Tuesday – Andalsnes

Andalsnes is a sleepy village and we’re booked on an excursion on the train up another valley.  It sounds like the experience we had two years ago at Flåm – one of the best excursions we’ve ever had.

Here's the approach - 

And then we arrived .....

We entered the fjord before we woke up and it was a very beautiful approach to Andalsnes.  We shared a breakfast table with a couple from near Portsmouth and they told us of people they knew who had been here in May when it was snowing!  The weather for us continued to be beautiful.  There was a slight tinge in the air first thing, but that went and the temperature is due to touch 20/68 later, so we have been lucky so far.

We moored up – the only ship in town today and were soon ready to get on board the train for our excursion.  The only trouble was that, by the time we got on there was one seat left here and another there, so we got back off.  Another couple were also disappointed and got very shirty with the guides, asking for a refund.  We explained the situation to them and they offered us places on the afternoon run – a time not originally advertised.  We went to the railway station ticket office and there was free wifi there.  It said that the signal would be ‘very weak’ but we both got on OK.  Down the road we saw a gang of Asians propped up outside a shop window and realised that there was also free wifi there.  For a sleepy little fjord end of valley village, once again there was free wifi!

The afternoon saw us on the train after all and it was indeed a fantastic experience.  They say it’s one of the best rides in Europe and they may have a point.  The journey lasted an hour and we returned by coach.  At the top was a ski village where they have 6 months of skiing a year.

The coach journey back was rather slow as it stopped for all sorts of photo opportunities, including a white water river where I had already thought nobody would ever want to white water ride that! Nearby was a memorial to a 33 year old German who tried!

We also saw the longest sheer cliff drop in Europe – they reckon – with lists of those who had climbed it and they years they did it.  Yes there was one set of British climbers among them.

Here we are on the Rauma Valley train excursion - 

I forgot to mention that we met a couple who knew someone who had sailed with Costa.  They told us that they missed out several of the cruise ports on the itinerary and just hovered about instead – it seems that they hadn’t paid port dues on previous cruises so were not allowed in!

And then it was the evening again ....