After a full day’s sailing on Saturday (July 15), we reached Flåm, our first Norwegian port, at 8 am this morning (Sunday).  Heavy rain all night but thankfully the predicted showers stayed away early this morning giving us some wonderful views of the Sognefjord.

It took the ship 8 hours to travel the 204 km along this 1308 metre deep fjord to reach Flåm, a tiny village surrounded by snow capped mountains and dozens of waterfalls.

We went ashore by tender and explored a little of the township.  Cold with ocasional scattered freezing rain showers – a typical Norwegian summer’s day!

This afternoon we took a three-hour excursion by the Flåmsbana (railway) which snakes its way through incredible scenery (how many waterfalls can you cram into a 20 km journey) — “one of the world’s great train journeys” to quote their slogan on the side of the carriage.  The train takes an hour to rise 810 metres, via some 180 degree loops, to Vatna-Halsen, where waffles, cream and strawberry jam awaited us.

Now back on board the Silver Whisper.  Just learned that Federer won Wimbledon.  What a champion.  Dinner tonight is at the outdoor Grill, which we’re looking forward to (enjoyed it greatly on the Alaskan cruise three years ago).  Previous two dinners have been in the main restaurant – fantastic food and wines.  We’ve also joined a trivia quiz group and our team won (of course).

We sail for Ålesund tonight – Norway’s art nouveau gem.

A Norwegian Lorelei sings for the tourists at this breathtaking waterfall.  She literally pops out of nowhere and bursts into (weird) music as the train passes by on the way back to Flåm.  Norway is full of legends and trolls –  something to do with long winter days and nights.