Day 6

Any hopes I had of a sleep-in today were dashed when Ted woke up at 5am and decided to involve himself with every room activity possible, meaning I couldn’t fall back asleep. Since it was still too early for breakfast, we went and got a coffee at the Starbucks-like cafe which, just like the name suggests, serves awful coffee. This morning was also a good opportunity to enjoy our balcony, as we sailed through the fjords and admired views of all the waterfalls, from both there and from the top deck of the ship.

Ted took a bag to breakfast this morning, so we were able to take some food items with us on our day out in Geiranger today. Due to my early wake up call, I did need another snooze before we packed up and headed out around 10:30am. The disembarkation of passengers almost ended up being a disaster for the crew as someone decided to open a barrier leading downstairs, which ultimately led passengers to descend towards the exit in a completely chaotic fashion.

Geiranger is a very pretty town, well hidden within the Norwegian fjords. We were anticipating cooler weather but it is much milder than we’d expected. One thing I had considered hiring for our time here was one of the E-mobility vehicles which looked like a lot of fun but were however, really expensive! We ended up finding our tour bus after asking at the tourist information, and were handed a weird radio-like device, which was meant to deliver the tour to you in your own language (but didn’t work).

Our German driver Andre first took us to the Flydalsjuvet lookout but it wasn’t exactly like the pictures promised - a heavy fog was still there from the morning and only dissipated slightly to give us a hazy view of the waterfront. Andre kept apologising but didn’t need to as that’s just how life is.

As we continued to ascend, any remnants of Summer disappeared as we were completely surrounded by snow and ice. After driving past Lake Djupvatnet, we arrived at the Dalsnibba lookout to photograph the glacier. Well, in theory anyway, as the fog was even thicker there! It only ended up being a quick toilet and souvenir stop, as there wasn’t a lot more to do.

Andre felt bad so he offered us a very quick photo opportunity at Lake Djupvatnet before continuing on. We passed through town and continued in the opposite direction towards the Eagle Bend lookout. Fortunately the weather here was great, which was lucky because this lookout was the best of the lot. We also had extra time here to make up for the earlier sights.

After returning to town, we wandered through the local shops and restaurants, considering whether to eat there. As predicted, the prices were exorbitant, so we piked out and returned to the ship to drop off our backpack and have lunch onboard. Ted did however pay $3.15 to use the toilet in town so at least we contributed something to the local economy.

After lunch, we headed back out again as I wanted to do the local waterfall walk. Ted decided we would take the road up instead and come from the opposite direction which I wasn’t thrilled with as the climb was twice as difficult. The photos we got were great though, as the weather continued to improve. On the walk back to the ship we stopped at a local grocery store where Ted bought some strawberries for his onboard breakfasts.

Ted wanted to have dinner on the starboard side of the ship so we could watch the departure process, which included the folding up of an enormous zigzag walkway that is attached to the boat. We saw some of the American guys again at the back of the boat, and joined them in taking photographs of the various waterfalls during the departure.

Since our sleep patterns have been sketchy, we both thought an early night sounded more appealing than going out for drinks. Tomorrow we have another ship day, so we will probably use it for a bit of R&R. Czytaj więcej