Flåm

Why this place

Flåm is where the Flåm Railway ends and the fjord begins. It is the landing point in the middle of the Norway in a Nutshell day — a small village at the bottom of an 866-meter descent through waterfalls.

What happens here

The Ungdommene (the Youngsters) arrive on the Flåmsbana on Day 3 — lunch on the wharf, the village to themselves for ninety minutes before the electric bus climbs up to Stegastein. Back in Flåm by mid-afternoon with a real hour to fill, then the Nærøyfjord cruise boards from the pier.

Things worth seeing in the time available:

• The wooden waterfront with the original 1940s railway station
• A short walk inland for the view back toward the village
• The Flåm Railway museum if there’s time

Background

Flåm has lived two lives. Before 1940 it was a small farming and fishing village at the inner head of one of Norway’s longest fjords, accessible only by water or by hard climb. After the Flåm Railway opened in 1940 — connecting Myrdal on the Bergen Line down to sea level via a 20-kilometre descent and twenty years of construction — Flåm became a tourism gateway. Today it sees roughly a million visitors a year, most of them passing through in a few hours like our group will. A small year-round population (~350) keeps the place going outside the cruise season.

The fjord at Flåm’s foot is the Aurlandsfjord, an inner branch of the Sognefjord — the longest fjord system in the country, reaching more than 200 kilometres up the western interior.