Boats, Buses, and Trains (and Feet)

We had most of the day to spend in Flåm, so, knowing that we had a long day of boats, buses, and trains ahead, we took a 2-hour walk along the edge of the fjord away from town. Here's the view the giant cruise ship was hiding:

It was rather a misty, moisty morning:

At one point, Sheila spotted "something" out in the water.  An occasional, black, rounded shape would appear and disappear.  After several tries, Lars managed to get enough of a shot to make an I.D.:

It was two (or more) harbor porpoises, locally called "Nise".  Local info indicated that we wouldn't have seen them if the cruise ship hadn't left, as those big ships have to run their engines constantly, causing a lot of noise pollution in the water.

And, of course, there were some flowers:

Our last part of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour proved to be quite rewarding -- a two-hour cruise in two fjords and then a bus ride to Voss, where we boarded a local train to Bergen.

The tour boat was once a fjord ferry that could carry perhaps a dozen autos, a bus, and a semi-truck, all at the same time. Now it carries tourists and has a glass-enclosed area in case of really bad weather. This day, Norwegian weather reminded us that it can rain on a moment's notice, as it did, bringing out the rain gear.

The day started with rain showers and poor visibility but soon large patches of blue sky started appearing and the remainder of the day was fairly nice weather, if a bit cool.

We were not far from the dock when some members of the large Japanese tour group started feeding the "gulls" (kittiwakes) pieces of dried fish. Soon everyone was watching the suddenly much-increased number of birds competing for the free food and dive-bombing passengers about to toss more food. After a while, some of the remaining, now well-fed kittiwakes took a rest on the back end of the boat.

Riding slowly through the Aurlands- and Nærøyfjords gave us a new perspective on the spectacular Norwegian scenery:

The ferry has another purpose, to deliver mail to small towns along the fjord.

At the end of our fjord tour we boarded 3 or 4 buses, all "Norway in a Nutshell" buses, for the next segment of our tour. We boarded the buses adjacent to a fjord hotel in Gudvangen that demonstrates nicely some of the side-benefits of a turf/sod roof -- lots of pretty flowers on the roof.

But, the absolute best was yet to come. On the road  from Gudvangen to Voss runs past a famous hotel from 1885, the Stalheim Hotel.  The hotel has one of the most fantastic views!!

The buses drove slowly down a very steep, windy road ....

The bus driver went even more slowly than essential for safety on this 18% grade, stopping at every turn ..... so we got lots of nice pictures of one of the world's most scenic glacial valleys. Of course, there were some spectacular waterfalls, here is one.

After this, normal scenic Norway the rest of the way to Voss and on the train to Bergen was "not what it used to be"....