We departed Oslo on an early train (6:25!), first to the town of Myrdal where we connected to a famous scenic train that descends to the town of Flam.

The first leg of the journey was on a high-speed train that lasted about five hours, taking us through a varying landscape that at times reminded us of the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. There were also stretches of pine forest, and as we neared Myrdal, snow-covered plateaus. There was enough remaining snow that people were still cross-country skiing, but skies were sunny with temperatures of around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Flam Railway descends 862 meters/2381 feet and is the steepest railway in Europe. It’s a one hour ride with plenty of scenery, but in many respects it’s just an appetizer in terms of scenery. We’ve been on similar trains in Colorado and Alaska, but those were narrow-gauge railroads. The Flam train is unique in that it runs on what is now standard track. There is no assigned seating but we happened to sit across from two sisters, also from New Jersey, on their own Scandinavian adventure. We Garden Staters are everywhere it seems.

Flam sits alongside a long fjord that is on the cruise circuit. As a result the village, which has a year-round population of about 400, welcomes over 1 million visitors each summer. Crazy. We didn’t linger in Flam, but instead were spending the next two nights at the 292 Aurland Hotel, just 10 minutes outside of Flam but far from the tourist masses in town.

The title of this post stems from the fact our room is at the top of a small former fisherman’s cottage, and reaching the room requires climbing a narrow stairway with a low ceiling, and ducking under the door jamb. A traditional American hotel it is not. But we knew before arrival that was the deal, and we were OK with it. All you have to do is bump your head once, and you remember to duck. Okay, maybe twice in some cases.

It’s a cozy room, but admittedly small, with a low slung ceiling near one side of the bed. But while unique, the property is quite comfortable. It’s a former farm, whose fifth-generation owners turned it into an eight-room hotel, with the rooms in separate cottages.

292 Aurland sits in a canyon that runs north-south. The property is only open from May to early October, but the locals say in winter you never see the sun because it doesn’t get high enough to peek out above the mountains. That would be depressing.

Breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner come with the room fee, and all have have been delicious. The dinner was gourmet quality to be honest, prepared by the son of the owners. Vegetables all came from an on property garden, and the hotel arranges various tours.

We will detail our tour experiences in a subsequent post, but it involves a drive to a scenic viewpoint above one of the world’s longest fjords that is supposed to be stunning.