Geirangerfjord Day Trip

 

 

Last night we attempted to get to bed early so we would be bright eyed and ready for an all-day bus journey to experience this UNESCO World Heritage Norwegian Fjord!  But the moon came out with the sun still up, it never got dark and we were afraid we might miss something!  As a result, both Alan and I slept quite a bit on this 8 hour trip, but we didn’t miss the important things! 

 

We docked at Alesund, sorry for the lack of proper Norwegian keyboard letters.  I know there must be a way to get them, but my time on both the laptop and the internet are very limited – after all there is a massive amount of scenery to see, so I hope you forgive me for not taking the time to investigate where to find the correct letters!

small farm on the shore of Geirangerfjord

 

This city is famous for its Art Nouveau buildings and we were lucky to see these on the way back to the ship. But we had to make a difficult choice to miss seeing this city and jump on a bus to see the fjord.  And it was beautiful!  There were 3 ferry journeys – one was the main trip down Geirangerfjord, and the other 2 were very similar to going to Millport (if you are not familiar with this – imagine a ferry to take you across a wide river or lake).  There were loads of tunnels too! 

 

The ferry journey down Geirangerfjord took just over an hour and we saw so many wonderful waterfalls and abandoned farms way up on cliffs.  At least one of these farms had to tether their kids so they would not fall!  From what I could gather, the farms all seemed to be abandoned in about the 60’s,  and I could only relate this to when the US bought the Current River in Missouri to protect it and allow everyone to enjoy it.  There were loads of abandoned summer homes on that when my Dad and I first canoed down the Current River the year it became the first National River!

 Geiranger, only 5 cruise ships area allowed here per day, ours' was not one of these today.

Not only was it really interesting to see these little farms all up and down the cliffs, but we also had the highlight of seeing the Hurtigruten ship.  When we originally talked about going to Norway, we intended to go on this ship.  It is not a cruise ship, but a working service ship, making deliveries on a daily basis all up and down the Norwegian coast.  They also take passengers…..this is not a grand cruise and proper dress for dinner might include hiking boots.  But it always sounded amazing.  (Obviously, we got a better offer….)  So it was like seeing an old friend when we spotted this little ship in the middle of the cruise liners docked at Geiranger.  The smaller ship in this picture is the Hurtigruten as it began its journey away from Geiranger. 

 

Before returning to the ship, we had a lovely 3 course lunch, then back on board virtually on time to sail away.   Without the detour the bus took through the area of Alesund that had been burned and rebuilt in roughly 1908, we would never have seen the Art Nouveau area this city is famous for.  But, I must admit, after seeing it, I doubt I would have missed it.  Sadly, I do not “get” Art Nouveau, so it was lost on me….

 

“The journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step.”  Lao Tzu