Last night here! It's currently 10:34PM and I have my clothes for tomorrow laid out...my suitcase packed...done a walk about through the house and have everything of mine packed...I am super organized! What a surprise ;)
We will organize the remaining food and tidy etc. tomorrow before we leave. Part of the rent here is paying for the fuel consumption...so we had a metre reading when we first walked in the doors...and we will have another when we are about to leave. We pay a set rate per kj so it will be interesting to see what the consumption was for the week for the six of us! We also arranged to have it cleaned instead of doing it ourselves, we paid 600NOK for that service which is basically 100CDN...totally worth it seeing as there are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, living , dining and kitchen space! Totally worth my contribution of $20!
Today was a LONG and HOT day...I'm pretty sure it was over 30degrees today and it felt even hotter on the Fjord1...which was a ship that took us through the Geirangerfjorden...to translate, it's a fjord located on the Western coast of Norway.
I took this directly from Google:
Facts about the Geirangerfjord
- Length: 15 kilometres
- Depth: More than 250 metres
- The Geirangerfjord is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site The West Norwegian Fjords. This World Heritage site includes two separate areas: The Geirangerfjord area and the Nærøyfjord area. Together they make up an area of 1,227 square kilometres, of which 107 square kilometres is covered by sea.
- The Geirangerfjord is visited by more than 200 cruise ships and more than 700,000 tourists each year.
An old and tiny town Hellesylt...some of the houses had markers indicating 1929 that we saw...we walked over this one lane bridge to get to the ship...
Ok, so after the initial chaos of trying to figure out where to buy our tickets...to where to board the ship, to when we climb on board...we finally just snuck on with a group...got on first and headed to the top deck for the best view! I grabbed a couple seats near the stairs so I wouldn't be trapped amoungst the four tour busses of people! Mom, Nancy and Auntie June decided to sit in the middle and were annoyed by all the tourists...some people are really rude and don't understand proper etiquette in group settings, that's all I'll say :)
It started out cute, several seagulls following the ship, hovering, flying next to us...but then I realized that they were just hoping for a hand out! Of course all the tourist thought this was great and were busy feeding them! Which would be fine I guess but they hover and fly over and guess what???...they POOP...
So while they are cute...I was trying to avoid getting crap on my camera...let alone me!
Ok so warning...mountains/fjords/waterfalls/ocean...we see a lot of the previously mentioned items and of course today I took another couple hundred shots...so feel free to scroll through this post rapidly if you are tired of it all ;)
Full shot view:
Close up of just the lower waterfall:
Just to mix things up...Tacky Tourist:
Seriously?!!! Right?
Tacky Tourist shot #2:
The bonnet wasn't working for him so he unzipped his pant legs and used one of those...he was kind enough to share the other leg with his wife...I kid you not! and he was also kind enough to stand the entire time...showing off his hot body and irritating the girls as they were sitting right infront of him!
I really liked this shot above because we had just ducted away from the direct sunlight here...so the photo was shot in the shade but you can still see the stream of sunshine at the top...kinda like a spotlight or beam of light...cool :)
Nancy taking a picture of me taking a picture of her ;)
I guess the little buggers were getting tired of all the begging...needed to cop a squat for a bit!
There are seven seperate waterfalls in the photo above...they are called the Seven Sisters and there is some folklore around the naming of them which I heard but couldn't for the life of me remember to tell you now...so we can just enjoy the photo :)
So many people on the water today...lots of kayaks and canoes...but can you get a sense of the grandeur in this photo?
How about this one??? Do you see the tiny red kayak now? It's in the bottom left side...stunning huh??? and I cut off some of the top of the cliff because it wouldn't all fit in!
Shot from a distance and then close up below...
Close up...I LOVE the way the water flows back and forth...we can try to capture the beauty of this area on camera but it isn't quite the same!
This is the only road into Geiranger and we were told that it remains open through the winter...because I guess other roads aren't?
Looks like a fun windy road huh? Not sure how fun it would be in the wintertime!
Old abandoned farm below...there are many spots like this down low and mid way up the sides of the mountains in this area...originally they were operating farms! They would raise cattle, goats, sheep...grown fruit...now they are all abandoned but maintained by a fjord preservation organization.
More people enjoying the water and views...can you imagine kayaking or canoeing in this area...just paddling past these enormous waterfalls???
Can you imagine it now? Do you see the tiny bits of red kayak in the photo below? Wow huh?!!!
This is a shot of the Seven Sisters on the return trip...different angle, same gorgeous view!
Do you see these buildings? Did you notice the rope hanging down the cliff? Can you imagine the who, what,where and why's of this spot??? Did they carry items up the rope from the water below, perhaps a ship for supplies? Did they send items down as farmers they were growing and probably trading...???
Mom and the girls promptly moved to this VIP section on the top deck after people got off the ship in Geiranger...so we had a lovely private, quiet return cruise...and it was some welcome shade!
Just wanted to share the incredible water colour again with you...it's one of my favourite colours by the way...
Just had to share another close up of these boaters...
Can you see them now???
This shot below is of the longest operating farm in this fjord region...it was last occupied in 1961 and they grew cattle, sheep, different fruit crops and had goats and a horse if I recall from the announcement on the boat...there wasn't any fresh running water nearby so they needed to boat across and get fresh water for themselves AND their livestock and crops EVERYDAY! Seriously! unbelievable...
Our cruise is almost over as we are back at Hellesylt...this is the way back through the fjord to the Atlantic Ocean...picture perfect.
The bridge is now occupied by kids and they are enjoying the refreshing water! It doesn't look too deep but they are surviving the jumps!
Time to head back...we have a two hour drive back to the house and we need to eat our leftovers and pack! We had a quick stop in Stryn to check the town out but there wasn't much to see and we were extremely hot walking around so we didn't stay long.
Signing off after a long post and a long day! Heading to Selje tomorrow which is about 45 minutes away from Fure...the homestead of my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother and Great-Great Grandmother...
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