Beauty of Norway in cities and countryside

I held tight as we whizzed past the jagged, towering cliffs. The speedboat skimmed over the placid body of water, one of several fjords along Norway’s coast that were formed by glaciers during the Ice Age. Layers of valleys and mountains stretched through hazy fog in the distance, giving us a vivid, three-dimensional perspective that photographs I had seen before my trip couldn’t capture.

“No wonder these people believe in trolls,” said the American tourist sitting behind us as she gazed at the magnificent scenery. She was referring to the large-nosed creatures that are said to live among Norway’s mountains and caves.

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SHAHEEN SAMAVATI/Newhouse News Service

Norheimsund, a village just an hourlong bus ride from Bergen, is nestled along eastern Norway’s Hardangerfjord and serves as a launching pad for boat excursions through the fjord.

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Norway is considered one of the most beautiful countries in the world and is one of the last places in Europe with vast expanses of unspoiled wilderness.

Whenever our boat stopped in the glassy waters of the fjord, I could hear only the peaceful sound of streams and waterfalls that surrounded us. It was a stark contrast to the portion of our trip spent in the bustling Norwegian cities of Oslo and Bergen.

After two weeks in southern Norway, I found that the country has something for everyone: breathtaking countryside, buzzing metropolises and charming old towns. Although Norway may conjure up images of vast ice fields, the country is quite warm during the vacation season that runs from late May to early September.

My travel companion and I flew into the capital city of Oslo and were immediately impressed by the beauty of the city’s harbor, the charm of its historic architecture and the liveliness of its pedestrian-friendly streets.

Pakistanis and footballers

During our time in Oslo, we realized, to our surprise, that Norway is a very diverse country. On the day we arrived, there was an international festival, called Mela, going on near the harbor in the center of town. It clearly catered to a large crowd of Pakistani immigrants and featured plenty of tandoori chicken and exotic music.

We soon learned that Pakistanis are the most prominent immigrant group in Oslo, followed by Iraqis, Somalis and Vietnamese. There are also many immigrants from other parts of Europe.

Especially diverse was the bustling port town of Gronland, where masses of people shuffled past outdoor cafes, football pubs, coffee shops and ethnic groceries. After dinner one night, we tried to enter a bar across the street that was playing an international soccer match between England’s Liverpool and Belgium’s Standard Liege. It gave us a sense of how serious Norwegians are about their football. The place was so packed with Liverpool fans that there was nowhere to sit and little chance of getting a beer anytime soon.

We postponed soccer watching until the next day, when we took a train to Ullevaal Stadium in northern Oslo to watch the city’s beloved home team, Valerenga. They ended up being upset by a team from the outlying town of Drammen.

The game was in a very different part of Oslo that had much more of a suburban feel. The stadium was part of a large, outdoor shopping complex with a convenient stop on the Tunnelbana, Oslo’s subway system, that brought us back to the center of town.

Funky and filling

For another vibe, we visited Grunerlokka, an artsy district just northeast of downtown with hip restaurants, hole-in-the-wall dives, nice parks and interesting public art.

There we found Kafe Mir, a cool cafe with subdued lighting and relatively cheap fare including sandwiches, beer and coffee. At night, it’s said to get packed with artists, musicians and other creative types. The entrance to the cafe, in an old school building, faces a courtyard filled with funky murals, shrubs, vines and flowers. The complex is Grunerlokka Lufthavn, and it houses an art gallery, artist studios, rehearsal rooms and a concert hall.

We got our fill of Norwegian food at Kaffistova, a cafeteria-style restaurant in downtown Oslo. I had a tasty salmon dish with cucumber salad, boiled potatoes and sour cream. My companion had ground reindeer patties and brussels sprouts. Reindeer is a traditional food, especially in northern Norway, where it is the staple of the native Sami people.

After the meal, we took a 10-minute ferry ride across the harbor to the peninsula of Bogdoy to visit the Norwegian Folk Museum. At the museum, a winding path took us through fantastical gardens dotted with more than 140 buildings, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, that have been gathered from around the country to form one open-air architectural museum. It was a great way to get an overview of the traditional Norwegian way of life.

The centerpiece of the museum is the Gol Stave Church, a medieval church that was built around 1200. Several stave churches, which have a common architectural style, are found across Norway. The Gol church is one of the most ornate and features intricate wood carvings from the Viking era.

Bicycles and trains

We spent our last day in Oslo riding City Bikes around town. For about $12 a day, you can get an electronic card that allows you to check out bikes from stations across the city. You can use the bikes for three hours at a time and check them into another station when you’re done.

One of our destinations was Vigeland park, an open-air showcase of more than 200 granite and bronze works by renowned Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. Unfortunately, the centerpiece of the park, a 50-foot-tall monolith of 121 human figures, was covered with scaffolding. The figures, at the center of a series of statues representing the circle of life, are said to represent humankind reaching for heaven.

In the morning, we lugged our suitcases to the central train station near our hotel, where we embarked on a seven-hour train ride from Oslo to the vacation town of Bergen.

We had heard a lot about the train ride and its fabulous scenery.

We had also heard that you shouldn’t expect to strike up a conversation with someone on a train in Norway, because people are very reserved. We didn’t find that to be true.

As we entered our train car, we saw a tall man with a mustache and long gray hair tied back walking up and down the car. He, like us and other confused tourists, couldn’t find his seat.

“Let me see your ticket,” said the man, who we later learned was Odd Wilhelm Suren, an author who lives near Bergen. He looked at our seat number.

“I’m Norwegian. It does not exist,” he said, ensuring us that our confusion wasn’t caused by any kind of cultural misunderstanding. It turned out that the train — and the seats — had been switched at the last moment because of some sort of technical problem.

We ended up sitting across from Suren, who provided us with insightful narration throughout the journey.

Mountains and fjords

As the train headed into the outskirts of Oslo, the scenery began to resemble the hills of West Virginia or Pennsylvania.

But as the journey continued, the hills became rocky and covered with moss. Bodies of water grew from small rivers into wide lakes.

The train climbed even higher, and the scene became an alien landscape of barren formations. A glacier came into view between two mountain peaks.

Bergen is mostly made up of small wooden houses built around a harbor and stretching up the mountain valley. The homes and storefronts are painted in traditional colors including burnt yellow, orange and red and are often topped with slate, an abundant material in Norway.

We stayed in a house close to the center of town. For $130, it was much more comfortable than our Oslo hotel room. The biggest boon was that it was equipped with a washer and dryer and a full kitchen. Rather than spending $50 to $100 on each meal in the expensive country, we were able to buy our own groceries, including fish from a market at the harbor.

Itching to head out to the fjords, we asked Anne Magnussen, a local journalist from whom we rented our guesthouse, to recommend a place to visit.

“Put your finger anywhere on the map,” she said. “The entire coast is beautiful.”

We decided to visit Norheimsund, because it’s less than an hour from Bergen, and we had read that it offered good hiking trails.

We walked through forest, across farmland and into the village of Oystese on the Hardangerfjord. Then down to a beach, where we could put our feet in the unbearably cold waters of the fjord.

Too much to see

On our last full day in Norway, we went on an organized day tour, called Norway Active, starting on the steep and scenic Flam railway. We were dropped near the top of a mountain where a tour guide brought us bicycles so we could coast down the mountain over rivers and past numerous waterfalls. Our joy ride ended in the city of Flam on the edge of the Sognefjord, the deepest and second longest fjord in the world.

In Flam we got on a speedboat that took us into the fjord. At one point our tour guide drove full speed toward the mouth of a rushing waterfall, hundreds of feet tall. Then she brought our boat to a sudden halt so we could see the water burst into the fjord just a few feet from our faces.

To end the day, our guide drove us to Voss, where people all over the world travel to battle its white-water rapids.

Active Norway is one of several organized tours available through the Bergen tourist office. The most popular is called Norway in a Nutshell, a series of train and ferry rides throughout eastern Norway.

“Norway in a Nutshell. It’s impossible,” said Suren, our friend from the train. “There’s too much to see in one trip. The country is too diverse.”

He was right. From the numerous islands off the coast to the expansive forests to the northern lights in the Arctic Circle and miles of fjord extending into waterside settlements, there is far too much in Norway to see in two weeks.

Suren said his favorite spot is the Lofoten islands, a place known for its serene landscape, diverse wildlife and abnormally temperate weather.

Sounds like a perfect destination for our next trip to Norway.

VISITING NORWAY

Where to stay: In Oslo, we stayed at a budget hotel in the center of town called City Hotel. At about $120 a night, it was dirt-cheap by Norwegian standards and very basic. (Norway has the highest standard of living in Europe, so expect high prices.) The hotel rooms are tiny, and in our case a “double” room meant two twin beds.

In Bergen, we stayed on the bottom floor of a charming duplex called Anne’s Guesthouse (annmagnussen.googlepages.com). The price was $160 per night, but we haggled the owner down to about $130 per night. It came with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry room.

A list of private accommodations is available at www.VisitBergen.com, the Web site of Bergen’s tourist office. The tourist office will also help you book a stay with a Norwegian family, one of the most inexpensive options.

Eating in Norway: In Oslo, it was tough to find a meal for less than $25 a plate. In Bergen, we had our own kitchen and cooked for ourselves for most meals. Among the best food we had: traditional salmon and reindeer dishes at Kaffistova in downtown Oslo and wild game — elk and whale steak — at Bryggeloftet & Stuene in the historic Bryggen area. For a sandwich, coffee and bohemian atmosphere, check out Kafe Mir (www.lufthavna.no) in Oslo’s Grunerlokka neighborhood or Vagen Fetevare in Bergen, which also serves wonderful desserts.

Top experiences: White-water rafting in Voss, biking down the mountains surrounding Flam and taking a speedboat tour of the Sognefjord with the Norway Active tour (www.norwayactive.no) was the highlight of our trip. It was well worth the $350 per person. We also enjoyed riding the Floibanen tram to get a panoramic view of Bergen (www.floibanen.com), and biking around Oslo on rented City Bikes (www.oslobysykkel.no) that are available at stations across town for about $12 a day. The Norwegian Folk Museum (www.norskfolkemuseum.no/en) in Bergen was a great way to get an overview of the country’s heritage.

Going to the Hole in the Sky rock festival in Bergen, at the USF Verftet music hall, gave us a view of youth culture. Go to www.usf.no for a list of concerts and other events. The site is mostly in Norwegian, but click on “program” for a calendar or “artist in residence” for information in English.

Research resources: The most useful travel guides were those by Eyewitness and Lonely Planet. I also rented a half-dozen movies from public library including “Ultimate Scandinavia” and “Norway: Land of the Vikings.” Norway’s cities do a great job promoting themselves, and each tourist office has abundant information online. Some of the tourism sites: www.visitnorway.com, www.visitoslo.com, www.visitbergen.com and www.sognefjord.no. Click on the Union Jack for information in English.

Language: With so many tourists around, a lot of English is spoken on a regular basis in Oslo and Bergen. Although most signs and literature are written in Norwegian, you can often ask for an English version of a menu or a pamphlet. Most Norwegians speak fantastic English, so you’ll have no problem asking for directions if you need to.