LIVE from Anthem June 2-21 - B2B Canaries and Fjords

[FionaMG]

2 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Yes 20th, pity, it would be lovely to meet after reading your helpful posts these last few years . 

Hope you have a great trip with your mum 

It certainly would. Hopefully some day. 🥰🤞

I'm the mum. 😉 Going with DD. Last year we did the fjords so thoroughly enjoying reliving that through @mil76 's pics.

Hope you have a great time too.

 

[irishgal432]

20 hours ago, mil76 said:

Once we reached Brygnn the rain let up a bit, and although we planned to skip the funicular, we went to check out how long the queue was.

 

Sure enough, the queue was halfway down the hill, but we realized that was the ticketing queue, and people with tickets could skip that queue and go inside to wait on the actual funicular queue.  So we bought tickets online, and within 10 minutes we were heading up the hill.

 

 

 

CAn you walk up those steps next to the funicular?

[FionaMG]

47 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

CAn you walk up those steps next to the funicular?

 

Yes. The steps lead to the footpath that you can take all the way up to the top. It's a bit challenging but the terrain is not at all rough under foot so if you like walking and get good weather it's very enjoyable.

[mil76]

The Nærøyfjord cruise was OK.  It wasn't so much a tour as a ferry from Gudvangen to Flåm.  About half of the people got on with suitcases.

 

There is a very nice seating area inside, but if you want to sightsee, you have to be on the outside deck.

 

We.opted.to stand outside, but the trip took 2 hours, so we were pretty sore once we got back to Flåm.

 

The first half of the journey was Nærøyfjord, which is narrower than Sognefjord.  We were at the front of the boat so we had a panoramic view of the Fjords, unlike the ship view from the balcony where you only see one side.

 

 

 

[mil76]

The second half was back on Sognefjord Into Flåm, which I slept through this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[little britain]

We took the Flam railway. Booked online for 740NOK/ $63 - same train /seats as the RCI tour for $110🤦‍♀️

Sit on right side going up for stunning views.

The weather Gods were kind to us today 

 

 

 

you can see how close the train station 🚉 is to the ship ! 
 

We took the 9.30 train up and back which returned at 11.35

 

At noon we had booked the bus to the Stegastein lookout. 460NOK/ $42. I may be exaggerating when I say the bus stop 🚏 was 50 paces from the train station! 
It takes 30 mins for the little vans to climb up the mountain. But the views…

 

 

 

No one mentioned the glass at the end! 
 

That’s what I call a loo with a view! 

[little britain]

Walked around the small village, bought a coat that was 50% cheaper than I saw it yesterday in Bergen ( the clothing shop along the water further along from the station!) Take your passport for an VAT reduction refund! 
 

Did NS. 
Went to the Flowrider to find  @mil76 but he hadn’t come out to play!  

 

and then you jump in the water! 
 

 

A great day! Now it’s time for a beer! 

[mil76]

We noticed the same thing with prices today vs. yesterday in Bergen.  

[Saab4444]

1 hour ago, mil76 said:

The second half was back on Sognefjord Into Flåm, which I slept through this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fjord to Flam is Aurlandsfjord.

[julzcruizes]

3 hours ago, little britain said:

We took the Flam railway. Booked online for 740NOK/ $63 - same train /seats as the RCI tour for $110🤦‍♀️

Sit on right side going up for stunning views.

The weather Gods were kind to us today 

 

Your pictures are great! We are supposed to do this in a few weeks, one way and bike back down. I saw some others mention that they have some train cars/seats for ship excursion people and other cars for the bookings through online direct. Was this the case for you? We booked direct and so I wasn't quite sure if we would be funneled to sit in a specific car or area or not.

[marci22]

11 hours ago, mil76 said:

We are booked today to do the Nærøyfjord cruise from Gudvangen to Flåm.  A shuttle bus takes us through the tunnel to Gudvangen, then we take a boat back. We didn't do the train since we just did White Pass railway in Skagway last September.

 

Did you book this trip through the ship or independently?

[sddsddean]

4 hours ago, little britain said:

We took the Flam railway. Booked online for 740NOK/ $63 - same train /seats as the RCI tour for $110🤦‍♀️

Sit on right side going up for stunning views.

.

When we did Flam a few years ago (just looked at the photo...11 years ago!!), I booked half a carriage on the train for our roll call. Obviously others couldn't get on the Celebrity tour and I kept having strangers come up to me, offering over the odds for a place! I could have sold the tickets four times over!!

 

Simon

Edited June 17 by sddsddean

[mil76]

31 minutes ago, marci22 said:

Did you book this trip through the ship or independently?

https://norwaysbest.com

 

If you go to Gudvangen, don't stay long unless you plan to visit the Viking village.  We walked around for about an hour and that was plenty.  Souvenir shop was cheaper in Flam as well.

Edited June 17 by mil76

[marci22]

8 minutes ago, mil76 said:

https://norwaysbest.com

Thanks. Would you suggest taking the bus first or on the way back? And how much time did you schedule in between, before your return trip? 

 

Ok I see your added advice. I noticed that I can choose a 15 minute gap before return or then it goes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Wasn't sure if I needed that extra time.

Edited June 17 by marci22

[mil76]

18 minutes ago, marci22 said:

Thanks. Would you suggest taking the bus first or on the way back? And how much time did you schedule in between, before your return trip? 

 

Ok I see your added advice. I noticed that I can choose a 15 minute gap before return or then it goes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Wasn't sure if I needed that extra time.

Taking the boat back means you can skip sail in and sleep in.

[mil76]

Passing another mini-ship.  They were not in Flåm today.

[little britain]

2 hours ago, julzcruizes said:

Your pictures are great! We are supposed to do this in a few weeks, one way and bike back down. I saw some others mention that they have some train cars/seats for ship excursion people and other cars for the bookings through online direct. Was this the case for you? We booked direct and so I wasn't quite sure if we would be funneled to sit in a specific car or area or not.

Yes there was a section of a carriage reserved - I assume for ships tours.  The people following the lollipop walked past our carriage towards the front.

The rest of us had free choice of where to sit on the train, it was about 6 carriages long I think 

[little britain]

37 minutes ago, marci22 said:

Thanks. Would you suggest taking the bus first or on the way back? And how much time did you schedule in between, before your return trip? 

 

Ok I see your added advice. I noticed that I can choose a 15 minute gap before return or then it goes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Wasn't sure if I needed that extra time.

Our train was late arriving up at the top… we were held for a long time at the crossing point; so we literally had 4 mins at the top … we got off to take a photo, saw the time of departure and legged it back on again!! 

[mil76]

Still incredible scenery at 9:50pm.

 

[mil76]

Today is one of those days where you are thankful that you didn't prepay for the cable car.

[mil76]

Today's stop is Olden.  Heading to Briksdal glacier.  Checked the weather forecast, and it looks like we have a few hour window where the rain may not be too bad.  Fingers crossed.

[little britain]

47 minutes ago, mil76 said:

Today's stop is Olden.  Heading to Briksdal glacier.  Checked the weather forecast, and it looks like we have a few hour window where the rain may not be too bad.  Fingers crossed.

We are on the 9:30 bus to a glacier. Are you ? Not a ships tour 

[mil76]

My excursion hack worked.  All of the combo tours (bus and troll car)

on the ship and privately were sold out, but we were able to book Olden Adventures for the bus to Briksdal, and Briksdal.com for the troll car.  Ended up being cheaper than the Olden Adventures combo and much cheaper than the onboard.  Once we got off the bus, we just went into the ticket office and paid for the troll car, and we were on the troll cars within a few minutes.

 

Good thing we did reserve.

 

 

[mil76]

 

Scenes from Briksdal to and from the glacier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[little britain]

We were/are on same bus (?) but we walked to 🥾 the glacier. Took about 45 mins 

Booking independently cost around $50pp

 

*feeling virtuous! 😇 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 18 by little britain