A little bit behind on my trip recaps but will wrap up soon! Every day has been pretty jam packed with sight seeing but I know if I don’t write up my memories here and now, I won’t ever get to it! So let’s continue…
Getting into Geiranger was gorgeous but leaving was equally breath taking! On the way out, there’s a short zig zag up hill drive to another nice viewpoint, Ornesvignen, where there’s a small parking lot with a platform overlooking the fjord and into the Seven Sisters waterfall. If I have any criticism about this pre-planned itinerary with Nordic Visitor is that I felt we barely got to squeeze much in during the drive between Halfso and Loen. There were many optional activities but barely even got to see the waterfall walk in Geiranger had it not been long daylight hours! One of the other recommended activities was to take a cruise to see the Seven Sisters waterfalls but it’s some way ferry/cruise that would’ve eaten up two hours total and just didn’t have time to do it if we wanted to get to Trollstinger and then Alesund. But with that being said, I don’t feel a dedicated fjord cruise is needed at all if you’re around the fjords themselves. It would’ve been nice to have done one but also great views from the road.
I honestly could stare at these views forever and forever. Was very fortunate to have clear skies and great warm weather. The breadth and depth of the fjords is something to experience and pictures don’t do the experience justice. Living in a large city for most of my life, it’s always wondrous to feel small within the bounds of nature.
From here it was onwards towards Trollstinger. The landscape changed from greenery to barren and snowy conditions as we climbed elevations. I wasn’t sure where we would stop to see the famous steep hairpin turn roads but coming from this direction, just be on the lookout for a large parking lot that looks like a rest area but is more than just a rest area! You’ll walk to the end where all tourists are headed and coming across a well organized platform and paths to trailheads.
There are quite a few view points where you can see this famous road before driving downhill on it. As you go down you’ll pass by several streaming falls as well. This time of the year wasn’t so bad with traffic and we were there around midday (noon). Maybe we were just lucky but we got thru this pretty seamlessly, even with some of the one lane squeezes.
After Trollstinger we headed to Alesund, a city on the northwestern end of this area. The sky turned dark and cloudy and it rained a bit when we were there. Overall Alesund was a very small city and didn’t find much to do there thought the walk up the highest point in town (400+ steps) was nice. Alesund was also quite hilly which I didn’t expect.
The vista point in the park is called Fjellstua. We stayed at Quality Hotel Alesund, which was ok and right near the port. However the best casual meal we had on this trip was at the fish and chips kiosk called Jafs! Fish was fresh and not over cooked and fries were good too. We had fish and chips at other places during the trip but this was the highlight.