Blogs from Flåm, Western Norway, Norway, Europe

I woke up early (5 am) and headed into the front room to do some blog writing. Shelley woke up around 6 am and it was then that I went in for a shower. I came out, and Shelley pointed to the HUMUNGOUS cruise ship that was pulling up alongside the jetty in Flåm. I don’t think the photos do it justice. This thing was massive. Shelley rushed into the shower so that we could be ready to be downstairs at the bakery at 8:00 when they opened os we could get our coffees and pastries before heading out in Flåm to snoop around the shops and then hit the road for Oslo. We were the first in line at the bakery getting there around 7:30 after watching more of the action surrounding the securing of ... read more

I think the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to was Flåm. It was the place where I had based my roadtrip around, even though it was not my original plan at all. While researching my trip, i noticed a hotel called Flåmsbrygga, which had a two-night package, including dinner both nights, a beer tasting at its brewery and nice rooms. I thought this looked perfect - a good mix of chilling and sightseeing in a typical Norwegian fjord. It is a town that typically receives cruise ships during the summer months, but thankfully it looked pretty low season this time of year. My kinda place. After driving through the tunnel from Undredal Stave church, i took the exit into town and easily found my hotel, got checked in and went to ... read more

7th October Flam After a bumpy voyage from Stavanger on the North Sea we arrived in the early hours of the morning to the calm waters of the Aurlandsfjord. I set the alarm early to enjoy the scenery but it was pouring with rain and the mist was low over the mountains so it was back under the covers. We arrived in Flam around 10am, we were booked on the first tour for the journey on the famous Flam Railway which we have been on twice before; one time with snow on the ground another with blue skies and sunshine but today is was grey skies and very wet! The Flåm Railway was built between 1923 and 1940 in order to assure a transport route to the fjord from Bergen and Oslo. As one of the ... read more

Unser nächstes touristisches Highlight ist Flåm. Flåm wird ziemlich stark von Kreuzfahrtschiffen und diversen Touranbietern frequentiert, weil es ein Punkt der Norway-in-a-nutshell-Fahrten ist. Wir machen eine weitere Fjord-Tour durch den Nærøyfjord und den Aurlandsfjord, zwei schöne Arme des über 200 km langen Sognefjords. Und wir fahren mit der Bahn die wirklich spektakuläre Strecke durch das Flåmsdal nach Myrdal hoch. Die Bahn überwindet auf 20 km immerhin 850 Höhenmeter, hat ein Gefälle von 1:18 und macht eine 180-Grad-Kurve im Berg, was für eine normale Reibungsbahn (ohne Seil oder Zahnrad) beachtlich ist. Die Ausblicke sind phastastisch. Nachdem wir uns diese Touren mit unglaublich vielen Reisenden aus aller Herren Länder geteilt haben, zieht es uns in die einsame Bergsteppe. Von Myrdal aus fahren wir eine Station mit dem regulären Zug weiter und steigen auf 1.220 m in Finse rig ... read more

Here we have our drive from Bergen to Aurland, and a couple of pictures around our guesthouse. The day is simply beautiful, at least after we leave the fully overcast skies of Bergen (remember, they only have one in six sunny days). Our route, of course, follows the fjords with innumerable tunnels-the longest seven miles. Building roads here is not cheap and many incorporate a toll. They are very efficient in collecting tolls; simply register your tag with their toll website and it occurs automatically, even painlessly...until the credit card bill comes due. Our drive passes a number of waterfalls; we are sure we missed many more, but we will send the ones we liked the most. Hope you like them as well. The fjords have waterfalls around most every corner. Finally, we have a very ... read more