Friday at Sea & Saturday - Geiranger

Friday was a fairly restful, uneventful day at sea and it was just nice to relax. We met a very nice couple at breakfast with a darling accent and a great sense of humor from Liverpool. After quite a fun chat, we learned that their son had passed away twelve weeks before after a long illness with MS. He sounded like a wonderful, strong young man who set quite an example. Paul and Pauline were a delight with a lot to teach the rest of us. We hope to spend more time with them and now have their email and an invitation to visit.

We went to a very informative question and answer session with the Captain and some of the head officers. Royal Caribbean is very much a class act! I should have taken notes.

We crossed back over the Arctic Circle ever watching for whales, but no luck yet.

Once again it was formal night and I put on the same old outfit and changed my Target jewelry and got compliments. Hey, it works. We had a delicious shrimp

dinner with the usual appetizers and desserts and moved on to the show. Tonight's show was a volunteer show from the entertainment staff. With long cruises, they usually have one night of just showing a movie, but the staff was up for performing. They chose what they wanted to do and put together a show that was one of their best, earning them a standing ovation.

We turned in a little early as we were excited about out next port which is in Geiranger. It is the best known fjord and called the Diva of all Norweigan Fjords. We were so excited and didn't want to miss anything. We weren't sure if we should take one of the expensive excursions, but hated to be stuck on a bus. Meanwhile Bob's new friend from Serbia, Marko (roll your r) who runs the coffee/wine shop on our floor was full of advice. He reminds me of a young Syllvestor Stallone. He said, "They do not tell me I can't give advice. Save your money. Only one road. Turn left off the ship and walk. Beautiful. See it all free!" 

He is a gem! We are recommending him for a service award.

We went to bed watching the World Soccer Cup with the Netherlands and Spain playing. We could hear  our neighbors cheering as the Netherlands won.

At 7:00 AM we jumped out of bed as we entered the fjord and slowly cruised towards the little town of Geiranger. The sun was out with bright blue skies and there were green mountains on both sides of us with cute little farms tucked in the valleys and snow covered rocky peaks in the background. 

We hurried to breakfast, afraid to miss anything and sat with a nice Danish couple. We had an enjoyable chat and especially enjoyed hearing about what their life was like and their Border Collie. 

We went up on deck and it just kept getting prettier. I clicked my little camera a million times, well, it seemed like it. There were so many magnificent waterfalls and the walls of the mountains got closer as the fjord narrowed. We were overwhelmed with the beauty of it all and I still tear up even typing this. 

We slowed to a stop in the Harbour where there were two other ships anchored, and it took us a while to get into position as they swung a portable pier out to us. It was pretty cool that we would be able to walk to shore. We were protected by the mountains and the sun was wonderfully beating down. We got coffees and relaxed in lounge chairs just gazing as we tried to soak it all in.

We grabbed fruit and cheese and went back to the room to prepare for our hike. We stopped onshore and got a map at the information center and off we went. The road was a switch back and steep. We stopped at a beautiful old church but there was a wedding going on so we couldn't go in.

On we climbed and we started to get a rhythm. It was incredible to be in the sweet fresh air with birds singing, the river rushing and all of this incredible scenery. We were pumped to say the least. I gave thanks right out loud many times! We were in jeans, t-shirts and hiking shoes and sweating. We found out the day before had been cold and rainy. Are we lucky or what?!

It was so breathtaking at each turn of the road with numerous waterfalls. The curves were hairpin and the road narrow. It was a little interesting a few times when buses were coming from opposite directions and we had to find a place to crouch off the road and lean back to avoid their mirrors.

We stopped for the view at a quaint hotel that again reminded us of Mackinaw Island. We met a cute young couple and took their picture and then they took ours. They were from Germany and had rented a car and were doing their own thing. They said they were late every night getting to reserved hotels as they stopped for so many pictures. We told them about our trip to Sweden and we got some more good advice.

Remember, we walked up from that ship!

We joked with another cute young couple trying to bike up the mountain. We kept catching up to them as they rested and he said our walking was faster than their biking. I told him we had been married many years and if he didn't want a cold night tonight, he had better say, "Good job honey. I'm so proud of you." We saw them again at the bottom of the mountain eating ice cream and they waved and yelled that they made it!

We saw many houses that needed a little bridge to get into their barn as the houses are on such steep lots. And, notice the reindeer rack above the door.

We made it to the visitor center that was four kilometers from the old church. The view was, of course, fabulous and we continued taking pictures. There were several tour buses there but they cleared out right after we settled in so we were able to enjoy it and use the restroom. We found out later one of our dinner mates saw us and took a picture of us out of the back of her bus as she said, "Look at those idiots!" We're getting quite a reputation.

We started back down and this time went on the other side of the river through the little town. They had a nice bridge and iron steps all along the white water and numerous falls. It was beautiful and fun.

However, we started to feel the effects of the climb and worse yet the steep walk down that jammed our hips and knees and gave us shin splints. We weren't quite so smug as we limped through town. We saw Paul and Pauline who asked us to join them for a coffee, but we were afraid if we sat down, we wouldn't be able to get up and we just wanted to get back to the room and get out of these shoes and sweaty clothes. A shower never felt so good and dinner sounded even better!

At dinner we celebrated our dinner mates, Ann and Mitch's 50th Wedding Anniversary with small glasses of champagne. The staff and the rest of our table sang to them. It was very sweet.

The show after dinner was a talented flute player from Ireland. We fought to stay awake to enjoy it all but agreed the 11:00 Latin Show was out of the question. I don't even remember crawling into bed.

Oh, and once we downloaded pictures, I had taken 279 just today. We worked to delete and got it down to 120. It was just hard to quit! Incredible place!