Sixth Boat day

 Today when we woke up we were in Geiranger, Norway. It surprises me that the docking of the boat doesn’t wake us up. I don’t know if we are just sleeping more soundly than usual or if we’re in a quiet part of the ship, but I’m always amazed to open the curtains and see that we are docked somewhere with all sorts of hustle and bustle going on in the port. 

Today was a long, but really fun day! I had booked a tour that took us up a mountain to a local farm, with some other stops along the way.

Geiranger itself is a small tourist village at the end of the Geirangerfjord, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I can see why, the beauty is just incomparable to almost anywhere I have ever seen. The fjord is 9.5 miles long and around every bend the scenery just becomes more and more amazing. We will see it this evening as we leave, it was dark when we arrived, and very early.

It’s another sunny day, 13C when we got up, so another day where my poor puffy jacket languished in the closet. It was t-shirt weather for me, with a light cotton jacket tied around my waist. I gave strange looks to people wearing down coats, touques and mitts, and they gave strange looks to me. 

Our bus driver was a tiny, little, older woman, and man, could she drive a bus! I thought the roads in Alesund were windy, but they were like a freeway compared to these ones. I think there were 13 switchbacks, and a few times I’m pretty sure the wheels of the bus were mere centimetres from the edge. I felt like we were on the TV show, “World’s Most Dangerous Roads”. We stopped at Flydalsjuvet to take pictures of our ship and the village far below and then we continued up and up. 

You can see the twisty road, with no barriers to stop you from careening over. It was nerve wracking when another bus came around the corner!

One of the most beautiful fjords in Norway.

Eventually we stopped at a small farm. Well, the road stopped and we had to walk up this incredibly steep driveway to get to his home where the fellow let us play with his baby goats, so adorable, and then showed us how he made cheese from the milk from his older goats. He makes two types of brown cheese, one of which is almost like a cheddar, and the other is sweet, looks and tastes like caramel. The process takes almost 24 hours of constant stirring. It was so good! He also made a soft chevré, but the sweet brown cheese was the main attraction. 

Everything was so green and so lush, and so incredibly quiet. His home and his cheese making building as well as his outbuildings all have a grass roofs, which are called torvtak. These roofs have a history dating back over a thousand years to the Viking Age. They consist of layers of birch bark, which is waterproof, then layers of sod and vegetation. This all provides excellent insulation and adds weight to stabilize the buildings from strong winds. Local municipalities often give tax breaks to homes with these roofs as they are very economical and help to lower energy costs. 

But what really intrigued me were all the tiny, stunted apples trees with the most perfect, reddest apples you have ever seen. I wanted one so badly, but if I had one, everyone would want one. 

Cheese man with his wares. His big kettle was just behind the pole/tree trunk beside him. And one of the  amazing apple trees.

His grass roofed outbuildings.

Such pastoral scenery.

Goats bracing themselves from falling down the hill?

His neighbour. One little goat kept escaping and running down the hill towards this house. I guess he wanted to live somewhere flat.

But alas, he has to live on this hillside….

After the cheese farm (where he sold it as well, and I wanted to buy some, but the bringing back of unpasteurized cheese is an “iffy” thing, and I didn’t want to chance it. 

We then stopped at Lake Herdalsvatnet to see the Norddal Church. It was originally built in 1432, although that church is long gone, but it has been rebuilt many times over the years. The alterpiece in there now is from the church from 1510. Pretty impressive! The present day building was constructed in 1784. The cemetary is so lovely, and the hills behind it are dotted with fluffy white sheep, the bells on their necks ringing as they wander. A pretty peaceful place to spend eternity. 

All the graves are kept in immaculate condition. 

You can see the sheep on the hill.

Not sure why one lone grave is outside of the cemetery 

 

The clear Lake Herdalsvatnet. 

A selfie of the two of us on a small bridge. My kind of photo! 

Even the restrooms on the side of the road had sod roofs and were in excellent and clean shape.

All too soon the your was over and we drove back down the treacherous road to the ship. I’m not sure if it was scarier going up or going down, but I do know that I had a few fingernail marks in the palms of my hands!

After dinner we went to the evening entertainment in the theatre, which was a comedian/juggler. He was pretty good; not hysterically funny, but maybe a 6/10. Some people laughed until they cried though, so maybe it was just me. 

Sat on our balcony as we went through the fjord, and then early to bed as tomorrow is an early start for another tour.

I took this picture because of the waterfalls, and then I noticed that there is a HOUSE up there. I circled it in the other picture. What an incredible, but scary, place to live!

Good night! 💤