Narvik to Lulea

Before I left Oslo I had looked at the Swedish Railway website to see if I could get a ticket on the train that day. It said that it was booked out but when I looked at the carriages, I saw that they were virtually empty. I asked somebody who looked like he might know what he was doing whether I could get on the train and he said it was fine. He was going to drive the train!

I found a good seat and the train started off. The conductor turned up and looked at my ticket for the train the prior day and was fine with it when I told him about the plane delay. He looked at his list of reserved seats and asked me to move to another seat which was a single by itself. You can imagine how relieved and exhilarated I felt. The real journey was beginning.

The matching seat to mine on the other side of the carriage.

I had done this journey 40 years ago in the reverse direction. I had forgotten how stunning the ride through the mountains was. I was so glad that I decided to take a chance on Narvik rather than go directly to Helsinki. As my sister Clare pointed out to me -

“The journey not the arrival matters.” ― T.S. Eliot

Narvik to Lulea at EveryTrail

I had been looking forward to seeing Narvik again after an absence of 40 years. Not that I remember too much about it except that it was quite a slog up the hill to the Youth Hostel and that I went into a bakery with the most delicious smell of bread. Norwegian bread is often heavy, dense and wonderful.

So this was about it for Narvik.

The road into Narvik.

Yes, it's a fjord.

It reminded me of Milford Sound in New Zealand.

The end of the fjord.

Many of the older houses in Norway are painted this shade of red.

It's a wild and woolly landscape.

This must be a skier's heaven. At every station another bunch of tired skiers climbed slowly onto the train dragging their skis. Most of the skiers seemed to be cross country rather than down hill.

Lots of tunnels and overhangs to cope with avalanches.

Each station seemed to have some interesting buildings.

A very rocky area.

The reason for the existence of the train line is iron ore. You can read about it here. To be honest, there were only a few iron ore trains that went the other way. There were also some trains loaded with containers. Since their is only one track, our train had to wait at some stations for the on-coming train to pass.

Evergreens were not common. Mostly it was birch denuded of leaves.

Downhill ski slopes.

The last half of the journey is on a flat plain and frankly not all that interesting compared to the mountains.

The train changed direction at Boden so I now had the sun shining in the window which makes taking photos difficult. These were the only windmills I saw.

Interesting building. Most of the towns and villages were bereft of ornate structures like this. 

It was only as the train gor near to Lulea that the snow started to disappear.

The train arrived on time at Lulea. It was a wonderful trip and I would highly recommend it. Make sure you reserve a seat on the northern side of the train.

Oslo to Narvik

Because of the delay in New York, I was concerned that I was behind on my trip, effectively losing two days. Marianne and I exchanged a couple of emails about whether I should skip going to Narvik and just proceed straight to Helsinki. However I decided that the train journey was more important than playing the tourist in Helsinki, so I decided to head north.

Norwegian put me up in a hotel near the airport. The airport is new and so are the motels which have a low block appearance with small windows. Mine was quite comfortable with a view of a field out of the window.

I can't say I slept very well because of the jetlag, but the food provided at buffet dinner and breakfast was adequate. I was expecting to see 1000 varieties of herring, but saw none. The yoghurt I had at breakfast was the best I have ever had and of course, Norwegian bread is wonderful.

The gate I departed from at Oslo was in a terminal that was quite some distance from the main terminal. As you enter the concourse leading to the gate there are signs painted on the floor starting at 8 minutes and decreasing as you get closer to the gates. Good exercise. The gate attendant arrived on a scooter!

It is a quiet terminal with very few announcements, unlike JFK. Which reminds me. While we were waiting for our Norwegian plan to load at JFK there was a Mexico Airlines flight loading at the next gate. The attendant at that gate made announcements every couple of minutes requesting certain passengers to come to the gate. She would start the announcement by tapping on the microphone which became very annoying. After a while, the younger Norwegian people would tap their water bottles on the floor along with her.

Just before we were due to board, the gate attendant announced that there would be a delay to fix a faulty escape chute on a door. Here we go again I thought. Fortunately they fixed it very quickly so we arrived in Evenes airport on time. The flight was good and I had an excellent view of the snow covered mountains of Norway. There were a few flakes of snow as we walked from the plane into the terminal.

A bus with a very friendly and helpful driver took me to Narvik on a spectacular journey of 75 minutes.

And what a bus trip. Enjoy.

Almost at Narvik. I was beginning to think I might make the train to Lulea.

The bus stopped a couple of hundred yards from the Narvik Railway Station and I duly scurried down the street so that I could catch the train to Lulea. I made it with ten minutes to spare and got onto the train. I had gained back a day and was now only one day behind.