Where did I leave off?  Ah yes, we were on the big ship headed North.  The ship follows the coastline and generally does not head into the open sea (except upon reaching the Barents Sea – noticeably rolling then!).  I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Norway’s fjords, so I will endeavor to describe them.  Stunning.  The landscape is so beautiful that I had a hard time pulling myself away from the ship railings to do anything else.  Lonely Planet calls this cruise ‘the world’s most beautiful voyage’, to give you some idea.

The land unfolds with continuously towering bluffs of granite, lush forests, occasionally a ribbon of light flashing in the sun that turns out to be a waterfall, juxtaposed against the crystalline blue water of the fjord.  Amidst all of this verdant glory there are red, white, and yellow farm houses and outbuildings, sometimes an enclave of houses perched on the coastline.  Anyway, here I sit (or lean against the railing) and contemplate life.  Or wonder about why the weather is so perfect in Norway.  Seriously, each day I was more tan than the last …  You could practically sunbathe on Deck 7 – if you could wrestle a deck chair away from one of the napping senior citizens.  But let me share some of the fun I had going on a couple of excursions.

 

The first excursion was really the first full day on board ship.  We were headed for Geirangerfjord which follows an S-curve through steep mountains that appear to be rising directly out of the water.  There are several gorgeous waterfalls – one set is called the Seven Sisters.  The fjord itself is a UNESCO world heritage site – it is spectacular.  There is a small village at the end of the fjord called Geiranger and no harbor really for a huge ferry like Hurtigruten to dock at.  We ended up getting on to another smaller boat to get over to the shore.  It was simply perfect outside – brilliantly sunny a little bit of haze over Geiranger.  There was a substantial amount of people going on this particular excursion which had us boarding multiple buses – four of the buses were for German speakers and the last bus was English/French.  Because that works well.  The itinerary was to take us up to a lookout point just above Geiranger and then to drive inland and check out Trollstigen, called the Troll Ladder (will explain below), and then to have a traditional dinner at a hotel restaurant in Molde.

I had made a pact with myself to NOT ride in those big obnoxious tour buses on any type of road that had a sheer drop-off.  Well, on this little side trip we broke that cardinal rule almost immediately.  We were in a day-glo purple bus, myself and several other nationalities, who may or may not have understood French or English for that matter.  Our guide was Belgian.  This part of Norwegian County Road 63 is called Eagle Road – and we are going up 2,000 feet.  Right out of the gate we start climbing and hitting the hairpin turns all on the side of a sheer rock face with (as usual) very little in the way of barriers.  And, (as usual) the road is quite narrow, making it very exciting when there is oncoming traffic.  The bus needs to pull waaayyy out, nearly over these sheer drops, in order to complete these hairpin turns.  I am peeing my pants.  OK – not literally …  but it was a bit nerve wracking.  Eventually (before I started to hyperventilate) we made it to this viewing area – which was a platform built out from one of those hairpin turns where you can get a fabulous view of the fjord and the Seven Sisters waterfalls…   It was worth the hairpin turn nervousness to get there!

Luckily after the heights above Geirangerfjord we leveled out and enjoyed the mountain top scenery as we traveled across a plateau, and then across a lake, or fjord or some body of water, requiring a ferry.  I have learned that driving anywhere in Norway is a huge time sink, because you constantly have to deal with ferries…. Unavoidable.  We actually took two in the course of this one-day excursion.

The next stop was Trollstigen – which technically is what they call the serpentine road that goes down from the plateau we were on; but also includes a couple of powerful waterfalls and platforms to view them.  Initially I only saw the waterfalls – and not until I wandered up and down the paths did I realize that the road descended in yet another set of hairpin turns (eleven to be exact).  It looked worse than the Eagle Road.  Quite frankly, I don’t know how they drive these roads in the winter.  They are big on trolls in Norway (who knew?) and this entire landscape looks like a good place for trolls – consequently they call this road the Troll Ladder.

I did enjoy the waterfalls, we were up 2,300 feet, and one of the waterfalls (Stigfossen) drops over 1,000 feet down…   Up here the trees are pretty much nonexistent it reminds me some of Iceland with the bare rock exposed and patches of green and some furry critters:  SHEEP!  They came barreling down the highway with bells clanging – luckily on the flat upper part, not attempting to climb the serpentine road…

And so eventually we had to leave…and go down the eleven hair-pin turns.  As I got on the bus, I decided it was time to have a chat with the bus driver.  I already knew that his name was Thor and I took that as a good omen.  I asked him if he was ready for this road… initially he looked kind of taken aback, and then he laughed and said, ‘of course!’  And then I laughed, (somewhat hysterically) and said, ‘good, because I’m not!’  He told me that I could just get down on the floor if it bothered me too much… I’m still not sure if he was joking – but he was chuckling when he said it…  And I explained to the Swedes who were sitting by me not to be surprised if I did get down on the floor!  Oh isn’t it fun to find new anxieties that you did not think you really had???

The worst part of that hair-raising descent was the oncoming traffic – and there was plenty.  Camping cars (that’s the European way to refer to campers…) and idiot tourists in regular cars who had just recently realized that they were on a death road.  One of these idiots actually started to put his car in reverse upon encountering our big purple bus.  That is when I thought it was all going to end, because neither us nor the car could pass … there ain’t no shoulder on this road folks!  But Thor, our magnificent bus driver worked it out – and we made it down in one piece.  We stopped at the bottom for a photo moment – I launched myself off that bus pretty quickly – needed a little air.  That is when the tour guide told me that it does get dicey on the road as they have had falling rocks land on the bus before.  I don’t need to go down that road again…but Trollstigen is beautiful and you can camp down at the bottom in teeny tiny cabins, or with your camping car and enjoy the view of the Troll Ladder and the waterfalls.

We ended up having a great meal at Quality Hotel Alexandra in Molde, which is where the ship had docked.  This was fresh fish (some kind of white fish) piled on top of creamy potatoes and lots of shoe-stringed veggies – it was fabulous.  And what made it more fabulous was that I got to have a bottle of Leffe Brune (for a mere $15) which was desperately needed.  I made some more friends with people from all over – the Swedish family celebrating the sons 50^th birthday, the American couple from Texas, and the Norwegian and Danish couple who don’t live together (odd twist there).  The half and half couple had a great story – meeting over 60 years ago and being great friends and then as they each lost a spouse, getting together in their twilight years, but maintaining their separate residences!  The man was Danish, can’t remember his name (bad Minkey) and he was 85 years old and going strong!  They were a lovely couple – I chatted with them throughout the trip whenever our paths crossed.

I need to tell you all about the Nordkapp trip as well and the crossing of the arctic circle – but shall save that for a different post – as the Minkey has droopy eyelids right about now…