Day 608 - Bergen to Flåm
Overnight Ferry
A View from the Ferry
It’s nearly October and we are at 60° latitude. The sun is slowly retreating from the northern hemisphere as we circle the big star and that is making it more scarce. Night is coming sooner.
We're on our way to the wharf that will take us to Flåm. A delightful Uber driver, a woman named JANNICKE, picked us up and zipped us in her Tesla sedan to the STANDKAITERMINALEN where our ferry awaited. JENNICKE said she and her husband had big plans — sell their house and buy a 65 foot yacht; sail the world, but that all changed when they lost their only son and she and her husband divorced. She says this with quiet acceptance.
“It's life,” she says. “What can you do? You must move on.”
Her husband couldn’t seem to. I didn't have time to ask her for more detail. I felt that that might be a little too much probing, anyhow.
“And all of the legal issues and money. It was a mess,” she says. But then she looks back and says, smiling, “That is life. But what you are doing is so great! You've inspired me and made my day.”
I thought it was more the other way around. She was indomitable, and would be fine.
But maybe not her husband.
Skerjehamn
Our first stop was the village of Skerjehamn, tucked along side one of the fjords in this part of the world. That would be after sleeping overnight on our snug ferry berth. We pass through Norways Sognefjord, it largest and arguably most beautiful. I think the photos say it all. The excursion to Flåm takes 24 hours $100 each plus $100 each for meals.
Sunlight broke out just as we arrived in Skerjehamn. We pulled into see bright and colorful stucco buildings of blue, red, yellow and white huddled in a bay, surrounded by viivid green pastures where over the centuries the people there had eked out subsistence farming, some fishing and now the tourist trade which was, thank God, embryonic.
All of these stops are for passengers and goods that need to get place to place. They began as mail ferries and in many ways they still serve that purpose with the occasional tourist tagging along.
Sognefjord
In the morning we continue through Sognefjord. At 10:35 AM we cross the deepest part of the fjord, almost 4000 feet. Rain has begun to kick back in. 11:40 AM: we arrive at Tilvik. Sounds like the name of an IKEA product. At 12:15 PM we pull into Leikanger.
Some of the towns house enormous hotels made of wood that date to the 1800s by the look of them. The ferry would swing into these places as neatly as a race car driver, pivoting onto the docks, lowering the pedestrian boom, then unload whatever cargo there might be and be churning away from the dock so fast the towns quickly disappear in a few minutes.
The ferry swept us through sleet and rain; into the mountain valleys, and villages accessible only by ship. As we moved East and deeper into the huge fjord, we watch the temperatures drop from 60 to 40°, a harbinger of colder days ahead.
By early afternoon, we’d make tiny village of Flåm where we would stay the night.
Flåm
49°. We rolled off the ferry and into the tiny village of Flåm, both a tourist trap, and a place of surpassing beauty. The town sits on a nook surrounded by the edge of the Sagnefjord on one side and steep mountains that rise at least 2000 feet everywhere else.
While it's a tourist trap where immense cruise ships, local ferries and the Flåm Railway (more on that coming) pour into the little town from all over the world, the small villages itself is serene and striking. One monster cruise ship 10 to 12 decks high, sat in the bay and the ship dwarfed the little town itself.
Enormous letters ran across the bright red of the ship's hull that read "Save the Sea," but it was tough to imagine that a ship this big, loaded with the thousands of passengers could do much to help save the environment.
Hiking, kayaking, cycling, and zodiac excursions are some of the big attractions here because the area is beautiful. We would be staying at the Frethheim Hotel for the night and then board the famous Flåm Railway that runs up and into steep mountains deep into the tiny Norwegian village of Myrdal.
The Flåmsbana itself calls this one of the worlds great trains. We had heard that more than once, but we had ridden some pretty great trains so far – El Chepe in Mexico, the Andean Explorer in Peru, our rail ride through the Alps. We would find out the next day at noon when we took it to Myrdal and then from there hop another train back to Bergen. In Bergen we would stay one night and hop a night ferry North to the city of Ålesund as we continued working our way to the Arctic Circle.
For now we found our Flåm hotel, the Frethheim, only a few hundred feet from the ferry, and then wandered among the town's trolls, busy pedestrian walkways, crowded with tourists coming and going all the ways that Flom provides.
Later, I hiked a ways up the mountain behind us to the edge of a farm. I wanted to get a better look at Sognefjord and the surrounding mountains. It was difficult to avoid the massive cruise ship, complete with roller coaster, and waterslides on its top decks. At least if I hoped to take any picture of the fjord.
I walked to highest point I could find to take some picture. It was stunning, even in the mist. The glassy bay stood still and the sun was showing itself now and again shedding brilliant sunlight on the hilly farms. Wherever there wasn't a farm, or water all I could see were thick forests of fir and birch trees and lines of golden quaking aspens that ran along the ridges.
Soon the sun went down. Cyn and I found a local restaurant and slurped some soup and then we rolled into our hotel room and prepared for a quiet Norwegian evening.
Flåm Recommendations
Planning a trip to Flåm? Consider one of these recommendations and please see all of our Norwegian Recommendations.
The Flåm Railway is considered one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world and is one of Norway’s major tourist attractions. Every year, this amazing railway line attracts visitors from around the world and in 2014 Lonely Planet named it the world's most beautiful train journey.
Today the journey through the steep and narrow Flåm valley, with views of mighty waterfalls, picturesque mountain farms and tall peaks, takes about 60 minutes and connects with most day trains on the Bergen Railway between Bergen and Oslo.
The railway is open every day all year. The scenery changes throughout the year but is no less spectacular whatever time you come. You will see rivers carving their way through deep gorges, waterfalls leaping off steep mountainsides with snow-covered peaks, as well as mountain farms clinging tenaciously to steep slopes. Departing at Flåm station the beautiful Aurlandsfjord is only a few metres away.