J2 ARRIVE IN NORWAY

Yesterday is a bit of a blur.
I know that we were up at 3.45am to walk 15minutes to the airport bound bus.  Even at that ungodly hour, the sun was up & it's bright & cheerful self, which is a truly weird experience!
A flight & a couple of train trips later, we were in Norway, it was 8.30pm & we had a 30 minute walk to our Hotel which was downhill from Myrdal.
Set in the most stunning landscape of forest & mountain slopes, our Hotel was built in 1896 & can only be reached by train or bike path.  There are no roads to it. As there were no convenient trains going that way, we had no option but to begin walking, however, we were grateful that the Hotel sent a quad bike to come & collect our luggage for us....& later took pit on us too & piled us in for a ride!
Such a blissful quiet place meant that we slept well & woke up to the real start of our Norway adventure.

The Flamsbana is one of the world's most beautiful railway trips (allegedly) & it was courtesy of this train that we were bound to Flam where we will be based for the next few days.
The train was beautifully decked out inside with brass fittings, wood panelling & olde worlde upholstery. It was very tourist oriented, but even so... it was charming.
Every glance out the window had either an amazing waterfall, humongous rock faces or a dramatic drop!  This railway has 863 metres difference in elevation between beginning & end... that's steep!
Along the route there were many tunnels & we were amazed to hear that when this was being built, back in the 1920's, it would take a workforce of 120 men to tunnel a metre per month!
This railway is an engineering wonder.

At Kjosfossen we were allowed a 5 minute stop to get outside the train & take photos of the powerful waterfall that wiggled it's way down the rock face. Just as we were heading back to the train, the most beautiful music started echoing off the cliffs & filling the valley.  Then ...even more astounding....a blonde haired woman dressed in red & dancing in a very 'come hither' way started drawing our attention.  The woman sitting opposite, who was local, explained that this woman was a Huldra. A seductive forest spirit who lures young unmarried men into the mountains, according to legend, she won't let them go until they marry her. HOWEVER.... if they marry in a Church she takes the form of her true self, which... alas... is not lithe, beautiful & blonde, but UGLY!  To compensate, she has the strength of 10 men!! I guess that's compensation because she can lift heavy loads???
We were so glad that that woman had been sitting opposite, otherwise the significance of the dancing woman would have been lost to us.

Flam derives it's name from Flaom which apparently means 'plains surrounded by hills & steep mountains'.  At first glance we surmised that it was well named!  It lies at the end of  Sognefjord, and attracts a lot of tourists each year.  On exiting the train, we think we encountered a fair few of them!  Thankfully our accommodation isn't right in the centre! Sigh.... this the view we get to wake up to over the next few mornings!

Once settled in, we wanted to stretch our legs & an easy 3 km walk brought us to 'old' Flam & more interestingly the Church of 'old' Flam!
Built in 1667 this little treasure looks rather modest from the outside, but...

....the interior is spectacular. Wonderful naïve painting covered every wall surface, which gave it warmth & charm.  To add to that, whilst we were standing just inside the doorway, a swallow flew in & swirled around as if she owned the place & was there to be our personal guide.  She then perched on the very top of the alter screen & looked down on us!

To our delight, one of the wall paintings included a reindeer!

Outside, the graves didn't reflect the age of the church.  The oldest seemed to be from the mid 1800's.  What impressed me was that at every gravestone there was a flowering plant, and not a single weed or faded plastic rose!  Someone clearly had a job caring for this cemetery & it was quite beautiful as a result.



Returning the way we had came, we enjoyed the different wild flowers that grew along the road side & the different birds who flitted in amidst them.  We found ourselves comparing what we saw with what we'd seen in Iceland & relished the difference. The Flam river flowed by rapidly & was a musical backdrop to our walk. 
It was a very pleasant Sunday afternoon stroll & a tranquil environment to look forward to exploring more.  We felt so overwhelmingly grateful.