These villages are all about viewing the incredibly beautiful fjords of Norway. We will probably be up early to soak in the views as we sail up into the Sunnylvsfjorden so as to arrive at Hellesylt by 7:00 am. It is a small village of about 260 people but during summertime thousands of tourists travel through or stay here each day. Most of the tourists will take a ferry to the nearby village of Geiranger. We will make a short stop in Hellesylt for some passengers to be tendered ashore for excursions that will end up later in Geiranger. The ship (and us) will continue to sail up the Geirangerfjord to the small tourist village of Geiranger. It is home to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, and as a result it is the 3rd busiest cruise ship port in Norway with 140 to 180 ships visiting during the 4 month tourist season. There is not a dock here so we will be taking the ship’s tenders (actually our life boats) ashore.
Today's weather could not be more perfect once again. Blue, sunny skies and 80F. Our guide today said this was really unusual to have such a beautiful day and thanked us for bringing it with us. The Captain said they picked up the fjord pilot at 2:00am but we did not arise until about 7:00. We had just arrived at Hellesylt for a 3 hour stop to tender ashore (no docks) in our life boats some passengers who were doing an all day tour from here and would rejoin the ship in Geiranger this afternoon. We sailed again at 10:00 am for a slow 8 mile trip on up to Geiranger. The view in the fjord was STUNNING and no photo could do it true justice. Mountains rising 4,000+ feet above us on both sides of the ship with lots of water falls off the steep (almost shear) slopes. It was one of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring places we had ever seen. The sunny skies made it even more idyllic. I could not stop taking photos. I have 100 photos but deleted another 32 more.
There was no dock here in Geiranger either so had to anchor about 500 yards from the small, quaint town. Once again the ship's life boats (tenders) took us ashore at noon for our tour, "Majestic Mount Dalsnibba & Dyupvasshytta Lodge". Did I misspell either of those?? There were three other European cruise ships at anchorage with us here today so lots of people invading this small village. Our guide said 600,000 tourists visit here yearly between May and September. The only businesses that stay open during winter is one of the three hotels in town and the one and only grocery store. Our guide was a cute girl from Poland who spoke perfect English with almost no accent. Most tourism folks come here to work during the summer and go back home during the winters.
Our modern bus departed the pier for a zig-zag drive up a narrow two lane (barely) road up to the top of Mt Dalsnibba with an altitude of 4500 feet above sea level. When buses navigated the almost 180 degree switch back turns, no other traffic could be coming the opposite way and had to stop until the bus had completed its turn. There were lots of buses and cars on this road today. Two-thirds of the way up to the summit we stopped at an inn called, Djupvasshytta Lodge, for some coffee & danish (and rest rooms for us old cruise folks). The Lodge sat on the edge of a beautiful lake and had a nice view of a small glacier. After about 40 minutes we continued climbing another 1500 feet higher to the summit of the mountain. A photo stop was made to try and capture the panoramic view looking down 4500 feet to see the fjord and our now tiny ship. By now as we headed back down the mountain I was wondering how good the brakes were on this bus!! We stopped for another short photo break with a closer view of our ship in the fjord below. When we got back within a couple hundred yards from tender pier we were stopped in a line of stopped traffic. Our guide finally was told the the pier was closed by police because the security level went to ONE and pier was closed. Finally they dropped us at the grocery store and some souvenir shops and told to wait there until it opened again. We were only a couple hundred yards from the pier. After about 30 minutes we were allowed to go board the tenders and head back to the ship. Not sure why the security level went to ONE. Maybe they thought we would spend more money buying souvenirs while waiting. We were suppose to sail at 4:00 pm but it is now 6:00 and just leaving. Our Captain said on PA system that we would now be arriving in Copenhaven the day after tomorrow an hour late. We don't care as we are staying on the ship for the next 10 day Baltic cruise. But there are a lot of people leaving the ship in Copenhagen.
There has been no Internet today as we are deep down in the fjord and no line of sight satellite down in here. My plan is to publish this later tonight after dinner and the show. I can get today's photos on the blog tomorrow which is a day at sea.
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