Wednesday, May 16 Norway in a Nutshell Tour

This is a great train, old train, boat, and bus trip through a very scenic section of Norway.

On the train, Joni, Kairsten, Laure and Nicole looking at the scenery.

It was overcast with low hanging clouds when we left Bergen.

Joni, Laura, Kairsten and Nicole as we stopped at one of the small town railway stations on the first leg of our journey.

The train climbed from Bergen, which is at sea level, up to 888 meters (about a half mile) above sea level.  Here we are above the snow line.  Some of the students fell asleep and were surprised to wake up to snow.  They said they thought they had wakened up in Narnia.

At our highest point, at Voss,  we switched to a special railroad, called the Flam Railway.  It is one of the steepest in the world and the train looked like the one in the book/movie “The Polar Express,” Nicole, Kairsten, Joni, and Laura on the steep, old fashioned train.

This is near Voss, where many tourists leave the train to take the bus portion of the tour.  We’re still up in the snow, but looking to the front of the train you can see we will now start descending. We continued on to Myrdahl to take the boat part of the tour next.  

Norwegian house on a mountain side.

Looking down a valley from a bridge on the Flam Railroad.

Halfway back down to sea level, the train stops for a few minutes at a picturesque waterfall – seemed like a great place for a group shot.

Danielle enlisted the help of the conductor to get a picture of her in front of the Flam Polar Express. (The conductor did not look like Tom Hanks.)

From high on a mountainside, looking down into a valley with a switchback road and waterfall/river system.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live here?

An old farmstead on the side of a mountain.

A horse in a rock corral.

One of the many waterfalls cascading off the mountains. I think this is the one that the conductor said had a free fall of over 1,000 meters.  The mountains are so huge it is nearly impossible to keep an accurate sense of scale and realize how big the waterfalls and mountains actually are.

Another angle of the same waterfall.

Looking down a side valley into a bigger valley  with a rural town at their juncture.

Here is a closer picture of the rural town.  It must be on countless postcards.

Sheep grazing at the edge of town.  The brown church at the left is several centuries old.

In the train, Paige taking a picture of this scenic rural town.  Actually we saw dozens of outcroppings of little towns like this, either along the fjords on the mountainsides or along a river leading to the fjord.  

Along a rushing river, a footbridge leading from one rocky prominence to another – possibly for access to boats moored along the side of the river.

We have arrived at Flam and left the train. Next we will take this boat through the fjords, but first there is a 90 minute opportunity for the tourist shops to coax Norwegian kroner from everyone – their success rate must be nearly 100%.  (The funny-looking beak at the front of the boat is the bow, which rises to allow easy passenger access.)

Cloudy mountains at Flam.

In front of the fjord boat, Joni taking a picture of Laura jumping (for joy?).

All aboard.  Everyone (Nicole, Laura, Joni, Kairsten, Danielle, Kristin, Moriah, and Paige) up on the second deck of the boat for a great view.

Here’s a view of some of the tourist shops with a cruise ship in the back ground.

Another boat and some boat houses on the fjord at Flam.

Seagulls followed our boat closely, begging for food.

Snow covered mountain visible just after we departed from Flam.

Not far from Flam, this other fjord tourist boat pulled up along side of us, full of the train passengers who left the train at Voss and didn’t continue to Myrdahl.

They had an Northern Irish accordion band onboard that was in Norway for Syttende Mai.  We had seen them on the first leg of the train trip – very jolly and friendly. The band leader talked to us and had us participate in a song (yelling “Yo!” at his cue.)

More of the band.

After a few minutes of their playing, our Captain went back into his quarters and came out with his own accordion, and he joined them.

This is the band leader, Johnny Richardson, and one of his band members.  They are from a county in Northern Ireland.

Danielle, happy to be in Norway.

A few houses on the mountainside.

A town along the fjord.

It’s a little bigger and far more modern looking than most towns along the fjord.

Local residents use the fjord boat as a means of public transportation.  These folks boarded here and went to the end of the boat ride at Gudvagen.

More buildings in the same town.

One of several pictures looking down the fjord.

More Scenery

This is a famous farm in Norway.  It is called the ladder farm (but they use the Norwegian word for ladder) because when it was first built you needed ladders to get there.

Another waterfall.  The 16-foot boat and boat house ln the lower right give you a little bit of a sense of scale.  The waterfall is much bigger than it first appears in this picture.

The mountains go straight down into the water and keep going for over a 100 feet in some places.

More mountains and scenery.

At one point one of the students broke into “Climb Every Mountain,” but we concluded that with all these mountains it might take awhile.

Kristin, Paige, and Moriah laughing at a joke.

Paige, Moriah, and Kristin posing in the mountains.

Nicole, Joni, and Laura posing in the mountains.

Sheep along the fjord next to a farm.

The fjord keeps on going.

Moriah, Kristin, Paige, and Danielle taking pictures near the end of our boat ride.

Boats and boathouse along the fjord.

Another cool place to live.

Building a Viking boat.

That tiny sliver of yellow is a two-person kayak.

An old church at a settlement, with a rockfall in the background.

Another farmstead along the fjord.

The roof is a tourist shop at Gudvagen, the end of our boat ride.  We had only 10 minutes to board the bus, so we had no time to shop in Gudvagen.

On our bus ride, we went down one of the steepest roads in Norway – it has a grade of 18%.  It is one lane.  Someone said that at one point the front of the bus is over 6 feet lower than the back of the bus.  At the bottom the riders spontaneously broke into a round of applause.

This is looking out at the valley we are climbing down into.

Another view of the steep road with a waterfall just beyond it.

Waterfall (a little blurry through the window and with darker skies)