To Oslo on the Bergen Railway

 After breakfast on Wednesday, August 3rd, we caught the Flåmsbana for the last time, riding the few minutes to Myrdal, where we had about an hour wait (actually longer, since there was a delay) for the train from Bergen to Oslo.  Like the Flåm Railway, the Bergensbanen is famously scenic.  At this latitude, the treeline is much lower than in, say, Switzerland, so the train passes through a treeless sort of tundra.  I had bought the tickets at home on the Vy (Norwegian railroad) website, and downloaded the Vy app, which proved very useful in handling our various Flåmsbana rides.  I also downloaded the apps for Helsinki and Stockholm transit, but had trouble using the former and turned out to have no need for the latter.  Eventually, the train arrived and we spent five hours or so getting to Oslo Central Station.

We walked from the station up the Karl Johans Gate (the main, largely pedestrianized, promenade to the Royal Palace) then up a block to our hotel, the Hotel Bristol.  This was the nicest hotel on the trip, and the the staff was very cordial and helpful: when we said that we would miss breakfast, because we would have to leave very early to catch our 5:54 train to the airport, they immediately offered to provide a box breakfast at 5:30.

It was raining, on and off, and cool.  We got a late lunch (sandwiches) around the corner at United Bakeries (okay, but not as good as the sandwiches we had in Flåm).  Then, we followed, more or less, part of the walking tour in Rick Steves's Scandinavia guidebook.  There was a pro-Ukrainian demonstration at the parliament building.  We couldn't get into the 1930s art deco city hall.  

We followed the Harbor Promenade around Akershus fortress to the modern Opera House, and walked up onto the roof.

We had trouble figuring out where to have dinner, but settled on the Grand Café (where the playwright Henrik Ibsen had eaten lunch every day, back in the nineteenth century).  We had a decent dinner out on the terrace facing Karl Johans Gate (gate, Norwegian for “street,” not the English “gate”).