Day 11 - Still More Fjords And A Flam Train

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It is with a heavy heart that we begin our last day of wandering the fjords of Norway. Without a doubt, it is the most beautiful place we have ever seen on earth. This morning we left at the typical 8:00 with the first stop at a ferry across the fjord just a few minutes away. Since everyone is now fully trained and aboard the bus about 10 minutes early, we were able to arrive at an earlier ferry just as it was about to leave. We drove right onto the ferry as it closed up the ramp and headed for the opposite shore. This was one of the new electric ferries and it was super smooth and quiet.

As we reached the other shore, we continued to view more of the beautiful fjord scenery as we headed for the Laerdal Tunnel. At 24.51 km (15.23 mi) it is the longest road tunnel in the world. Built from 1995 to 2000 and somehow costing only $113 Million it is an engineering marvel. There are 3 spots marked by blue overhead light where we are allowed to pull over and stop the bus. Arpi took advantage of the center pull over, and stopped the bus so we could get out and take pictures under the eerie blue lighting.

After taking some strange pictures, we got back on the bus to continue our journey to Flam. Flam is a tiny little village of only about 350 people, but its main claim to fame is the Flamsbana or the Flam to Myrdal Scenic Railway. Since we arrived at about 10:00AM, and our tickets were not until noon, it gave us plenty of time to do a little souvenir shopping and stop at the local bakery for a coffee and cinnamon roll. By the time noon rolled around, we were fully awake and ready to roll.

The Flam Railway to Myrdal is about 20 km (15.5 mi) long and rises from about 6 ft above sea level to about 2850 ft and takes about an hour. The views were spectacular along the way, and we had enough people oto occupy about half of a train car to ourselves. It was a great ride, but we had to take most of our pictures through the windows as there were a couple of windows that would open, but they needed to be closed whenever we passed through a tunnel, and there are about 20 tunnels on the route. So I took a couple of pictures through the open windows, but quickly gave up opening and closing them every few minutes.

About halfway through the trip we passed a spectacular waterfall called the Kjosfossen Waterfall or the Dancing Woman Waterfall. It turns out the train actually stops at the waterfall and waits five minutes so everyone can get out and take pictures. There is also music and a performance of a dancing woman as everyone clambered to the edge to get a picture. Whe the train stopped, Jody and I headed over to the rail to take our vides, but I lost sight of her so I wasn’t able to get a picture in front of the falls. When I returned to the train, Jody was waiting back at her seat concerned that she had left the passports unattended and wanting to be sure she wasn’t left behind.

At Myrdal we had to change trains to get to Voss, the next stop on our journey. But the trains were running behind schedule, and the train that arrived was not our train. We almost got on the wrong one, but in the end Maja saved the day and made sure we were all safely on our way to Voss on the correct train. The train to Voss was actually even nicer and more comfortable than the one from Flam to Myrdal, but the scenery while beautiful was not as spectacular. It may just be that our fjord beauty standards have become jaded by our last few days of constant bombardment of scenic beauty.

Once we arrived in Voss, the ubiquitous Arpi had miraculously made his way to the train station and was ready with the bus to take us on to our next destination. Our next stop was to be a small privately owned fruit farm in the Hardanger Fjord. We ended up needing to walk over the last bridge to the village, as even though the bridge was for cars, it was only 4 ft wide, and much too narrow for the bus. There we met our local guide and owner of the fruit farm that had been in her family for 9 generations since the 17^th century. The farm grows strawberries and raspberries, but its real claim to fame is its apple orchards and its apple cider production.

At the fruit farm, they grow several varieties of apples for use in the various blends of apple cider they manufacture with alcohol content from the typical 10 percent to as much as 19 percent. Since Jody and I don’t drink, we passed on the apple cider that everyone said was delicious and had some of the best apple juice we had ever tasted. It was just plain unsweetened apple juice, but had just the ric=ght amount of natural sweetness to make it delicious.

In addition, they also make what they call an apple cake, which resembles an apple pie, but the pastry is more cake-like than pie-like. It was really delicious, and they gave us a copy of the recipe that I will give to Cindy to try. But I suspect the real secret is the Aroma Apple used. In the end, it took care of our afternoon snack needs, and we were assured of not starving before our evening meal.

As we left the fruit farm behind, we boarded the bus for our final leg of the journey, but along the way, there was one more stop to make at the Steinsdalsfossen, or Hardanger Waterfall. This is a 46 meter (151 ft) high waterfall with a path leading up to where we could actually go behind and under the falls without getting wet. It was a bit of a hike uphill, but well worth the exertion for some great pictures behind the falls.

After a quick stop at the Hardanger Waterfall, we got back on the bus for our final destination of the day, Bergen. Now Bergen has been called the capital of the fjords as it is the second largest city at 250,000 people, behind Oslo in Norway and is located on the west coast in the middle of the fjords Our hotel is in the center of the old town district of Bergen, and should be great fun to explore tomorrow. But, by now it is almost 7:30 and time for dinner and a good night’s rest. Dinner tonight is in the hotel, and it was really delicious. We had a Caesar salad, white fish with potatoes and carrots and a Norwegian dessert that was like a crème brulé except it was chocolate. All were delicious!

Tomorrow, we have a late start with an old town city tour at 9:30, and the rest of the day to ourselves. Bergen is also a cruise ship destination, and there are a few ships in port, hopefully they won’t be too disruptive as we explore Bergen tomorrow!

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