Flam is a popular tourist cruise destination in Southwest Norway. It is about 2.5 hours of drive East of Bergen. Flam is a small village that has its charm with beautiful mountain ranges and flowers. There are also several stores located at the pier to allow cruise visitors to shop and purchase local handcrafted items. The view point at Stegastein also provides a perfect view of fjord that Flam is located.
We went to visit Flam this day and left the hotel at Bergen early in the morning right after having the breakfast. The first thing we did was driving all the way up the mountain road to Stegastein view point. We knew that there was only limited parking spaces and we wanted to beat the tour bus otherwise the tour bus would occupy all the parking spaces.
By the time we got to Stegastein view point, there was only few cars. We were relived that we were able to find a parking space right away. The view point also has washroom for visitors to use. The platform at the view point extends outwards toward the fjord. This allowed us to have a panoramic view of the fjord. We could see Flam on the far side. With the camera's ultra wide angle lens, we were able to capture the whole fjord in a single frame.
By the time we leave, there was a lot more cars coming in. Then as we headed back down the mountain road to go back to Flam, we were struck with tour buses coming up. This was crazy. The road was already so narrow that it could barely fit 2 mid size cars. We had to back up our car to the point where the road was wide enough. It was a challenge to the driver.
Eventually we got back down to the highway and it was a relieve. We then drove to Flam to check out the village. The village was very calm and quiet and each house had flowers planted in their yards. The railway simply goes through the village into the mountain. Many visitors rented bikes to bike around the beautiful village.
We then headed to the pier and saw a large cruise parked at the pier. There were many shops and restaurants located at the pier, along with many food trucks. Among the food trucks, the Chinese food food truck was the most popular one. This was probably because most of the visitors from the cruise were Chinese.
Flam also offers many scenic railway rides. So at the pier, the railway station actually has up to 4 platforms for the train. The scenic railway ride is about 2 hours, but we didn't take the ride since we still wanted to visit other places in the region and did not have enough time.
Overall, Flam is a great place to visit and the Stegastein view point is a must go place, just make sure to go there early to avoid the crowd and tour bus.
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