Aaaawww, carpenta, you are too kind!!
And thanks, loop!!
So, onwards!... Last day in Geiranger
is a visit to Westeras Farm. Like I said earlier, this could be a really slow day or the most active day. We chose the latter, which means we take all the hikes. The farm is above the cliff of Geiranger proper and there is a hiking trail from the hotel to the farm which takes about 45 minutes to an hour. Those who did not want to hike took a small bus to the farm.
From the hiking sign, they graded the hike as a 2, which is easy. It's a 2 km uphill hike and it's a workout!
Torgeir lead the hike
That's our hiking group on the lower right. You could see a great view of Geiranger central from this point.
We're almost there!..
Once up in the farm, we met the owners Arnfinn and Iris Westeras (pronounced like Voes-tras). They had the farm for a number of generations. People still have farms in the fjord area which they maintain but they also have other jobs which pay the bills. Like Torgeir's parents, his mom is a nurse and his father does landscaping. He actually landscaped part of the Fretheim Hotel. Arnfinn does some construction work on the side aside from his farming.
They demonstrated how they cut the grass using a sickle. Torgeir, a farmer himself, showed us how it's done. He showed us three sickle lengths, the longer one requires swiveling from the hip, and the middle one, more of shoulder work and the shortest one is mainly used using the arms. Most of us tried our hand in sickling, not an easy task!
He then showed us an easier way of cutting the grass, which is still not easy since that machinery looks very heavy and no walk in the park cutting it on an incline!
We wondered if these rakes and pitchforks were neatly prepared for us....
Well, our hunch was right! Here we go a-raking! We collected the cut grass in a line and Arnfinn is preparing an elm branch to demonstrate to us how the grass is collected and brought down the hill.
The grass is loaded on the branch and the kids rode on it. Most of the famer's children worked on the farm so they make it entertaining for themselves with the dull work.
Sometimes they would compete and roll down the hill, then run back to see who is the fastest!
The hay is then tied, collected and placed in a barn for the goats' and sheep's winter meal.
After the farm demo, it was tie to meet the goats! He had 3 kids which the JA's fed. We got to do this in our Ireland ABD as well.
The llamas are there to ward off predators who might want to eat the goat and sheep. You can see our hotel down below!
The goat appreciates the great view!
Next, we followed the goats for a short hike to an awesome viewpoint.
It was a short hike and this is what you initially see. The wooden structure on the left is where they store their hay for winter use.
And behold, Geirangerfjorden! This was the backdrop we used for more family photos. Can you imagine yours?....
Simply breathtaking!
The goats know the best views...
After all that hiking, we were ready for lunch! They served a choice of fish or meat soup and rommegrot which is a sour cream porridge mixed with melted butter, cinnamon sugar and raisins. For some reason, I did not take a photo of that particular meal! Anyway, it looks like oatmeal and it wasn't sour. It was too rich for me so I just tasted it. Torgeir said it's a very traditional Norse meal served usually in special occasions. I can see why! Dessert was a yogurt concoction, which was also yummy!!
Our lunch room
All the fish soup we tried in this trip all look like this and taste same. It's a creamy soup with lots of seafood bits in it.
I got meat soup this time and again, it's delicious! It was extra yummy especially after a good hike!
After lunch, about half of us hiked to the waterfall. It is also labeled as an easy hike and again, it is a workout! It's also a little longer than the first hike. There were Nepalese sherpas who laid stone steps part of the ways but most of the path was a muddy trail.
Our destination on the right... this time Kira lead the hike! Torgeir is at the back of the pack.
This is the end of our hike. You can see the waterfall below. We divided ourselves in groups of about 6 and took turns going down behind the waterfall.
Torgeir leading us behind the waterfall...
This was just amazing!!! How often do you go behind a waterfall in Norway?!?!
We hiked back after a few photos and we were back in the hotel at around 4 pm. Those who did not hike to the waterfall had about 5 hours of free time. This is when you can go to the spa or check out the shops in the center below. I had to buy my Geiranger chocolates so DH and I went down to the city center, like we didn't hike enough that day.
Dinner was at the hotel. It's a log cabin which we can see from our window and we had all sorts of barbecue meats and to DD's delight, mac n cheese!
Dessert was svele, a Norwegian pancake. Torgeir is showing us how it's done. It tastes like our pancake but they mix it with fruits and ice cream. A great way to end an active day, I say!
The next day, we leave for Oslo. I intended to take more HDR photos but only found the chance on our last morning in Geiranger. The first photo is the view from our balcony. It got really cloudy the day we left and we could not see the tops of the mountains.
The log cabin below was where we had dinner the night before. The roof with the grass growing on it is also very typical in Norway. Torgeir said it keeps the roof in place. You can see the fjord from here.
We are saving our strength for the hikes the next day...
