Today we sail in late – arriving at 11am. The sail in is
beautiful – immense mountains rising up on either side of the ship with lots of
waterfalls and snow capped peaks. Also, random isolated houses perched up on
the cliffs. Do people live there? We’ll find out later….
This morning, we are passing by the famous Seven Sisters
waterfalls that everyone raves about. It is supposed to be one of the most
photographed waterfalls and the reason why so many people come here to
visit. The Captain announces we will
pass the Seven Sisters in 15 minutes, so we hurry up and shower to go outside
to see it. Then he says we’re passing it now – 7 minutes later! Crud – Ed’s just getting out of the
shower. He dries off in a hurry and we
run upstairs. But we don’t see it – well
– we see this little trickle but nothing spectacular. As a matter of fact, the
waterfall on the other side of the ship is way better. Hmmmm……maybe we’re missing something?
Oh well, we head back down for a light breakfast and then
wait to dock. We were originally
supposed to be tendering, but the Captain has managed to get us the Seawalk –
which will attach to our ship and we’ll be able to walk right off. (We’re saying he probably called up and
begged for the Seawalk because we’ve got so many scooters, wheelchairs, obese
waddlers and old people with canes – he’d never get everyone ashore using
tenders!) Snide comments aside – the
Seawalk is a feat of engineering. It’s
totally awesome watching it float it’s way toward us, un-scisssoring and
spreading out to make a floating walkway.
Really cool!
Today we have a bus ride up the mountain and then a boat
ride down the Fjord. We have to pick up
our tickets at the information center – where after a small scuffle with people
who don’t understand queues, we get our tickets – and check our email on the
free wifi! We’ve got about an hour
before the bus, so we wander around this teeny tiny town – hitting the grocery
store where the prices are better than in Flam.
Still $5 for a bag of potato chips, but that’s not bad considering the
$11 ones we saw. We also stop at a local
chocolate shop with fantastic chocolate – some made with the famous brown goat
cheese that I really wanted to try in Flam – but that we couldn’t find in any
small quantities. The chocolate is
fabulous, we sampled a couple – and as much as I want some – I’m just not
paying $1.65 per teeny tiny piece of chocolate.
I’ve had my sweet fix – let’s go wait for the bus!
Outside, we meet up with other Cruise Critic folks who
are on the same tour with us. Oh darn – here comes iPad lady too. Well – pooh.
We’ll have to protect our windows.
LOL.
We hang around a bit, then move across the street to
where the bus will be arriving – there is one up the street a bit so I go to
check it out – and it’s our bus. Cool –
we all run over and board, and we actually get the front row seats – take that,
iPad lady!
Our driver doesn’t speak much English – so when it is
time to go he just says “top, top.” Ok,
top! We know we can’t go all the way up
to the top of the mountain, to the Dalsnibba viewpoint, because the road isn’t
open yet -but we’ll go as far as we can,
and the sign in the tourist bureau says that we’ll make a scenic tour somewhere
else instead – so we’re good.
The bus ride is wild – switch back after switch back –
going steadily up the mountain. We stop at the view point where you can see the
whole town and fjord (the one that is always put on everything when Geiranger
is promoted), get some great shots and hop back onto the bus.
Up, up, up we go – into the snow. Past a house out in the middle of nowhere,
surrounded by snow –
then finally to the end of the road. There’s lots of snow up here!
Wow! And its cold and we are back on that bus in record
time. Back down we go, through the
snowflakes until the weather changes as we get to a lower altitude. Then into town – and back out of town again –
up the other side of the fjord. The
people behind us are so confused – where is he going? He missed the stop for the
town? What’s this guy doing? I guess
they didn’t read the sign – or know the road to the mountain top was closed and
that we got an extra excursion. Oh well
– they grumble again when the driver turns around to go back to a view point on
the other side of the fjord. Sigh. What can you do?
The view point is very dramatic, offering a great vantage
point up the fjord between the two giant mountain ranges on either side.
And the look back into the town is spectacular as
well. Very nice.
Back in town, we hop off the bus and head to the boat
which leaves in about 15 minutes. I
stand in line while Ed hits the restroom, and once we are finally admitted onto
the boat, we head for the nice warm inside cabin with the big picture
windows. Most everyone else goes
upstairs to the open air deck – no thank you.
If we want pictures, we can walk outside; in the meantime we will stay
nice and toasty down here!
It’s really a lovely ride down the fjord, and we learn
the legends of the Seven Sisters (something about the bride and her
bridesmaids) and the Suitor (which was a guy who constantly proposed to one of
the sisters and was consistently turned down, so he turned to drink, and you
can see a bottle in the waterfall).
We also hear about the farms that dot the cliffs here and
there in the fjord. All are abandoned,
but a group called the Friends of Stor Fjord has rebuilt and maintains them to
maintain the cultural heritage that farming life represents here. It is amazing that people actually lived
there – had babies there – farmed there – for years and years, some right up
into the 1960s.
An hour and a half later, we’re back on the dock and
heading back aboard to get warm – that wind is wicked – and get ready to sail
to Alesund.
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