a crack in the track

jilly's funny smile while camping out in the play area of the train from oslo to myridal

AMAZING!!! early morning on the train .. .just outside of oslo

so peaceful

well- until we found out that we needed to take a bus from one station to another due to some large rocks on the track....helen's face is priceless!

now we are on the "new" train - but this train is having electrical problems - so we wait on the train in the kid's area ... for almost 2 hours - no worries - i bought hot dog buns and already had peanut butter in my suitcase (Jif, i might add!) - then we started moving on this train... yea..... until we were about 0.5 miles from the station... then the electrical issues resurfaced... now we are stuck in the middle of 2 stations.. no electricity... which means no bathrooms, etc. after waiting a "while" - we were told that we would be walking along the tracks back to the station (0.5 miles)... the tracks are rocky and i have the 4 kids, 1 stroller, and 3 suitcases.... let's just say it was interesting... we climbed down from the train via a local fire department ladder and then took a taxi to another train station.... well all 400 people took taxi's to the next station.... so we waited another hour at the next train station to resume our trip to myridal.

walking on the tracks!

waiting for a taxi

riding in the taxi... no they did not "include" car seats!

finally our train from myridal to flam - where we are spending the next 2 nights!

just getting a little silly at this point! traveling for almost 12 hours at this point - should have only been about 6 hours travel time!

random waterfall that we stopped at along the flam railway - music started playing and some sort of "wood sprite" lady came out and did a little dance... interesting... is all i have to say!

time tunnel approaching!

yea- we're beyond crazy at this point :)

finally - arrived in flam!!!

a car named after helen :)

i have read the Thomas Crack in the Track book to the kids many times - never did i think i would live the book! such a crazy day - but the kids were amazing! no one complained once! jillian curled up in my lap on the second bus ride without a fuss and went to sleep. we got some dinner in flam and stopped at a little grocery store for some breakfast supplies... settled into our little apartment at the base of the fjord......we are set!
kids went to bed and i stepped outside for a moment to take in the scenery.... all i can say is amazing... the water is so still that you can see the reflections of the fjords in the water... the air is crisp and fresh... the leaves are beginning to change.... i will continue to drink from the cup of life tomorrow!!! no set plans... flam is about as busy as mackinac island or door county... a few restaurants, bike rental shop, a little gift shop, and a small grocery store! cheers to the cup of life!