Oslo – Flam – Bergen
Next day we took bus from Oslo to Flam. Beautiful scenery. Stopped and toured the Borgund Stave Church completed in the 12th century. One interesting thing we learned was that the pillars are from special pine trees that have had the bark removed and left to continue to grow for another 10 years. This allows the pitch to come to the surface and makes especially strong wood. These are known as “staves.”
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- leaving Oslo
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- rural
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- waterfall
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- stave church on right
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- stave church roof
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- altar
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- looking up
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- pulpit added after Protestantism arrived
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- cemetary
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- grave marker
Flam has a population of about 400 but gets 2.5 million visitors per year! Luckily for us, the large cruise ships had not arrived yet. After supper we took a recreational hike along the fjord and enjoyed the peace, quiet, and views.
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- view of Flam
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- view from Flam
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- evening walk
From Flam we took an hour scenic train ride to Myrdal. This was filled with tourists but what a ride! Every turn was more gorgeous than before. High mountains, gushing rivers, waterfalls, lakes, tiny villages and lone cabins. Stopped at one gushing cascade and were able to get out of the train. There was music and a dancer on some rocks in the mist. Beautiful.
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- getting on train
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- waterfall
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- mountains, farm
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- approaching curve
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- inside train
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- train
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- gushing waterfall
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- dancer appearing
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- dancer
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- snow
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- the road!
At Myrdal we got on a local train for the 3-hour ride to Bergen. We still had beautiful scenery just maybe not so spectacular. Also there were more small farms and tiny villages.
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- local train
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- more snow, mountains, lakes
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- meadows
