Starting in the rain

 

We started the tour on a grey, rainy, not really very warm summer day - which is rather the norm in Bergen, clearly the wettest city in Norway.  But we were dressed properly, so this did not ruin our mood.

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After embarking the mid-sized ferry and getting a cup of coffee and some waffles, we enjoyed the view from the deck towards the famous Bryggen buildings that slowly disappeared into the fog and light rain.

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Leaving Bergen, the ferry travels for quite some time north, between countless small islands, decorated with a surprisingly high number of houses, harbors and some small scale industry buildings. It then turns east, into the Sognefjord, Norway´s longest and deepest fjord. Close to the north sea, this one is actually so wide, you rather feel like on the open sea, not always seeing the other shore. At least, on a rainy day.

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Watching the scenery slowly go by and wondering how & why people want to live out in the nowhere, gives you plenty of time to drink even more coffee, eat a shrimp sandwich or wiener sausages in a roll.

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Getting further to the East, also the biggest fjord eventually narrows down and so, after a couple of hours, you can have a better look at the massive rock walls on both sides. In particular in the triangle of Sogne-, Aurlands- & Nærøyfjord, you are really in the middle of it all: steep steep mountains on both sides, huge stone walls going straight into the water, trees growing out of absurd small spots in the stone... 

 

After meeting another ferry right in the middle of the fjord and letting some passengers change boats - in the middle of the fjord (I have never heard of that service before) we got stuck for some minutes because some drift wood had gotten into the inlet of the water jet propulsion system. But after some back and forth the crew could fix that. 

Arriving in Flåm, continuing by train

 

When getting closer to Flåm, the final destination of the ferry, the ferry used constantly its foghorn. We did not see anything until suddenly a huge cruise ship appeared like a ghost out of the fog right next to our ship. Quite a sight as we were not expecting such a big one so deep in the fjord here...

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In Flåm, we had a quick break in a little cafe hidden in an old train wagon before the second part stared, up the mountain valley by train, towards Myrdal. The train is an old beauty and not fast at all. It crawls slowly up the valley, through many short tunnels, changing the sites of the vally frequently so that people with cameras desperately change places in order to take proper pictures of the scenery.

Our advice: don't even try. Unless you are really lucky or fast, you will have a lot pictures with something obstructing the main motive. Just relax and watch.