Fjords Feast : Part 3 : The Flam

The Flam Raiway is a special trip, which you can do from Bergen in a day.

Out eastwards on the first part of the famour Bergen-Oslo High Country line, passed fjords with big bridges...



                                                                                                                       
a taste of the classic scenery to come.

Sun on the remaining summer cornice.

The Flam train stops at a specially widened platform for this reason.  Look at the water shooting out from over the top ! The whole place was in spray - at great risk to good pics.

A closer look.

Nearly down to the end of the land in the valley...

...the next stage of the trip is on the fjord.
The Asians enjoyed photographing the gulls, and also holding up food for them to take from their fingers.

Classic

Looking up.. & those colours at the foot of the cliff at the right were really like that !

And on the other side... a tiered waterfall 

As we wind round the bend, the door seems to close behind us.

And so to the head of the valley of another branch of the fjord

Reflections on a high country lake on the way back to Bergen. By this time, we had met various people, including 2 young Aussies and a British couple.

Bergen Sights

Just round the corner from our hotel, Bergen has a lake, a pleasant approach to the town.

Interesting street art in the pedestrian mall. Wish there had been some details to read. The statues went right up to the modern sea-farers.













Here is a hopeful viking and his mate.

Streets behind the Fish Market.

One stall in the Fish Market.
What a pity we are not mad about sea-food!














Behind Neil Is Rosenkrantz's Tower, but no one here mentions Guildenstern.








Cruise ships among the normal traffic.







Turls was very happy to show off his 4WD to us. He was preparing to go off to his place in the mountains.










These World Heritage warehouses from the days of the Hanseatic league, 3 to 5 centuries ago, may have been vertical when they were built, but they are leaning now.











An old wooden sailing boat with what looks like an even older rowing boat.










Bergen from below...










and Bergen from above, from the top of the Funicular late in the evening.








Wave patterns, which kept forming and changing.














A visit to the Art Gallery.
Self-portrait by Edvard Munch. "The Scream" is not in Bergen.









A fun thing, a monster from the sea.

Ferries, Fjords & nearly to Bergen

There are no railways down the south west coast of Norway, but plenty of Ferries & Buses, so we chose to do this bit by road, but with someone else driving - those skilled drivers again !!        

Our bus on one of the ferries. All the vehicles pile on at one end and drive off at the other. The turn-around is very efficient. Usually, the bus gets poll position.

Mirrors...

and more mirrors...

Notice the water is light green now...

meaning glacial meltwater
(suspended rock flour)
rather than just rain water run-off..

This was a must for a pic..

I watched another skilled "driver"..

A goat walks across...

the cattle grid !

(How dos it know where to put its back hooves ??)

Sogne Fjord

is the longest..

 and widest..

of the inland fjords.

Here is looking up it (above)

and down it

Our ferry across it was one of our biggest yet, as the country depends on them at all seasons..

Just another of those moments that flash past you - and you are ready to 'click'..

Nearly at Bergen..

But another big bridge..
(or tunnel) gets you across
the latest stretch of water..

Runde Island

Runde 

Runde is joined by a bridge to several other bits of land joined by other bridges until an express ferry seacat connects to our base in Alesund. Our bus driver today was Yorgen.

At a bus stop: ling heather

My idea was to take the bird sight-seeing boat round the island, but the various trips were all booked. So we had to walk from the camera position to the upland in the distance. The hardest bit was the sudden climb: like up the Nut at Stanley, Tasmania.

Good view once I got up there and looked back.

Up among the bog cotton, unseen from the boat, the Great Skuas defend their territory against walkers. The whoosh of the wings is powerful.

There was not a great variety of birds. Apart from gannets, that white streak of a colony on the cliff,

these were the best.....

This puffin, with a beakful of sand eels which it never ate in all that time, sat about for ages before....

taking off for a burrow.

A family. We met many intrepid kids up there. This is about 300 metres up.

Meanwhile, one of the boats has cormorants to look at.

Trollstigen - the Troll's Steps

The Trolls Steps or Trollstigen both down and up

It was supposed to be a triangular trip, but there was no bus for the last leg. So we got to go back up the ladder and do the trip from the other direction. It was driver Svein who looked after us this time.

Here comes another bus round the top bend. It needs the whole road to get round. Other traffic has to wait.

From below......

looking up to the perched viewing platform (top left), which juts out over a long drop of 200 metres to the bottom of the valley.

On the return journey the cloud had gone, making a walk to the viewing platform well worth the effort.

Approaching the platform. Made of concrete, rough and polished, and shiny steel rails and rusty metal.

On the platform, courtesy of George from NSW.

The scheduled service bus makes its stop for the scheduled 25 minutes for all the tourists to have a scenic fix.

A closer look DOWN.