Train to Oslo

The train to Oslo from Bergen takes about 7 hours, but the scenery along the way is beautiful! We rode along several fjords and passed through central Norway.

Voss water anyone?

Snow!

The water is so clear you can see the bottom in many parts.

Krakow, Poland

When we arrived in Krakow we immediately checked into our hotel and took a nap. We visited the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, Auschwitz, and toured downtown Krakow. We decided not to take pictures at Auschwitz and I don't think I'm going to blog about it, mostly because I'm not even sure how to put the experience into words.

Dan has been reading the diary of Saint Faustina, so visiting the Divine Mercy Sanctuary on his birthday was really special for him (he turned 30 by the way! Crazy!) The grounds are made up of several buildings, including the basilica, the chapel which contains the original painting, and the convent of nuns. The basilica has an observation tower with great views of Krakow and the surrounding area.

Downtown was beautiful and I hope we get to come back to enjoy it for longer. We also had a really amazing dinner here of some sort of cheese dumplings. 

Then it was back on a plane to Bergen with a layover in Copenhagen. Dan was able to get some great pictures from the air.

We arrived in Bergen around midnight and soon discovered our building did not have power, which is a problem when we have to use an electronic key card to get in. Luckily a security van passed by shortly after we were considering sleeping in my office and let us in. The power came back on sometime while we were sleeping. We were in Bergen for less than 24 hours, before jumping on a train to Oslo.

Overnight train to Krakow

This was definitely an experience! We got on the train around 10pm in Prague and arrived in Krakow around 7am. Our little room had two small beds and a tiny desk/sink. They woke us up 30 min before our stop and gave us tea and rolls for breakfast. I think I might have slept for a few hours, but it was terrible sleep! We had to keep the window open because the room felt so claustrophobic, so I heard the train screeching all night. It was not a very smooth trip and the beds were hanging on chains, so they swung back and forth all night. Overall it was pretty awful, but it must have been better than those in the regular cars. We paid a little extra to have our own sleeper car, but several people had normal upright seats and they looked even worse than us in the morning!

(Still carrying our map from Paris around!)

Prague

From Munich we took a train to Prague, where we had about 6 hours to walk around before catching our next train to Krakow. We put our luggage in a locker at the train station so we wouldn't have to cart it around all day. Prague is a beautiful city and we both want to come back again to spend more time there. We slowly made our way around town, crossed the river, and went up the hill to see the castle before heading back to the train station in the evening.

There was some sort of race all over town that day.

I think the colors are my favorite thing about Prague.

The view from the castle is just so pretty! We were there right when it was starting to get dark, so everything looked gorgeous.

Lots of gargoyles!

The astronomical clock.

Munich part II

For our last day in Munich we were able to walk around the city center and have some beer at the famous Hofbräuhaus brewery.  There was a lot of music, dancing, and drunk people. We even witnessed a "whip show" (the only way I can describe it). A very jolly man somehow stole a whip and was chasing one of the waitresses down the hall! It is certainly an entertaining place, even if you don't plan to drink a lot.