A fortnight in Scandinavia - Part 2 of 2: Finse, Myrdal, Flam, Bergen, Tromso and Copenhagen

  This is the second part of my travel blog, continuing from Oslo to Bergen, then moving on to Tromso, and finally touching Copenhagen once more on my way back to India.

The first part covers Copenhagen (Denmark), Lundt (Sweden), Malmo (Sweden), Reykjavik (Iceland) and Oslo.

Continuing...

At Finse, after going there by train from Oslo. The entire day was spent in the Norway in a Nutshell tour, that included two of its most beautiful train journeys to towns in Norway, then a boat cruise through its most famous Fjords, finally dropping us in Bergen.

The Flam Railway is a historic train journey.

Scenery during the Flam Railway journey from Myrdal to Flam.

Flam is a charming village nestled in the Aurlandsfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord, one of the world's longest and deepest fjords. It is surrounded by majestic mountains and waterfalls.

A view of the Flam Train. It's considered one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, offering breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape. The journey takes about 20 minutes, passing through tunnels, over bridges, and alongside cascading waterfalls.

The museum in Flam.

Starting the cruise through Aurlandsfjord.

Starting the cruise through the fjords of Norway

The UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord, a narrow fjord known for its dramatic scenery

View from Stallheim Hotel, on the way to Bergen by bus.

View from Stallheim Hotel

At Voss Resort

View from our homestay at Tromso, Norway

Polar Museum Tromso, learning about Roald Amundsen, the explorer's trip to the North Pole.

The cabin where Roald Amundsen rested. Complete with a figurine that looks like him!

Seal Hunting was a major occupation of Norwegians and they almost drove the mammal to extinction for its skin. Around 1.5 million seals were killed between 1950 and 2017 when the hunting finally stopped.

I was never aware that a bag of oil like this placed at the bottom of the ocean floor worked like a wave absorber! The oil rose to the surface, and worked as a dampener preventing waves from setting comb and break.

A 550 MILLION YEAR-OLD fossil of a Trilobyte, the first time I saw any fossil of an animal that old.

The Sami people across The The Sami people across Scandinavian countries are a vanishing minority struggling to keep their culture, way of life, language and lands being assimilated by government policies in different countries. It is important to know that cultural hegemony and imperialism isn't limited to India or the US. Aur bhi gham hai zamane mein apne gham ke siwa...

A troll! Finally I saw what trolls look like. Hopefully a warning to budding MAGA and Modi Bhakts 

A troll face on a mountain! A troll is a famous monster that keeps looking for treasure (mostly gold) everywhere to carry away. The point is that these fantasy creatures can only move at night, and if the sunrays strike them, they immediately turn into stone! So you have faces of stone everywhere including cliff faces and you can make out the trolls.

This was such a likeable troll, that I just had to take a pic with!

The troll museum in Tromso.

Northern Lights! They are caused by the collision of alpha particles from the sun with oxygen molecules in the earth's atmosphere at very high latitudes.

Aurora Borealis shows up Green or sometimes Pink or Purple. These represent excited electrons falling back to their normal orbits and emitting photons of a specific wavelength.

The Northern Lights can only be seen at night on a relatively clear sky though they happen throughout the day. You just can't see them in the day because of the bright sunlight.

The lights keep dancing as different parts of the atmosphere interact with them. The dance is sometimes fast enough to be lovely in itself! Notice the blue and purple colors!

Aurora Borealis is seen in a region around the arctic circle where the earth's magnetism is weak enough to allow alpha particles from the sun to enter.

A study of Northern Lights is important because they are a sign of the sun's activity.

Sun spots, solar storms and solar cycles can be used to predict the intensity of the Northern Lights. 2024 and 2025 are expected to be very intense.

The summer and winter equinoxes also have far more intense Northern Lights because the North and South Pole are equidistant from the sun.

Tromso lies at 69 deg North, so it falls exactly under the Auroral Ring where Northern Lights happen.

While Iceland, Alaska, Finland, Norway, Sweden and other countries around the Arctic circle all experience Aurora Borealis, a few places like Tromso have especially strong chances of experiencing intense Northern Lights.

Several apps exist, that show the chance of experiencing Northern Lights at a particular place, based on cloudy/clear weather, solar activity prediction, geomagnetic storms (K -value), and the latitude. I used "Hello Aurora" just to figure out how it works. The experienced tour guide took us to a dark spot where he was able to figure out the aurora would be strongest.

Aurora Borealis in the southern hemisphere is called Aurora Australis. But most of the southern hemisphere is uninhabited. A quantum physics question: If the light shines when no one is looking at it, does it still glow green?

There is the legend of Asbjørn. Asbjørn was fascinated with the Aurora. He thought if he climbed a mountain, it would be closer. The aurora grew stronger as he climbed the mountain. But as he reached out to touch it, it disappeared. He descended the mountain, carrying the memory with him forever.

The Sami have a legend about the reindeer goddess Vainamoinen. Whenever she used to dance in the sky, it was a sign of good fortune for the nomadic reindeer herders.

The Finns thought the spirits of dead people were dancing in the night and the aurora spelt good fortune.

I had seen the Aurora earlier in Rovaniemi, Finland and also in Iceland. The sighting in Tromso was by far the best!

Dancing over the mountains...

And parting into separate streams during the dance!

This one has blue and purple streaks! Blue and purple are formed by electrons in Nitrogen getting excited, while Green and Red are formed by those In Oxygen.

Our homestay in Tromso, where Ali (originally from Pakistan) stayed with Nikita (originally from Nepal). The presence of a child was everwhere, right from the choco-puffs in the kitchen to family photos. We met them one of the mornings, because they were both working professionals running a homestay on Booking.com as a side gig.

Ishavskatedralen Church made in the 1960's

Tromso Bridge

Inside the Ishavskatedralen Church.

Tromso Bridge which connects the island of Tromso on the left with the island on the right.

A view of Gronnegata, the busiest street in Tromso. You can see a few cars way out in the distance - that is a traffic signal and maybe a traffic jam!

Cathedral of our Lady Tromso,constructed in 1861. It is the Northmost Roman Catholic cathedral. Beyond this, there is no mosque, and no church, and in that arctic world, there is only humanity. That reminds like Rumi talking of a world beyond right and wrong!

Another view of the Cathedral, with a park and an unknown statue that I skipped!

The Public Library (Biblioteka) in Tromso. The real test of a civilization is the knowledge they treasure and pass on through their generations!

The botanical gardens in Tromso.

A captive reindeer near the University of Tromso.

An evening walk through the University of Tromso.

Walking through the University of Tromso

Just outside the Artic University of Norway, Tromso.

Tromso Cathedral, the only woodern protestant cathedral in Norway. Quite a few qualifiers to make it unique!

Northern Lights at the top of Mount Storsteinen, where you can go by cable car (Fjellheisen) from the city center! These were fainter, because of the haze in the sky.

Northern Lights at the top of Mount Storsteinen.

The cable car station at the top of Mount Storsteinen.

A view of Tromso City from the cable car station.

Random Building in Copenhagen, houses several shops and businesses including an acting school. The red and white color set against the dark blue sky (at blue hour) criss-crossed by the cobwebs of electric lines attracted me and it makes a stunning pic.

Chicky Grill Bar where we had an excellent meal!

Flaeskesteg - Roast Pork with crackling with a side of white potatoes, gravy, and pickled red cabbage for 115 DKK (about $17). At the top of the pic is a burger.

A statue at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

At the center of Carlsberg Glyptotek

Ny Carlsberg Gyptotek - A ballerina putting on her stockings - Edgar Degas

Ny Carlsberg Gyptotek: Dancers is various poses - Edgar Degas

Ny Carlsberg Gyptotek: Young girl in frock - Edgar Degas

Ny Carlsberg Gyptotek: Death and the Maiden - Elna Borch

Ny Carlsberg Gyptotek: The Dance - Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. When it was unveiled in the 1850's in public, it caused extreme reactions from the public. Some loved it, while some thought it blasphemous and vulgar.

Lydia without the Swan - Kai Nielsen. "Sculpture should not represent nakedness. It should be naked," wrote Kai Nielsen, a famous sculptor who used a single model for most of his nude statues.

Windmill and Boats near Holland - Claude Monet

"Why born enslaved?" - a female figure representing Africa under French enslavement by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1850's)

The first funeral - Ernest Barrias 1892.

Electricity - Ernest Barrias 1890. The newly discovered superpower!

A soul after death - 1891 - Felix Maurice Charpentier.

Carslberg Brewery Tour: Some of the achievements of Carlsberg Research Labs. The invention of protein measurement, the pH scale universally used for acidic-basic measurement. They have been home to several Nobel Lauretes. The last was Morten Meldal with two of his colleagues in 2022 for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

Almost every metro across European countries I have seen allows bicycles, and even has stands for the bicycle with seats for the bicylist. I really wish we adopt such a system. Our solution to the choked streets and a far healthier population lies in public transportation, bicycles and walking paths. Copenhagen has very few cars because of the 150% Tax on all new cars!

Walking in Kultovret, near Norreport - 1.

Walking in Kultovret, near Norreport - 2.

RizRaz - a highly rated restaurant near Copenhagen University

Frederik's Church in Copenhagen. Even though unfinished from the interiors, its grand marble exterior and achitecture attracts visitors from across the world.

St. Aleksander Nevskij Church - a Russian Orthodox Church.

Changing the Guard - a ceremony replete with a military band that happens at 12 noon every day at Amalienborg Castle. It reminds us that Denmark still is a constitutional monarchy. All the kings by tradition are named Frederik or Christian. Since 1972, there is a Queen however, named Margrethe II.

Our Fallen - a statue to the memory of WW II Danish soldiers in Kastellet, Copenhagen.

St. Alban's Church, an Anglican church, in Kastellet.

The entrance to Kastellet, a five star shaped military citadel which was extensively used during WW II.

The Little Mermaid - a statue made in memory of Hans Christian Anderson who wrote so many fairy tales that I still remember nostalgically. While this was a mid-afternoon photo with blue skies and a sunny outlook, it has been edited by me.  I took the artistic liberty of making it an evening photograph by changing the sky, because the poignant dark mood of the waiting mermaid is best brought out by the overcast sky, the setting sun, and the golden tint. After all, painting with light is called Photo-graphy.

Design Museum: This pattern was made by my fingers, multiple mirrors positioned like a kaleidoscope and a laser light source.

Design Museum: Iconic chairs through history.

Design Museum: Schools of Fish - a stunning exhibit featuring thousands of fish possibly representing the beauty and diversity of marine life.

At the end of my Scandinavian visit, I marvel at the fact that Homo Sapiens have been around for 250,000 years, and of those years, everything we have left culturally has been only from the last 10,000 years or so. Scandinavia, a small area with a miniscule population of 21 million, barely a fraction of the city of New Delhi, produced some of the fiercest warriors, weapons and a democracy that is over a millenium old.  

As humans, we have around 7,000 spoken languages and we learnt to write only about 5200 years ago. The diversity of languages in just a small area like Scandinavia is phenomenal. Danish, French, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Faroese, Greenlandic, Innuit, Sami, Kven, Bokmal...the list is endless.

We have swarmed across this blue-green sphere we call home, exploring the most inhospitable places, and living in conditions that have wiped out 75% of species in Mass Exinction Events. The Scandinavians were some of the greatest explorers the world has seen.

We are the only species that can commit genocide, massacring and conquering groups of other human beings. The Scandinavians conquered and colonized and enslaved peoples from Gold Coast (Africa), Carribeans and India (Tranquebar). Within the Scandinavian countries, they even fought with each other. Denmark ruled Iceland and Greenland, Sweden fought with Denmark, and so on.

In the midst of natural and man-made catastrophes and imminent extinction, we still manage to find happiness and thrive. The Scandinavian countries are some of the happiest, with high standards of living, health, education guaranteed by the state, even while wars rage in Ukraine, Gaza and over half the world teeters on food insecurity.

Truly, scandinavians represent the best and worst of humanity.