In 2007, a friend and I visited West Norway. I’d previously been to Bergen (and Oslo). On this trip, we travelled up the west coast to see the beautiful fjords. Here is the schedule I found recently:
The trip started in Bergen — one of the prettiest places you can visit. Less well known is that Bergen has a leprosy museum, which was formerly a leprosy hospital founded in the fifteenth century. The bacteria that causes leprosy was found in Bergen by Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen in 1873. Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s Disease.
After getting our bearings in Bergen, we travelled north. Going up the west coast is slow even if you have a car. There are few alternatives and you often have to take a car ferry to get across the fjords. That’s quite an adventure. Eventually, car ferries become a normal part of getting somewhere.
My most striking memory of the fjords, which are long water inlets surrounded by rocks, was the morning mist. Every morning it would linger, floating above the fjords like clouds. We usually had breakfast whilst looking at the low-level clouds.
I was awestruck when I saw my first glacier. The marine blue colour was incredibly pure.
Photos can’t do them justice. I later saw more glaciers in Iceland, Argentina, and Antarctica.
My final memory of Norway was staying in a plush hotel. It was called Hotel Union Øye. It opened its doors in 1891. I see it’s still going.
You can see my photo albums of the Norway trip: landscape and culture.