Day 13 Flam

---

We woke up to an amazing scene from our cabin window - the town of Flam with its towering mountains on either side. Flam (pronounced Flom) is renowned for the famous Flam Railway, a 20 km section of mountainous track which rises 866 m making it the steepest section of railway in the world. The trip up to the top is as scenic as you will see anywhere, a winding river follows the track through mountainous ravines and waterfalls around every bend with the longest free fall waterfall around 140 metres. The town of Flam is quite small - only 400 people live there and on surrounding farms however there were several thousands tourists waiting to catch the train when we arrived at the station. The train stopped at a waterfall where we were entertained by a woman dressed in orange dancing to the wailing sounds of Norweigian folk music.

Our 10 km hike started on a steep zig zag section of track where a new zip line has commenced operation which is more than 1.7 km long. The first section of the hike was around a cascading waterfall which followed us down to the main river and the remainder of the hike followed the river down along the train line back to Berekvan station where we caught the train back to Flam for a 4:30 pm departure. It was drizzling rain for the last hour of the hike so we were well and truly damp by the time we returned to the ship. Our early departure time was for a reason - the ship made a detour up a picturesque fiord which branchef off the main fiord. The scenery from the ship deck was breathtaking.

At our evening meal it was British Theme night so many people were dressed in Union Jack outfits and Andrew was serenaded at our dinner table by a singing trio playing guitar but he expected as much as other birthday celebrants had received a similar experience over the last couple of nights including someone on the table next to us tonight just before Andrew. The serenade also came with a special Birthday cake which was enjoyed by all six of us from our table. The nightly entertainment was “British Invasion Theme“ so the Cabernet show and nightly crooners all sang British songs from the 50’s to 90’s.

---

Photos

Flam
View from our cabin window as we wake up in Flam

Flam
The Balmoral arrives in Flam

Flam
How great it is to be in Flam says Tish

Flam
Tish on the Flam Railway station platform

Flam
View of our zig zagged hike trail from the train window

Flam
We all poured off the train to view this waterfall and watch a woman dressed in orange dance to a wailing Norwegian folk music

Flam
The woman in Orange dances on the hill top next to a huge waterfall along the Flan railway line

Flam
Tish with our Flam Railway carriage in the background

Flam
New zip line on top of the valley where we started our hike from

Flam
Yet another waterfall

Flam
Not another waterfall says Tish

Flam
No need to travel to Foxborough to see Tom Brady when there are plenty over here walking the streets

Flam
We arrive back at the Balmoral after a big day’s hiking

Norwegian Fiord
View from the back of the Balmoral as we enter the scenic fiord

Norwegian Fiord.
We make a left turn into a scenic fiord

Norwegian Fiord
Doesn’t get much better than this

Balmoral
We pass the Fred Olsen sister ship the Braemar yet again as we sit for dinner

Flam
More waterfalls than you can shake a stick at on our 10 km hike

Flam
The River is tunnelled under the road as this valley is regularly flooded and bridges were constantly damaged

Flam
View from the train station on our journey back into Flam

Comments

[Barbara]

Hi
Love your journey, beautiful photo's/scenery. pity weather wasn't a bit better but Andrew would probably prefer that weather especially when doing all that hiking. Glad Andrew had a lovely birthday surprise being serenaded and getting a birthday cake x