Most popular Fjord

The morning was very wet. We decided to give up hiking in Dovrefjell National Park to see some musk oxen by chance.

We went to Geiranger instead – a terribly touristy village by a gorgeous fjord. People from two huge cruise ships and countless tour buses flooded the narrow streets.

The boat tour through the Geiranger Fjord was nice but maybe not a must as we have seen similar landscape before. The audio guide was informative.

The steep road up the mountain with many hairpin turns was called ‚Eagle Road‘ because it went up to high, eagles live in the area and in winter, the people in Geiranger felt isolated and wished to be able to fly like eagles.

One waterfall was called ‚The Seven Sisters‘ because there were 7 water streams. On the opposite site was ‚The Suitor‘ who asked one sister after the other to marry him but they all rejected him. That‘s why he started drinking and you can see a piece of rock not covered by the water that looks like a bottle.

On average, 6000 tourists visit Geiranger every day in summer. This is 24x the population of the little village!

The doctor only comes once per week, it nowadays a helicopter can be there in a couple of minutes in case of medical emergency. There’s a worship service only every 3 weeks and the priest takes care of three villages.

In spring and autumn, there are some days, that the sun doesn‘t rise above the mountains.

‚The Waterfall Trail‘:

What made the trip to Geiranger Fjord worth it for us were the views on the fjord from the mountain.

We went on a short but steep and very muddy and slippery hike to some viewing points. Our shoes, socks, and pants all had the same dark brown colour afterwards ;o/

Although it was close to 8 pm when we arrived in lesund, we were glad that we didn‘t skip this harbour city with its many characteristic Jugendstil houses and steep hills.

We allowed ourselves one 20€ pizza with cod. Unfortunately, the chef didn‘t follow our request to omit the chilly, plus we were very thirsty afterwards.

In general, we find the Northern countries (especially compared to South Europe) cleaner and more advanced. There are many free toilets, which are always clean and equipped with paper, soap, and often even hot water. The highways are smooth, the construction sites are well organised. There are many long tunnels avoiding serpentines, some with elevating spirals, some even with intersections and round-abouts. The tunnels made our journey over so many mountains so much more comfortable. Many people drive electric cars. Almost everybody speaks English. We believe this is due to wealthier governments and better education.