Awesome Adventure 2016: Geiranger and Stavanger

After a fabulous evening cruising out of Flam, the ship headed up the coast to Geiranger, in Geirangerfjord on Wednesday. After walking beside a waterfall in town and visiting the UNESCO fjord visitors centre we decided to take on the challenge of a hill climb. It took about an hour to reach a set of huts at Westeras, where we bought ice creams - then almost another hour to reach a waterfall at Storseterfossen where we could walk behind the water. We had to set a 'turnaround time' to make sure that we made it back to the boat. The fjord centre lived up to expectations with very interactive exhibits - viking huts, a rocking fishing boat and fake glaciers. The sunset cruise out of Geiranger was spectacular - with very long daylight hours at this time of year.

We then went back down the coast overnight to dock at Stavanger for our final day in Norway. We joined a tour of the countryside, which took us up past farms and to a boulder field - and gave us the chance to eat Norweigan pancakes. The tour brought us back along the coast - with a great white sandy beach on the north sea. Before boarding the ship, we wandered around the harbour part of Geiranger, including the old town with the timber buildings only painted white. It was the first day of the summer markets and lots of locals were out in the streets. The Norweigans have a great lifestyle - balancing family and community time with shorter hours of highly effective work time. They also spend a lot of their holidays out in the countryside.