We love our little cottage by the fjord.  It is perfect for us.

Flam is a town that is sort of a crossroads. Travelers who want to ride the “most beautiful train in the world” or take a quick ferry jaunt to see the fjords flood into this little village of 450 inhabitants each day and head right back out.   But I’m so glad we took the time to linger.

I fell in love with this listing when scouring VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) over a year ago.  I basically built our trip around us staying in this little red cottage.

We have big picture windows overlooking Aurlandsfjord (the name of our little bay) and spend most of the day – and night (the sun does not set until nearly midnight!) on these sofas just starting at the scenery.

Our cottage has a little kitchen.

Bathroom/Laundry (with 2nd small bath upstairs)

A king-sized bed with a view to the fjord.  We love these individual duvets – no stealing covers and super easy to make up (you just fold in half and go).

A 2nd bedroom (queen bed), which we use as our luggage/dressing room, and a twin room with a view of the pastures – we can hear the cows moo from our house!

AND it comes with our own rowboat!

There is excitement, too. On our first night, we settled in for a peaceful evening on the fjord –

And then imagine our surprise when we woke up to this view!

We have downloaded the ship schedule and keep up with who comes each day. Sometimes small expedition cruises, sometimes mega-ships.  Our favorite Queen Mary 2 will be here a few days after we leave.

We feel like we’ve discovered a secret gem. While most folks immediately jump on a train or ferry to their next destination, we have come to love the ebb and flow of this peaceful little village by the side of the fjord.

So not all of our travels are glamorous.  Here’s the rest of the story.  : )

We arrived on the stunning Flamsbana railway – with all our luggage and wine in hand. We had rented a little red cottage that was supposed to be 5 minutes from the station and right on the water.   We were super excited.

All of the other train passengers were part of different tours or cruises. They had buses or guides with placards waiting to meet them and whisk them away (with no luggage in sight).  Frank and I waited for them to disembark so we didn’t get run over and then struggled off of the train.

We realized that we had no idea where to go and didn’t see any “little red cottages” at all – and I realized (much to my chagrin as champion travel planner) that I hadn’t even asked the address – I had assumed it would be right there.

We finally spied our cottage WAY across the fjord. Oh no!

Frank, wondering what I had gotten him into, decided to take matters into his own hands and approached the lone taxi.  Unfortunately he was already booked AND the only taxi in town.  So we settled in to wait for him to return to pick us up.

What had been a beehive of tourists just 10 minutes before was a ghost town.  Just me, Frank, and our wine.

Finally, Jostein (whom we have gotten to know fairly well by now) returned and loaded us in.  Since we had a car, we decided to take advantage of it and hit the market on the way to the cottage.

We frantically zipped through throwing things in the buggy in case our new home was in the middle of nowhere.  Frank said he didn’t care what we had for dinner – he just needed a beer.

Jostein waited patiently and drove us round and round until we stopped by a row of lovely red cottages. He even helped carry our suitcases down the stone path and get us all unloaded.  Thank goodness for Jostein!

Exhausted and sore, we cracked open one of those bottles of wine and savored the views – spectacular. Sometimes being a traveler is hard work!

P.S. We have since learned that there is a walkway along the water straight to our cottage – although admittedly, would have been a challenge with luggage. But easy to get to town.  Whew!

We have hopped off the big train at the tip-top of the mountain range in Myrdal and await the boarding of the Flamsbana – the small train that will take us down to the fjord. My parents took this very train about 20 years ago when they visited Norway and have told me how beautiful it was.

My mom sent a picture of her scrapbook – the original “Two Fools In Love” blog!!

We are super excited as the train arrives. But first – we have to get our luggage onboard.  We did pretty well with the Amtrak-style train, but this old-fashioned train is WAY off the ground.

Oh no! Frank can’t help much due to his hip, so I grunt, grimace, and push as hard as I can to get everything in – maybe we overdid it on the wine!

But finally we are set and grab seats on this charming train that was built in 1920s.

It will plummet us into the valley on the steepest track in the world, through hand-dug tunnels and hairpin turns.  They have 5 sets of brakes – just in case.

If we thought the big train had good views, we literally oohed and aahed our way down the mountain on the little Flamsbana train.

Everyone – even hardened tourists – jumped up with cameras in hand to catch at least a dozen waterfalls and huge views.

Norway is truly a breathtaking place.

My favorite was the Kjosfossen waterfall. It was so dramatic that they even stopped the train to let us out to take pictures.

Just like Mom & Dad!

Finally, we descended into the little village of Flam, right on the fjord. Picturesque and peaceful with 360 degree mountain views.  Wow – the most beautiful train ride I the world indeed.

Lonely Planet called it “the most beautiful train journey in the world.” Rick Steves calls it “simply the most spectacular train ride in northern Europe.”

It is part of what is called “Norway in a Nutshell” that travels across the mountains from Oslo to Bergen. We are taking a detour mid-way down to the fjords (Part II), where we have a little cottage waiting for us.

We have been to lots of places, so while I was sure it would be lovely, I wasn’t sure it would be “the most beautiful train in the world.” That’s a lot to live up to!  But I have to say – we were blown away.

Part I was on the Norwegian version of Amtrak – the regular commuter train from Oslo to Bergen. It was nice and clean with assigned seating and a café car and space to store luggage (of which we had a lot –remember all that wine?).

The scenery started off fairly routine with pretty towns along the way.

But then the fun began. We started climbing and soon were seeing snow-capped mountains and lakes.

Then climbing higher and getting above the treeline.

Then even higher into the snow. Breathtaking.

The train climbs to a an altitude of 4,266 feet, travels under 18 miles of snow sheds, and through 200 tunnels through the mountains. It is the longest high-mountain stretch of train in Europe.

Soon, we were at Myrdal – our stop at the top of the mountain. The big train would head on to Bergen.

We will board the small Flamsbana train to dip down into the valley to our cottage by the fjord – a ride that is equally as breathtaking.

Stay tuned for Part II!

We made it to Oslo – a little bleary-eyed from the overnight flight. We were in awe of the snow-capped mountains that we saw from the plane. This will be an adventure!

Our first surprise is that the whole plane rushed off and made a frantic bee-line for duty-free, grabbing shopping carts as they went. Men and women were throwing whatever they could find into their carts – mainly wine and spirits.  We have seen duty-free in other airports and while fun to browse, there was a whole level of desperation here we have not seen before. What in the world?

Well, it turns out that alcohol is very expensive in Norway – and hard to find. You can only buy wine and spirits at certain government-run stores – called VINMONOPOLET – that are only in urban areas (apparently the Norwegian government’s answer to social responsibility).  So citizens take every chance they get to stock up on duty-free when flying in and out – sometimes they fly for this very purpose!

Thinking maybe they knew something we didn’t, I left Frank with our bags and grabbed a few bottles of our own. Since we haven’t really learned kroner yet, we aren’t sure if we got a good deal (100 kroner is about $12 US). And we will probably regret this decision as we haul our hooch from town to town.  But we are proud of ourselves for living like Norwegians!

Next Up: We spend the night at the Radisson Blu Airport Hotel (literally across the street – excellent if you need an airport stop-over).  And then take the Flytoget airport train to central Oslo tomorrow – where we board what has been billed as “the most beautiful train in the world.” Join us!