Day 18 Tuesday 3 September

We woke up to a gentle rain and the sounds of a ships horn outside. Vern opened the curtains and there was a large P&O ship (Britannia) sailing past us into Flam. That makes sense why when we tried to pre purchase rail tickets last night they were showing as all sold out. Oh well, we would still stick to plan and rock up and see if any came available. Hopefully with the weather looking rainy some cruisling may not bother.

Our accommodations breakfast was not what we have become accustomed to, and to Verns displeasure not only was it a Continental breakfast with no cooked eggs (only boiled), there was no toaster and only one sort of bread which was a bit dry and over risen – not hearty or sourdough. I did have two herrings, smoked roe paste and a very – try and find the shrimp Skagen. Coffee, just filtered and only one type of yoghurt. We must be getting spoilt. Joking aside it is premium pricing for everything in this touristy area, and accordingly one would expect value for ones money – which this place is not. However, I understand that inflated tourist places are just that and you don’t get the same value – still have an expectation or hope though.

We checked ourselves out as there was no one at the reception and it was all prepaid and drove the short distance to Flam the next town, a mere scenic 10 minutes drive. Parking is free at the port and train station and we were so chuffed to be able to purchase a ticket on the next train leaving in an hour. Next bonus the sun was starting to peak through. We felt on a little high, relieved to be able to do one of the key attractions and reasons for staying over a night and doing our own thing.

Given the timings, and what we were able to see and experience from land we decided to give a fjord cruise a miss. It would take 4 hours and instead we would look at a few scenic places on the way out from Flam, and go to Vik to see another Stav church. Additionally whilst it is very pretty here, I have the impression that Milford Sound and our Fjords at home are possibly more scenic. What you see here is two high rocky faces with lots of small thin waterfalls running like streams of tears down its side, and dark green water which only has clarity close to shore. There is little to no sea, bird, and animal life which seems odd and makes it very quiet. Having said that check the duck photo bombing the picture.

We had an hour to spend before the train so we wandered around the harbour and sampled a nice cardamon custard coconut bun from a bakery. It was delicious. When we got back to our train with 15 minutes to spare we quickly went to the bathroom and when we came out we saw our train pulling away. Our previous high plummeted as we realised we got our time wrong. The train came back at 1:15 but departed at 11:00. We thought it departed at 11:15. We could have kicked ourselves as this stuffed our timings up and was such an unnecessary error and we like to think we don’t do things like this as we double check everything if not triple check. Our justification was that we were so surprised to get a ticket and so used to preplanning we didn’t do the usual check and measures. Lesson learnt on that one. Nothing to do but see if we could transfer. Speeding up the story, they do not usually allow a transfer as they have so many passengers and sell out, but they were kind to do this for us. We did have to wait until 3:30pm, which meant we would get into Bergen later than we wanted. That was fine, as we came all this way at great expense to do the rail.

This also meant we couldn’t fit in the Stav church on the way home, but we did go through a series of tunnels – one was 11km long, to the other side of the fjord where the boat trip finishes, and then up the valley to an historic lookout point by a hotel called Stalheim. The hotel is very grand and has been there since around 1700. They are happy for you to go to the garden and take in the view and then use the steepest road in Norway with 18% grade and corkscrew turns past several beautiful waterfalls back to the valley. On the way up we took a wrong turn and tried to drive up this road – thinking it was two way – until we met a bus who set us right. Whoops.

We didn’t venture much further – this filled in a few hours – as there was no way we could afford to miss our next train. When we got back to the port and station we grabbed a quick Reindeer hotdog (made in Flam) which was really nice – quite smoked and tasty with crunchy onions on top, and sautéed onions inside and headed for the train. We settled into our seats and got ready for this famous rail trip.

The return trip takes just under two hours and if you stay on your seat (which are not allocated), you can see the scenery on both sides with the return trip as it winds up the valley, through 20 tunnels to a height of 2,800ft. 3/4 the way up the top the train stops at the most stunning waterfall along the way called Kjosfossen. You get to hop out on a platform and are treated to an appearance of Huldra (a Norwegian temptress of legend) who lives behind the falls and tries to lure men to the rocks with her singing… complete with lovely music being played as she dances and entices. (Note in photo the little orange spot – this is Huldar dancing. Gives perspective to the size of the waterfall).

The general scenery follows a deep valley, is green with lots of small thin waterfalls all tumbling to a rushing boulder filled river at the bottom. There are a few tiny settlements, but nothing like you would see in Switzerland and a continued notable absence of livestock and agricultural activity. The train is an impressive feat of engineering as it is not a cogwheel train as you might expect for such a steep line, but its held to the tracks only by steel wheels with five braking systems.

As we reflected on whether the Flam railway was worth it, we would say as part of the Norway in a Nutshell experience yes, (whether self drive or on a ticket combo by rail) – but as a stand alone trip it wasn’t the most amazing rail we have been on. It is very scenic, the waterfall was fun, but we have been on more memorable train journeys.

After this journey we commenced the 2.5hr journey to Bergen to complete the Norway in a Nutshell itinerary. When reading up about this part of the journey it was described as being a bit boring compared to the first half so I was not expecting an awful lot to look at. This made the passing of the Tvindefossen waterfall near Voss a real treat, it really is one of the prettiest I have seen – my favourite being the Cascades at Vanuatu. Tvindefossen is so elegant it looks manmade with symmetrical terraces neatly directing the cascading water.

The rest of the scenery was what we now would call typical Norwegian, with small towns, lots of rivers, lakes, small tunnels and another big fjord as we got close to Bergen. In the late afternoon and early evening the air was still, so there were many pleasing reflections and the evening even put on a subtle show with a sweet dusky peachy-pink sunset.

We had used the free wifi at the station to map our journey to the Clarion airport hotel at Bergen, and were pleased with the blessing in disguise of being later to hit the city outskirts. It was 8:30 pm by the time we checked in and there was a lot of traffic still around, and lots of roundabouts and turns to get there. We chose the airport to avoid the city altogether which was good planning, aiming to return the car and take public transport in tomorrow for a bit of sight seeing.

The Clarion is a really lovely modern and comfortable hotel and due to the late time we just had dinner in their restaurant. Yep most expensive burger award ever – cheapest thing on the menu just about, but it was absolutely perfect and one of the best we have ever had at 250NOK (43NZ each, plus 24% tax on top of that) I would hope so. The chips had tiny shreds of Parmesan and garlic on them …

We have enjoyed the Nordic and Scandinavian regions, but boy of boy its hard on a kiwi budget and whilst I will miss the food, comfort, standards and helpful English speaking people – I wont miss the prices.