Sat, 26 Jul 2003

author Tim	location Hellesylt, Møre og Romsdal, Norge
posted 20:25 CEST 28/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

North-East from Bergen, Flåm ( 18 photos )
After packing up at the caravan park, we headed back East (this was as far west in Norge that we intend to go), stopping in Kvamskogen to try to locate a youth hostel that my parents stayed in many years ago. The story goes that nobody there spoke English, and they were presented with an over-large breakfast that never seemed to end. To this day they are not sure whether they were supposed to pay or indeed whether someone had accidentally dropped a wedding banquet off for them to finish between them.
A helpful local pointed us at what is now the Kvamskogen Inn, and matches the description. I'm not sure if the Youth Hostel Association dropped this particular one after it found out about the over-spending on breakfasts. (Update quite some time later: May parents believe this was not the place. Have to look again next time.)
Pushing further on, we rounded the head of the relatively tiny Eidfjorden, before taking a detour into the town of Ulvik. Tucked away in the middle of several mountains miles from anywhere, we had a lunch at this pleasant location, only interrupted by a local fisherman who we suspect wanted the spot we had parked the van in. Not wanting to face the wrath of his granny-mobile, we had finished anyway and followed our path back up the steep winding road and out of there.
Pushing on North, we passed through the town of Voss, which we didn't really feel in the mood to explore.
We are challenging poor Rosie with the trickiest roads we can find here, and as such Stalheimskleiva, the road up to the Stalheim hotel was a must. Billed as one of the steepest roads in Northern Europe, we actually ended up going down it, which was a nice enough change. Don't worry, we found plenty more.
We got out for a brief wander around Gudvangen, the port at the head of Næroøfjorden. As you might expect, there were some touristy shops there where we grabbed a couple of bits and pieces (holding back quite well overall, though), before driving through some long tunnels to Flåm.
I had wanted to come here to check out the highly-recommended Flåm-Myrdal Flåmsbana Railway, which heads up and up through the mountains, giving you a great view in the process. However, it was late at this stage, so we elected to go just up the road to the caravan park for the night, planning to do the train the next morning.
The caravan park was something else. After paying at the front gate, the lady told us that her husband would show us to our spot. Strange, we thought, usually we get a map or some simple directions. Following him on his bike like Alice chasing the White Rabbit, we rapidly found out why. We had been given the highest spot in the place, with amazing views out across to the trains, ferries and of course the fjord and surrounding mountains. Best spot so far. A word of advice - do without electricity for your van if/when you can - we have consistently found that we get better spots when we don't have to be near power connections.
Dinner was washed down with a strange invention we haven't seen anywhere else and just had to try - Hansa Pilsener (a beer), sold in 1.25 litre plastic bottles like coke. Didn't even taste too bad, and given how hard the government try to make drinking not worth the expense due to the hefty taxes they put on all alcohol, it was even reasonably priced.

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