Flam AndThe Brekkefossen Hike

    We woke this morning docking at the end of a fjord. At least I did – Judy managed to sleep in again. I guess the hike yesterday was a bit much. Flam is probably the smallest town that we have ever been to by ship. It is a busy very little place as the tour buses seemed to be coming and going all day. The main attraction is a train ride through the valley. It stops at a number of small towns. You could take the train and walk back to the ship. We had decided to just explore Flam on our own and not join the hordes that took the train tours.

At The Falls

     I had spent a bit of time learning about Flam and knew that there was a hike to a waterfall not far out of town. The local tourist bureau had a very nice coloured map with the trails clearly marked. We headed for the Brekkefossen – the Brekke waterfall. It is a 2-3 hour hike. Most of the trail is along a flat road but then goes to the knoll next to the falls. The trail itself was not like the rock steps of yesterday but it was straight up. This trail was more typical of what we see in the Banff area. Rocks yes but more dirt and trees. The steady up portion was fine until about half way when water along the trail turned it into a muddy mess and very slick. The steepness of the trail meant that the way down was very slippery. Others on the trail fell but we did not.

The Falls

View Of Flam

The view of the waterfall from the knoll was very 
nice. A good volume of water was flowing over the shear drop near the top. After a bit if a rest we headed back to town. People were jammed in the small “Mall of Norway”. We stopped at the AEgir brew pub. It was crowded as well. This is the local gathering place for all the tourists in town. Of course we had to try the beer. It is a rule that when you are in small foreign town you must try the local brew. I did. It was very refreshing after the hike.

The Fjords

     We decided to watch the sail away for an extended period of time since we are deep into a fjord and this was one of the attractions of this trip. This ship does not have the chart displayed on the TV. We missed being able to follow the track of the ship as we have done in the past. As we move north we are seeing more and more daylight. Sunrise is just before 4 am and sunset is after 11.

The transit out of this fjord took about 5 hours. The views of the sheer cliffs was beautiful. I thought that we were in the main fjord. As we sailed along we could see many more fjords. The main one got wider and wider. We have never seen a fjord like this even in Alaska. It certainly did fulfill the expectation of this cruise.

    The rest of the early evening was spent wandering around until dinner. One thing that we have noticed is that there seems to be less wait staff. In the past there was an assistant for every waiter. Now one seems to roam in the area but not assigned to a specific person. The result is that there is less attention. Plates are not cleared an quickly as they use to be. There does not seem to be true afternoon tea being served. That may be a function of being in port with tours scheduled all day. This is the first time we have encountered a buy on get another for $1 more. We don't recall this promotion on our cruises. Everything else seems to be the same.

    We did see the show tonight. It was the comedian that we saw the first night. I liked him more. He did about an hour show and had some very good jokes. Another walk around day tomorrow.