Flåm: Where Mountains Touch Heaven and Railways Defy Gravity

The Flåm Railway: An Engineering Poem

Book this the moment you know your ship is calling at Flåm. I mean it – tickets sell out, especially for morning departures when the light catches the waterfalls just so. The round trip takes about two hours, and while the conventional wisdom says to sit on the left side going up (right side coming down) for the best waterfall views, I found both sides offered moments of such jaw-dropping beauty that passengers on either side spent half the journey leaning across the aisle to see what the other side was gasping about.

The journey itself unfolds like a meditation on what human determination can accomplish. Those twenty tunnels – most carved entirely by hand through granite that must have fought back with every strike of chisel and hammer – represent years of patient, dangerous work. I thought about the men who built this line, working through two decades, through depression and political upheaval, through winters that must have made the work nearly impossible. They left behind something that outlasted them, something that brings joy to strangers nearly a century later. There's poetry in that.

At Myrdal, the train pauses at a high plateau that feels like stepping onto the roof of the world. The station sits at 867 meters, wrapped in an alpine climate so different from the lush valley below that you half expect to find different constellations overhead. You can connect here to the main Bergen-Oslo railway line if you're feeling adventurous – the schedules align reasonably well – but most cruise passengers (myself included) loop back on the next Flåm-bound train, reluctant to leave this vertical world of water and stone.

If trains aren't your calling (though I can't fathom how), the same route draws cyclists who shuttle up to Myrdal and ride the entire descent back to Flåm – twenty kilometers of downhill through tunnels and alongside waterfalls, the wind in your face and adrenaline in your veins. Several companies in Flåm organize the logistics. It's exhilarating and, I'm told, slightly terrifying in the best possible way.

Stegastein Viewpoint: Where Earth Meets Sky

The Stegastein viewing platform juts thirty meters out over the Aurlandsfjord, a feat of engineering that seems to violate several fundamental principles of physics and common sense. Wooden beams support this impossible structure, and standing on the glass floor – fjord 650 meters directly below, nothing but air between you and the water – produces a sensation that lives somewhere between exhilaration and existential terror, depending on your relationship with heights and your faith in Norwegian engineering standards.

I chose exhilaration. The view earned a place among Norway's finest without breaking a sweat: the Aurlandsfjord stretched out like a silver ribbon, winding between mountains so steep they seemed to rise from the water without bothering with foothills or preamble. In every direction, peaks. Above, sky. Below, water reflecting everything back in mirror-perfect detail. The silence up there felt profound – the kind of quiet that makes you aware of your own breathing, your own heartbeat, your own smallness against the vastness of geological time.

Buses run regularly from Flåm to Stegastein, or you can rent a car and make it part of a scenic loop through the high country. Either way, the road itself becomes part of the experience: hairpin switchbacks climbing the mountainside, tunnels boring through solid rock, sudden vistas that make you want to stop every hundred meters. Budget two to three hours if you're serious about photographs and contemplation – and honestly, what else would you be serious about in a place like this?

The Village Itself: Small Wonders

Flåm village is smaller than your ship's passenger manifest – a fact that lends a certain charming absurdity to cruise days when thousands of visitors temporarily outnumber residents by factors of ten or twelve. Yet the village absorbs this daily tide with remarkable grace. The Flåm Railway Museum sits near the station, documenting with photographs, tools, and artifacts exactly how they managed to carve this impossible railway through solid granite. Admission is free, the exhibits genuinely fascinating, and I found myself lingering far longer than expected, marveling at archival photos of workers suspended on ropes against sheer cliff faces, drilling holes for dynamite by hand.

The Ægir Brewpub occupies a building deliberately shaped like a Viking longhouse – all dark wood and dramatic angles – and serves excellent local craft beers with names that sound like they came from Norse sagas. I'm not normally one for tourist-oriented drinking establishments, but the beer here is legitimately good, the atmosphere warm rather than kitschy, and the view out the windows of fjord and mountain makes even a simple lunch feel like an occasion worth savoring.

For quieter experiences – and after the railway and viewpoint, you might crave quiet – kayak rentals let you paddle out into the profound stillness of the fjord, experiencing the scenery from water level where the mountains rise even more dramatically around you. The silence out there, broken only by the dip and splash of your paddle and the occasional distant call of seabirds, feels like a gift.

The Flåm Marina offers fjord cruises to Nærøyfjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that narrows so dramatically that the mountains seem close enough to touch from the boat deck. This branch of Sognefjord may be the most photographed waterway in Norway – and with good reason. The sheer rock walls rise straight from the water, waterfalls spilling down their faces like scattered ribbons, farms clinging impossibly to tiny ledges of green. The two-hour cruise feels like sailing into a landscape painting that never quite ends.

Before leaving, seek out Norwegian waffles with brunost – brown cheese. The combination sounds dubious on paper: the sweet, caramel-like cheese against the crispy, heart-shaped waffle. But taste it and the pairing makes perfect sense, sweet meeting crispy in a way that tastes like comfort food from someone else's childhood. Add cloudberry jam if you find it available – those golden Arctic berries carry a tart complexity that elevates the whole experience from pleasant to memorable.

Port Map

Tap markers to explore Flåm and surrounding attractions