Norway: From Bergen to Flam by train, bus and boat

The next morning, we woke up and allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the train station which was only about a 10 minute walk away. We ate breakfast in the cafe next to the hostel. Aaron was tempted to get a “Troll Burger” which allowed you to choose between beef or reindeer but he ended up settling for eggs, toast and bacon. I had a croissant with delicious jam. We picked up our tickets at the station and waited for our train to arrive. 

We had about a 1 hr 15 min train ride to Voss. From the very start, the scenery was stunning. It was misty and overcast, but still breathtaking. Aaron managed to fall asleep during the train ride and I may have nodded off but didn’t miss much. We passed through the Osterfjord and Bolstadoyri fjords, glimpsed the island of Osteroy, passed through the towns of Dale, Bolstad, and Evanger and followed the Vossavassdraget river system to disembark the train at Voss. Right before we arrived in Voss, I attempted to use the bathroom on the train, but there was a line and the train stopped and I feared that it would keep moving and I would be separated from Aaron for the rest of the trip. So I quickly went back out to our seats to retrieve my backpack and got off thinking I could use the bathroom at Voss, train stations have bathrooms right? Right, but they cost 5 krones .. which we did not have in change at the time. So I boarded the bus half wishing I would have worn depends for the occasion. The bus took us on about an hour ride to Gudvangen. Our bus driver was informative and entertaining as he pointed out things along our way. We passed through the towns of Bavallen, Vinje and Stalheim. We saw several waterfalls including the Tvinefossen waterfall and Kjelsfossen waterfall. The most exciting/nerve-wracking part of the trip was our journey down Stalheimskleiva. It is a 1.5 km stretch of road that has 13 sharp hairpin bends. It is one of the steepest stretches of road in Northern Europe and we were travelling down it, in a bus, in slick, rainy conditions. 

We arrived in Gudvangen around 1115 and had about 30 minutes to spare before catching the ferry to Flam. We used the bathroom (no charge and also no flush handle for the toilet, there was a pin at the top that you pulled upwards to flush) and grabbed a hot dog to share just in case the food was ridiculously priced on board the ferry. Lesson #1: Food, hotel rooms, everything is ridiculously priced in Norway. Aaron snapped some pictures of the Gudvangen area before we got on the boat.

We must have been one of the last ones to board because there was barely any seating available. People had drug lawn chairs from the outside deck into the enclosed solarium type so that they could have a view while staying warm inside. We found a table without a view, but figured we could venture outside as needed. We ended up just going outside and braving the chilly temps to see the most amazing views one could imagine. 

The fjords of Norway are stunning. We passed through towns of populations in the hundreds only accessible by boat and lived in since the Viking era. 

 

One town, Stigen had farms that could only be reached by ladder. It is claimed during the age when the church’s men travelled around collecting taxes, the people at Stigen could see them approaching by boat on the fjord well in advance and pulled up their ladders preventing the tax collectors from reaching them.

If you look carefully, you can see the "town" of Stigen.

A close up of Stigen. 

Our cruise was about 2 hours long and easily the best part of the trip so far despite the mist and cooler temperatures. We pulled into Flam around 1400. The entire trip from Bergen to Oslo can easily be done in 1 day, but we decided to stay overnight in Flam and continue on towards Oslo the next day. We had reservations at the Fretheim Hotel but weren’t able to check in until 1600, so we relaxed in the lobby for a bit and explored the shops in the surrounding area. Souvenir shops all sold the same things, lots of little troll dolls, fur coats, all-weather jackets and your typical postcards and other travel trinkets. Flam has a population of about 400, it is one of the most popular cruise harbors in Norway and also is home to one of Norway’s most popular tourist attractions, the Flam Railway, with more than 300, 000 passengers a year! We ate at one of the cafe’s near the station and managed to somehow get behind a group that had just arrived via train and needed to depart on the ferry in less than 10 minutes. It was a group of 30 some people and the bill for their food was like 3,000 krones. It is a difficult concept to grasp when all of sudden your food bill is in the thousands. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and we managed to go to bed super early thinking we would wake up early and tackle the day from there. The room had black-out curtains in it, seeing that it didn’t get dark until well after 2300, they were a blessing. We both slept so well and woke up feeling refreshed.