Our Fjord Cruise was an amazing experience. We had an early wake up call because the boat leaves the dock everyday at 8:00 a.m. We got there around 7:35 and found some plastic chairs on the back deck so we grabbed two of them and put them in a spot with a nice vantage point so that we could see well. To say we were the youngest people on the cruise is an understatement. It was definitely an older crowd but then again, they are the ones who probably have money and can afford the hefty prices of Norway. We wound our way through the smaller fjords that surround the Bergen area, stopping at various spots along the way to pick up more people and drop some off. The boat also functions as a postal boat for all the small communities along its route. During the first part of the cruise, the water was clear and reflected the sky like a mirror but as we neared the coast where the ocean comes in, the water became a lot choppier. After a couple of hours, we pulled into a small town and switched boats to start heading inland. Apparently, the boat we were on continues on north and our destination was the Sognefjord, which heads east into Norway to the city of Flåm(pronounced like Floom I think).
Here are some fun facts about the Sognefjord: It is the second longest fjord in the world, it averages a width of 2.8 miles across and goes from a depth of 330 feet near its mouth to the deepest point of 4,291 feet down, it hosts the world’s second largest collection of power lines with a reach of 15,082 feet of the stuff, and it is surrounded by cliffs that rise straight out of the water to heights over 3,300 feet. The fjord, like all fjords, was formed as the last ice age ended and the glaciers began their retreat north. The glaciers cut a U shaped valley into the bedrock of the area and the water rose to the current levels. The shallowness at the mouth of the fjord is typical because of some remnants of the glacier. It also creates a strong current around that area of the fjord. A recent discovery of the Norwegian fjords is that they host many coral reef communities near their bottom and this may prove to be the reason why Norwegian waters abound with fish for commercial fishing. Another interesting part about fjords is the word use in Scandinavian languages and English. Some bodies of water that would be a fjord in a Scandinavian language might not be considered one in English and vice versa.
Along the way, we stopped at the small towns of Vik, Sogndal, Laerdal, Årdal, Gaupne, and Balestrand. In Balestrand, there is an incredible hotel that is built entirely of wood and is the largest wooden hotel in Northern Europe. It is white and has tons of balcony space around the outside. Periodically, people got on and off of the boat, depending on where they were staying for their vacation and many people got off on the stop at Balestrand. Most of the pictures we took were done fighting a strong, cold wind. Because of the wind, we would take turns taking pictures and walking in and out to warm up after freezing and fighting the wind. Around 1:20 p.m., we arrived in Flåm for the end of the journey. The town doesn’t really have much except some houses, a few tourist trap places to eat, a grocery store, and an amazing place that looks like a beach beside the fjord. We had an hour to kill so we sat by the fjord and enjoyed the scenery and dipped a few fingers in the water. It was quite cold!
From Flåm, the famous Flåm Railway is there and it takes you to Myrdal, where you catch a train back to Bergen or to Oslo. The railway is famous as a tourist destination and climbs up 2,835 feet over a journey of only 12 miles. It is one of the steepest gradients in the world. We had a good time checking the views of different towns from high up. They stopped the train at a wooden platform built next to a waterfall so people can take pictures with waterfall behind them. Only thing is, we didn’t see a waterfall and the conductor explained that the lack of rain had dried up the waterfall. We continued on to Myrdal, where we caught our train to Oslo, in which we napped the whole way. One back in Bergen, we had some more of the sausage cart sausages for dinner and called it an early night since we had an early train to Oslo and we wanted to see what the ride had in store. Enjoy the pictures.
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