Day 15 - Day Flaam (also spelt Flam) railway excursion
This excursion was popular and there were many passengers ready to go again ! This time we were excursion #10.
The first leg was catching the Flaam train up the mountain to Myrdal- offering panoramic views along the way of fjords, waterfalls and mountains. Being one of the world's steepest standard gauge railway lines, it has a 1:18 gradient over it's 20km route whilst also travelling through some 20 tunnels, nearly all excavated by hand. We were not disappointed with the scenery, and friends we had made on tour had researched the right hand side was the best side of the train to sit on the way up. Luckily those seats were available to us.
At Myrdal, we transferred to a commuter train that would terminate at Bergen, but we instead got off at the town of Voss. Voss is touted as the extreme sports capital of Norway, ski jumping, base jumping, paragliding, while water rafting etc etc. It is also the place for wealthy Norwegians to holiday.
The buffet lunch was very nice with cuts of salmon and chicken, vegetables and salads. After lunch we went for a walk around the town and had a nice coffee suggested by our guide who was from Berlin, lived in Iceland and currently lives in Voss.
A scenic drive back from Voss, stopping at waterfalls (albeit with little water due to a drier than usual winter) and scenic outlooks, a few long tunnels through the mountains (one being 14km) and eventually we wound up back in Flaam after a full days outing.
The current Australian dollar exchange rate has not been in our favour, with the Scandinavian countries in particular being quite expensive. One bonus though, we were able to claim our GST back on the 2 jackets we recently purchased .. this process was set up on board the ship which made it very easy.
Whilst on board the ship, they blocked the ability for us to use our personal internet data but were happy to offer us an expensive package if we so required. During any spare time on shore we were able to check our emails and use Google Maps to get around. Otherwise the majority of time cruising we were off line except whilst docked in a port when we were able to connect for awhile prior to sailing. We spent some time today on Deck 15 catching up on emails, had a very light dinner at the Market Place buffet, and looked out as the ship made it back up the fjord where Flaam was located. The fjord is long and it took nearly 3 hours to get back to open ocean.
With some spare time after eating, we headed to the Carouse Lounge at 19:30 and watched a Big Band performance of movie soundtracks which was most entertaining. Then at 21:00 we made our way to the Delphi Theatre for the Ed Sheeran show, this time with singers and 8 dancers. The ship's theme was dress in White night …. everywhere we looked was a sea of white but we didn’t have any white clothes! Oh well, and white is not a safe colour for Graeme to wear anyway !
