Flam – wow, just wow
We arrive in Flam very early and very slowly, almost tip toeing in. If you look the place up on Wikipedia, it basically says cruise ships are not popular with the locals. Although without cruise ships, I’m not sure what the point of Flam is. There is very little there except tourist shops and a railway station to serve tourists.
I think the main gripe is pollution. This is a remote and incredibly beautiful location, un-spoilt except for the Cruise ships. Air pollution in Flåm and Geiranger during the cruise season is similar to that of a big city. Cruise traffic in Norway, which is one of the largest exporters of oil in the world, emits more NOx than all road traffic in Norway combined. Moves are foot though to develop greener forms of transport such as hydrogen powered ships.
We have a late breakfast and stroll off the ship and head for the railway station. Next to the ship is a collection of touristy shops. I’m sure they would not be happy if cruise ships stopped coming here. Not that I am belittling the ecological damage done by our floating Butlins, but tourism does seem to be the only purpose of this particular village. We browse, looking for the illusive Norwegian jacket I have fallen in love with. Again, right size wrong colour. Then we queue for about two weeks for a coffee in the café rammed with cruise heads.
There is a train that runs up around the mountains that is allegedly one of the most picturesque railway journeys in the world. We try to get a ticket but they can’t fit us on till 4pm and it takes two hours – so no guarantee that we will be back when the ship sails. And it has been made abundantly clear to us that if we are not on board they will sail without us. Grrrr. I Curse P&O for lack of information about sailing times in advance.
Second best thing – we jump on a pretend train thing, one of those tractor type things that looks like a train and pulls a load of trailers that look like carriages. It heads up into the old town, which is not really a town, it is a collection of houses scattered around the mountains with a school and a church in the middle. It is stunningly beautiful, and I’m consoled somewhat about missing the proper train. The tail end of the trip involves a quick spin around the opposite side of the fjord so we are looking across at the ship. Again, it is a stunning view and we resolve to walk back over to take some photographs.
When we walk back, we spy a little café. Unlike the café next to the boat, which was rammed and involved a massive wait to be served, it is quiet, has an amazing view down the fjord, and food cooked with care, rather than speed. We order cider and pizza. Once I have calmed down about the price of the cider (£10 for half a pint) we relax and soak in the views. It is a simple thing, a view, away from the crowds, with good food and good cider – not to mention good company – but I think this quiet contemplative moment is the highlight of the trip so far.
We eventually head back to the ship and watch Vikings on TV, occasionally looking out of the window contemplating what it would have been like in this hood back in the day.
At dinner we chat with some people who tell us they had also missed out on the train, so went up the mountain in a minibus. Apparently, it was one of those ‘most dangerous roads in the world’ type scenarios, with some of the passengers coming back in tears.
After dinner we go for a wander and find ourselves in a karaoke. My idea of hell. My opinion on this type of activity was not changed in the half an hour we sat there. An early night is in order.