Flaam questions

Cross posted to rec.travel.europe There are many folk there who know
Norway, well like natives.

"Duane" wrote in
:

We'll be on a Princess cruise in July , and one of the ports is Flaam
in Norway. Like many lines, Princess lets a lot of passengers off on
an all day (9 hours) excursion that starts with a train ride from
Flaam to Myrdal, and continues on to Vik via another train and a bus.
To accommodate them, the ship leaves Flaam rather early (last tender
at 1pm), and goes to Vik where the tourers are recaptured.

Anyway, I like the idea of the train ride -- it sounds rather
spectacular -- but hate being on a bus for the rest of the 9-hour
tour, not to mention the $199pp cost. The train schedules don't work
out very well for a round trip, even presuming Princess hasn't booked
the whole thing from Flaam to Myrdal. So my thought was to take a taxi
to Myrdal, and take the probably empty train back to Flaam!

Has anyone done this or something similar? How much was the taxi
ride? Any other ideas for this port?

TIA,
Duane






--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

"jcoulter" wrote in message
.. .
Cross posted to rec.travel.europe There are many folk there who know
Norway, well like natives.

"Duane" wrote in
:

We'll be on a Princess cruise in July , and one of the ports is Flaam
in Norway. Like many lines, Princess lets a lot of passengers off on
an all day (9 hours) excursion that starts with a train ride from
Flaam to Myrdal, and continues on to Vik via another train and a bus.
To accommodate them, the ship leaves Flaam rather early (last tender
at 1pm), and goes to Vik where the tourers are recaptured.

So you have to go out on the 9:45 back on the 10:55 arrive Flam 11:50.
the next arrives 13:05!

Anyway, I like the idea of the train ride -- it sounds rather
spectacular -- but hate being on a bus for the rest of the 9-hour
tour, not to mention the $199pp cost.

US? That's extortionate.!

And what does the bus do for 9 hours?

The train schedules don't work
out very well for a round trip, even presuming Princess hasn't booked
the whole thing from Flaam to Myrdal.

I doubt that they can do this. There might be some real punters
not on the cruise.

So my thought was to take a taxi
to Myrdal, and take the probably empty train back to Flaam!

You will find this a tad difficult. Myrdal is one of those places that is
only accessable by train (and IIRC if there is nothing there except the
station so if it weren't for the connection to Flam it wouldn't even have a
name).


Has anyone done this or something similar? How much was the taxi
ride? Any other ideas for this port?

The 9.45 connects to Voss arriving at 12:06 - according to DB, I can't
actually find this in the NSB timetable which I thought was complete
(obviously not)
the 11:00 arrives at 13:14 (that one I have).

this costs 247 NOK (38 dollars US)

according to
http://fjord1.no/bussmore_en/

there's a bus to Vik at 15:20 arrive 17:05.
That's for today.

Ok here's the complete timetable (both journeys!)

http://www.ruteinfo.net/ruter-f1/r/23-503.htm

it's DX6 daily except 6 (Saturday) is my guess

Can't find the fare but it ought to be less than the train was.

It's 68 Km in case you end up getting a taxi!

ISTR (it's a long time ago) that Voss was a sizable place
for the region.

good luck

(where's the next day's stop?)

tim




TIA,
Duane






--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

"tim (moved to sweden)" gave me some suggestions:

Thanks for the links, and advice, Tim. I am mainly interested in just the
train between Flaam and Myrdal, so if there is not a bus or taxi to Myrdal,
I guess we'll just take it round trip as others have suggested. I want to
be back on the ship for the afternoon sailing from Flaam to Vik where they
will pick up the pasengers who did the all day tour. You asked what you get
for the $199 US 9-hour Princess tour:

Train from Flaam to Myrdal, then to Voss, where coffee and cakes are served.
From there you get on a bus which stops at Tvinde Waterfall, a forced
shopping break at a hotel gift shop in Stalheim, and lunch at the same
hotel. The brochure also says there is some kind of a stop at Hopperstad
Stave Church, before arrival at Vik.

Yes, it's pricey, but that is not the main reason I don't want to take it.
I just hate being trapped on a bus all day, and like I said, I want to be on
the ship for the cruise to Vik from Flaam...

Duane

"Duane" wrote in
:

We'll be on a Princess cruise in July , and one of the ports is Flaam
in Norway. Like many lines, Princess lets a lot of passengers off on
an all day (9 hours) excursion that starts with a train ride from
Flaam to Myrdal, and continues on to Vik via another train and a bus.
To accommodate them, the ship leaves Flaam rather early (last tender
at 1pm), and goes to Vik where the tourers are recaptured.

So you have to go out on the 9:45 back on the 10:55 arrive Flam 11:50.
the next arrives 13:05!

Anyway, I like the idea of the train ride -- it sounds rather
spectacular -- but hate being on a bus for the rest of the 9-hour
tour, not to mention the $199pp cost.

US? That's extortionate.!

And what does the bus do for 9 hours?

The train schedules don't work
out very well for a round trip, even presuming Princess hasn't booked
the whole thing from Flaam to Myrdal.

I doubt that they can do this. There might be some real punters
not on the cruise.

So my thought was to take a taxi
to Myrdal, and take the probably empty train back to Flaam!

You will find this a tad difficult. Myrdal is one of those places that is
only accessable by train (and IIRC if there is nothing there except the
station so if it weren't for the connection to Flam it wouldn't even have
a
name).


Has anyone done this or something similar? How much was the taxi
ride? Any other ideas for this port?

The 9.45 connects to Voss arriving at 12:06 - according to DB, I can't
actually find this in the NSB timetable which I thought was complete
(obviously not)
the 11:00 arrives at 13:14 (that one I have).

this costs 247 NOK (38 dollars US)

according to
http://fjord1.no/bussmore_en/

there's a bus to Vik at 15:20 arrive 17:05.
That's for today.

Ok here's the complete timetable (both journeys!)

http://www.ruteinfo.net/ruter-f1/r/23-503.htm

it's DX6 daily except 6 (Saturday) is my guess

Can't find the fare but it ought to be less than the train was.

It's 68 Km in case you end up getting a taxi!

ISTR (it's a long time ago) that Voss was a sizable place
for the region.

good luck

(where's the next day's stop?)

tim




TIA,
Duane






--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

"Duane" wrote in
:



Yes, it's pricey, but that is not the main reason I don't want to take
it. I just hate being trapped on a bus all day, and like I said, I
want to be on the ship for the cruise to Vik from Flaam...
If you miss the train you can still walk around Flaam it is pretty
little place with some very Norwegian cottages (red and white with room
to pull your boat up underneath) by the fjord to the left as you come
into the harbor. Otherwise not a lot as you may have suspected. The
really big thing is the train ride and the stop at the falls for a photo
op of the water witches (or something like that) who tempt men to go
into danger (yeah, well they do pop up from behind rocks as if by majic,
wonder how they do that lol)

Our trip went to Gudvangen, yours will just miss the 7 veils falls at
the mouth of the gudvangen fjord.

--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/