Sognefjord & Flaam

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
– Ray Bradbury

August 8, 2019 ~ Flaam

During the night, the QM2 negotiated Sognefjord, a snaking body of water that’s deeper than the Grand Canyon and twice as long. We sidled up to Flaam (pronounced “Flome” with a bit of a tonal lift) at 7 in the morning. Today we had another long excursion, starting with a train ride up Norway’s most scenic railway, but before that, we wandered into the charming village I suspect is seasonal to do a little shopping.

Picture-pretty Flaam. Neat, clean and well-tended

We passed a vendor selling sausage and stopped to try some samples. It wasn’t the standard fare. We tried moose, reindeer and, I’m a bit ashamed to say, even whale. Norway, along with Japan, is one of the few industrial countries that still harvests whales. The vendor was quick to tell us the sausage is made of Minsk whales, a small non-endangered species. We decided to bring home the moose instead.

Gotta have some rain to get a rainbow!

The Flaam railway is run on electricity, as almost everything in Norway is. We whirred out of the village and began our trek up the mountain. About a mile in, we passed the old village of Flaam, where a number of houses are still inhabited. It makes me think that at one time, the water in the fjord came up higher, closer to the old town.

A river cavorted alongside and each bend gave us new spectacular vistas of rock and cascades of water. We passed through several tunnels, many of which had been dug out by hand! The train stopped near the head of the largest waterfall to allow us to step out onto the platform to get pictures. 

In the distance, a woman in a red dress was dancing near the deep pool at the first of many falls. After a few minutes, she disappeared as if she’d leaped into the water, though I'm sure there must have been a ledge just out of our sight.

Our guide told us this was Udri (probably not spelled correctly) a mountain spirit who sang so beautifully she beguiled men away from their wives, stealing them away never to be seen again. 

(Good thing the DH and I are connected by Herkimer’s 7 foot cannula! Besides, I'm a classically trained soprano. I can sing that Udri into the ground!)

Lutheran is the most popular religion in Norway. 

When the Flaam train reached the summit, we switched to a different train that would take us to the town of Voss. Voss is a lovely community of about 14,000 souls. It sits on the shores of an alpine lake, ringed by mountain peaks. During our lunch of seafood, spicy chicken wings and chocolate mousse for dessert, we visited with a family from England on holiday. Meeting new people is part of the fun of travel. Then we boarded a motor coach for the ride back to Flaam.  

Once again, our excursion was the last to return to the ship and we set sail shortly after boarding. We were sad to leave Sognefjord because the DH's family originally came from this area. Because we didn’t get a chance to see the fjord on the way in, it being dark then and all, we decided not to go down to dinner. Instead we called out for room service and sat on our balcony while we munched.

Perhaps it was all the talk of trolls, both yesterday and today, but we both seemed to see fantastic figures and faces in the rock faces we glided by. It was great fun—like we were a couple of kids lying in the grass, watching clouds morph into dragons overhead.

More soon…