Norway Pictures

As promised, some random pictures from my recent journey to Norway. After spending a night in Oslo to get acclimated to the time change, I took a six hour train trip across the country to Bergen, on the west coast. I rented a car there (potentially scary, but ultimately just like driving here except lower speed limits and more roundabouts) and spent a couple of days exploring the fjord country of western Norway. The shot above and the one below are just random look what's off the side of the road shots. The scenery was just continuous and jaw-dropping, and no camera, especially my old-school 35mm, could do it justice.

One of the touristy things that I did was ride the Flamsbana, a 12 mile railway that climbs from sea-level at the fjord to connect with the Oslo-Bergen train line at 2,850 feet. The pictures to the right and below were from this trip.

These next two pictures are of one of Norway's tallest waterfalls, the Voringsfossen. The main falls has a drop of about 600 feet, and the distance from the hotel (the red building in the left picture) to the base of the canyon is over 1000 feet. The picture below right is the best I could get (without risking death) of the entire cascade. For a sense of scale, look ultra-closely to the picture on the right, about half-way up the right-hand edge, to see people on the lookout point.

The next leg of my journey was to take a plane and spend a couple of days exploring the north country. These next pictures are from that leg of the journey. The country there was equally beautiful but much more harsh and desolate.

Reindeer in the north country were legion. Here they wait patiently at a bus stop in the northern village of Hammerfest.

If you go to Europe and then head north, this is land's end. It is called the Nordkapp, some 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The brochure was beautiful; unfortunately the day I was there it was foggy (at least at sea level). So let me explain this picture to the right. It was taken on the edge of a cliff, some 1000 feet or so above the Arctic Ocean. The darker blue-grey streak about half-way up the photo is the Arctic stretching off towards the horizon. That's the best break in the fog I got. With the fog and a strong cold wind, the sense of nothingness and open space just beyond the edge of the cliff was a bit otherworldly. Many times you get subtle reminders of the beauty and power of God's creation. Other times, like here, the message is much more blunt and raw. I would love to go back.