Coming Soon - Watch this space!

Tdm · July 16, 2015, 05:45:09 PM

Just got back home to Tenerife after trip to Norway, cruising the Fjords and riding the famous Flam Railway.

Unfortuneately the steam railway trip booked for Bergen was cancelled due to lack of interest, but the Flamsbana railway journey more than made up for that.

Took loads of photos and some video footage, and am currently putting it all together for uploading to YouTube. When complete will post Links on here.

Weather was a bit "iffy" in Norway, sometimes the Sun was shining, and at other times it was wet, but we were told by the locals that we had come at the right time as the colder than normal May meant lots of snow on the Mountains and it was only now melting creating some great waterfalls wherever we went.

The railway museum at Flam that we visited after the train journey has a nice looking model of the Terminus inside it, but it was "HO" scale - not N gauge. The engines that front and back the Flamsbana train were also new Silver coloured Diesel/Electric models, whereas in all the brochures we had seen they were "older" green models.

Cruise (from Southampton) was great and thoroughly enjoyed it - the scenery in Norway is absolutely stunning and gorgeous, can thoroughly recommend it, but did all the drinking on board the cruise ship as a pint of beer in Norway costs on average £8 or £9 Sterling!.

More info to come.

Terry

petercharlesfagg · July 16, 2015, 06:39:41 PM

Thank you, I for one will look forward to your links. Having lived in that wonderful country that I consider my second home, ANYTHING that depicts it's people or landscapes are ALWAYS welcomed!

Very pleased that your trip proved worthwhile, if expensive!

regards Peter.

Tdm · July 16, 2015, 08:01:51 PM

Norway wasn't expensive Peter, as we did all our eating and drinking on board ship which was free.

The only things we paid for in Norwegian Krona when we got there was for a couple of hop on/off tour bus journeys and some small souvenires for the Grandkids.

The Flamsbana train journey was pre-booked with the Fred Olsen cruise line.

Paul B · July 16, 2015, 08:32:39 PM

We got back from Norway on Tuesday and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip too, so it is good to hear that you had a great time Terry!

The Flamsbana is a great trip - unfortunately the train had to have a carriage taken out of service on the day we travelled, and so we left 20 minutes late, and so didn't get any time to look round or even take pics!

Shame to hear that you had iffy weather = it was glorious when we were there, apart from the sail from Trondheim to Honningsvag, when we sailed through a force 8 gale with 'very rough' seas! Luckily I am a pretty good sailor, but Debbie wasn't very keen (kept wondering when we were going to sink...)

Malc · July 16, 2015, 09:08:40 PM

So I take it that you all saw the midnight sun?
Just for your information Terry, there are a couple of places in Oslo that do beer at £4.50 a pint. One is a goth bar and one is a gay bar. Don't ask me how I know.

Paul B · July 16, 2015, 09:23:42 PM

Quote from: Malc on July 16, 2015, 09:08:40 PM
So I take it that you all saw the midnight sun?

Like this?

Taken on the trip from Honningsvag to Tromso on the 9th July at 5 past midnight - the lens flair was a happy accident!

BTW - apologies to Terry for hijacking his thread!

dannyboy · July 16, 2015, 10:18:54 PM

Quote from: Malc on July 16, 2015, 09:08:40 PM
One is a goth bar and one is a gay bar. Don't ask me how I know.

Trying to imagine a 'gay goth' !

David.

Sprintex · July 16, 2015, 10:24:50 PM

Quote from: dannyboy on July 16, 2015, 10:18:54 PM
Quote from: Malc on July 16, 2015, 09:08:40 PM
One is a goth bar and one is a gay bar. Don't ask me how I know.

Trying to imagine a 'gay goth' ! David.

Google it . . . if you dare!

Paul

dannyboy · July 16, 2015, 10:39:31 PM

Google it . . . if you dare!

[/quote]

I dared - a bit strange, if thought provoking

(And I remembered to turn off 'auto play' - see earlier post about 'auto-looping'!) David.

Malc · July 16, 2015, 10:59:01 PM

From the hill over the water from Tromsø. First sunny night for 2 weeks.

Tdm · July 16, 2015, 11:33:51 PM

At midnight we were usually heading back to our Cabin to crash out, except for one evening when an excellent Group on board called "Talon" did a "Jam" session from 11.45pm to 2pm in the Observation Bar on Deck 11 (Talon have been voted No 1 Eagles Tribute Band) and they did 2 full shows on board besides a great "Jam" session.

As regards outstanding scenery, I hope that the video I am producing does some justice to it. Didn't see the "Midnight Sun", but managed to snap the formation of a Rainbow on one of the Fjords we traversed, and some lovely sky when Dusk fell.

Really enjoyed our ports of call - Stavanger, Flam, and Olden, but Bergen was very wet and where the planned Steam Train journey was cancelled.

I used a Canon Rebel camera I bought some years ago online from an an American site for the picture taking, and an old Sony "disk" camcorder for the video footage.

Just a shame that the video footage taken from inside the train does have some window reflection as I couln't open the windows to get clearer pictures, and the train was full so I was stuck with the seat I had.

Tdm · July 17, 2015, 05:44:01 PM

As an interim measure and a check on the footage taken, I have just created a draft of the Flamsbana railway jouney video I took on an old camcorder, prior to adding any sound or annotation.

It is just over 9 minutes long and features the run up to the Vatnahalsen Hotel (just before the Summit Terminus), then back down again to the Flam Terminus.

Eventually it will form part of my Norwegian Cruise video containing both still photos and camcorder footage, and numerous still photos of the railway journey and visit to the railway museum will also be added later.

The YouTube Link is :-

https://youtu.be/6Fy0oAFB2Zg

petercharlesfagg · July 17, 2015, 06:24:54 PM

Thanks for an interesting video, plenty of ideas for modelling, if you are into mountains, snow or waterfalls!

Peter.

Tdm · July 18, 2015, 02:10:28 PM

Have split video of our Norwegian cruise and ride on the Flamsbana Railway into 3 parts as follows :-

Norway Part 1 - Balmoral cruise ship, Stavanager, and Bergen.
Norway Part 2 - Flam and Flamsbana Railway.
Norway Part 3 - Olden, British night, and more Fjord cruising.

Part 1 consists of purely still images taken on my Canon camera, Part 2 a mix of still images and video footage taken using an old Sony Handycam, and Part 3 also a mix of still images and camcorder footage.

I have done Part 2 first, and the video file is currently being uploaded to YouTube and will replace the "Draft" preview I did previously. The only sound to be heard is on the video footage of passengers (of various Nationalities) chatting away on the train journey.

The YouTube film should be available in about a couple of hours time (baring any problems) and the link is :-

http://youtu.be/2eImJkSDmMs