Saturday 25th August 2018
Flåm is a relatively small village nestled in the corner of the Aurlandsfjord, a branch of the world’s longest fjords, Sognefjord, which has very few inhabitants but certainly comes alive when the large cruise ships and tourist buses turn up!
Ray had booked us tickets for a trip on the on Flåm Mountain Railway for Friday night so we were really looking forward to that.
The station was only a short walk from our campsite in the village and we arrived in plenty of time to secure a good place for boarding the train, hoping to avoid the hordes of tourists who were bound to turn up for this special tourist attraction.
The train arrived at the platform on time for our departure and we were informed that although we had booked a return trip, as we were actually not coming back on the same train as the one we were departing on, our ticket for the purpose of this trip was considered a ‘single’. This caused some confusion but we were delighted when we discovered that despite having to make the long walk to carriage number 13, at the front of the train, we avoided the masses and had the carriage more or less to ourselves! Number 13 was not so unlucky after all 😉
The journey up to Myrdal took approximately 1 hour to make the 20 km journey and we were blessed with good views.
The track passes through 20 tunnels in all and makes stops at several small stations along the way, where it is possible to get on or off and walk up or down, if you prefer.
The train made its way up the steep slopes of the mountain and round sharp bends making it a delight to take in the panoramic views.
The train snakes it way through some fantastic landscape at an average gradient of 5.5% or roughly 1:18.
Another of the highlights is when the train takes a break at Kjosfossen.
You can get off the train and enjoy the delights of the waterfall as well as the appearance of the Huldra, who will entertain you with a Norwegian folk song and dance.
The train finally arrived on the Myrdal Plateau at 866 m just as the rains arrived. From here it is possible to make connections with Bergen and Oslo.
Despite the rain we enjoyed a pancake and coffee in the café at the station, wrote a couple of postcards and fought off the urge to spend more money in the small souvenir shop. NB There isn’t much to do at Myrdal and even less in the pouring rain, except a few walks or to hire a bike and explore the landscape.
Back on our train there was no conductor organising passengers so it was a free for all. Any seat you can get. Luckily for us we had been privileged to enjoy the views on the way up.
On arrival back in Flåm we did visit the Flåmsbana museum which was free to enter and had a variety of interesting exhibits and information about the history of the railway and was again worth a visit if time allows.