If you travel to work by train every day, you might not be thrilled by the thought of a train journey as a holiday. But, as I quickly discovered, the wonderful Nordland Railway, which runs from the historic Viking capital of Norway, Trondheim, to the beautiful city of Bod, 729 km away, is a very unusual one.
Stunning scenery, rock formations, valleys and fjords made looking out of the train window a real pleasure and the ten hour journey seemed to fly by. My eye kept being caught by wooden buildings houses, barns, sheds painted in a bright red colour. A Norwegian local explained that the red paint had once been quite cheap and people had used it to colour and preserve their wooden buildings. It was just as expensive as other colours now, she confessed, but Norwegians had grown to like the shade of bright red!
A real highlight for me was crossing the Arctic Circle the first time I’ve ever done it. It felt like quite a solemn occasion as the landscape was quite bleak trees do no grow there and we were all waiting expectantly with our cameras poised. I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not, but I swear that the temperature dropped a few degrees as the train took me quickly past it.
It was certainly an experience and one that I’d love to repeat. Thank you to www.greatrail.com for this train journey with a real difference.
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