First, a pause for quiet reflection. This is it. The final instalment of our cruise. Our final port of call is in Flåm, in Norway. Tomorrow will be a day at sea and the day after is an early rise and leaving the ship to drive home.
But before we get despondent too soon, we have one amazing day before us. The Flåm Railway is one of those experiences that they say should be on everyone's bucket list. I'm not really sure I have a bucket list as such, but we came here in 2013 and didn't get on the train so we thought we'd give it a go this time.
The excursion we are on includes a trip on the Flåm Railway for an hour (one-way) then an hour on the mainline train from Oslo to Bergen which brings you to a hotel in Voss for lunch and then a coach trip from Voss and down the hairpin road from Stalheim back to Flåm. Others on the same excursion will do the same thing in reverse order. Unfortunately John and Sue are on this itinerary so we miss out on a final day together.
There's scenery a-plenty from the train, but to be sure of the best views, choose a seat on the left hand side of the train but facing backwards going up (right hand side facing forwards if going down). The guides call out any major features and they tell you the spooky tale of a mountain spirit, the beautiful Hulda, who entices men into the mountains, never to be seen again!
The train stops at this magnificent waterfall for a photo stop. And then... Beware the enchantment of Hulda! Note a tiny red spot above the chap spoiling everyone else's photos by holding his phone above his head. There is a video of this on YouTube but be warned - it's a spoiler, if you ever intend to visit yourself. So you'll need to search instead of me providing a link!
We reach the end of the line from Flåm and cross to another platform to get on the train from Oslo. On both trains we have a reserved coach - not that it stops a few others from trying to get on... If anything I actually enjoyed this train ride more than the Flåm one - but we didn't have the best of views from our seats on that.
There are views of snow and waterfalls and mountain streams and rivers. Oh... and of train track whizzing below a toilet that doesn't so much flush as empty out downwards to the open air!
We arrive in Voss ahead of schedule and have around 40 minutes to kill before we are due at a local hotel for lunch.
There isn't a great deal of immediate interest - this church and a lake. The church is deceptively old, for it dates from 1277 and stands on a former pagan site.
A number of tour buses are parked on a large car park near to the lake. With them is an older Volvo coach that looks like it has been converted to a mobile home or hotel.
The weather is - shall we say - not promising dryness... We have a brief pause to savour the lakeside view - right, that's enough. I feel a couple of drops. You can trust a bald man to know when it is starting to rain... We head for the hotel despite it still being too early. Ready or not...
Fleischer's Hotel. We find it heaving with people. Those coaches that have done our trip in reverse have got here first and are having their lunch. I buy a drink at the bar and hear a voice behind me say, "I'm from Venezuela, actually."
I turn round, "Andrea!"
"Oh, hi!" says our guide from Bergen. As I turn back to Fran, Sue walks past us without realising we are there. She and John are already at lunch. We catch them coming out.
As it turns out we have lunch downstairs in a different restaurant. The tables were numbered to match our coaches with the idea being that each table went to the buffet in turns. No one told us this however and as we got to the door a waiter said "Sit where you want and then come to the buffet," so we sat right next to it and joined the queue... The elderly owner seeing the size of the resultant queue was panicking badly but calmed down when she saw that it was too late to give us the proper instructions (we were ready to join the queue again for desserts by this time). She told us the hotel had been in her family for generations and she herself had worked there for 57 years. Her son was training to take over.
I went to get a coffee and she said "I'll serve you, I'll serve you! Do you take sugar?"
"No thanks, I'm sweet enough," I said automatically. But this is a joke they had obviously never heard in Norway because she broke out into hysterics and then to my horror shouted loudly, "Listen everyone! I asked this man if he wanted sugar..."
By the time we come out onto the car park to get onto a coach for the rest of the excursion, it is raining. The sights of Voss. Number one, the bank...
The rain persists until we come near to a photo stop at this waterfall. As the coach doors open and we get out, it starts to hammer it down again... Luckily only for a minute or so. The lady in the green coat is a clone of our next door neighbour! I never got her name but she came from Bristol and was travelling with her daughter.
This is Tvindefossen about 12 km or 7 miles from Voss. Somehow it got a reputation in the 1990s for the health-giving properties of its water - namely longevity and enhanced sexual prowess. Visitor numbers have shot up since then with Japanese, American and Russian tourists being fond of filling bottles from the fall. Duh... Enhanced sexual prowess - as if I wasn't awesome enough...
Back on the bus. "Did you fill the bottle?" asks Miss Franny. Dead right!
We pass through the village of Stalheim. In 1943 its hotel became a maternity home for the Lebensborn Nazi organisation where women deemed to be of pure Aryan blood gave birth to children fathered by SS members as part of a programme to spread pure Aryanism. Fanaticism for anything is not a good idea... From here we would descend by the old road, built between 1842-1849, with its 13 hairpin bends.
The Stalheimskleivi road reaches upto a 20% gradient. This is a 1 in 5 slope. A 100% gradient signifies an angle of 45 degrees, meaning the slope rises one unit vertically for each horizontal unit. The waterfall is the Stalheimsfossen with a 126 meter (413 feet) fall.
This waterfall is on the other side of the road half a mile further down and is Sivlefossen, 238 meters (780 feet) over nine drops. We can only see a few of the drops from here. The road is very steep. The coach was literally crawling down and we were thankful that the road these days is one-way only. It is the steepest road in northern Europe.
We get to the bottom of the road and follow the river, heading for Flåm where we find Thomson Celebration waiting patiently for us.
The Flåm train is back as well, waiting to take another party of tourists up the spectacular railway.
Whilst Fran goes for a mooch round the shops, I take a look at the railway's museum. This is to be found at the back of a shop and is free to enter.
I take a seat and watch the passers-by until Fran comes out holding a quite modest bag of goodies. It is drizzling and damp, but fairly warm and not too unpleasant. We get back onboard for the last time this cruise. We spend Friday crossing the North Sea as we head back to Newcastle. Fourteen nights. Five days at sea. Eight ports of call. Two happy people.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments must be passed by moderator before appearing on this post.