Flam

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Flam, meaning "little place with steep mountains," is nestled on Aurlandsfjord, the innermost arm of the world's second longest fjord, Sognefjord, which stretches halfway across Norway. With its snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, river, meadows and picturesque farms, Flam is beautiful and accessable by boat, car and train.

We received a surprise while sitting in our hotel room after breakfast to see that a cruise liner had sneaked in and silently tied up. 1800 passengers were about to desend on the town! The expensive tourist shops were soon crowded; many were heading off for the Flam railway trip. Others took the adrenaline rush of a power boat ride bouncing across the lake and under waterfalls. My heart went out to the poor screaming child between two adults who were looking forward to the experience.

We headed off for a walk in the country!

The Flam railway is a 20.2-kilometer long line between Myrdal and Flåm. It is a branch line of the Oslo to Bergen Line, and runs through the valley of Flåmsdalen and connects the mainline with Sognefjord. Construction of the line started in 1924, with the line opening in 1940 and was built with little mechanical assistance.

The line's elevation difference is 863 meters; it has ten stations, twenty tunnels and one bridge. The maximum gradient is 5.5 percent (1:18). It is NOT a rack and cog line.

The train stopped twice; once for the downwards train to pass, and once for passengers to get out, and get drenched at the Kjosfossen Waterfall. Here a figure in a red dress tried to encourage us to follow her(?) deeper into the alpine areas, thus enacting an old fable of the area! In a few places you could see the zig zags where the train briefly came out of the series of tunnels.

Myrdal station was surrounded by snow, and from here the Bergen to Oslo line climbs higher to 1220m! Even in mid summer we saw a couple of ice covered lakes.

We then experienced a most bizarre event. A young female attendant was left behind at one of the brief stops. The train waited for her to catch up by taxi. As a result we were 40 minutes late into Oslo, and some people missed connections. There was speculation she was having a quick cigarette!

When we arrived at our hotel (approx 11pm local time) it was clearly full. So they put us in a suite on the top floor overlooking the Opera House and City Square. We keep losing each other in the place.