Awesome Adventure 2016: Offline in Norway

We have been without WiFi for the past week - in Norway!

Accommodation is expensive in Norway and we found it difficulty to align train and boat transfer in advance - so, decided to join a P&O Cruise. It isn't our usual type of travel but was very enjoyable. There was plenty for the kids to do on board - with a pool, table tennis and some movies and the ship went through various fjords at nice times of day. We were also able to book shore excursions, including the Flam railway - which was very heavily booked with ship loads of people in town most days - so we may not have been able to do the Flam separately to a cruise.

We were on board by early afternoon last Saturday and set sail from Southampton. We spent that night, the following day and Sunday night at sea, arriving in Bergen on Monday morning. It was my birthday on Sunday and despite a slight swell on the north sea, we all had a very relaxing day. Bergen was an impressive city, especially the old Bryggen area and a great introduction to Norway. To avoid the crowds, we took the funicular railway up above the city at the start of the day, then wandered around the market area (including fish market) and Bryggen area later in the day. We managed to fit in a trip to the maritime museum before we were required to be back on board.

On Monday evening, we sailed out of Bergen and on to Flam. Flam is inside Sognefjord so the scenery at breakfast time the next morning was amazing. We had prebooked a 'Norway in a Nutshell' tour, including a coach trip inland to Voss (with a traditional lunch) and return via the Flam railway. Norway has a vast road tunnel network, not only to shorten the road trips but also for safety because the have so many landslides. The coach took us down the steepest road in northern Europe. Unfortunately, it was rainy for most of the day but the weather cleared for the sail out of Flam - which was very impressive with the setting sun.