Just wow

Despite having unlimited internet here in the UK, I don’t have unlimited time. That time will probably be better spent doing things other than uploading photos onto Flickr (and than blogging, actually), but that doesn’t mean that you will be forsaken – I have chucked a few pics up there already, and I will continue to write blog posts. Sorry about that.

Norway was amazing, incredible.
I’m lucky enough to live in one of the most dramatically beautiful countries on the planet. This last weekend, I was lucky enough to visit another. Living in Cape Town often gives one a false level of expectation when it comes to seeing other places. There’s not really much that can match it, but the west of Norway did just that. And, dare I say it, possibly more.

Bigger and better on black

If our rail journey from Bergen to Myrdal was breathtaking, then the trip from there to Flåm would have to be described as asphyxiating, and the near six hour fastcraft journey through the fjords back to Bergen would have left us long dead through suffocation.
Sight after utterly incredible sight left us (to continue the pulmonary theme) literally gasping.

There are, as you might expect, several hundred images to wade through, to select the best and discard the rest. And as I said, I’m not doing that just yet. But if there was one image that summed up our visit to Norway better than any other I took, it would be this one. The falu red cottages, built almost into the rocks, the glassy, icy waters of the fjords and – for us at least – the blue sky.

I desperately want to go back, but equally, I desperately don’t: there’s simply no way that a return visit could ever be so perfect.

Could it?

Good advice

Last night, I was booking some stuff for our (brief) stay in Bergen in May. This line was in the confirmation email (but not, as you will note, the final confirmation email) they sent back to me:

Please note that regional trains and the Hurtigruten can be fully booked, especially in high season and weekends. We therefore recommend you to not make any further reservations before you have received the final confirmation e-mail.

That’s very good advice. Everyone knows about the problems regarding the regional trains, but people nearly always overlook the fact that the Hurtigruten can be fully booked.

I, for one, had never even considered a fully booked Hurtigruten.

Rookie error.