Geiranger is not the easiest place to get to! To put it mildly. After a lot of internet searching by myself and Tim before I left Stockholm and after arriving in Bergen. I finally figured out a way to get to this amazing place. The tourist center in Bergen tried to help but they only deal with local sites. Geiranger is 16 hours away by boat or 4 different buses and a ferry ride. I chose the cruise ship option. The ship was on it’s way to the north end of Norway and back. A 12 day journey. But they allow passengers to get on and off at different ports if there is room. The only problem with this option was that it was an overnight journey which meant I would’t arrive on time for my hotel room booking and couldn’t cancel it. I will let most of the photos that follow speak for themselves. At the end of this post I will continue these words with how “interesting” it was to figure out how to leave here when I do leave.
Nope! Not the Golden Gate Bridge but similar. Leaving Bergen headed north.
The bow of the ship.
11PM!
Midnight!
The only way to or from this house is by boat. Electricity? Sewage? Doctor? And there are many others like this in seemingly very difficult places to get to.
The ship leaving after dropping me off in the small town of Geiranger. 250 residents but can swell up to 10,000 visitors in one day due to the amount of cruise ships coming and going!
My hotel. The Hotel Utsikten (“good view”) and you will soon see why they call it this. It was built in the late 1800’s and has changed over the years but is still in the same spot on a curve in the road. As the buses go by, which there are many, you could almost touch them from the sitting area windows. If you dare!
This is really the view from my room! When I first walked into my room, I thought that the curtains were drawn shut and this view was painted on them! Sitting down in my room I don’t see any part of the road and can watch cruise ships coming and going. So far there appears to be 2 ships arriving in the morning and then departing in the evening.
Day 2 at Geiranger on the way up to the Skywalk viewing point.
This used to be sort of a summer camp for teenagers. They would spend the summer here taking care of the cattle or sheep and then walk down the mountain to deliver milk to the town and then walk back. It isn’t used anymore but is maintained by volunteers to keep the history of these types of farms alive in Norway.
Note the sod roofs on the houses. Good insulation from the heat and the very cold winters.
The metal grate that this brave gentleman is standing on is called “The Skywalk”. Guess why….the rock on the right is terra firma. The grate is not! I made the mistake of walking out onto this thing and then looked into the holes I was standing on. It is suspended above the valley floor! And I could see the valley below. I imeddiately froze and then inched my way to the !glass! barrier. It’s difficult to take photos with one hand holding the camera and the other one clutching the !glass! thing that is supposed to save me from falling off! It is well built but it didn’t matter. I quickly moved back onto land. Never to try “Sky-walking” again.
The dreaded glass barrier!
In the upper center part of the photo is the Geiranger Fjord. The winding grey line is the road to the viewpoint.
Only 1500 meters (5000′) up the mountain. This road to the top opened 2 weeks ago. Closed from October to May depending on the amount of snowfall.
So to end this blog for tonight, it’s 10:30 PM on Tuesday the 12th of June 2018. and I can see the Fjord and the one cruise ship left in it. It has gotten cooler as the sun has slowly set. And the clouds have moved back in.
The young lady at the reception desk. Her name is Elsa, has helped me immensely in my search to find away to get to Oslo. My next stop on my way back to Estonia. I had heard that the train trip from the west coast to the east was beautiful. So I had hoped to take the train. The only problem with that, as you can see from the photos of the roads here, it isn’t an easy thing to do. First it was take a 2 hour ferry to the first bus stop. Then 3 different bus rides to the first train ride that would take me to the second train ride. Well when we tried to book the first train ride, it was sold out. So nix that plan. Onto the next one. Let’s bypass the first train ride and go directly to where I can catch the second train ride. Oh it’s possible to do but! 14 different bus rides, swimming across a fjord and hiking for a day didn’t appeal to me! I’m joking of course but it was similar to my description. Elsa called it a “hocus pocus” trip. She suggested an express bus directly to Oslo that leaves from a spot 45 minutes down the road from here. On the road that just opened 2 weeks ago! And only takes 8 hours. Otherwise the other road that leaves here is a 16 hour trip. So I leave here on the 14th to Oslo and fly to Estonia on the 15th.
11PM. Still light outside. Going to sleep. Good night.
Bergen Harbor.
Boat in harbor.
View from my room.
View from the hill my hotel is on.
A couple of houses near the hotel.
Quote of the day at an outdoor bar at the harbor!
200 year old Diplomat Hotel.
This is a bus that can go on water or land!
Tim and I took this old steam ferry to another island for lunch.
Inside the old steam ferry before it was packed with people. Very nice wood everywhere!
One of the many car ferries.
Refurbished castle.
Sleek subway train. They are quiet, clean and comfortable. Unlike the BART trains that run in the Bay Area in California.
Leaving Estonia on an overnight ferry/cruise ship
My cabin.
This photo was taken at 4 in the morning as we got closer to Stockholm. Now by closer I mean on the map. Time wise we were still 6 hours away because from here on the ship had to navigate around and in-between islands and go slower. It wasn’t going fast to begin with but now it was going half as fast.
If the island is big enough, the Swedes will build a house on it. Or even a city!
My ferry docked in Stockholm.
Permanent amusement park on one of the many harbors in Stockholm.
One of the many harbors in Stockholm.
A real steam boat. One of many different kinds of boats that are constantly ferrying passengers from island to island.
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