Hi Gail,

My opinion about the best way of seeing Norway in a limited period of time is to take a roundtrip at The Hurtigruten. It travels all the way from Bergen on the west coast to Kirkenes close to the Russian border and back in 11 days. It visits 34 harbours. You could call it a smaller cruise ship, but it also carries local travellers and goods along the coast. This way you would be able to see genuine native life of Norway. The best time to do the trip is during the summer months, June, July and August if you would like to avoid rough sea. You would have the advantage of the long days and midnight sun and if you like, stay at the deck 24 hours to enjoy the nature! The further north you go the longer the season of the sun that never sets will be. Certainly you'll need to go north of the Artic Circle (which is a bit north of the city of Trondheim and not visible at all!) to experience it at all. There's certainly an obelisk at the highway where the circle is calculated to be, but this isn't much of a sight itself. The summers can sometimes be as warm as at the Mediterranean as the sun is shining day and night and heating the air and ground. But you should also be prepared for colder weather, rain and at sea there's always some winds blowing. Even when cloudy, the nights will be as bright as the day in the Artic area. Norway is a very long country. If you drive from early morning to late night without a stop, you could go from south to north in 3-4 days, and then it's back again... http://www.hurtigruten.com/index.asp I would very much like to do this roundtrip myself and I hope Gail will.

Another, may be cheaper option, is to by excursions from Bergen or Oslo to the fjords.

I hope this was of some help.

Best regards, Aina