A Sisters‘ Summer Sailing to Scandinavia - update: After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View - Part 3

Our plan for this day was to go hiking. As a German you do not travel to Norway without going for a hike. Actually, Germans are the largest group of tourists in Norway. For whatever reason Germans love travelling to places that are as empty as possible and they have a lot of appreciation for the great outdoors. Not every single German of course, but it definitely is a trend here. If anyone read my California trip report, you might remember how I commented on that it seemed that in Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP and in Yosemite NP it seemed that we met more French and German people than Americans. The same reason why you can find Germans in the US National Parks is why they come to Norway in such large numbers.

And Katharina and I are typical Germans in that regard. We both love hiking. So, it really was something that we knew from the beginning that Geiranger would be the port where we would go hiking. We had done some research and hand found a map that was detailing several hikes in the area.

Geiranger Map Link

Our plan was to combine the A, B and D hike. This would first take us up to Vesterås Gård, the on to a view point called Vesteråsfjellet and then back and up to a waterfall called Storsetterfossen. Fossen is the Norwegian word for waterfall. As you see, hike A starts at the Geiranger Fjordsenter, which is kind of like a ranger station in a National Park in the US. The whole Geiranger Fjord region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and administrated similar to a National Park.

There was an official DCL excursion doing a very similar hike. At first I thought it might be worth it to go with that as it seemed to start from Vesterås Gård and therefore would have saved us the part of the hike that looked the least exciting. That was before prices were released. This is the description for the excursion:

“Hike To Storseterfossen Waterfall And Westerås (GE05)

Hike through the green meadows of Westerås to the thundering waters of the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Afterward, sit down at one of the area’s oldest cafes and enjoy a snack of traditional Norwegian waffles.

On this adventure you will...

Board a motorcoach for a brief, 15-minute scenic journey to Westerås.
Start the approximately 75-minute hike at Westerås Café, one of the oldest buildings in the area, with a beautiful view of Geirangerfjord. The hike begins with fairly steep terrain that leads to the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Note: Hiking shoes are required.
Arrive at the 100-foot waterfall and enjoy 15 minutes of free time to rest and explore on your own. Walk along the footpath that allows you to safely walk behind the cascading waters and enjoy the lush beauty of the Geirangerfjord.
Continue your hike by way of Westeråsfjellet Mountain for a spectacular view of the village of Geiranger, some 700 feet below, as you journey back to the Westerås Café.
Arrive back at the Westerås Café for an approximately 30-minute break that includes a serving of traditional Norwegian waffles with strawberry jam and sour cream along with some coffee, tea or water.
Head back to your motorcoach for a scenic drive back to Geiranger and the port.”

So, a 15 minute coach ride, a hiking guide and waffles with jam. Sounded good, even though we were thinking that we prefered hiking at our own speed. What do you think the price should be for this? Even for an overpriced cruise line shore excursion? It is 104 $! The Path of the Trolls excursion the previous day was 107 $! How can this be the same price as a whole day going places? Well, with that it was quite clear that we could hike up an additional 900 feet instead of paying 100 $.

Once we had packed all our things and had put on our hiking boots, we started out onto the sea walk.

Our first stop was the tourist information office where we looked whether they were selling any useful maps. The “map” above really is not what Katharina and I would consider a useful hiking map.

They had quite a lot of useful information available at the little tourist info though. Some general info:

All the activities available:

And they even recommended some hikes!!

So, our hike was recommended!! We were going to combine the green one with the first red one. And since we would not go all the way back, our calculation was that it would take us about 4.5 to 5 hours to do both of them together.

This was the view from the tourist information:

And then we started. Our first destination was the Fjordsenter. To get there one should follow the Waterfall Walk. That’s the one I pointed out in a previous picture. It was very well signposted from the tourist information:

We walked through the very cute little village:

A look back to the ship:

We passed a little supermarket:

So, if you would not want to bring food off the ship, you could pick up lunch here. However, in that area was also a little shop that was selling baked goods. We made a mental note to return there for a treat after our hike.

You follow the stream upwards, directly next to the waterfall. It is really pretty there with wonderful views. I tried to select the best pictures, but there are still plenty:

This sign was quite drastic:

We had already climbed up quite a bit:

We got to the Fjordsenter and I think we had a restroom break there. A young lady asked us if we had time to answer a survey about our plans on how to spend our time here in Geiranger. It was not long and they asked for an email address and sent us another survey once we were back home.

From the Fjordsenter we crossed the street in front of the Hotel Union and then took a little road next to the hotel leading away from the street. I think there were sign posts here as well and it was much easier to find than I had feared.

This seemed to be the bottom of the valley:

But soon enough we were climbing again.

We soon got into a forest and here was quite steeply uphill.

Some tiny waterfall:

While it was steep, it was definitely manageable. If you have ever done some hiking in mountainous areas, it was as one would expect when one is climbing up a mountain.

When we got out of the forest however, things became more tricky as it had been raining here for quite a bit over the last few days and the trail had become rather muddy and slippery.

We had definitely gained some hight:

But it was really pretty up here despite it being so grey and drizzly:

We came across a shelter for sheep:

And briefly after that we met the sheep who felt that the weather was not bad enough to seek shelter:

This is one of the sign posts that we followed and there were plenty:

Continued in Part 4

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View - Part 4

We had already passed Vesterås Gård and then saw a little hut:

Getting closer we realized that this must be the view point as we started to spot water again:

And indeed, soon enough we spotted the Disney Magic:

As you can see, there were two other ships there at the same time as us. Both those ships had to tender. The Magic had the prime spot. But it made also sense since the Magic was by far the largest ship in port.

We decided that this was a perfect spot for a lunch break and sat down (we had brought our inflatable seat cushions that are part of our hiking equipment) and enjoyed our lunch while thinking of @Captain_Oblivious:

Yes, these are PBJ sandwiches – the patented Captain Oblivious Family Travel Lunch. It was very tasty (but we were happy that on the other days the cruise ship provided more varied lunch options so that we did not have to eat them every day).

This is our lunch view without sandwiches:

We walked back towards Västerås.

There we had a look at the café they have there. It seemed very crowded, so we did not enter. We were trying to decide about what we wanted to do. We felt that with the constant drizzle that sometimes turned a bit more into rain, we were not sure if we wanted to continue. There was also the timing issue. We wanted to make sure that we were back with time to spare. The last thing we wanted to do was having to rush to the ship. We also knew that hiking down a steep hill often takes us longer than hiking up the same hill. Especially when it is muddy and slippery. But we also did not want to give up on the waterfall. So, we came up with the plan that we would give us until 1pm as that would give us 3.75 hours to hike down to the ship and we felt that with that we definitely had enough of a safety cushion. Our estimate was that it would take us 2 hours to hike back down to the ship from the waterfall since the sign at the tourist info had said that it would be 4 hours return.

So, we started up the hill.

There were quite a few interesting looking signs, but we did not feel like we had lots of time to look at them.

Most of the way up was stairs with large pieces of rock:

While we were hiking up the Disney shore excursion group was hiking down. Luckily it was not a large group. It was interesting to see how the group consisted of people with very varying degrees of hiking experience and hiking equipment. Some were in normal trainers, jeans and hoodies and I felt very sorry for them. The trainers must have been very slippery on the rocks and they looked quite soaked from the rain. Katharina thought the group was also lacking in hiking etiquette since we kept having to step to the side all the time. Usually the descending hiker yields for the ascending hiker. Not here…

More signs:

It was really very pretty up there!

And then we had the first view of the waterfall:

Proof that we made it:

And another interesting warning sign:

The walkway goes down a little and you can actually walk behind the waterfall. Even the Norwegians know about how spectacular the backside of water is!

It was quite wet behind the waterfall and I was getting nervous about my camera and the rain anyway, so no pictures of the backside of water here… Sorry! Just close your eyes and imagine you are back at WDW or DL on the Jungle Cruise and it was EXACTLY like there!

All in all I have to say that this was definitely a very pretty waterfall and well worth the hike!

The way back the rain started to get heavier and the ground was getting more and more soaked. We were getting tired and would have loved a break, but the weather was really not conducive for that. So we just hiked on.

When we got back to Geiranger I took a picture of the lovely flags in front of the Union Hotel:

When we walked past the bakery we had seen earlier, we went to pick up a school bread to share as a post hike treat. We had the best intentions to eat it before we got back onto the ship. But then we really did not find anywhere where we could stop and eat it, so we decided we would see if we could take it onboard. If not, we would just go outside again and eat it there. We made a brief stop at the tourist info for some post cards and tried to get in touch with Katharina’s DH. He was trying to spot us on the Geiranger webcam. But we were not able to make it work. So, here is a screenshot of the Geiranger port webcam with the Magic, but without us…

And then we returned back on board:

To be continued in Part 5 (where there will be even more pictures of amazing scenery...)

 

[Flossbolna]

Sorry everyone that I did not get around to replies yet. I am good at numbers (unlike other people.... @Steppesister) and saw that I was about to get the prime spot for the new update, so you got that first. And now it is time for bed... Will be back with replies soon and then also the third part of the Geiranger day!!

 

[Steppesister]

Sorry everyone that I did not get around to replies yet. I am good at numbers (unlike other people.... @Steppesister) and saw that I was about to get the prime spot for the new update, so you got that first. And now it is time for bed... Will be back with replies soon and then also the third part of the Geiranger day!!

Well, crap. Not only did I get busted for teasing Mark, (and not counting better than a pre-schooler), but am evidently lame at commenting on my friends' threads as well. Sorry, Magdalene... I'm behind here now on not one, but two, of your lovely updates.

Yours is next, my dear.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Oh my goodness those views! So many of them look like a postcard!

It was very smart of you to research and decide to do the hike on your own. It sounds like the others would have held you up.

 

[Flossbolna]

Well, crap. Not only did I get busted for teasing Mark, (and not counting better than a pre-schooler), but am evidently lame at commenting on my friends' threads as well. Sorry, Magdalene... I'm behind here now on not one, but two, of your lovely updates.

Yours is next, my dear.

Don't worry! I know how important it is to take care of parents! And to have fun with friends at Disneyland. I am splitting the Geiranger day into three updates because I just have so many pictures... So, it does make sense to comment once the whole day is posted.

 

[Flossbolna]

What gorgeous views!!!! So worth getting up early!

It really was a highlight of the cruise!

That seawalk is genius!

Yes, you can tell that the Norwegians know how to live with the sea.

The village is adorable; looks like your hike will have great views.

The village was so cute. It makes sense that it is so famous.

 

[Flossbolna]

The crew on these cruises are so multinational, I'm sure most of them have never seen anything like this. I'm glad to see that they let them do that.

I think the ability to get out and see the world is a huge motivation for many. I remember when I was on the Panama Canal cruise it was just before the ship was going up to Alaska. There was this one housekeeping CM who was assigned to keep the bathrooms at the pool deck neat and clean most days and I chatted with her a few times. She was fairly new to the ship and was so excited to go to Alaska. She said working on the cruise ship was her chance to actually travel the world.

It swims?! This I gotta see!

Ok - I guess the correct word would have been float? In German we only have one word for to swim and to float... schwimmen. You see which of the two English words it is related to. I guess it is similar to driving. In German we don't distinguish between who is driving and who else might be traveling by car somewhere as a passenger.

His name is Jabba.

Now there's a fun job! I bet he could operate "Push" the trashcan in Tomorrowland.

He was amusing to watch as he seemed to think that the other guys working there were pretty clueless (and they did look really clueless) and got really annoyed. Obviously he was the only expert, everyone else was doing this as a summer job while having time off from school.

I can't tell...was the briefcase handcuffed to him? (I don't know why I'm being so weird this morning!)

I think Katharina and I were debating exactly this while watching him, too!

That is the best part of Eggs Benedict, no doubt about it.

See, so why bother with fake muffin and fake bacon?

 

[Flossbolna]

Good job! Looks like it was worth the effort.

It definitely was!!

I'm amazed so many people were willing to get up that early.

I was actually surprised not more people were up there. If I compare it to the Panama Canal cruise, it was nearly empty.

This is absolutely stunning. I love the scenery.

Yes, it was a very special place. I would love to do another cruise to Norway and see more different fjords!

Very thoughtful! A great way to have breakfast.

Yes, they did that on the Panama Canal cruise, too. So, I had hopes of this happening again. It just makes a lot of sense. Does not cost DCL a lot (food is included anyway), but makes people feel like they got something special.

I think this is my favorite waterfall of your photos. Just beautiful.

Yes, I liked this one better than the thin 7 Sisters as well. But wait for the pictures when we leave the fjord.

That's a neat trick. If you could move the back end as well, could you walk across the ocean?

I think then it would be just called a boat. And there are better boats than that. Or it would be a floating bridge. The engineer ought to know all about bridges...

Hey, why is this our fault? I think it's an insult to call that thing "bacon".

I do think English muffins are great for breakfast sandwiches, though.

I do agree. While I think the English muffin got a bad deal in comparison to the real muffin, it still has a purpose. The Canadian bacon does not.

 

[Flossbolna]

I am glad that it was worth getting up early for. I have the say the scenery looked really stunning.

Yes, it was really wonderful. But we had seen pictures and knew it would be pretty. However, pictures cannot do it real justice.

I did not know this. I knew that Frozen was inspired by Norway, but not the specific town.

The whole marketing for those Norway itineraries was playing on it a lot. But by then I think you had already defected from DCL to RCCL, so I guess you missed out on that.

I think this would have been fascinating to listen to.

It was great! But when we left something else with sound happened that was fascinating as well.

What a wonderful idea. I wish more tender ports would adopt this technology.

I wonder if it is possible due to the nature of the fjords. The ship was actually able to get quite close to land. In a lot of other tender ports I think they have to stop further out due to there not being a canal. But the fjords are really deep. When the glaciers formed the fjord, the forces were so strong that they pushed so much stone out towards the sea. The fjord is usually the least deep at its entry point. The Geiranger Fjord is about 500m (1500 feet) deep. So, the walls that you see rise up at such an angle, go down in a similar fashion. I think in Caribbean the sea is much flatter and therefore tendering happens because they would have to dig a very deep canal.

ETA: So, I looked a bit more into it and the company http://www.seawalk.no/index.html is actually a Norwegian company that built three seawalks so far, two in Norway (Skjolden and Geiranger) and one in Stockholm. There is something on their website about having a new person for selling it in the Caribbean. So maybe the technology will catch on?

 

[Flossbolna]

Catching up one update at a time. Too bad that your original bus was damaged, and the other one was not nearly as comfortable. Good research on which side if the bus to sit on!

Yes, the whole bus thing was not pleasant.

Shame that your guide was not very interested in sharing information. The scenery is just stunning!

The scenery definitely made up for the less than stellar guide. And that was the reason we booked the excursion anyway.

Great picture of the two of you on the bridge!

Thanks! I really likes that picture, too!

Actually as I remember it, Michael ordered the weeds whereas Fran and I thought they were icky. UT we all enjoyed saying the word "weeds" a little too much.

Well, Michael eats weeds. But he prefers iceberg. I have never eaten as much iceberg as I do when he is here in Germany.

 

[Flossbolna]

The second half of your day looked like fun. I would have been holding on for dear life down that mountain side! Those hairpin turns were crazy!

It looked worse from above then once you were on the bus. But the view was amazing!

I found it funny that you called your food from Deck 9 "snacks". If I ate that much at that time of day, it would have been my dinner, because I would be too full to eat any more!

I guess I can eat a lot... But in our defense. Lunch was early and not very large as we were thinking there might be an opportunity for a stop to have some nice waffles or so. That never came, so by the time we were back on the ship we were starting to get quite a bit hungry. And you might have noticed that we at least skipped dessert that night!

The scenery was very beautiful. I would probably be up at 5:30AM, but that's why I love my verandah. I just throw on a cover up and go out the door. No need to brush my hair, put on shoes...

The issue with the fjord is that there is amazing scenery on both sides. So being up on deck 10 really was the best way to get all out of it. And who says that we brushed any hair...

Dinner looked interesting. I'm not sure I'd like many of the regional specialties on that cruise.

Scandinavia is salmon country and if I remember correctly, you don't like salmon. But actually a lot of the "regional" dishes were just slight variations on what is on the normal menu. Some were new though.

 

[Flossbolna]

Exactly the reason why we always have a verandah.

A verandah would have nearly doubled the price of the cruise and I was happy to go on two cruises for the price of one verandah. And in this case I really think the verandah would not have been the best place. You want to be able to easily look upward and to see both sides of the fjord at the same time. We did a lot of moving from one side to the other.

 

[Flossbolna]

Good choice..........as cold as it looks I don't think you could have a-fjorded to do otherwise.

A million waterfalls? You took a million pictures??? When you go.......you definitely go big!!!

Yes, I love my millions!!

Simply gorgeous!!!

Isn't it?

Maybe the most scenic and lovely!!!

I think this one is one of Katharina's. Taken with her iPhone.

Looks like a well chosen early morning to enjoy.

We definitely did not regret getting up early.

 

[Flossbolna]

OK, now I'm all caught up! You definitely made the right choice to get up and see the fjords!

We thought so, too!

It looks so much like the Alaskan cruise into Tracey Arm but different! Your pictures were beautiful but I'm sure they didn't do justice to what it was like actually being there.

Yes, just that there is no glacier at the end. However, there once was. I am pretty sure that Tracey Arm and Geiranger Fjord are geological cousins, both shaped by glaciers.

That arm walkway that went out to my the ship was really cool! I hope more tender ports get them!

Check my reply to Corinna. It looks like this is a new invention and they are trying to market it to other ports.

 

[Flossbolna]

I can see why!!!

It was really pretty!

That's neat to see their enthusiasm of travel and appreciating the fringe benefits of their job.

I think in order to do this kind of job well, you must really enjoy parts of it and I am sure for many the opportunity to go to places they would otherwise never have a chance of seeing, is a huge benefit.

Still pretty, but yeah, I can see that... not so much water there.

It will change...

Ok, THAT would be very cool!

The echo was really interesting!

Fascinating! I'd have been glued to the process as well. Had no idea there was this sort of system out there.

It seems to be pretty new. But it really is very convenient.

Kinda like a drone pilot, but for a gangway system. Neat!

Exactly!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh my goodness those views! So many of them look like a postcard!

There are a few viewpoints that are even more picture perfect. But not in easy hiking distance. It is just a spectacularly beautiful peace of earth.

It was very smart of you to research and decide to do the hike on your own. It sounds like the others would have held you up.

I am not sure on that. There were some very fit hikers. We are not fast. But it is always nicer to be able to go at your own speed and not having to look out for where others are. We were a bit envious of them getting a waffle in the warm cafe when we still had to hike down the mountain.

 

[dolphingirl47]

What do you think the price should be for this? Even for an overpriced cruise line shore excursion? It is 104 $!

Wow, that really is daylight robbery.

When we got out of the forest however, things became more tricky as it had been raining here for quite a bit over the last few days and the trail had become rather muddy and slippery.

That is the part of hiking that I hate. I have issues with my balance at the best of times and mud just messes things up for me. I loved all the photos you shared. The scenery is absolutely stunning. What a shame that it was raining.

The whole marketing for those Norway itineraries was playing on it a lot. But by then I think you had already defected from DCL to RCCL, so I guess you missed out on that.

I can't quite remember the timescale of this trip. We jumped ship to Royal Caribbean in December 2015. I had however given up on European sailings on DCL ever since I saw the pricing for the first Baltic cruises in 2010.

There is something on their website about having a new person for selling it in the Caribbean. So maybe the technology will catch on?

I hope that they can make this work.

Corinna

 

[TestingH2O]

As you can see, there were two other ships there at the same time as us. Both those ships had to tender. The Magic had the prime spot. But it made also sense since the Magic was by far the largest ship in port.

Those aerial photos of the Magic are stunning!

 

[pooh'smate]

I have been lurking for a while I normally read on my phone and it is so hard to comment from there. I just wanted to say I love your pictures what a beautiful country. Looking forward to more pictures