Sunday 21st September
Today our 7 hour train journey took us from Bergen to Oslo. We left Bergen through a very long tunnel to reach the fjord and river system that would take us east to Voss. Climbing all the time through pine forests, close to Voss we reached the railways 800 metre summit beneath the ice fields of the Hardangerjokulen. Here we flashed past tundra and bare rock just as illustrated on the side of the locomotive. There were remote summer and winter sport resorts and isolated cabins here. People got on and off with rucksacks moving to upper or lower levels. The whole route was an engineering masterpiece, following valleys, clinging to mountainsides and piercing the mountains with around 180 tunnels and avalanche shelters. This makes it one of the highest adhesion (normal) railway lines in Europe.
After 5 hours we began our descent to Oslo Fjord where again the masterpiece of engineering was evident as we sped through long tunnels under the suburbs and even under the fjord to reach Oslo Central railway station.