Blogs from Flåm, Western Norway, Norway, Europe
October 6th 2010
What a train ride............ the Bergan rail! 8 hours of untouched scenic landscape, with the occasional small village here and there and its highest point in Finse where we reached 1,222 above sea level. We left most of our luggage in Oslo because we were going to return there in a few days. Poor Belinda realised at the highest point above sea level that she really didn't pack appropriatley with only a thin cardigan to keep her warm lol, but the train ride went really fast and before we knew it we were in the west of Norway, the second largest city, Bergan. Now one thing that I still fail to learn is that Sundays are a bad day for any traveller. Loads of things in Europe are always shut and public transport is at a ... read more
August 15th 2010
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 ... read more
August 14th 2010
This was the last day of my hike and it was supposed to have the best scenery and as a result is one of the most popular routes in the area. After the downpour the day before the sun was out again for the hike to Vassbygdi. I set off with my Belgium chums and on the way passed a German couple that had been doing the same journey from Finse. There are 2 options for this last part of the journey, you can follow the river, which is basically flat or climb 400 metres up Bjornstigen, this is ominously called the bear trail. Obviously wanting to make things as difficult as possible I chose the bear trail, and regretetd it immediately. It did off amazing views but I was that exhausted when I finally got ... read more
July 24th 2010
Sorry for the delay on Norway info everyone. Everything went so quickly. We arrived in Oslo and were shuttled to our hotel by an "uncle-like" man who dropped us off and picked us up wherever we were booked. So glad because everything is so different there. Spent the afternoon/evening with Arne's cousin Jonn Mero begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting. They've be "skypping" each other for a while now and we were finally able to meet in person. Had a great time catching up and laughing with Jonn before he had to leave. We should have gone straight to bed though because we were picked up the next morning at 7:30 am to go to the train station. This turned out to be our busiest and longest day. We took a train from Oslo to Myrdal / transferred to another train ... read more
July 17th 2010
Nachdem wir gestern in Oslo angekommen sind und es auch einmal in die Jugendherberge geschafft haben (sie wollten uns zuerst nicht aufnehmen, dabei sehen wir doch so lieb aus), ging es wieder in die Osloer Innenstadt. Zuallererst mussten wir natuerlich das "Den Norske Opera & Ballett House" besichtigen, nachdem uns das sogar per SMS nahegelegt wurde. Auf der Oper kann man wunderbar spazieren gehen und es gibt auch eine schoene Aussicht aufs Meer, und sich sogar hinlegen und ein bisschen "chillen" kann man auch. :) Als wir dann auch noch die Fotos zu den einzelnen Erbauungsetappen angesehen hatten, ging es weiter. Viele der Museen hatten zwar nicht mehr offen, was wir aber nicht so tragisch fanden, weil das meiste eigentlich eher uninteressant geklungen hat. Stattdessen machten wir uns auf einen kleinen Fussmarsch (7km) zum Vigelandpark, ein ... read more
Naeroyfjord - now, say that 10x fast
Published: June 22nd 2010Europe » Norway » Western Norway » Flåm
June 22nd 2010
Internet was a total fail yesterday… so I just posted yesterday’s story from Flam before this one (scroll down on the previous page). Had a lazy morning again today - it was nice to not have to get up early. I didn’t pull a 13-hr sleep again though haha, thankfully. Check-out was 11am, so after that I just slowly wandered back towards the docks. A *HUGE* cruise ship had pulled in this morning, and when I saw huge, I mean huge. It’s the largest cruiser I’ve ever seen, so it looks ridiculous in the time dock space haha. The other tour boats and can barely fit in around it. Skills. Early afternoon I took the fjord boat from Flam to Gudvangen - about a 3-hr cruise. The views were AMAZING. And the photos really do not ... read more
June 21st 2010
Total faillll haha. I bought 30min internet time yesterday so I could post this last night and the stupid internet wouldn’t work. Boo-urns. Thankfully I got my money back this morning -I’m copy and pasting this from last night, so pretend I wrote it yesterday: I started things off with my usual excitement this morning by sleeping through my first alarm haha - thankfully I had a back-up plan. Nevertheless, I had one hour to get ready, walk to the metro, get into Oslo, get my ticket, and get on the train. SUPERSPEED. I did it though =) Good thing I had packed last night. Train from Oslo to Mydral was fun. The lady beside me spoke to 5x in Norwegian. First time was hello, but the other 4x were each actual sentences lol. You would ... read more
October 11th 2009
I walked along the fjord on a foot/bicycle pathfor about 4km to get to the sign and the farm ...Otternes 0.5. The half Kilometer to the ancient site was almost straight up. Well not quite... Once on the site I met a man who worked the farm but lived further down the mountain. He said his ancestors had lived on the farm in the 1700. Now he rents from his brother. He did not go into details. Sheep are on the farm and apple trees and hay fields. During the season he leads school groups and tourist talks. I walked around and took lots of pictures. At the edge of the farm were benches for lunch time sitting. The grass was wet and I regretted not having my waterproof boots. The Docs are going to ... read more
October 10th 2009
Spent quite some time at the Info Centre using the internet. At the souvenir shop it costs 60nok for 60 min. The Italian Davide, who works in the Info Centre, is extremely helpful and kind. His computer even had Open Office. Downloading pics was a problem because I did not have them on my USP. He offered coffee and cookies. He even phoned Stalheim ... that hotel so high up in the fjord ...no answer. Becasue there is such a long time between busses I think I will have to forget about visiting the site. Also spoke to some people in the restaurant and they said that the sign for Stalheim Hotel is covered over.Read the place is only open from May to September. I visited the Flam Rail Museum today. What an exciting story is ... read more
October 9th 2009
At 09:30 in the morning took the bus to Gudvangen .. On arrival walked down the road to the wharf and there waited for the ferry .. wandered about to a soon to be completed, when they get money, replica of a Viking village. Crossed a wooden bridge to get there. Because it was early in the morning there was a less than tissue paper thin layer of ice on the wooden planks. Was careful on the way up but on the decent the ice was indiscernible. The Doc Martins flew out from under me so fast I did not feel it coming. I landed on my padded ass. No pics of the sprawl! Only my arm seems to be affected. It is hard to put on my small backpack. Have not tried the big one ... read more
