Aurland, Flåm and Hardanger

Rise and shine, your adventure is underway! We meet up by the ferry dock early in the morning for our fjord cruise to Aurland. Five hours, and 250 photos later (yes, it is that beautiful here) we have reached our destination. After checking in to our accommodation for the next two nights we head to Skjerdal, a small village at the end of road where we will hike up to Skjerdal Stølsysteri. Here we will taste some delicious local produce before heading back to our accommodation. In the evening a 3-course dinner awaits. Not a bad start to our Norwegian adventure.

On our second day in Aurland we head for another highlight in the area. Hovdungo is an old farm situated on a small plateau in the hillside above Aurland, not the most famous attraction in the area, sort of a hidden gem, but this, of course, gives us just another incentive to hike up here. There will be fewer tourist but equally great views over the Aurlandsfjord and the nearby mountains - classic Norwegian fjord scenery! We enjoy our packed lunch up top at Hovdungo before we hike back down again to our accommodation. In the afternoon we enjoy a fjord sauna before a delicious 3-course dinner awaits in the evening.

The Flåm Railway was originally built to connect the fjord villages dotted around the Sognefjord to the railway line going between Oslo and Bergen. It still does the job if needed, but most of the passengers doing this one hour stretch of well crafted engineering are travelers keen to experience something extraordinary. We will embark on the same journey today, going all the way up to Myrdal, past spectacular mountains, thundering waterfalls and through old tunnels carved out by humans. From Myrdal we hop on another train that will take us to Voss where we will drive to Ulvik in Hardanger for a delicious cider tasting session at Syse Farm. In the afternoon we continue to Hotel Ullensvang where we will spend the night by the shores of the Hardangerfjord. In the evening dinner awaits.

One of the most beloved paintings for us Norwegians is called Brudeferd in Hardanger. Finished in 1848, it depicts a weeding ceremony in the most romantic way possible: A lake, a boat with people celebrating, lush nature, dramatic mountains, wast glaciers in the distance and sunny weather - can you imagine, sunny weather! So when the word Hardanger pops up, a lot of Norwegians almost automatically tend to think in these terms. And one of the places in Hardanger where more or less all these ingredients are present is our goal of the day, Bondhusvatnet. There's probably not a wedding ceremony here, and we can only cross our fingers for sunny weather, but either way, we are in for a good day! The hike is not too long or too streneous so we will walk in a comfortable pace and enjoy lunch while there. In the afternoon we continue further south to Rosendal where we will spend the night. 3-course dinner in the evening, of course.

On our final day in Western Norway we can choose between two different activities. Either visit the Rosendal Barony, an old caste built in 1665 by the danish-norwegian king Christian V, or do a short hike to either Rishammar or Hjartås, two small hills in close proximity to Rosendal, for glorious views of the southern Hardangerfjord. It is of course possible to split the group if there are different opinions on this matter. In the afternoon we say our goodbyes by the ferry dock in Rosendal before a fjord cruise will take you back to either Bergen Airport or downtown Bergen, unfortunately leaving the best of the west behind. We hope that you've had an amazing time with us!