Friday, August 4 - Geiranger, Norway

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to watch the scenery go by as we entered the fjord on the way to Geiranger. We passed picturesque waterfalls and steep cliffs.

It was chilly and cool but not raining yet. Snow was spotted on distant peaks.

The clouds wafted in and out of the landscape.

Finally we arrived at today's destination, the small town of Geiranger (population 220), but today was not about the destination but the journey getting there and back. Geiranger was a very small town at the end of the fjord. There are only 2 ways in/out by car, both involving multiple extremely steep hairpin curves. I would NEVER live here! Here's the first end of town:

Here's the other end of town, which includes Eagle's Bend:

We observed lots of camper vans, small RV's, and tents in town. Another cruise ship was given the luxury of the dock today; our ship anchored and we would use a tender to get to shore for our bus tour: "Eagle's Bend Overlook and Panoramic Tour".

About 100 people could fit into each tender. It was about a 10-15 minute ride to shore.

As luck would have it, as soon as we arrived on shore, it began raining on and off. We were then told that it rains in Geiranger 5/7 days per week. This was one of the 5 days this week!

There was a rather nice gift shop on shore that we had time to visit before our bus ride, and we were able to purchase a tight-fitting knit caps with the flag of Norway on them that would serve us well for the rest of the trip and beyond. Hats are definitely our souvenir of choice! The scene on shore:

The other cruise ship was much larger and unloading quite a few visitors:

As our bus left town, we caught this beautiful shot of a rainbow over our anchored ship:

The bus driver required great skill getting around the hairpin curves. Often oncoming traffic had to back up to allow space for the bus to pass. The road was VERY crowded with all manner of vehicles. The van below did not yield at first, and it required our driver getting out of the bus and sternly telling him what to do. The stand-off stopped traffic in both directions for a good 10-15 minutes with much maneuvering and backing-up of vehicles before we could get around them:

We stopped at a rest stop which gave me a chance to take this photo of the river cascading down the steep cliffs in amongst the hairpin curves:

I took this shot because of the sheep grazing across from the red building:

Whether looking up (below) or down, my fear of heights was kicking in big time:

Finally we arrived at an alpine lake, Djupvasshyita, which gave us a break:

It was cold enough for my warmest puffy jacket and hat to feel comfortable:

Our bus turned around at the lake and went back down. But the road continued climbing on up from the lake, with more hairpin turns. If you look carefully in this photo, you can see a bus at the very top. I'm sure that was not really the top; it seemed to go up and up forever.:

Here is a close up of part of the river flowing down:

We passed a landmark church on the way down which I barely caught in time:

Once we got back down to town, the rain was coming down hard. We went up/down the other road at the other end, which took us to Eagle's Bend, but I'm not sure we ever got out of the bus due to the weather.

We were happy to get back on the ship! We canceled a scheduled bike tour because of delays to the bus tour and because we didn't have time for a wardrobe change due the time it took to wait for and ride the tender. Also, the bike ride would have been either all up or all down with no flat terrain. On those wet roads with all that traffic, no thank you!

Before leaving Geiranger, we witnessed the Hurtigruten coming into town. It stops at nearly every little town on the coast of Norway. I think there are 30 stops. That was one way we could have chosen to cruise Norway.

Leaving Geiranger, we enjoyed drinks on the porch, passed lovely scenery and many small towns on the way. Of course it stopped raining once we left the Rain Capital of Norway.

Here is the newly purchased Flag of Norway hat:

The cliffs dwarf this ship passing through:

We passed a "square rigger"; the people in the crow's nest waved to us:

We were glad to have extra time on the ship in order to do laundry. We had a good room service meal; the food on the ship is good. We had a very good night's sleep because we were sailing in the "Norwegian Inside Passage" with islands on the outside buffering waves, instead of sailing in open water. We slept in.