Winter Europe Trip 29th November 2022 (Tues) Day 3

As I slept really early the 'day' before, I woke up really early at 3am. We did not have dinner the previous night, only some nachos and snacks at the Christmas Market so I felt quite hungry after waking up and we were eagerly waiting for breakfast. We even went down to the dining room before the breakfast time started at 6.30am and we were one of the first few there.

We went down to refill water while waiting

Few minutes before the door opened

A delightful spread

Early travelers

It's P's 40th birthday and I arranged a memorable day for him to remember this important day. We were going on the 'Norway in a Nutshell' tour, heading to Bergen in a very scenic journey. We have a train to catch at 8.25am so we set our own deadline of leaving the hotel at 7.50am, giving us enough buffer time to get to the station. We had a good breakfast while taking note of the time and had just enough time to go back to the hotel do a final packing and left. I already checked out from the hotel electronically after waking up earlier so it was really convenient.

Seats on VY trains were comfortable

Remnants of snow as we passed through these towns

Very very scenic view

Really loved this

Winter wonderland

It was quite a long journey of 4.5 hours before we change to the Flam Railway at Mydral. However, the scenery and view was really nice and we passed some towns that were snowing. It was really dramatic watching the landscape and we enjoyed it a lot, taking lots of videos but it got a little tiring sitting on the train as well. The journey was like Berlin traveling to Munich or Rome traveling to Venice, and even longer than those. We also saw some people with skis alighting at the snowy town of Geilo and realised its a well known ski destination.

Finally changing to the Flam Railway

Snowy and cool landscape

Our selfie before the train depart

All tourists in the train

Frozen waterfalls 

The Flam Railway is a very ancient train and the only one 'branch' away from the main rail when traveling between Oslo and Bergen. It is not the peak season and the train was relatively empty, it's free seating in this train and from reviews, we knew the left side is the scenic area of the train although many people just stand up and move around when the train was moving. I booked all the tickets for the two days "Norway In a Nutshell" journey through the fjordtours website although it was also easy to DIY and book all tickets on my own. Transport and train cost is considered reasonable in Norway and cheaper than Germany as it cost  4320 NOK (600 SGD) for 2 pax for the two days journey. For the first train ride on VY train from Oslo, they automatic assigned the seats for us and we were lucky to get the seats on the left side which was more scenic as well.

Train stopped for us to get out for photos

Us and buck lolx

Mostly asian tourists on board

Train stopped for 5-10 minutes

Very nice scenery

The train ride on Flam Railway attracted many tourists yearly and its known to be one of the most scenic in the whole of Europe. We are traveling deeper down into the valley towards the fjords and I think the whole scenery could be even more dramatic and magnificent when it is totally snowy or in the summer. After leaving Mydral, it was no longer snowy though the scenery was still really nice. I noticed a lot of big and small waterfalls coming down from the huge cliffs surrounding us and many of those had froze. There were guided information from the speaker in English throughout the journey and the train even stopped at one point for everyone to get out onto the platform to take photographs. I saw a video of the rail journey in the summer, the waterfall was splashing but at this point it was already frozen when we were there. On the train, there was a big group of Singaporean family and I spotted another couple who sounded like Singaporeans as well. 

Our lodging for the night at Flam Marina

The front of our apartments

I'll totally recommend this

Our room for the night

There's a living room and balcony etc

Another bedroom with bunk beds

'Norway in a nutshell' can be done in a day but I thought this is too rush for us, we would not appreciate the scenery once the sky is dark in winter and I opted to break up the journey into two days since we have the time. It was a good choice as we are already tired from the long train journey earlier, though it could be quite doable in the summer to reach Bergen at 9pm. The Flam Railway only took an hour to reach the sleepy small town of Flam, the journey felt shorter as everyone was taking photos excitedly. We had to walk some distance to the accommodation although there are some lodging right by the train station. It was actually just an easy walk but once again we lost our way and went up the hilly road instead of walking on flat land just around the waters. 

Nevertheless, we found our lodging at the Flam Marina pretty quickly, this is a birthday surprise for P as I booked a junior suite with balcony to enjoy the view of the fjord. The truth was, the sunset came quite early and it was too cold for us to sit outside on the patio, but the view was still stunning, even when it was dark at night. It was a cosy little cabin right by the waters and the whole little town was very quiet once the 10+ tourists from the train dispersed. It was a very serene and tranquil setting but of course we watched too many thriller movies with such nice surroundings that our imagination ran wild just before we were about to sleep and imagined this is just the perfect place to get ourselves murdered without anyone knowing. 

Little holiday cabins right next to our apartments

Our apartments is at the other side of the water facing the station

I helped P with his jump shot as the scenery is too good

The main town area was already very quiet when we went back

We put down our luggages, admired the cosy rooms and the patio for a short while and headed out again as P wanted to take pictures before it get too dark. There were little cabins next to our apartments meant for people holidaying but it was quiet right now as it's the slow season. We walked back towards the station as we wanted to look for a place for dinner, the other option is to have it at the restaurant operated by Flam Marina. We found the souvenir shop still opened and bought the fridge magnet before it closed, and thankfully the largest cafe and restaurant in the town had some food that looked good. We wanted to get some snacks (imagining that we would munch on them after dinner on the patio) and headed to the coop supermarket nearby before dinner, in case it closed early. The restaurant and the supermarket are the only places we saw with more than a couple of people. 

Coop market where we bought the stuff

Inside the cosy restaurant

P ordered spare ribs

The flam burget which we had to takeaway

The cafe-restaurant with some lodging attached

We ordered one main each but the portion was so big that we only finished P's spare ribs and had to takeaway the other burger (which was our very simple lunch the next day).  The food was not too cheap but not too expensive for such a huge portion and dinner was about 70 SGD, we figured the place is cheaper than Oslo although it was touristy, Flam Marina is also cheaper than our accomodation in Oslo and Bergen. The night has fallen when it was only 4pm and it was completely dark outside when we were done with dinner. I still could not get use to the timing and felt like it was already 9pm or 10pm. 

Brightly lit little houses along the waterfront

Xmas decoration near the train station

It was quite cold after dinner and we hardly saw anyone around, so we got back to our lodging soon after that. It was only 5pm when we got back, we thought that we would enjoy the patio scenery while munching on snacks, but we did not want to step outside into the cold at all. We turned the heater on and enjoyed our time in the cosy little living room, I got sleepy by 7pm and turned in soon after that. 

Some expenses for the day:

 Hot Chocolate onboard VYS (5 SGD)

Coop Supermarket (22 SGD)

Dinner at Flam (72 SGD)