A trip to Scandinavia begins: Norway

May 31, 2026

In the Netherlands, most employees get a big cash infusion in May for government-mandated "vacation pay". This extra liquidity, combined with a drought in public holidays from June to Christmas, makes this part of the year one of the best times to combine paid time off with holidays into an extended vacation.

So this year, only a couple of weeks after traveling to Spain, I flew up to Norway with Zola to start a tour through Scandinavia. In total we traveled for about 12 days, enough to make us exhausted by the end, so I'm covering everything in abbreviated form here. Editor's note: everything turns out to be a little much, so this post is just about the first country we visited.

Norway

Once you've decided to visit, they've made it dangerously uncomplicated (dangerous because expensive, as with all things in the country) to follow the Norway in a Nutshell route which takes you from the west side of the country to the capital. We booked tickets separately from the guide package since we could get all the same things for cheaper that way. But I'll just write up-front that the overall experience was wonderful.

Bergen: 10/10

Bergen means "mountains" in Dutch, and it's what I miss the most when living in the Netherlands, so it was a fitting beginning to the trip. The city hugs its harbor, hemmed in from most sides by steep hills. You can tell from the compactness of the city center and winding roads creeping up the terrain that 1000 years ago when the city was founded, land modification practices weren't as advanced as they are now!

The rebuilt Bryggen harbor's narrow and colorful buildings capture the character they had from Bergen's heyday as the capital of Norway and key trading port in the Hanseatic League.
A hike up Fløyen is well worth the effort!
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A second view from the hike, just to make that point clearer. If you don't feel like hiking, there's even a funicular train to the top.

We endured less than 2 days of Norwegian cuisine before we needed a break from the fish soups. We came across this Vietnamese grocer right before it closed and got freshly made Bánh mì sandwiches for dinner.

Flåm: 10/10

Flåm sits right at the southern tip of the Aurlandsfjord, meaning you can gaze down the length of it right from the town. And what a sight that is! Since this isn't a book I get to just show you what it looks like.

The town itself is tiny; it's dwarfed by the exhaust-belching cruise ship anchored outside. However, it has enough amenities, including a food stall strip and a reasonably well-stocked grocery store to let you spend a day without any risk of going hungry.
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We deviated from the Nutshell route on the travel from Bergen to Flåm, by taking the 5.5 hour fast ferry directly from Bergen. The ferry ride traverses down increasingly narrow and dramatic fjords as it approaches the town, including a quick detour down the UNESCO Nærøyfjord to take a peek at this waterfall.

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Why the deviation? The official route lets you experience the full length of the UNESCO fjord, but doing so requires a series of train to bus to boat transfers. Since this is a vacation we picked the fewer-transfer option.

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Approaching a fjord village. Our ferry was a daily public transport service that stopped in a few places like this.

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You know what I say: fake.

Our hotel was all the way across town from the train station so we undertook an epic (2 minute) endurance test when we left. Picture unrelated.
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I've been on a lot of scenic railways in Europe. This one is right up there at the top.

The train climbs from sea level (the fjord is the sea, of course) up to 1200 meters, where people are still cross country skiing.
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Only way to beat a scenic train ride is to turn it into a scenic restaurant ride! Norway loves their hot dogs; they're ubiquitous.

Oslo: 7/10

Unbeknownst to us, we arrived in Oslo the evening of Constitution day. For the American reader, I'd compare it to Independence day, but deploy your imagination to pretend that you're actually proud of your country. For Dutch: King's Day. That explained all the train passengers sporting Norwegian flags and wearing traditional costumes. I just thought that Norwegians were extremely patriotic; I had never seen a European country displaying its national flag so abundantly before.

In Oslo, Constitution day seemed to manifest itself in roving bands of teenage boys dressed up in suits, as if they were all going to their high school prom dance with each other. Apparently what they do is buy a party bus and spend the next 2 weeks drinking on it. I can't think of a parallel from the US. A coworker told me that they used to hold this event before exams, with a predictable effect on outcomes. That's been corrected, and now it comes after.

Our next couple of days were a lot quieter, but still I don't rate Oslo as highly. It doesn't have the stunning natural scenery of the west side of the country, and as far as cities go it didn't leave us with any particularly remarkable memories.

We weren't the only visitors in town. The Indian prime minister was here too. I had to look that up because I didn't understand why Oslo was so fascinated with the Indian flag (see: every other one on this street).
Vigeland park is full of humans sculpted into various... poses.
Aker Brygge was a modern harbor area full of ice cream stops and white people enjoying the sun. There are also floating saunas. A sauna room that's also a boat. I suppose it lets you cool off in the ocean when you get too hot? If I came back again I'd bring some swim gear.
Okay Oslo, you've got to chill with all these cutouts in the sidewalks. Every single drain had a channel to direct water into the road. Every single one. So each time you pass a building, you need to check below to avoid tripping. I suppose it's functional, but how come I haven't seen anywhere else require this design? Can you tell I wasn't a big fan?
a cute little street in the Grünerløkka neighborhood
We had to come up with something to do on the last day so we ended up at this ski jumping museum. The museum building itself is very small; it's just a few rooms covering the history of skiing and the importance of it to Norwegian identity. On the top floor, there's an elevator to reach the jumping platform, with a nice view to the whole city below you. This venue hosted the ski jump in the 1952 Olympics. I can't say I really understand the sport though; apparently you don't necessarily win by jumping the farthest.

to be continued… in 🇩🇰

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