Flam, Norway

It was a cool, overcast day when the Ruby Princess docked at the pier of the Flam or Flaam, the second port of the trip.  The small town of flam is situated at the end of the Aurlandsfjord, a tributary of Norway's longest and deepest fjord called Sognefjord.  The ship docks right next to the train station that is the terminus for the Flamsbana scenic train.  It was surprising that the large cruise ship would fit into such a tiny harbour.

Choosing not to book the more expensive Princess excursion for the Flam railway, misterpiggy decided to lineup at the very early hour of 7 am for disembarkation in order to try to book a seat on the virtually sold out train.  With the cruise ship pier just steps from the railroad station, misterpiggy made it there in time to buy some seats on the next earliest train.

Here are the pictures of the Flamsbana railway ride.
http://piggyinnorway.blogspot.ca/2014/07/flamsbana-railroad.html

Misterpiggy returned to Flam town around 10:30 am and decided to return to the ship for an early lunch of hamburger, pizza and pastries on the deck and he enjoyed views of the fjord and the spectacular cliff walls that surrounded the ship and the town.

 The Ruby Princess would continue to stay in Flam until 5 pm and now it was just noon time.  Surely there was something more to see and do in Flam, other than the main attraction of the railway.

At the railway office, they sold other tours and one that caught misterpiggy's attention was a bus ride up to the top of the fjord to a lookout point called Stegastein.  He just missed the 12:30 departure, so he booked the next available one at 2:00 pm.  It would return by 3:30 pm with lots of time to get back on the ship.

Here are the pictures from the Stegastein bus trip.
http://piggyinnorway.blogspot.ca/2014/06/stegastein-viewpoint-in-flam.html

With some time to kill, misterpiggy visited the Flam Museum (free admission) where he learned about town's history and enjoyed their model train setups.

And took some more pictures from the neighbouring hillside overlooking the town and ship.  The climb up was a vigourous half an hour, but so worth it.

Finally, some spectacular views of the Norwegian Fjords as the Ruby Princess departed Flam.

Here's a video of the ship cruising through the fjords, leaving Flam.   Sorry for all the wind noise!

Next port of call:  Geiranger, Norway.