Day 5 - Flam

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Today I would be among the mass of tourists that visit Flam every summer, most people take the Norway in a Nutshell tour which I would recommend as it was easier and was not much more expensive than doing it yourself (it uses public transport anyway). My German chums and myself caught the ferry from Aurland to Gudvangen, this stretch of the Sognefjord (the longest Fjord in Norway 126 miles long) is one of the most beautiful, we were surrounded by near vertical mountains up to 1400 metres high.

Flam is a world heritage site and is the starting point for most of the activities in the area - you can even go on a tractor safari!!.

After around 2 hours the ferry reached Gudvangen, which was a departure point of the Vikings on there maraudering trips to England in medieval times. I did consider getting a bit of payback by nicking some souvenirs and raping the bar maid but decided to let things lie:-)

We then caught the bus back to Flam and the got on the Flamsbana railway, the journey from Flam to Myrdal takes an hour and over the 20km stretch it climbs 850 metres and goes through 20 tunnels.

"The Flåm Railway is one of the worlds steepest railway lines on normal gauge. The gradient is 55/1000 on almost 80% of the line, i.e. a gradient of one in eighteen. The twisting tunnels that spiral in and out of the mountain are manifestations of the most daring and skilful engineering in Norwegian railway history."

Once we got to the top of the railway at Myrdal I said goodbye to my German chums as they were heading back to Oslo and I caught the train to Bergen arriving in the evening. I had a pleasant evening in an Irish bar, where I bought a litre of beer (I had to make up for the night before) that cost me £13 and had a chat with a guy from Ireland who was working in Bergen.

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