Been There, Done That, Loved it!

Along with the Green’s, we visited Geiranger, Norway about 5 years ago. It is the most spectacular fjord in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A deep fjord (9 ½ miles long and water depth of 853 ft) surrounded by mountains ranging from 5,000 - 6,000 feet above the water, plus a multitude of waterfalls. Absolutely gorgeous. The town of Geiranger is at the end of the fjord and is quite small – about 220 people, but several shops to take advantage of the cruise ships and the many other tourists who know how beautiful this place is.

View from our veranda this morning. 

When we were here in the spring 5-yrs ago, it was a beautiful sunny day whereas today, cloudy skies.

This is what it looked like from our drive last time we were here.

View from breakfast this morning.

 

We decided not to go on any excursions at this port and not to rent a car. We could walk around to see all we wanted to see. After breakfast we took the new ‘Sea Walk’ into town. This is a new addition to the port and is a metal walkway floating on the water going from the ship to the port.

A unique way to get people from a big ship into town without using tenders.  

Once in town, we browsed several shops but didn’t buy anything so as not to have to carry bags around with us. 

We had to say hello to the Troll near the shops.

We continued walking uphill from the shops towards to the octagonal shaped church and graveyard.

It was a beautiful spot to see the fjord, the town, and surrounding mountains.

Continuing up the hill we arrived at the Norsk Fjordsenter where we enjoyed walking through scenes of farm life and a slide show of the beauty of the area.

How it was back then.

We walked across the street to the Union Hotel for lunch. We had lunch there 5 years ago with Ric and Vicki and sat at a window with a great view of the town and fjord.

We think we sat at the same table today that we sat at 5 years ago – how cool. 

Lunch was great, we loved the view, and the remembering of the time we were there with Ric and Vicki.

We had to decide which way to go to get back down to the town, so we decided to walk down the stairs that descend along the Geiranger river and Storfossen waterfall. 

 

The river cascades down rapidly over rocks and turns until it gets down to the fjord. 

There were 327 stairs to walk down which was a challenge for Karen as her foot was painful at that time, which occurs one in a while. 

We made it down to the pathway.

Once down to the town, we stopped at all the shops that we had scoped out and made our purchases, including chocolate at the tiny chocolate shop, and then headed back to the ship.

Chocolate anyone?

Cute little fjord house in Geiranger.

We helped the economy and Bill even joined in this time and bought a sweater jacket. 

 More tomorrow showing us leaving the fjord and it's many waterfalls because it's nearing 11 pm here.