Eyes can barely take in the splendour as snowy mountains descend steeply into frozen lakes and colossal glacial valleys wind towards the sea, writes Davin O'Dwyer
THERE IS A brand of luxury Norwegian water by the minimalist name of Voss that has quickly gained ubiquity in the minibars of five-star hotels and in the boardrooms of Hollywood studios, its popularity seemingly a result of its distinctive cylindrical bottles and hefty price tag as much as its vaunted purity.
But mention this brand to the residents of Voss, the pretty Norwegian town and holiday destination with which the water shares its name, and they’re likely to roll their eyes. “It’s not even from here” is a common protest, as if at pains to establish that the area could never spawn something so decidedly elitist.
But the association with the ultra-premium brand isn’t necessarily harmful to the town, or entirely unsuitable, either: both are stylish, in an unfussy, Scandinavian sort of way; both appeal to the upper end of their respective markets; and, being Norwegian, both are inevitably expensive. So does a winter-time trip to the heart of fjord country taste like a refreshing sip of pure artesian water?
The area has been a prime Norwegian tourist destination for more than 120 years, with visitors arriving for the fine skiing in the winter months and a vast range of activities in the summer. The increasing emphasis on extreme sports in recent years, such as white-water rafting, paragliding, mountain biking and so on, has lead to the world’s premiere extreme sport festival being held here every June.
But even if you’re determined to restrict your physical exertion to the pressing of your camera’s shutter button, you’ll get a decent amount of exercise – it is a landscape so dramatic that it feels like a work of the imagination, somehow rendered in brawny reality. Snowy white mountains descend steeply into frozen lakes, while colossal U-shaped glacial valleys wind towards the sea, filled with deep blue fjords and dotted with tiny hamlets. Eyes can barely take in all the splendour, while camera lenses fail to grasp the scale – it needs to be experienced, rather than merely seen.
FJORD TOURS operate the flexible “Norway in a Nutshell” tour, which packs in a jaunt around the dramatic landscape by road, rail and boat, and it proves an ideal way to experience the fjords’ majesty.
The tour allows for a variety of travelling permutations, but I started on a bus from Voss, passing frozen waterfalls, their cascades an azure blue among the white snow covering the mountainsides. Then a ferry sails from the tiny port of Gudvangen to a village called Flam, travelling along the Unesco-listed Naeroyfjord and the Aurlandsfjord, two of the most spectacular fjords in the country.
You pass villages and hamlets, some of them still inaccessible by road. A tiny wooden church at Bakka sits peacefully by the water, disturbed only by the ferry crunching through the topmost layer of frozen water, sending frothy spray skitting along the top of the ice on either side of her prow.
The valleys are a vision straight out of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, a backdrop to fairy tales rather than the setting for real people’s homes. At Flam, we move on to the Flam Railway, one of Norway’s most popular tourist attractions, as an antique train zigzags through tunnels and switchbacks up the mountainsides, from Flam to Myrdal, the highest railway station in Norway. It is a mere pitstop in the sky, however, before a more modern train descends again to Voss, which lies on Vangsvatnet Lake, 100km or so east of Bergen, Norway’s second city. The town was destroyed during the second World War, and its centre is now a neat collection of streets, with a largely uniform style of building that falls just short of being quaint.
The old stone church, parts of which date from the 13th century, survived the Luftwaffe’s bombing, and hints at the more traditional Norwegian town that once existed.
As a ski destination, the town boasts a very different atmosphere to the Alpine resorts that so many Irish skiers are used to visiting – it’s a proper town, for a start, rather than a ready-made resort, and the local community doesn’t seem to be a merely seasonal presence catering to tourists.
Despite having a current population of about 14,000, the town boasts 18 Olympic medallists in various winter events, putting Ireland’s entire Olympic record in stark perspective.
A word of warning, however. The après-ski culture that is so big a part of many people’s ski holidays – often a bigger part than the actual skiing – largely doesn’t exist in Voss. As one person put it, “If you’re interested in that, not only have you come to the wrong place, you’ve come to the wrong country.” This makes Voss ideal for families or older novices looking to concentrate on practising their skiing technique rather than searching for hangover cures.
THE SKIING IS good, with 50km of prepared slopes and extensive cross-country and off-piste areas, as well as plenty of beginner and intermediate slopes. Norwegians traditionally go skiing on Sundays – the Sunday before I arrived, 3,000 people had packed on to the slopes – but during the week, the resort is considerably quieter, meaning it’s perfect for both beginners, who don’t have to worry about holding up traffic, and advanced skiers, who have extensive black slopes to themselves.
Indeed, taking a slightly more remote run at one point, I skied for a good 10 minutes without seeing another soul, the only sound my skis cutting through snow. It is an exhilarating experience to feel so alone on a mountainside, with such stunning vistas unfolding before you. It’s no surprise that many experienced skiers return year after year to the resort.
One place I’d like to return to in the near future is Bergen, for my time there was regrettably brief. This small, 1,000-year-old city quickly charmed me, and I wanted to waste time getting lost in the winding cobbled streets and exploring its old port rather than rushing away to the airport after a few hours.
Its topography makes it a kind of northern European Rio de Janeiro, surrounded on all sides by steep mountains offering spectacular views, and with a large port coming right into the city centre – it even has a funicular that feels like a mix between the Luas and Roald Dahl’s Great Glass Elevator.
A former Hanseatic League city, many of the old wooden commercial buildings remain by the port in a Unesco World Heritage area called the Bryggen, now filled with artists’ studios. It’s all utterly captivating, and a perfect place to begin, or end, an exploration of this part of Norway. As a destination, it’s a premium brand, all right, and one that leaves a sparkling taste in the mouth.
* Davin O’Dwyer was a guest of Inghams, inghams.ie
* For more information on Voss and Bergen, see visitvoss.no and visitbergen.com
Go there
SAS (flysas.ie) flies from Dublin to Oslo, with an onward connection to Bergen. One-way fares from Dublin to Bergen start at about €150.
Where to stay and what to do
Where to stay
I stayed in Voss at the four-star Fleischer’s Hotel, an imposing hotel dating from 1889, built in a Swiss style, making it very distinctive in Norway. Located virtually on the platform of the train station, it is one of the town’s venerable institutions, still family owned. It is part of the Historic Hotels of Norway network, and it has a warm ambience, managing the trick of being simultaneously formal and cosy, in the way that only heritage hotels can be. It also boasts a swimming pool, sauna, and best of all, the liveliest bar in town. See fleischers.no.
On the piste
A week’s ski pack with Inghams (inghams.ie, 01-6611377) in Voss, including ski and boot hire, five two-hour ski lessons in a ski school and lift pass costs around €223 per person.
Shopping
Unsurprisingly, there are lots of sportswear shops selling every conceivable winter sport apparatus, and offering good value compared with their Irish counterparts.
Dining, drinking and shopping in Norway manages the difficult feat of making Ireland feel like it offers decent value for money, but if you want some top snowboarding gear or a funky new helmet, the myriad ski shops of Voss would be a good bet.
There are about nine Norwegian krone (NOK) to the euro, making mental conversions a bit tricky at first.
Sightseeing
The Norway in a Nutshell one-day tour costs NOK 670 (€85). See norwaynutshell. com and fjord-tours.com for details.
What it costs
Inghams (inghams.ie, 01-6611377) offer seven nights in Fleischer’s on a half-board basis with prices starting in mid January from around €1,775 for two people sharing a room, including return flights from London Gatwick.
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) and Ryanair (ryanair.com) fly from Dublin to Gatwick.