Norway (Northern lights)

[Newshy37]

I'm thinking of a trip out to Norway to hopefully see the northern lights, probably in October or November. I would fly out and come back on the train. Anyone here been up to the top of Norway on the train? Any ideas, thoughts or advice very welcome. I believe it is very expensive. Any Nohabs still working? or any loco hauled diesels for that matter. Ta, Dave.

 

[Zerothebrake!]

Howdy,I've been up there a couple of times in both winter and summer and it's well worth doing.Look at flying with Norweigan from Gatwick into either Trondheim or Bodo - the second option is a lot more expensive though as it requires a change of planes in Oslo.The train fares and schedules can be found on the NSB website but basically they run twice daily up to Bodo from Trondheim (with the exception of the overnights in each direction on a Saturday).Look out for their mini pris tickets as these offer the best available fares.There's a decent hostel located within the station building at Bodo (£38 a night..I know,but that's Norway for you) otherwise there are a small number of hotels starting at around £80 and up.Good luck with the lights - the conditions need to be perfect for them to show, but they are a truly amazing sight to see.Not sure if you'll encounter any Nohabs that far up but there should be a few CL66's about on freight and the five big Henschel diesels that work the passenger services to and from Trondheim are enough reason to go in themselves.Hope this helps..

 

[CallySleeper]

NSB was also discussed recently in more generic terms here

 

[rf_ioliver]

Northern lights can be a bit temperamental, but this and next year correspond to the solar maximum (if the Sun behaves as it isn't at the moment...), but going that far north (eg: Bodö) for a week is also a guarantee. We had a beautiful display visible as far south as southern Finland last week - the pictures from the north were even more spectacular.

As for trains, in another thread Norwegian Rail was highly recommended.

However, if you are interested in the 10 hours from Trondheim to Bodö then you're in luck (shown a few days ago week on Finnish TV...seriously compulsive viewing), Norwegian TV made a 9 hour TV programme about the journey using cameras mainly from the front of the train. Also taken in all four seasons which the programme splices together seamlessly.

Take a look here: http://tv.nrk.no/serie/nordlandsbanen-minutt-for-minutt/dvfj60010112/sesong-1/episode-1

and here (with links) in English: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/01/03/nrks-slow-tv-won-more-viewers/

Norwegian TV made a similar programme about the Bergensbanan (Bergen-Oslo) a few years ago.

t.

Ian

 

[CallySleeper]

Now I know what I'm going to do tomorrow! Thanks!!!

 

[jb]

One thing about price... if you book in advance you can get very cheap fares. I live south of Oslo - about as far away from Bodø as you can get in Norway - and can book a trip to Bodø (1300km, 20 hours) in June for 249 kr (£28) one way.

You can book advances ("Minipris") about 3 months in advance.

 

[Bald Rick]

Going back a couple of decades - I slept from Bodo to Trondheim on the day after midsummers, so can't tell you what it was like!

But the route up to Narvik from Kiruna is superb. From memory there is a daily train from Stockholm; it takes about 20 hours. Narvik is further north than Bodo, and I think that's where the buses to Tromso go from.