Life begins at fjord-ty: Day 4 - Flam

[wickesy]

Today’s Patter (click for full size)
Flam Port Guide in my photobucket album - http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t120/wickesy/Norwegian Cruise/Day 4/

Today we were in Flam and what a view to get up to at 6:45.

The plan today was to be on the 8:35 train on the Flam Railway up to Myrdal so as soon as we were up we went straight to Horizon Court for some breakfast and then took some photos from up on deck.

This is the looong corridor we had to walk down to go to breakfast every morning!

I had read that the tour groups tend to book up the early trains so by 7:45 we were in the ticket office - the only problem was that loads of people had beaten us to it and the area where tickets were sold was not due to open until 8:15. They actually opened up at 8:00 and the queue slowly started shuffling forward whilst we watched the monitors that showed the departure times and which ones were available. It soon became clear that we were not even going to reach the front of the queue by 8:35 and, in fact, once we were about half-way to the front the 8:35 flashed up as sold out along with its corresponding return departure. Very soon afterwards the next train, the 9:45 departure, came up as sold out leaving us to book tickets for the 11:00 departure going up and the 12:11 departure coming down. We finally had our tickets in our hands at 8:45 and went off for a walk around the shops where we bought some trolls as presents for my friend Michelle and her family, a nail manicure set for Dad’s friend and a calendar and fridge magnet for us.

By the time we came out of the shops the queue for train tickets looked like this.

And there would have been twice as many people inside that you can’t see in the photo!! If you ever find yourself in Flam - and if you get the chance you should go because it is an absolutely stunning place - my one piece of advice would be to plan to get to the ticket office early and then get there an hour before you planned to so that you can be at the front of the queue. Forget breakfast, forget taking photos just do whatever you need to get to the front of that queue.

Dad went to drop the shopping back on the ship and I wandered off to take some photos.

At about 10:00 we bought a bottle of coke each and stood to wait for the train to come in - again loads of people had beaten us to it. The train arrived at about 10:45 and as there was a mad surge to board we ended up with aisle seats on the left hand side.

The Flam Railway was built to join the main railway from Oslo to Bergen with the little villages along the fjords. It consists of sharp turns and it rises 866m at gradients of up to 1:18. The train makes a 5 minute photo stop at Kjossfossen, a waterfall with a surprise attraction!

Click to play video

It wasn’t raining at the waterfall, everything you see there is spray!

Continued in next post

 

[wickesy]

We reached the end of the line, Myrdal at 12:10 and as the people we were sitting next to were leaving the train to join the train to Oslo we were able to pinch their window seats for the journey back down to Flam.

We arrived back in Flam at about 1:30 where we got back on board the ship and headed up to the Trident Grill for lunch where we had a cheeseburger and fries each and Dad also had a slice of pizza. After lunch we both got off the ship and headed our separate ways. I went off to take some more photos of Flam and the ship.

Normally my photos are of the ‘point and shoot’ variety but lately I have been trying to put some more thought into the composition of them so I took a quite a few photos of the ship from various angles. I won’t bore you with all of them but here are a few of my favourites.

At 3:00 I re-boarded the ship and went up to the cabin to relax for a while before sail away at 5:00.

We were up on deck 16 for 4:45 but it seemed that some people hadn’t been checked back on to the ship properly so it was 5:15 before we cast off and were under way again. We watched the scenery go by for a while but it got a bit chilly so we went downstairs where we could watch from the cabin, occasionally popping out onto the balcony. After a while we went downstairs to pick up our photos from formal night, then went to Crooners for our pre-dinner cocktails and made our way down for dinner at about 8:05. Tonight I started with tortilla chips while Dad had fettuccine Alfredo, then we both had black bean chowder and I had beef stroganoff, Dad’s choice was coq au vin. Dad finished off with sorbet and I had rocky road ice cream.

After dinner we went to our usual late night venue and I had a play with the iPad while we drunk our brandies then we were in bed for 10:30 ready for a full day tour tomorrow.

Day 5

 

[irongirlof12]

Fab photos of the ship, she is very grand

 

[loobzuk]

great that you managed to get a window seat for the journey back. Nice to see that Kate Bush is alive and well!!

 

[Tammy Stringer]

What a stunning looking place David

Good tip about getting tickets for the railway early - it looked well worth it

Tammy

 

[mandymouse]

Another great day

 

[wickesy]

What a stunning looking place David

Good tip about getting tickets for the railway early - it looked well worth it

Tammy

It really is stunning, and what struck me when I was walking back to the ship after taking the photos was how quiet and unspoilt it is. It relies on its tourist industry but there are no high-rise hotels or anything there and very little traffic.

 

[Chilly]

Its funny seeing the huge ship in such beautiful surroundings

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Those photos of the ship are stunning

 

[wickesy]

Those photos of the ship are stunning

Thanks Sarah.

 

[florida sun]

Well done with those photos of the ship David, they are brilliant. What a beautiful place.

 

[wickesy]

Well done with those photos of the ship David, they are brilliant. What a beautiful place.

Thanks Sue.