This week we have been in Oslo; tomorrow morning we catch an early train to Bergen. This train is considered one of the most beautiful routes in the world, so we are looking forward to it.

Even though there’s some Norwegian blood in my veins, I’ve never been particularly inclined to visit Norway. Yet I’ve now been to Norway twice: in June we departed Tromsø (above the Arctic Circle!) on a cruise (Tricia wrote a blog with photos), and this week we met friends in Oslo.

On that first visit to Norway (the cruise from Tromsø), we anticipated steep, forested mountainsides that pitched down into fjords. And we realized such scenes early in our cruise. Here is Tromsø, a beautiful place and so far my favorite place in Norway:

Yet as we sailed north, the terrain became barren, even bleak. No more charming fishing villages, clinging to the edge of the fjords: the views quickly became stony, treeless, windswept—a kind of beauty that I wasn’t expecting. You can see here the bleakness of Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, the most northerly point we went:

Now on our second visit to Norway, we had no particular expectations of Oslo—Nordic population, maritime history, modern Scandinavian architecture, yes. Yet…yet… Folks in Tromsø warned us that their countrymen in southern Norway were not especially friendly—which has been our experience. What we have experienced is that the most conversational, outgoing, friendly folks are not native Norwegians, but immigrants, or children of immigrants..

I guess Norway just doesn’t dazzle me.

Except, maybe, its cuisine. In Tromsø:

The food in Oslo has been wonderful.:

So here’s hoping that Bergen is all of the picturesque Norway we have hoped for. My sketchbook is ready to capture that wonder.