Fretheim

Horse-drawn carriages like these were used to transport people and goods, on earlier cattle trails, upgraded to construction roads, in connection with the building of the Bergen-Oslo railway. The 21 hairpin turns up Myrdalskleiva, were tough on people and horses, and travelers were encouraged to spare the horses and walk up the steep mountain. Around the mid-1800s English lords and anglers started to visit Flåm, for salmon fishing in the Flåm River and hiking the surrounding mountains. Many lodged at Christen Fretheim’s farm, and towards the end of the 1800s, it was considered more of a hotel. There were two lodgings on the farm, one called the “The English Villa”. These were connected right after the turn of the century and marked the start of today’s Fretheim Hotel. In the same period, tourism through the Flåm Valley increased and Fretheim started early with horse-drawn carriages. Prior to the opening of The Bergen Railway in 1909, scheduled traffic was initiated on the railway between Voss and Myrdal. Travelers came by boat to Flåm and needed rides up to Myrdal or vice versa, maybe with an overnight stay at Fretheim Hotel. The Myrdal-turns were an adventure, with 30 to 40 carriages in a line up or down the steep turns. Before the 1900s, Christen Fretheim had established a steamship quay, a general store and a post office in Flåm.