We noticed that most houses attached their timber cladding vertically, rather than horizontally. As we climbed into the mountains we were surprised to see quite a lot of snow still on the ground even though it was late summer. We guessed it might be quite cold when we got off the train.
We left the train after four hours of travel and got on the famous Flam railway with a big crowd. A few people had to stand. We had been worried that we might be stranded here because we had no tickets, but the conductor sold us tickets with a 30% Eurail reduction. This railway has inclines of 1 in 18 and is possibly the steepest in the world that does not use cables or cogs. The views were magnificent as we watched cliffs and waterfalls on both sides of the train. It stopped for five minutes at these falls.
A lady was dancing to music next to the falls and then suddenly jumped down a hollow where we could not see her and immediately reappeared some distance away, later returning to her original spot
miraculously. Our Japanese tourists sitting opposite were very amused and we said "twins" which they
understood. Flam is a small tourist town with a huge influx of tourists on a daily basis. It has the largest collection of souvenir shops we have ever seen. The fjord is able to dock huge cruise ships as well as smaller pleasure ships to take visitors down the fjord.
We walked around the shops and checked out the express ship for Bergen and all seemed OK for tomorrow. The train museum contained some interesting rail vehicles.
Outside the station was this sculptured globe which rotated as water rose up from underneath it. Caught it at a strategic moment.
We bought food at the supermarket and sat on the Hotel Heimly veranda with a magnificent view along the fjord.
Thanks to Margot for suggesting this hotel. In the park was a metal bear representing his ancient local forbears.
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