lubeck and Hamburg formed the Hanseatic League to promote and protect their trade in Northern Europe. For two centuries, they had the wealth and power of a monarchy, with enough power to block trade of nations. Bergen became a major outpost of this league in the 1400's when the King of Norway gave trading rights to the Hanseatics.

The merchant's house and storeroom take visitors back in time to feel some of the depredations of primitive living: lice-repelling seagrass mattresses in small cupboard beds (where apprentices were locked in their cupboards); 3rd-floor storerooms with odorous, dried fish. The furnishings and storeroom paraphernalia are authentic: a decoration of a crowned-head fish, good luck when caught; wooden charts noting exports of dried fish and oil.

The third museum, the Schotstuene Assembly Rooms, is fun to visit with rules on the wall of the meeting room: Hats off! Don't Drink Too Much! Attend meetings or pay fine!

We took a 1 ½-hour guided tour for these museums, great because we waited for the English-speaking tour. The guide walked us through the tenements (row houses) and the cobblestone streets and planked walkways (sewers had run beside some) of the old town.

Bergen seems like a small town, although it has over 200,000 citizens. For a feel of its size, "climb" a mountain. An easy walk from the harbor, the Floibanen funicular railway car runs the 1,000 feet up Mt. Floyen every few minutes. A broad, magnificent view of the city stretches from sea to mountains. It greets you at the top of the funicular, along with a parkland plateau of grassland, trees, and walking trails. A rest stop at the restaurant with outdoor seating available makes the traveler feel part of the scene.

In the harbor area, numerous hotels offer old world ambience. We stayed at the moderately-priced Hotel Rica for that feel. We also walked to it from the train station -- an easy stroll except for wheeled suitcases bumping and rattling along the cobblestones. The SAS Royal Hotel is at the harbor next to the Bryggen Museum. Reservations are recommended for hotels in the summer.

Good restaurants serve scrumptious fresh fish, of course. For lunch, we would stop for fixings at the harbor fish markets for a sack of fresh-cooked, you-peel shrimp, hard rolls and mayonnaise packets . . . and beer. Sometimes it would be smoked salmon . . . and beer.

Bergen is made for strolling -- around the city park with its bright flowers and gazebo; through the center square with fountains and sculptures. This modern, yet historic, city is safe and fresh and clean (helped by 80 annual inches of rain). The midnight sun prolongs the nights for wandering through this Latitude 60 "outpost" by the sea.

All this, mixed with a spell-binding train journey through the halls of the Mountain King . . . a most rewarding escapade.

FOR DETAILS: Check the website, www.Norway.com . Click Bergen or Oslo for tours, transportation, museums, accommodations and more.

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