Oslo

Copenhagen - Bergen - Voss - Flåm - Sognefjorden - Oslo - Stockholm

The capital city of Norway was as beautiful as I had left it two days ago. The city surprised me with a cosmopolitan crowd and busy streets. I was expecting a quieter capital of the north-most Scandinavian country.

Oslo at sunset

Booking a bed in Anker Hostel which is close and affordable in a super expensive Norway, I decided to take a walk towards the Oslo Opera. Designed to attract, what I admired most was the setting sun as visible from the top of this edifice.

Den Norske Opera@Oslo

Walking back quickly as the mercury was dropping fast, I grabbed a chicken burger from McD and went back to my hostel bed before 8.

Art on the streets of Oslo

The next morning I woke up fresh and took an early leave for a walk along the banks of Akerselva. The warm sun shining above and fresh feet helped me walk a couple of miles towards the dock area.

Pleasent noon beside Akerselva@Oslo

There again I settled in cool blazing sun and ate my last of Snickers while admiring the beautiful city. My train was due at 1 PM for Copenhagen and I had to double up to catch it.

Flåm

Copenhagen - Bergen - Voss - Flåm - Sognefjorden - Oslo - Stockholm

This blog would have less to do with Flåm and more to do with how I reached there. When I stepped out from the overnight train from Oslo to Myrdal at 4.45 AM I was in two minds. Either I wait for more than 5 hours and take the famous Flåmbana train or I walk the 15 miles to Flåm. I chose the latter.

At 7 AM I decided that it is enough light to walk on the railway track that would lead me to Flåm. 

Thanks to a local guy whom I met a couple of miles later I learned that the road to Flåm goes the other way. 

I retraced back my steps to find a huge waterfall going down a beautiful ravine just below the railway station. How the hell did I miss that?

The winning  road down to the valley was enough to convince me that I had taken the right decision. The next few hours kept surprising me with elements of nature I had only seen in wallpapers.

The seven hours of trek included hundreds of waterfalls, two tunnels, four wooden bridges, three gorges and a flowing river all along the trek.

I reached Flåm at 2 and immediately checked into the Youth Hostel. I needed a hot water bath. The hostel was beautifully placed between the river and a sky high mountain with Flåm station a couple of minutes away.

I decided to take a stroll later in the evening although my legs were still sore with the seven hour trek. The weather and view was rewarding enough and I ended up sitting at a wooden bench eating chips and drinking a hot cup of coffee.

I even trekked up the hill for a top view of Flåm  With enough pain to bear, I walked straight back to my bed and prepared for a long sleep. I was still not clear about tomorrow's plans.

Helsingor

Trip: Copenhagen > Helsingor > Copenhagen

We reached Helsingor at 4 PM. That may well be enough to tell what we were able to do there. What we managed was visit to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a couple of miles walk in the windiest of conditions.

Kronborg for upgradation@UNESCO World Heritage site

Salzburg

Salzburg - Munich

Salzburg is home to the world's largest ice caves and we were going there for that exact thing. It is very close to Munich and hence we decided to cover it on our Oktoberfest trip. Taking an overnight train to Munich and then another one to Salzburg we managed to reach at 12 noon. 

View from Wurfen

Zermatt

Trip: Luxembourg > Brussels > Amsterdam > Bruges > Fredrichshafen > Zermatt

My first impression of Zermatt was that it is overcrowded and expensive. The roads were narrow and I had no clue where to go first. Wisely I decided to get settled in a Youth Hostel first and then go for exploration work.

Huts @ Matterhorn trail

Fredrichshafen

Trip: Luxembourg > Brussels > Amsterdam > Bruges > Fredrichshafen > Zermatt

I was woken up at Offenurg by the kind ticket checker. An hour of stay at the cold station and then I was again on move towards Konstanz. It was memorable peice of journey. Hills would rise at short notice, forests would cover the tracks and fog would hide everything for a while. The Black Forests reached their peak at Triberg and then subsided. The lakes were coming more frequently as the Rhine meandered between Germany and Switzerland - but not before swelling at the giant Lake Konstanz.

Lake Constanz, Fredrichshafen

Bruges

Trip: Luxembourg > Brussels > Amsterdam > Bruges > Fredrichshafen > Zermatt

I was alone and sleepy when I reached the sweet little town of Bruges when the clock was hitting noon. A small crowd of tourists was there to help me in direction and I moved with it. It was a Sunday after all.

Amsterdam

Trip: Luxembourg > Brussels > Amsterdam > Bruges > Fredrichshafen > Zermatt

The city of fantasies was beautiful as well. Canals criss-crossing a bustling landmass inspired long walks. The three of us were there for our own reasons. We were planning a night out and hence no hostel bookings were done.

We started with a good lunch at McDonalds. I was craving for beer but had to wait before the others would part on their search. We did that sooner than I was expecting and decided to meet at the internet cafe near the station at midnight.

Luxembourg

Trip: Luxembourg > Brussels > Amsterdam > Bruges > Fredrichshafen > Zermatt

Luxembourg is the fairy tale city of Europe. We started late night from Copenhagen by a City Night Line. The tiresome journey with three changes at Koln, Coblenz and Trier was proved worth it the moment we entered the realms of this city.

The most beautiful balcony of Europe @ Luxembourg

Stockholm

Copenhagen - Bergen - Voss - Flåm - Sognefjorden - Oslo - Stockholm

The land of Victoria Silvestedt - that is how I used to relate Sweden with. How correct I was. Stockholm, the capital city, boasts of blondes in such a huge number that it is difficult to keep up with admiration. Where hazel green eyes, golden flowing hair and voluptuous body are a commodity the city is truly a land of fantasies. We started our three days with the trip to one of the archipelago that comprises Stockholm.

Having a sumptuous lunch with some of the hottest exchange students and a stroll at the island, we came back for a night at Stureplan - the centre of friday night parties at Stockholm. We spend a couple of hours observing people before coming back to our abode.

The next day we planned for Vasa Museum and an elaborate stroll to Gamla Stan which is the oldest of the 13 islands that Stockholm is made of. We started with the Change of Guards and missed it by a whisker of a second.

Vasa Museum was huge and elegant. The story of a ship recovered after 300 years in the sea was elaborately displayed.

Gamla Stan was awesome with narrow streets and curious cosmopolitan crowd. We did not buy anything but the walk through the cobbled paths was enough to occupy us all.

The next day we had to go back to Copenhagen  We covered a building which is claimed to be the biggest spherical building in the world.

We were back to Copenhagen and faced a little hurdle when a train accident changed our train routes and we reached our destination one hour later.

Voss

Copenhagen - Bergen - Voss - Flåm - Sognefjorden - Oslo - Stockholm

It was a short and lonely stay at Voss - for seven hours to be exact. I wanted to cover the entire stretch from Bergen - Oslo in daylight. The problem is there are limited trains from Oslo at night for Stockholm / Copenhagen  Hence Voss came into picture and how beautiful it turned out to be ! The first two hours I invested in walking uphill as much as possible. From up the view of Voss was amazingly simple. Seated comfortably by the side of an elegant lake the city couldn't be more peaceful.

One of the best thing about Europe is the pleasant weather which combines with less pollution to provide you enough oxygen and zeal to stay upbeat. Without much sleep the earlier night I was still fresh and still striving up the mountains that surrounded the town.

While coming down I managed to take quite a few pictures of the lake under the changing intensity of the sun. It was like a slow movie at play by the nature.

My train was late at midnight. The town entertained me till then. In these parts of the world in the middle of September it does not get dark before 9. The last couple of hours were spent finishing a novel which a friend had gifted a couple of months back.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen - Bergen - Voss - Flåm - Sognefjorden - Oslo - Stockholm

• Book a hotel near the main station. You will need both the trains and metro to traverse not only within Copenhagen but also to nearby attractions like Christianshaven.
• There is not much in Copenhagen - Tivoli Gardens, Carlsberg Breweries and the statue of the mermaid were all that we could figure out.
• Jelling and Helsingor are one day trips from here. So is Malmo in Sweden. We loved the crossover to Malmo which is sea on both sides of the railway track.

Although I am here to stay for a good four months, I couldn't suppress my wanderer self from expressing my first impression of Copenhagen. The first noticeable point is elegance. From the wooden flooring at the airport to helpfulness of a railway employee in directing us everything is presentable and beautiful here.

Damhussoen Lake @ Copenhagen

Hebbe Falls

• Visit after the rains. The gushing waterfall at its full flow is an amazing view to behold. Take a bath. The sprinkles gives you goosebumps. 
• Take Maxx from Chikmagalur city. Regular vehicles can't reach this place with the mountain terrain and bad  roads. They charged us 500 bucks and it was worth the experience.
• You have to trek the last mile up to the waterfall. The last turn when the waterfall opens up to full view is magical or at least I thought so.

The first time I visited Chikmagalur, the four of us - Vivek, Sumeet, Ashutosh and myself started from Bangalore for Kemmengundi. It is a newly popular hill station near Chikmagalur  It was our plan to stay here for the night and visit nearby waterfalls among other things.

Windmills@Chikmagalur

Mussoorie

Mussoorie has always been close to me. Bhaiya completed his high school from boarding school here and I have pleasant memories of the trip we used to make to drop Bhaiya. The last time I was here I was alone. I wanted to know if I can enjoy it that way - and I did.

Tourist map of Mussoorie (Not to scale)

Shimla

Trip: Delhi > Chandigarh > Kasauli > Shimla > Delhi

My cousins from UK were in India - Naveen, Seema and Rishi. We decided to visit Shimla. Its close to Delhi and thanks to its capital status its accessible through a highway. We booked an Innova and decided to drive overnight to the hill station. It was a mistake.

View from the Lift Shaft @ Shimla

Goa

The outbound trip, sponsored by the company, was full of fun. We made planned visits to various locations and the 200 strong team had sweet memories. As the trip was professionally organized we had little to bother but enjoy every moment of our stay at The Leela.

Hotel Leela Palace @ Goa

Delhi

Delhi is the heart and capital of India. The royal facades of Lal Quila and ruins of Tughlakabad Fort are enough evidences of the legacy of this ancient city which has now tranformed into a modern cosmopolitan megacity. Humayun's tomb and Qutab Minar are the kind of landmarks on the busy roadside that very few cities can boast of.

Qutab Minar@6 AM

Delhi is, most importantly, the gateway to north India. There are five exits from Delhi for a traveler as numbered from 1 to 5 in the map below.