Flaam, Norway

Our first stop in Norway was the tiny village of Flaam, population 350.  The word "Flaam" means "flat piece of land between steep mountains and they were definitely steep.  Flaam is situated on the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in Norway.  "Fjord" is a Norse word used by many other nations, but Norway's fjords are the best known and the most beautiful.  Ships can sail up to 100 miles up some Norwegian fjords.   The word itself means a waterway flanked by precipitous cliffs, carved over millions of years by the melting of the glaciers.  

The previous day on the ship was a Sea Day and the whole day was cold and windy with a little rain.  I was sure we were going to get more of the same on our excursion, but the weather was lovely. A little cool, but we were dressed for it and were never uncomfortable. After arriving in the little town of Flaam on the ship's tender, we boarded buses and made our way through the mountains which are indeed steep and precipitous.  There are numerous tunnels cut through the mountains which expedites the journey considerably from what it had been like for many centuries and soon we were stopping at a lovely hotel overlooking heavenly scenery as you can see below.  The guide had told us that the very old mountains were "round and polished" and they did seem so. There were villages along the way, lots of sheep, goats and cattle and a waterfall around every bend.  The road we took is one of the steepest in Europe.  After coffee and a pastry at the hotel we went on the bus down another REALLY steep road with harrowing hairpin curves (see picture below) with even more waterfalls.  It's a tribute to our driver that we made it and the guide said at the end that he deserved a round of applause--which we enthusiastically gave him--and then she said he had done a great job especially since he had just gotten his driver's license yesterday. (ha ha ha).

To be continued...

Tom with replica of Viking boat

Looking down from the Hotel Stallheim where we had coffee and the most fab pastry.  

Yours truly with mountains

This was a harrowing 1.6 km road (thankfully one-way: down).  The bus driver drove VERY slowly around each of the hairpin curves and I had the illusion that we were about to tip over, but we never did. These waterfalls are everywhere.

This is an especially beautiful waterfall called Tvindefassen (love that word, love to say it) which means Twin Falls.

The guide told us a very interesting story: the first paint color used by the Viking settlements was made from sheep's blood and was red.  Later, they learned how to make yellow paint from cod liver oil which was some improvement on the sheep's blood.  Both colors smelled very bad for obvious reasons.  Later, they learned how to make white paint using various chemicals that didn't have that terrible smell and so white became more prestigious.  It was a status symbol to have a white house.  The custom in the area is still to paint the main farmhouse white, the midlevel buildings yellow and the barns red.  You would never for example have a white barn and a red house--why allow the animals to enjoy all that status?  Practically every farm was composed of that color combination.

Tom has identified with the trolls