The little town of Flam could be described as cute, and serves as the final stop for the Flam Railway. The line has ten stations, twenty tunnels and a bridge, all over a distance of 20km. It travels through the beautiful picturesque countryside of Norway and rises 863m, making it the steepest railway in Europe and the most visited tourist attraction in Norway. This probably explains why Flam has a little bit of the feel of Land's End about it, very touristy, but not much else going on.
The weather was good, and after our fantastic walk yesterday, we were hoping we might find another route today that would deliver the same experience, so we headed for tourist information. Sure enough, there was a walking map available and we huddled over it eagerly. There were a couple of routes that suited us, and we decided we would have a short walk over a small hill nearby in the morning, pop back to the ship for lunch, and then go out for a longer walk which included a climb and a waterfall in the afternoon. We could then better prepare, i.e. carry water, hats, gloves etc for the more strenuous walk.
As usual, it didn't go as planned. The short walk was little more than a potter around the local "sculpture park", and only took us about 20 minutes. It did take us a little way along the route of our afternoon walk though, so we decided we might as well explore further.
The map was a larger scale than we are used to and the distance was easily achieved as we strolled along.
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Before we knew it, we were at the bottom of the climb. Since the rest of the walking had been easier than it looked on the map, we sort of thought the uphill stuff would be too. We thought it shouldn't take us too long to get up to the waterfall. We could nip back to the ship for lunch and then think again about what we wanted to do in the afternoon.
And again, it wasn't quite what we thought. The climb was steep and went on and on and on. We were pleased to be honest, this was the sort of terrain we'd been hoping for, but it was starting to take a lot longer than expected. We began to think that maybe we'd miss lunch, and also wish we'd brought water with us. But we weren't going to stop now.
Eventually we got there. How could you not like these views?
A couple we'd met on the way up told us that despite the fact the path got steeper and turned into a scramble, it was well worth going a further after the waterfall to a better viewing area. So that is exactly what we did.
As always, getting down only took a third of the time of getting up. That would be because we weren't spending all our time taking photo's probably. We did get back in time for a late lunch, but decided that was enough for one day, and spent the afternoon pottering around the souveneir shops and eating icecream.
Tomorrow we're in Bergen. Last time we were there it rained. A lot! Hopefully tomorrow will be as lovely as today.
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