Up early again, we set off in light drizzle and continued south on Highway 5. After a quick coffee stop in Sogndal, we carried on before boarding a ferry from Manheller to Fodnes. Soon thereafter, we took a roundabout onto E16 and entered the Laerdal Tunnel, the world's longest at a crazy 24.5 km in length.
We emerged a whole fjord away and down at the water level by the village of Aurlandsvangen, and the sun made an appearance. We continued past and wound around the fjord to the village of Flam. We could quickly see an MSC cruise ship towering over the tiny village, and once we found parking we could see a crazy long line of people waiting to go into the visitor's centre to get tickets for several well-known area attractions.
We sat in the parking lot and managed to get a customer service rep on the phone from Norway's Best, who helped us get tickets for three excursions later today and tomorrow, without having to line up behind the 6000 passengers from the MSC Virtuosa. Jane also cleverly realized that there was a nice campground very near, where we might as well get a spot rather than pay for parking all day.
Flam Camping was perfect - very nice with terraced camping and a short walk to everything. It also gave us a base camp for the next two days, and Winston was rewarded with a well-earned rest.
After a nice lunch and a few different craft beers to go from Aegir Brewing, our afternoon excursion up the steep and scenic Flamsbana railway rolled around. We took the train out a canyon and up a steep grade through 20 tunnels to Myrdal, before taking the same train back down. Most of the people got off, as a transfer point to trains running along the Oslo-Bergen line.
The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was a beautiful ride for about an hour each way. In both directions, we stopped at the Kjofossen falls, where we were treated to a show by the mysterious Huldra, who tries to lure men into the mountains with her siren's call. Fortunately, I resisted.....after all, I had the van keys!
Back at the station, we made the short walk back to Winston and made some spaghetti before relaxing to enjoy the view and some delicious Kim's Pepper Punch chips.
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