Flam, Norway and the Flamsbana Railway

We were on day six of our Scandinavian cruise, and we must have been wowed-out by the beauty of the magnificent Norwegian fjords. Even though we got up early to see the scenery, we took almost no pictures of the steep mountains that surrounded the narrow inlet of the fjord. The clouds were hanging on the mountains as we looked down from the ship's upper decks to our next destination--the tiny village of Flam, Norway.

Mark was feeling better, but we were afraid that Denisa had caught the flu that kept him under the weather for four days. So we took a short hike (haven't we said that before?) that took us out of town on a country lane.

Most of our ship-mates were still sleeping when we were already a couple kilometers up the trail. We were feeling blessed to need to wear a jacket in July for this hike.

We were on the Brekkfossen viewpoint trail on our way to the Raokjen Waterfall that was somewhere up that mountain behind us.

As we started the climb up the mountain, we were generating enough heat from our exertion to shed our jackets. It was a steady incline up a row of endless stone steps to get to the viewpoint of the village of Flam below.

A little higher, and we could see our ship docked in the fjord far below.

The views were nice, but we climbed all those steps to see the Raokjen waterfall cascading out of the side of the mountain.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders in Norway!

We took a lot of pictures, perhaps stalling our trek back down all those stone steps. While we almost had the views at the top to ourselves, we met a steady stream of cruise hikers on our way down.

This was a loop trail, and we had new things to see on our walk back to the village. In the valley we passed by a herd of sheep that looked like they were ready to be sheared.

We also found this herd of highland cattle, with their long horns and shaggy bangs.

Norway loves its trolls, and we found this guy beside the trail with fresh flowers in hand.

After hanging out in campgrounds for the last nine years, we have a special interest in RV parks. Once again we found one at a beautiful location in Norway.

While we found Flam to be a great place to hike, it was most famous for its railroad. Another free thing to do in town was the railroad museum featuring some of the old railroad cars.

All the morning trains were sold out from excursions arranged through the cruise lines. But right after the ship docked in Flam, we went to the train office and snagged a couple seats for the last train of the day on the Flamsbana Railway.

We were waiting in line when the train arrived, and we saw the huge crowd of people getting off from the next-to-last train of the day. Who knew so many people could fit on this little train?

Our train left at 2:55, and should return at 5:05. That would give us just enough time to make it back to our ship for its 5:30 p.m. sailing. We tried not to be nervous about that close timing, secretly hoping that we had some ship passengers on a cruise-sponsored excursion on this train. We knew that the ship would wait for them if the train should arrive back to town late.

We had read that the best scenery was on the right-hand side of the train, so we found what we thought was the best seat. But then we realized that the seat behind Mark was better. It had a window that opened, so pictures didn't have to be taken through the glass.

So most of our pictures on the blog were actually taken on the return trip when we sat by one of those open windows.

This train ride is touted as the prettiest scenery, and the #1 thing to do when visiting Norway. The views out the window made us understand why.

For the second time today, we are wandering through some of God's best wonders in Norway!

About half-way through the hour-long ride, the train comes to a stop beside the Kjosfossen waterfall. While Denisa was standing there smiling, her back was getting drenched by the spray from the powerful falls.

The platform at the stop was filled by the passengers, who were looking up on the right side of the waterfall. The forest spirit, Huldra, appears like clockwork when the train stops. You can see her as the tiny red dot on the side of the mountain, dancing to a Norwegian folk tune.

We took another picture of Huldra and the waterfall on the train's stop on the way back. It's hard to tell from the distance, but we're pretty sure that this forest nymph was a man in a red dress and blond wig.

It took an hour to get to the train's only destination--the tiny town of Myrdal. We had traveled from sea level all the way up to 867 meters above sea level. That's a climb of 2,844 feet for the Flamsbana Railway. Some passengers would make a connection to another train that would take them to other locations in Norway, but we stayed on the train for the trip back down the mountain.

While parked at the Myrdal station, we looked down on a house with the traditional Norwegian shingles. 

Earlier, we had seen a box of these circular thin pieces of stone. Then we realized that those were the stone shingles we were seeing on most of the houses in Flam.

Back on the train, we didn't have any live narration. But we did have a television screen that described some of the passing scenery--in Norwegian.

From our open window, we could plainly see the bike trail that is a great way to return back to Flam. We had thought about doing that, but didn't because of Denisa's questionable biking skills. The trail was gravel and quite steep at the beginning. Considering that we both are feeling less than 100%, it was a good thing we didn't go on the bike ride today.

That bike ride is famous for being completely downhill all the way to Flam, as riders lose all the elevation that the train gained on the way to Myrdal. That's a nice bike road when you get to coast for 13 miles as you lose 2,844 feet in elevation . . .

through some of the loveliest scenery in the world.

It was nice to have the views out the window without the glass in front of us on the return trip.

We kept spotting the bike trail as we continued our train journey. Now it was between the railroad tracks and the river.

We knew we were getting close to Flam when we spotted the bridge that we had walked over early this morning on our hike to the waterfall.

The train was running on time, and we arrived at the railroad station in time to walk back to the ship before our designated departure time. Buying the tickets ourselves was much cheaper than taking the ship's excursion that did exactly the same train ride. After our final day on land in Norway, we still had the lovely cruise ride back through the fjords.

Mark took a screen shot of his phone that better explains where we were in Norway. At the top left, you can see the town of Maloy, our port stop from the day before. We are the large blue dot, sailing through those narrow inlets of water known as fjords. Flam is further east deeper in the fjord, and isn't on the map because we've been sailing west down the fjord toward the sea for about an hour. We would highly recommend a Scandinavian cruise that includes some time in the fjords!

We would also recommend some nice hikes and a ride on the Flamsbana Railway. Norway was lovely in the summer!