June 18
First full day on the boat. We enjoyed a quiet morning with a buffet breakfast, Norwegian style. Smoked salmon, pickled herring, salad fixings, yogurts with toppings, baked beans, tasteless scrambled eggs, fish cakes, fresh bread with jam and excellent cheese selection, hard and soft boiled eggs with caviar, cold cuts, and cereals.
The rain had stopped but it was still a grey day with the clouds hanging low covering the mountain peaks. I had gotten up at 4am to take a walk around the outside decks.
Our first stop was not until 1:30pm so everyone on the boat staked out their seats for watching the scenery. We sailed North and then at Alesund we turned south to sail all the way through the Geirangfjord. The water was flat and the boat is very quiet as it glides through the fjord. The land on either side of us is both hilly and mountainous, not very poplulated. An occasional village and sporadic farms, some hanging on the sides of steep cliffs. Many of the mountains still had snow.
The Geiranger Fjord is called “the pearl of the West Country Fjords”. The fjords were created by receding glaciars. On this boat ride, the mountains come right down to meet the sea. But much of land is rolling hills with fertile valleys and lush vegetation.
We had scheduled just one excursion on this cruise – a visit to the Geiranger Fjord and to Trollstigen. I really had no idea what to expect – the excursion was described as
“this excursion gets you closer to the UNESCOlisted Geirangerfjord. Your day begins with a drive up Ørneveien (Eagle Road), enjoying magnificent views of Geirangerfjord en route to the beautiful Eidsdalsvatnet Lake. From there you take a picturesque ferry ride from Eidsdal to Linge. Back on dry land, we head for the stark, wild, high-alpine areas, stopping en route for photos at the impressive Gudbrandsjuvet (Gudbrands Gorge). One of the many highlights of this trip is the series of 11 hairpin bends down the winding Trollstigen Pass. Once you’ve reached the bottom, it’s time for a hot drink and a bite to eat before you continue on to the gentler landscape of the Romsdalsfjord. You conclude with dinner in Molde before embarking the Hurtigruten ship again.”
At the end of the Geiranger Fjord, we got off our ship onto a tender boat to take us to shore where our tour busses awaited (5 languages, 5 guides and 5 busses). The sites we saw traveling by land were even more spectacular than from the ship. This 8 hour excursion was worth every penny. We drove through picturesque valleys and stopped at several vistas looking down into the fjords. Saw several crashing waterfalls which just can’t be captured in a photo. We crossed many fjords – over bridges, through tunnels 300 meters underground, by ferry boat and one on foot. The most spectacular stop was at Trollstigen.
We ended the day in Molde, where a dinner awaited us at a hotel while we waited for our ship to pick us up. And blue skies and sunshine at 10pm forecasted a sunny day on Thursday.