The final approach to Balestrand was on a vehicle ferry. Now we know why the toll for the new bridge to Eidfjord cost 150 Kroner; that's exactly what this ferry cost us.
Arriving at our fjord-side cabin - it's really well equipped and so quiet.
After lunch we did the walk to Burasi at 575m with an ascent of 500m. Jonathan and I went ahead, while Graeme went up with a German tourist who came in our car to the start. I returned to pick them up over an hour after Jonathan and I finished. The higher up we got, the better the views.
We farewelled Jonathan this morning (boo hoo) - he took the 4 hour ferry to Bergen to catch a flight home to Cambridge. He is off to Hawaii for 2 weeks in a week or two. Before then he is submitting his PhD thesis.
We also took a high speed ferry, but to Flam, where the famous Flam Railway rises 866m to Myrdal over a distance of 20 km. Its construction is an engineering masterpiece. It took 20 years to build, is 20km long, has 20 tunnels (18 dug by hand), and by the time it was electrified in 1944 had cost 20 million kroner. Trip Advisor gave it mainly great reviews, but several people said how over-priced it was, and how you can see similar scenery just driving around Norway. That is true, but it was still a great trip. We got seats next to an opening window on the right hand side going up (left going down) and we had no complaints.
leaving Balestrand at 830 am - we were the only passengers
approaching Flam at 10 am
Some photos from the train trip:
the train stops at the Kjosfossen waterfall for 5 minutes
At Myrdal, the high point - 866m altitude. We also went through here
on the way from Oslo to Bergen by train about a week ago
Returning by boat to Balestrand at 5 pm
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