#kjosfossen

[drunkphotography]

An ex-chick told me to go get on this 'Flåm' train in Norway, Scandinavia and how it was so magical, how it was a 'once in a life time experience' blah blah blah. I had to get over there to see if this was really worth it

[mitmama]

Train to Flåm

Oslo | Flam Train | Nærøyfjord & Sognefjord | Bergen | Copenhagen | Malmo, Sweden | Norway travel tips

The train ride from Oslo to Flam is actually two different rides: first the 5 hour ride from Oslo to Myrdal on Bergen Rail, then 1 hour via Flam Railway down to the Flam valley.

Bergen Railway (learn more here)

The Bergen Railway leaves from Oslo Central, and goes by picturesque scenery like below. The highlight is the last half hour or 40 minutes going by outlets of Hardangerjøkulen Glacier. It looked just wild and went on and on. And amazingly there are little houses here and there close to the railroad... you wonder who's brave enough to live there, especially in the freezing winter.

Flam Railway

At Myrdal station, we switched over to the Flam Railway. We'll go from 2800 ft to sea level, quite a ride, featuring thin streams of grand mountains, waterfalls, haripin turns, and green valleys.

One helpful tip, you'll want to take a lot of pictures, so sit next to a window that opens, so you don't get fuzzy pictures like a couple of mine below.

The train will stop for 5 minutes at the Kjosfossen Falls, a gorgeous waterfall you can see close up. Then suddenly music plays, and a lady comes out dancing!

[ourtriptoswedenandnorway]

Flam train and Nærøyfjord fjords

Sunday - 6/23/24

Logistically, today was complex from a transportation standpoint with many dependent legs— take a train to another train to a boat to a bus to another train. We needed to manage our time carefully today, and we did, because miss one of the connections and the whole process falls apart, and who knows where we would end up sleeping! But it all worked out and we woke up in Voss and went to sleep in Bergen.

Today we checked out of our hotel in Voss, but had them store our luggage for about 10 hours as we took the Flåm train and a two hour cruise on the fjords.

The first train we took was headed east from Voss back to Myrdal. We passed through Myrdal yesterday on the train, but didn’t stay there because it is only a train stop and doesn’t have acceptable accommodations.

So we got off the train in Myrdal and took a different train that was headed to Flam. In Norway the train from Myrdal to Flam is a famous train route, and they call it the “Flam Train”.

The Flam Train traverses 20 tunnels with stunning views of Norway’s landscapes, including mountainsides, cascading waterfalls, picturesque valleys and fjords. It descends 2,800 feet with a gradient of 1:18, one of the steepest in the world for a standard gauge railway. Completed in 1940, it is considered an engineering marvel.

Kjosfossen waterfall

Another waterfall

When we got to Flam there are a lot of tourists— most of whom were either on a 7 or 14 day tour of some sort or on a cruise ship. Before making our Flam train reservation, we researched how many cruise ships were due to be in Flam on the various days and booked our trip on a day when only one cruise ship was going to be in port.

Flam is built around tourism—plenty of places to spend money in overpriced gift shops and “cute” places to eat lunch. Even with only one cruise ship being in port, there were a lot of people there, most of them older, acting totally touristy. Since that is not our thing, we decide to go for a hike. We had about 3 hours before our cruise left, so we bought lunch and headed out on a hike to the old Flam church. It is a 2 to 2 1/2 hour hike out and back. The area around Flam is beautiful with lush greenery, steep mountains and waterfalls. After 5 minutes of walking we were out of all congestion and on an old country road that ran parallel to a beautiful river. We ended up stoping along the way to take pictures so never made it all the way to the old Flam church, but had a nice hike regardless.

Bridge used by locals for fishing,

At 3pm we boarded an electric catamaran and cruised for the next two hours through the Nærøyfjord fjords. The fjords is 10.5 miles long and at its narrowest it is 820 feet wide surrounded by steep mountains with snow covered peaks. Waterfalls cascade down the mountains with small villages dotted along the way. The Nærøyfjord fjords is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is considered one of the most beautiful fjords in the world.

When the boat docked in Gudvangen, we boarded a bus that went from Gudvangen back to Voss. At Voss, we went back to our hotel, which was next door to the train station, picked up our luggage, and took the 7:15pm train from Voss to Bergen. We sat on the north (right) side of the train, which had the best views.

Unfortunately due to our tight timeframe there was no opportunity to buy dinner before we got on the train, nor was there any food on the train to Bergen. When we arrived in Bergen it was late and we just bought survival sandwiches in the Bergen train station. We then went to our hotel and checked in. We are staying at Hotel Oleana, where we will be staying for the next four nights. It was a long day.

[nickypoppieandel]

Is it Monday??? 🤣

Let’s hope I do a better job tonight…. First, I have to finish telling you about what we did yesterday. I forgot so many things.

Mostly, we were on the bus early and we had a 5 hour tour of Oslo. I have mentioned about the young guide who got the sack because he was “high”. There was a huge U.S. country and western concert (someone called Luke Combs… don’t know him) and I think he had been at that concert. Anyway, I hope he hasn’t lost his job and feels better today!

The sculpture park was truly beautiful. All his sculptures depict family people - or singles that become attached etc - and their journey through life. I have a feeling I didn’t finish telling you how he saved his work from being stolen by the Nazis. I’ll check.

when I say that the city fathers (and mothers???) and governments here appear to have long term vision, we saw that on our next stop when we visited the new Opera House. Built in the old industrial area of Oslo, people said they were MAD … nobody would go there. But whoever said “Build it and they will come” was right. Resembling a large iceberg, it was soon joined by other architecturally innovative buildings and open spaces for people to come and walk and eat (and have saunas!). One of the novelties is you can walk on the roof (a bit like the stretch of grass we can walk up above the Orange Library and Museum!!) and watch the sunset and relax. on our way to the Museum to see the Viking exhibition, we drove all round the city, passed the Palace and other significant buildings. You could spend 2 weeks in Oslo and not see as much as you would want. It would be so good to come back (not likely ….. but one of the one or two people who might read this might!) and explore the city more closely. I LOVE the architecture and Hugh Haynes would have fallen in love with it too. Anyway, we visited the Viking Museum, e hi biting lots of things (jewelry, head pieces, coins, swords etc) that have been found with buried longships. High ranking soldiers who died in battle were often buried with their ships and chattels in buried mounds. , often the same shape as their long boat. Being buried with their sword was important because Nirvana for the. Was to keep fighting. I think their brutality started to die down with the influence of Christianity.

Oh yes!!! Adjacent to the Holmenkollen ski jump is the Holmenkollen wooden chapel. (I might have a photo - not sure). Inaugurated in 1913 it was set in fire I. 1992 and re-inaugurated in 1996. Apparently it is the most popular place in Norway to get married but you have to book ahead 4 or 5 years!! I asked our terrific replacement guide if she knew of a good place to go for dinner last night and. ….. have I already told you?? I can’t see yesterday’s piece until I post this one? Well anyway, we went down to the Barbour and chose a restaurant and had a delicious meal.

This morning we were bussed to the station, hopped on the train for a 4 hour train trip to Myrdal passing ever coloring autumn trees, raging rivers and rapids, pretty white and grey houses (the barns are red) and then hop on the scenic Flam railway to Flam. This is a truly beautiful 50 minute train trip that becomes more and more dramatic and wild and includes the raging Kjosfossen waterfall which supplies the electricity for the Flam train. Lonely Planet reports this as the world’s best train ride. Then we arrived in Flam which is one of the prettiest Villages I have ever been in. The Flam Fjord is protected by UNESCO. Flam was built to house the workers and equipment for building the tunnels and tracks needed for the railway to Bergen. It is clearly now a ski resort village and is SO serene and pretty. Now… for those reading this (hello??? anyone there??🤣🤣🤣) blog who knew my brother Rog and knew he died recently, probably don’t know that just after he died, his daughter Claire was taking the dog for a walk in St Ives and she saw a double (??) rainbow over the house. Claire and her husband Ben are in Scotland and they have taken a bit of him to the Isle of Skye right up the top of a mountain with the best view and lots of people visiting? And sure enough… coming down from the mountain, what should she see but a rainbow coming out of where she had sprinkled him! And today, as we were on our way to Flam on this spectacular little train trip, a rainbow appeared and out came the sun! We also have a bit of him with us and we’ll take him next week to the Northern Lights. He was booked on this trip and I have been - sadly but luckily - able to take his place.

I am constantly reminded of a magical trip Hugh (H) and I had in 2004 to the Pilbara with Rich and then to Katherine and Kakadu with Angus. We felt - as I do now - that we were terribly organised with bag and backpack etc., only to overhear Angus tell a friend how hopeless we were, scrabbling around in the backpack looking for things!! It seems I haven’t improved, but - like that trip - haven’t lost anything yet!!!

By the way, by putting his sculptures out in the park, Vigeland was able to prevent the Nazis stealing his sculptures. I don’t really understsnd how that worked, but apparently, because they became public property, it did work. 👏👏👏👏

Tomorrow we have a ferry ride through fjords, a bus ride somewhere or other and then a train ride to Bergen. A walking tour around Bergen the following morning and on to the MS Kong Harald (look it up!) which is the boat that will take us to Estonia and Finland for excitement and hopefully the Northern Lights.

Good night! Photos will follow.

[sergei-gussev]

#kjosfossen #myrdal #aurland #vestland #norway #august2019 (at Kjosfossen) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUXG5Uco8dx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[dygn]

[waltb31]

Kjosfossen Waterfalls, located in Aurland municipality, Sogn og Fjordane County, Norway 🇳🇴 Who would you share this beautiful romantic waterfall with? #Kjosfossen #Aurland #WaterfallForTwo #Norge #Norway #BeautyOfNature #Romantic #BucketList ~ ~ 📷Breathtakingly beautiful photo capture by @vian.drew #Repost @vian.drew @get_reposter Oggi didascalia triste e per la sensibilizzazione ambientale. . Trovarsi davanti questi panorami ti fa ricordare che forse c’è ancora qualcosa di bello da salvare... . . . #savethenature #waterfallsofinstagram #waterfall_lover #panoramicviews https://www.instagram.com/p/B1_6M8ngC2A/?igshid=111gicvz97g0z

[europeposts]

Kjosfossen  Waterfall, Norway: Kjosfossen is a waterfall located in Aurland Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The waterfall is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Norway. Its total fall is around 225 metres. There is a small power station on the waterfall which is used to power the Flåm Line railway. Wikipedia

[redgriffinsphotos]

Mountain Falls: Kjosfossen, Norway

[ssweet-ssomeone]

• so calming 🤩😱

[nikekidliem]

Flam Railway travellers at the mighty Kjosfossen waterfall with the famous dancing red-dress lady called huldra according to Norwegian folklore. #kjosfossen #huldra #european #nordic #bắcâu #scandinavia #norway🇳🇴 #sognogfjordane #flåmrailway #flåmsbana #scenic #landscape #natural #newfriends #travellers #eurotrip🇪🇺 #gopromoment (at Kjosfossen Station) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5BAzXwp5xi/?igshid=4p487wdn7ufk

[desiderandoviaggiare]

La meravigliosa cascata di #kjos #kjosfossen . Escursione #mscmeraviglia https://www.instagram.com/p/B1LlwAmo5HU/?igshid=di180le72y14

[larutadelasrolas]

#kjosfossen #norway #traveldiaries #felicidadinfinita #photodiary #valeriosentmeonexcursion (at Kjosfossen Station) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bynskl-imYl/?igshid=oex5vmv1aujq

[rutaporlahistoria]

Kjosfossen en Aurland, Norway

[cbatt-blog1]

#kjosfossen #flåmsbana #norway #norge

[sergei-gussev]

#kjosfossen #myrdal #aurland #vestland #norway #august2019 (at Kjosfossen) https://www.instagram.com/p/CURuN5joS1l/?utm_medium=tumblr