Norway trip part 3

Sorry this has taken so long to post this.  Between trying to get moved into our apartment, getting Eli started at school, and Swedish for Immigrants classes, we haven't had any extra time.  (Eli is "schooling-in", meaning I have to spend each morning with him at the school to get him used to being there.  Next week, I'll leave him, but only for the morning.  SFI classes are 3 grueling hours each class.)

Anyway, the 3rd stop on our Norway vacation was Voss.  It is a city on a lake in a valley, famous for being a center of outdoor adventure sports (parasailing, skydiving, skiing, and hosts an annual extreme games competition).

In the morning, we took a cable car up a mountain for some hiking.  It was an overcast morning, but the cable car took us well above the clouds.   We hiked around part of the mountain then all the way down the town on ski and hiking/mtb trails.  It took a few hours, but it was a nice hike.  After Voss, we took a train back to Oslo, got a few hours sleep, then back on a plane to Stockholm.

These pictures are out of order, but you get the idea.

Panoramic view from the top of our hike. 

View from our hostel in the morning.  Our room overlooked the lake. 

Kevin and Eli, near the beginning of our hike. 

Comfortable in the backpack carrier

Hostel room.  Like the first, there were 8 beds, but we didn't share it with others. 

Norway Trip Part 2 - Flåm: Fjord, Hiking, and Brewery

The train out of Oslo ran west to our connection with the Flåm railway, the steepest standard-gauge railway in the world.  The train wound down to the fjord past many scenic waterfalls, which Eli loved.  

One stop on the Flam railway.
Although the  woman dancing was a cheezy display,  she gives a sense of scale  here. 

Looking back on Flam and the Fjord

From our hotel. 

First stop in Flam - and last stop the next day - was the Ægir brewery. 

We did a couple hikes out of Flam.  Our hike the first day led us to this 1667 church, where a caretaker was nice enough to let us in when it was supposed to be closed.  

  

The next morning, we headed up to this waterfall with Eli on Kevin's back. 

Waterfall from the town...

...and town from the waterfall. 

One of many random sheep along the trail. 

Some well-deserved refreshments after a good climb

Finally, We left Flåm on a boat through the fjords to the next town. 

Norway Trip 1st stop - Oslo

Oslo was the first stop on our trip. However, it was basically a stopover between our afternoon flight and next morning's train, so we didn't have time there to do anything other than walk a few areas in the evening.

Eli in our Hostel.  Although there were eight beds, it was a private room; just us. 

We arrived a week after the bombing. Walking around, we came upon not just the site of the bombing, but broken windows and impromptu memorials much further from the site than expected. The memorials were somber - wilted roses and burned-down candles (many probably a week old).  As we left Oslo the next day, we also drove past the island were the shootings occurred.  (Due to construction, buses replaced trains for the first leg out of Oslo).  While we couldn't see onto the island, there were memorials on the side of the road overlooking it.