Day 2: Nærøyfjord

We were quite tired after our early start yesterday, but there wasn't time for much of a lie-in this morning because we were off on an adventure to see the fjords We had tickets for a bus that left Bergen at 08.45 and would take us to the small town of Flåm. Flåm is located at the end of the Aurlandsfjord, and so has a very scenic location in what is already a very scenic country. From there we would be able to take a boat along the Aurlandsfjord and into the neighbouring Nærøyfjord. All we needed was for all the transport connections to work. And for it not to rain!

We didn't get off to a very good start with the latter, as we got caught in a torrential shower which appeared to start as soon as we stepped outside of our apartment in Bergen. It wasn't far to the bus station though, and we had a a whole three hours on the bus to dry out. Luckily the bus was warm and quite comfortable, and we enjoyed a spectacular journey through the mountains. The bus passed through numerous tunnels and each time we emerged in a new valley the weather seemed to vary between sunny and raining. There was still a lot of snow on the mountains and at one point we drove past a big lake which looked as if it had been frozen all winter, with the ice just starting to melt in places. The bus made a brief stop in Voss, which looked like a beautiful place.

The snow on the mountains looked almost too perfect to be real.

We arrived in Flåm promptly at 11.45 and immediately had a fantastic view of the fjord.

During the summer Flåm is a tourist hotspot but there were no cruise ships in the fjord today and we seemed to have arrived before most of the other tourists.

The village itself is quite small but it is in a spectacular location.

We wandered around for a while to enjoy the views...

...and then made sure we knew where our boat would be leaving from, before finding a cafe to have lunch.

By the time the boat was due to depart at 13.30, a few more tourists had arrived via the Flåm railway, but it still wasn't overly busy. The boat was quite relaxed, with no set seating; there were piles of plastic garden chairs on the deck which you could rearrange and sit wherever you liked.

It didn't really matter where you sat, because the views on all sides of the fjord were equally beautiful.

One slight annoyance (apart from the people with selfie-sticks!) were the seagulls, which persistently circled the boat for at least half an hour. I think some of the tourists must have been throwing them food.

The sides of the fjord were incredibly steep and rocky.

We passed occasional hamlets which seemed to be in very inaccessible locations.

The most exciting point of the journey came about an hour in, when the boat turned a corner from the Aurlandsfjord into the Nærøyfjord.

This is a really narrow fjord, only 250m across at its narrowest point.

You can probably tell from the photos that it was rather windy! So much so that the plastic chairs began blowing about the deck and the staff had to come and collect them up.

We passed numerous waterfalls as we made our way along the fjord.

The good thing about the wind was that it became a bit quieter on deck, as some of the worst selfie-stick offenders went inside to stay warm

Two hours after we set off, we began to approach Gudvangen, the village at the far end of the Nærøyfjord.

Again, the snowy mountains here were amazing.

Gudvangen itself is a very small place, but there was a cafe where we were able to warm up and get a coffee. We didn't stretch to cake as it was £7 a slice! There were lots of coaches waiting in Gudvangen to pick up tour groups from the boat. We made our way up to the main road to catch the public bus back towards Bergen.

We have packed a lot of travelling into today, but it was definitely worth it