After leaving Bergen we cruised overnight to the little town of Geiranger, namesake of Geirangerfjord. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Geirangerfjord is a wonderful and spectacular place to visit.
We arrived in Geiranger before breakfast, cruising quietly up to the end of the calm fjord waters before docking near the town. The small community sees most of its visitors during the summer, but has a school, supermarket, museum, and at least one hotel that is open year round. You can reach Geiranger by road except during winter; otherwise, you can reach it by boat or by ferry. The large lot of campers and RVs along the waterfront on the right side of the photo gives evidence of its popularity as a vacation destination. You can spot the small church shown in the next photo in the right center of this one.Octagonal community church on a terrace above town. Every community we visited had a church, usually of wood frame construction. When we asked about their use, the guides told us that they hosted concerts or public meetings. Nobody mentioned using a church to worship God, teach, or evangelize, although perhaps that still happens in some of the communities..We took a tour from the port up past the church and on up the mountainside to this overlook. The road to the top included a dozen or more sharp switchbacks and the bus was hot and stuffy, so anyone (like us) who could not see out was at risk of motion sickness. The view from this midway stop was worth the trip, though. Our cruise ship is the closer of the two ships, and you can see how the waters of the fjord fill the deep, glacially-carved U-shaped valley. One of the mountains on the north (right) side of the fjord is gradually sliding towards the water, which would be catastrophic if it were to happen suddenly. The mountain is heavily instrumented to provide advance warning of a failure, and the possibility of such a massive rockslide was the subject of a Norwegian disaster movie a few years ago entitled “The Wave.” Will the massive rockslide happen soon? Nobody knows, but if you are interested in visiting Geiranger, maybe you should go while it is still there.As we drove further up into the mountains above Geirangerfjord we came across these seemingly abandoned summer vacation cabins. Not sure if these are unused rental properties, or if they are privately held and only see occasional use.We crested out at the almost-top of the road to see this rugged terrain and part of a glacier. The route continued even higher to yet another overlook, called Eagle’s Rest, but this was as far as our tour went, so we returned to the ship. Another view of Geirangerfjord from our cabin balcony on board ship. The two red buoys are actually mooring points for the ship to tie up. The switchbacks on the green slope in the right center of the photo are typical of the dozen or more switchbacks we traveled in our land tour. The large boat coming up through the fjord is one of two ferries that reach Geiranger every half hour or so.Cruising back down the fjord later in the day as the weather improves. The waterfalls on the left are the “Seven Sisters,” named for the seven ribbon falls that flow in wet weather. August is dry, so we saw two or maybe three sisters. The waterfall on the right is “The Suitor,” named for the mythical figure who courted the sisters. Moving out of the narrow parts of Geirangerfjord toward the larger parts of Norway’s Inside Passage. The passage is actually a network of interconnected fjords, straights, and channels. In this photo we are still in the fjord, but the landscape begins to hint at more beauty to come.
I’m fairly certain those are some of the abandoned farms above Geiranger. You can learn more at: https://www.explore-norway.org/geiranger. Pretty cool, right?
Nice views. Thanks for sharing.Sent from my iPhone
Beautiful!!!!! God’s creativity never ceases to amaze me.
Amen!!