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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 60.8495, 7.11493
Fletcher had heard great things about the Flam Railway so we asked at the Tourist Office the best way to see this. They sold us a full day package starting from Bergen, which included a ride on this remarkable stretch of railway line, called Norway in a Nutshell.
So on Friday morning at 8am we made our way to Bergen Railway station . It was raining but it was only a 20 minute walk so even Fletcher managed! Our train left at 8-40am and travelled to Myrdal. It was a two hour trip and we went through many tunnels, but in between there were glimpses of fjords. At Myrdal we transferred to the other track and boarded the train to Flam. The Flam Railway is recognised as being one of the steepest tracks in the world. It was startedin the 1920s and completed in 1944 so many of thetunnels were hand cut. It is a remarkable bit of engineering. We descended from Myrdal with spectacular views over the Flam Valley. There are many tunnels and one does a 180 degree turn inside the mountain.
We stopped at Kjosfossen Waterfall. We all alighted and were entertained by, not only the spectacular
natural waterfall, but haunting music and dancers who seemed to disappear and reappear in the middle of the falls themselves. A nice piece of theatre. We continued on with the views of the track itself as well as the valley below becoming more and more interesting. Then it was through a final long tunnel and out into the sunshine and down on the valley floor to Flam.
We had an hour in Flam to look around. We went into the Railway Museum and learned about the men and ,ethods of those who built this engineering feat. Flam sits at the end of Sognefjord or King of all fjords. It is the longest and deepest of all, testimony to that was the fact that the P&O Oriana was tied up at the dock. We found a great local bar, Aegir brewery and sampled one of their wares. This is well done and would be very cosy in winter. We also bought ourselves each a jumper as the souvenir shop was a factory outlet with prices half of those in Bergen,
Grabbing a sandwich we then embarked on the next stage, a boat ride through the fjord to Gudvangen. This was a beautiful trip
with many waterfalls visible down the sides of 1,000 metre high cliffs and small fishing and farming villages along the banks. The sun was shining but the wind was cold so we rugged up as we sat at the stern watching the beauty of nature unfold at every turn. It took about 2 hours
In Gudvangen we changed to a bus to take us to Voss.Near the start of this journey we wound down the Stalheimskleiva, a 1.5km length of road with 180degree bends and a gradient of 1 to 5. I admired the driver's skill in getting the large bus around such narrow corners and controlling our descent. The view as we came down was amazing. A beautiful green valley surrounded by steep cliffs and many small waterfalls. The rest of the trip revealed more sights and tunnels. At the end of an hour we arrived at Voss.
We had a 30 minute wait in Voss for the last stage, the train back to Bergen. We waited in the Railway station with a beer and hot chips that I had craved when on board the ship!! Once the train came we took our assigned seats and returned to Bergen. I must
admit there was some dozing on the way back.
Back in Bergen we walked past the lake in the centre of town back to the harbour. There we found the Chang-Mai Restaurant and had delicious Thai food for dinner. Fletcher thought it was the best food, more "normal" food, he had had recently.
Our last full day in Norway had been a busy but spectacular one. Tomorrow we fly to Copenhagen.
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