Norway ABD 2015

[tufbuf]

Hello from Bergen! We arrived yesterday for our Norway ABD. Bergen is Norway's second biggest city. Temperature is cool and it wasn't very crowded yesterday. Today (Saturday) is a different story. The city center is small and quaint. The wooden houses in front of the wharf is the most photographed place in the whole country as pictured below. It's not a great shot since I used my iPhone. We went up Mt. Floyen through a funicular, over a thousand feet above sea level and had a great view of the city. I bought the two way ticket online but one great option is to walk down the mountain. They have several troll statues along the way and a great way to fight jet lag. Food is very expensive, lots of seafood!!

Today we did a walking tour of the city (a private tour) with a wonderful tour guide. She did the Disney port excursion tour when the Magic was here last week. The hotel is in a quiet part of town and there is a grocery store right across the street. I'll post some more later and I'll see if I can post updates as we go along.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I look forward to reading your trip report. We're about to fly over to Copenhagen to join the Magic on next week's Norwegian Fjords cruise. I hope the Norway ABD is successful. I'd love to do it in the future.

 

[sayhello]

Yay! Looking forward to your Report!

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

Looking forward to your trip report too. The Norway ABD is definitely on our list.

 

[carpenta]

I too look forward to your report Tufbuf. Thanks for a daily report.

 

[RSM]

Looking forward to you report Tufbuf!

 

[tufbuf]

We are done with day 1! First of all, our wonderful guides are Kira and Torgier (pronunciation sounds almost like tour guide- no kidding!). Kira has been with ABD for 6 years, so she is a vet and this is Torgier's second year and he is Norwegian...obviously. Both have done Norway ABD on its opening season last year. Our group consists of 22 people and only 5 are below 18. There is another guide, Alyssa who is shadowing and she will be doing the rest of the guiding this season. This is her third season with ABD. Kira and Alyssa both did Australia together before.

The welcome dinner was at the restaurant. The halibut was fabulous! The Radisson Blu is a very nice hotel but was the cause of the famous wooden houses in front of the wharf to start sinking.

We woke up early today to do our white water rafting. It was very cold! They said the water temp was about 48 deg F but a handful braved it and jump in the pristine clear water, one of them my DH. The crew took really nice photos of the rafting! The wet suit helped keep us warm but your hands get really cold. It was a short rafting ride but loads of fun!

Next we stopped by a waterfall, the English translation name is Twin Waterfalls. The Norwegian name sounds better. It's an awesome sight! During the winter, the falls freezes and ice climbers climb to the top! This area is in Voss which is the extreme sports capital. I see lots of places where base jumpers can go to! I just tried posting the photo but the wifi can't take the load.

Anyway, we stopped by a view point in Stegastein and saw a fabulous bird's eye view of the narrow fjord where we will do the fjord safari tomorrow. The landscape is breathtaking and no where else in the world can you view these gorgeous fjords!

So now, we are now in Flaam where we will stay for a couple of nights. We have a beautiful view of the mountains and port right outside our window. The Disney Magic was here last week.

This is the view from our room window, which I guess is not a large file. I took this photo at 930 pm!


We had a barbecue dinner tonight which was again amazingly yummy! It was just really cold!!

More to follow...

 

[Cousin Orville]

Beautiful photo! Looking forward to your next post.

 

[tufbuf]

Day 2 - Fjord Safari day. This was amazing! It gave us the opportunity to get really close to the fjord. All of us suited up with survival suits complete with hats, gloves and goggles. The outfit helped us stay warm during the ride. The RIB (rigid inflatable boat) dropped us off first to Urdendal where we toured the small village of 60 people and houses the smallest stave church in Norway. We then had lunch which consisted of goat cheese appetizers. Brown cheese is very Norwegian and it is brown caramelized cheese. It's wonderful with bread mixed with local berry jelly. Lunch was a choice of kid goat stew, reindeer meatballs and salmon. I got the meatballs and they were delicious!

Dessert was apple cake with ice cream. All were homemade and everything was yummy!!

After lunch, we did a 2-hour tour of the fjord on the RIB. The fjord is majestic, awe-inspiring and simply breathtaking! You really have to experience it!! We saw a couple of harbor seals and porpoises swimming in the water. There are tiny villages along the edge of the fjord, some are villages of 14 and one with two villagers! There are several waterfalls flowing down the mountain which comes from melting snow and ice.

The highlight of the trip is seeing our guide, Torgier's home from the village of Sjkerdal, which is also his last name. Traditionally, families take their village name as their last name. We saw his mom in their balcony waving a white rug high up on the cliff! I'd say that's the beauty of having a local as one of the guides.

Now we are just waiting for time when we do the outdoor hike behind the hotel. We really got lucky and had s beautiful day during our safari!

The rest of the photos are too big to download. There were cruise ships docked today, one of them was Viking Cruises which was also in Bergen. It's a brand new ship christened just last May.

Till next time...

 

[tufbuf]

We are leaving Flam for Geiranger today. That's our coach being loaded up with our luggage. Torgier is next to the bus and Kira is approaching it.

 

[Cousin Orville]

That landscape is otherworldly. Just awesome! How's the weather right now? Sweater and/or light weight jacket? or more heavy coat?

 

[kmc33]

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences! I am enjoying your photos and report!!
I too am interested in the weather and clothing. We are going to Norway in the beginning of August, but alas, not on an ABD trip.

 

[tufbuf]

That landscape is otherworldly. Just awesome! How's the weather right now? Sweater and/or light weight jacket? or more heavy coat?

It depends on your cold tolerance. We dressed in layers with a fleece coat and raincoat. It's enough for now. You just have to be ready for all weather types. Right now it's sunny so even if the temp is 50 deg, it's quite comfortable. There is a father and son who have been wearing tees and shorts the whole time. we have been fortunate with the weather but I think it will rain tomorrow.

We just arrived in Geiranger. The views on the way here were beautiful. I never thought Norway is extremely mountainous. Again lunch was superb!! The lunch place have huge windows on the side with the glacier right next to where we were seated! Simply awesome!!!

We visited the Borgund stave church along the way, the best preserved in Norway.

Hotel Union faces the Geiranger fjord which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Too bad, photos are again too large to upload currently. Anyway, just an FYI, the last two hotels have no safes but our guides say it's pretty safe. We still carry our valuables with us and the front desk will happily store valuables if you are not comfortable leaving them in the room or carrying them around.

 

[tufbuf]

Okay, here are some photos of the stave church in Borgund.



The building is over 800 years old and most of the structure is original. It is one of 29 remaining stave churches all over the country.

 

[WeLoveABD]

Okay, here are some photos of the stave church in Borgund.

View attachment 103361 View attachment 103362

Sounds like a great trip so far! Seems better to go by way of ABD than by cruise... Although that is more of a travel preference...did you do the Disney Norway cruise?

 

[tufbuf]

Sounds like a great trip so far! Seems better to go by way of ABD than by cruise... Although that is more of a travel preference...did you do the Disney Norway cruise?

We initially booked the cruise but decided to do ABD instead since we wanted to see more of the land. It was well worth it!!!

Pictures above show summer in Norway! That was about 3000 ft above sea level.

There were also crystal clear glacier lakes which mirrored the mountain above. There is just a defect on DH's phone camera thus the black dot.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Those are stunning pictures! Wow!

 

[sayhello]

OMG, gorgeous!!!! Those mirror reflections are just amazing!

Sayhello

 

[tufbuf]

Today was a long day of traveling. We got up early and headed to Kjenndalstova, a 2-hour drive from the hotel. Kira got sick last night so Alyssa took her place for the day. In Lake Leon, we fished for trout, it was more of getting the fish net out of the water and untangling the fish from the net. Trout caught earlier in the day was going to be our lunch.



It was drizzling this time and cold too but not too bad. The locals are saying they are having a very cold summer this year. Snow is still falls my in the mountains! We had lunch at the family-owned cafe and I got the red deer burger which was, again scrumptious!

Next we went to Briksdal glacier which was about another hour drive. There we took what they called Troll cars to the foot of the glacier.



We paddles a raft on the glacier lake/pond as we talked about glaciers. At the same time, we witnessed an ice carving, which is a mini Avalanche, just small chunks of ice falling. It sounded like firecrackers! This particular glacier is considered a fast-moving glacier. In 1998, the tip of the glacier was all the way on the shore where the people were standing. It's a little different here in Norway, people own chunks of land and this area is owned by our guide and his family but it is a national park as well.

We headed back to Geiranger. This time we took a ferry from Hellesylt which was an hour and a half from the glacier. The ferry ride was about an hour and a half too. Along the way we saw the Seven Sisters Falls named after a folk tale.



The free falling stream is 820 feet high.


This is Geiranger Fjord taken from a window in our hotel. It was where the Disney Magic photo in the DCL webpage was taken. I'll show better photos later.

 

[sayhello]

Again, beautiful!

Actually, looks a LOT like Alaska!!

Sayhello