Flam, Norway - August 13-16

(Bill)
In Geilo, Norway we boarded the Oslo-Bergen train again and traveled two hours northwest to Myrdal, Norway. Besides making you feel like you are standing on the top of the world, Myrdal is the staging point for the scenic Flam Railway (Flamsbana). The Flam Railway was built in the 1940’s to connect the Aurlandsfjord as a supply line to Bergen and Oslo. The railway starts in Myrdal, 2,700 feet above sea level, and snakes down the sheer cliffs to the fjord-side town of Flam. The journey takes about one hour and is filled with unspoiled beauty around every hairpin corner, waterfalls jetting out of the cliffs, sleepy villages, and roaring rivers.

The town of Flam, where we stayed, is beautiful but is definitely built for tourism. Behind the town are the sheer cliffs and waterfalls the Flam Railway descends and in front of the town is the Aurlandsfjord. The scenery is breathtaking, but the town has little to offer from a cultural standpoint. The town consists of a train station, ship dock, three cafeterias, a market, a post office, a few tourist stores, and three hotels. The train station and ship dock keep the town afloat during the summer, pouring new tourists through the area on a daily basis. Most of the people living or working there are from other parts of the world working on exchange for the summer. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed the natural beauty of the area and used Flam as a jump off spot to explore the surrounding areas.

We stayed at the Furukroa Hotel (www.furukroa.no) which is located at the head of the town overlooking the fjord. Our room on the first night was on the side of the hotel with a relatively good view of the town and the fjord. On the second and third night we had to move rooms but were upgraded to the junior suite (I scored it for the same price with my overly flattering email when we booked). This room was on the front of the hotel and had a completely unobstructed view of the fjord, which made the long quiet nights extremely easy to revel in the scenery. That is UNTIL…I woke up the morning after moving, took my book outside to enjoy the beautiful view, opened the door to the deck, and there it was…a HUGE, annoying white cruise ship. So, we now had an unobstructed view of the cruise ship. Damn those cruise ships. Luckily the ship left that evening and we got our view back.

While in Flam we took a few great hikes. On our first day we hiked six miles around the fjord to the town of Aurland. Unfortunately it was Sunday so mostly everything in the small town was closed but *somehow* we found a hotel with a deck and a view of the fjord and we decided to relax in the sun, beer and wine in hand. We took the ferry back to Flam – may have been the drinks??? On our second day we hiked a few miles into the mountains, back towards Myrdal, along the Flam Railway to the Brekkefossen waterfall. The hike was relatively easy in the beginning until we hit the mountain path and it began to rain. From there we hiked straight uphill on a dirt/muddy/rocky trail towards the waterfall. When we got to the top it was all worth it. The waterfall was about 1,000 feet tall surrounded by mossy rocks and grassy hills. We sat in the grass at the base of the waterfall, the sky opening up to rain on and off, and enjoyed the waterfall and cliffs above us, the river valley below us, and Flam and the fjord in front of us. One of the nice things about both of these hikes was that we hardly saw a soul on either of them.

(Victoria)
The Flam railroad is gorgeous. It took twenty years to build and I can see why as it cuts through rocky mountain and navigates over sheer drops, passing some 60 plunging waterfalls. The railway stops at the largest waterfall to let visitors out for pictures with the warning to watch out for mythical women that beckon you to them. I think the myth started with the railway men having had too much Hansa beer, too many lonely nights, and the waterfall mist started to get to them. Anyway, sure enough over the roaring waterfall a soft sound emerged – kind of Celtic – along with a woman in red who performed a slow new agey dance. I hope they pay her well because she must freeze in that skimpy red outfit in the middle of a waterfall…I was and I had on a sweater.

Flam, as Bill said, was very touristy, but most tourists do not stay the night and come either via ferry, cruise ship or railway. From 5 pm to 11 am it is silent…unbelievably silent. Maybe that is why when the cruise ship unloaded its 5,000 passengers into this tiny town it had a locust-like feeling about it. One thing I did not understand was why so many got off a huge ship that famously provides masses of free meals to buy bad pizza for $50!!! My options for days were boiled salmon, pizza, boiled salmon, a hot dog bun, and boiled salmon – I was ready to sneak on the ship for some vegetables.

We found a great little restaurant/hotel on the other side of the fjord that had an unbelievable view of the sun setting over the mountains and a waterfall in the distance. The sun did not set until about 11pm and we sat in the dusky light watching the twinkling reflections on the still water and talking for hours into the evening. And we did the same in the morning. I love the hours here – wake up nice and slowly, roll out of bed for coffee on the balcony around 9 or 10 with no rush to go anywhere because nothing opens until 11. We first noticed this in Oslo when we arrived at around 9 am to silence – in a capital city!?! The only bad part is the carpet rolls up early too – we always seem to be the last people in every restaurant.

The hike to the waterfall was amazing…great bum workout, too. There is some sort of soft, spongy moss that grows here. It makes the perfect cushion to sit on after a great hike. What a wonderful area to toss around ideas. It was so green at the top and we could see for miles. There is something story bookish about waterfalls and thick patches of green – maybe this is where the troll thing comes from – I started picturing nice little fairies though not mean-spirited trolls as they seem depicted here.

Oddities or Things We Noticed

(Bill and Victoria)
Greeting: “Hi hi.” Followed by something that resembles the language Theresa and I made up as children.

These countries use WAY too many coins as currency. Most of the time my pockets are sagging from the accumulation and Victoria says she can always tell when I am coming because she can hear me jingle from a mile away. This may be more due to all the different currencies in Scandinavia and my not knowing one from the other so opting to just give a large bill to the cashier so as to not have to think about it??? (Bill)

Restaurants provide lovely thick blankets to its customers sitting outside in the crisp air – what a great idea! They have heat lamps too, but they obviously do not cut it in the winter. (Victoria)

Norwegians folk dance and sing traditional songs at birthday parties.

Tourist boards – wow, Norwegians know how to market their area. I am a mass picker-upper of free brochures. I had a field day here…and these ones were really useful with hike directions, so I didn’t have any tree-killing guilt. (Victoria)

More statues of trolls.

Norway is obviously pro-hunting. On our way back from our hike to Brekkefossen waterfall we were passing by a house and a man was walking straight at us to his truck, shotgun in one hand, camouflage hunting jacket in the other. Later that evening Victoria heard three gun shots in the mountains. Reindeer for dinner I’m sure.

Along those lines, all of the shopping stores in Flam had piles of reindeer skin rugs for about $75. They were beautiful but we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy one for Mammoth. We actually looked into it but the shipping was a killer. I think my Mom and Victoria are much happier that I didn’t find a way to get one.

I’m starting to feel a bit malnourished – fruit is plentiful, but not much in the greens department. I’d be fine if I were not vegetarian. (Victoria)

This is just for documentation purposes so that we can look back and reflect on it at some point in the future. We find ourselves lightly talking about where we will end up settling down after this journey. Besides the normal cities that we are always mentioning (San Francisco, Seattle, etc.) a few new ones have popped up in conversation – Hawaii and Boulder, Colorado to name a few. This may be due to the areas we were traveling through. For example, we talked about Hawaii in the Greek Islands and now Boulder in outdoorsy Norway. Who knows where we will actually put our feet down.