In the morning we caught the same boat that we rode to Balestrand yesterday and continued the journey to Flåm, another fjord town. As the boat moved ahead, the fjord got narrower and more impressive, as two giant stone walls squeezed the waterway. Again, it is hard to describe stern rugged beauty of massive cliffs towering above dark waters of the fjord, so I took as many photos as I could. In fact, we didn't go inside the boat at all and stayed on the deck the whole trip. Other passengers were running back and forth around the deck taking photos as well. We saw several tall and narrow waterfalls falling from cliffs into the fjord (Niagara is more impressive, of course, but these were pretty nice too).
When we arrived to Flåm, it was raining again, so we spent the entire time between the boat and the train that we had to take next in the train station. From what we saw of Flåm, all it has is a quay and a single train track. There was also a cafeteria and a crappy gift shop (they had seal skins and reindeer skins for sale).
However the trip on Flåmsbana (Flåm railway) was so amazing that it was almost the best part of the trip! The track runs from sea level at Flåm to 863 meters above the sea level at Myrdal (the last station), along picturesque Flåmsdalen valley. The views from the train were simply breathtaking, but I mostly had to take photos through glass windows, since all open windows were occupied by faster passengers. The train made a brief stop at a Kjosfossen waterfall, where a mythical Huldra made an appearance with a dance and song number :)
After all that excitement we arrived to Myrdal, waited for a bit and boarded the train to Oslo, which took us higher than tree line, through the very top of the mountain range with little glaciers, lakes, tiny villages and lots of extreme-loving hikers and bikers. After a 5-hour ride we arrived to Oslo and found our final hotel.