Floro to Flam

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Flam, Classic Fjord Village

October 16, 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

The easy boat life came to an end in Floro, Norway. Everyone else on the boat was continuing one more stop to Bergen, the relatively large city at the southern end of the Hurtigruten. With the car, we had the ability to travel the back roads, a mixed blessing. We can avoid the fixed tour-package route but sometimes we wonder - or wander. Our goal was Flam, the tour packages goal as well.

We've pretty much settled into a system of one driver per day unless the day is very long. Today, Marianne was the lucky driver. Despite the rain, she looked forward to winding, empty roads. We got winding OK but the "empty" part was not true for the parts under reconstruction. Remember the last car picture of a nice clean shiny sports car? Now it's a muddy mess. That comes with the "back roads" business.

We did however get rewarded with absolutely spectacular scenery as the very narrow road wove in and out along picture-perfect fjords. We took many shots but the gray of the day again meant that the pictures did not match the in-person experience. That's all right, there will be more fjords around the corner - around every corner.

Driving in this area also means going through tunnels and getting on and off ferries. The early tunnels were from a few hundred yards to three or four miles long. Marianne doesn't particularly like driving through them but there's no choice.

Ferries were a different story. We had some trouble finding the right ones and then more trouble since we did not know when boats left. Basically, we kept heading inland and looked at each ferry landing for a boat in port and a posted destination that seemed right. Eventually we squeezed on a one that left us on the south side of Sognefjord ("Singing Fjord") the longest and deepest of Norway's fjords. (It runs over a hundred miles inland.)

We got off the ferry, saw a sign to our destination, turned right and suddenly found ourselves in the world's longest car tunnel, 26.5 km, over 15 miles! Marianne was less than thrilled. However, the road had just opened after five years construction and was a very nice, smooth two-lane path directly to our goal, the towns of Aurland and Flam.

The towns - a small and a smaller village actually - are on the Aurlanfjord that runs off the south side of the Sognefjord. We drove through Aurland but opted for the smaller Flam on the basis of a hotel recommendation in our guidebook. One more tunnel and we reached Flam, the terminus of the Flam to Myrdol railroad and the most picturesque "seaport" ever. We went into town, passed the train terminal, passed the ferry terminal, passed a very large but quiet resort and eventually found the sign to the Heimly Pensjonat, our guidebook-recommended stop.

The place looked deserted. On the front porch, we rang the bell and stared out at the spectacular view. After some delay, a voice from a raspy speaker answered our ring and said she'd meet us in 10 minutes. It seems the Heimly Pensjonat is very quiet this time of year. As promised, Maria the manager/clerk/cook/cleaner (and owner?) showed up and checked us into her simple 20-room hotel.

That night we had the hotel to ourselves. We walked down to the harbor and photographed "the Flam fleet". We later saw pictures of large ocean-going cruise ships or even old sailing ships sitting at this same pier, but this is clearly off season. It seemed like we had the whole town to ourselves as even the large resort had only a handful of lighted rooms.

The next day, Marianne was out taking pictures before breakfast and I went out after. Later we visited the original Flam church, built in the mid 17th-Century. The area has apparently been settled for thousands of years as even the ancient Vikings must have valued the sheltered cove, the fertile fields, and the magical vistas.

That afternoon, we took the Flam-to-Myrdal train and that excursion merits its own Diary. After that, we had yet more opportunity for trying to capture the tranquil Aurlanfjord. (Pictures 9, 10 and 11). No wonder we went through two or three rolls of film and almost 150 digital shots in this picture-book stop.

Tomorrow, on to Oslo.

Take care. In the words of our government, be normal but vigilant. And pray for all those in Afghanistan. For civilians, that they avoid the harm. For soldiers, that the fighting is as short as possible and for all leaders, that they recognize what's best for all people.

John and Marianne

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Created October 20, 2001

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