What can I sat about our time in Flåm (pronounced Flom)? In short, it was everything you could imagine about a cute little village set at the end of a Norwegian fjord. A perfect setting for a few days appreciating the beauty of nature.

The train ride there from Oslo set the scene. 5 hours of landscapes that glue your eyes to the window. Picture perfect little coloured houses scattered along the shores of a river and set against the vibrant green of the grassy hills beyond. The season seemed to change before our eyes as we gradually ascended 1100m into a mountainous Winter. The blinding white of snowfields was broken only by the occasional red and brown cottage, a rocky outcrop or stubborn undergrowth clinging stubbornly to the fact that it's supposed to be Summer. Lakes stood half frozen; resolutely still in Winter's grasp. Then the descent on the Flåm Railway (Flåmsbana) took us down the edges of a steep ravine and into the warm green valley of its namesake town. Flåm perched at the end of the valley and looked out upon the Aurlandsfjord - a river inlet bordered on both sides by spectacular mountain ridges. Clouds rolled through the valley and occasionally allowed us views of the snow-capped peaks surrounding us. We knew instantly we would enjoy our time here.

Our two main activities while in Flåm were a hike and a fjord cruise. The former was intended to be only around 2.5 hours in total; but turned out to be a 5 hour, 20+ kilometre marathon that zig zagged up to the snow line of the mountains. At the end of the 800m ascent we were greeted by a flock (?) of goats who promptly befriended us and followed us all over the mountain top. It sounds cute, but to be honest, goats are kinda gross. They pee and poop everywhere, have no sense of personal space. One even poked Sjane in the butt (with entertaining results). The latter activity saw us heading out into the Aurlandsfjord and into the UNESCO World Heritage site Naeroyfjord. Here the scenery was beyond my capacity to describe. Being on the water looking up at these mountains gave us a real sense of the majesty of nature. Our guide filled in our time with thought-provoking insights into what would be required to live in an area like this, especially back a few hundred years. It may be beautiful, but it doesn't lend itself well to self-sustainable farming and the like. Farmers used to have to drag and lift livestock up the cliffs and into the mountains during the warmer months because the land they had at water-level was so scarce it couldn't sustain the inhabitants year round. They'd move back down to the water in Winter to avoid the worst cold weather.

Fortunately for us, the weather was reasonably well behaved during our stay. Not exactly what we are used to calling "Summer" in Australia, but perfect for what we wanted to do.