Norway in a Nutshell - Flam

Leave the first response June 21, 2009 / Posted in Travel

Otterness Farm Museum - Flam, Norway - perching high off the fjord

After we got off the Fjords cruise from Gudvangen, we arrived in a really nice village called Flam. As you can see from my photos, Flam is all about nature, the serene scenic views & magnificent mountains. We decided to stay overnight in Flam to rest and also explore the beautiful villages.

I felt really energetic and decided to hire a bicycle and cycled my way to Otterness Farm Museum which is a Norwegian Summer Farm located on top of the hill. It took about 20 minutes bike ride, I decided to leave my bike on the bottom of the hill as I was not athletic enough to climb to the top of the hill with it :).

After a quick 5 minutes of really steep hill climbing, I arrived at the summer farm. What amazed me with this farm is that it is still a fully operational farm even though it is in a museum. The reason why they have it on top of the mountain is due to the fjords and majestic surrounding mountains, the top part will get the most sunlight which are essentials for farming. I managed to get a quick tour of the farm on how they operated and what each house was used for including the way the family lived, any interesting past characters and how they store their food to last them through winter.

The view from the farm is just amazing. You can see the fjords, again feels really magical. Not to mention the apple tress with apples everywhere. I had a glass of fresh apple juice while skipping the apple pies for my dinner dessert instead.

Your “Norway in a Nutshell” ticket entitles you to visit Flamsbana Museum which gives you a history of the train that travels from Flam to Myrdal with its challenges.

In the evening, I arranged for dinner in a traditional Norwegian Farmhouse in a nearby city of Underdal. Underdal is famous for its brown cheese made of the second curd of left over goat milk used to make Norwegian white cheese.

Prior to dinner, we were given a quick Norwegian cheese education as well as some tastings :). The famous cheese is the Brown coloured goat cheese in a square box. It looks like a caramel chocolate but it’s actually a cheese. It has different maturity and strength of taste. The farm house dinner was lovely as there were only two of us with the view again of the fjords. After dinner we made a quick stroll at the Underdal village to check out their local and famous church. Underdal church is one of the smallest in the country as it only accommodates 40 people.

Having stayed the night previously in Bergen at a hostel in a very modest room, I decided to stay in a top class hotel Fretheim with the view of Flam and the water :).