Our Trip to Europe

Day 12 – Eidford

We actually disembarked the ship early this morning in Ulvik, Norway. Our shore excursion started there. We boarded a bus and headed to Voss where we boarded a train. That train took us to Myrdal where we got on board the Flam Railway. Even though it took a total of 2 hours to get to Myrdal, we weren’t bored as the scenery was unbelievable. Norway reminds me of Alaska and it is about the prettiest place I have ever seen. We started out the day with some clouds and mist towards the tops of the mountains but that burned off and we had a sunny and fairly warm day. The fjords were beautiful and we saw quite a bit of snow up on the mountains. There is water everywhere in Norway, either lakes, rivers, fjords, seas and so many waterfalls that you lose count of how many you have seen. The water is extremely clear and cold. They fish salmon, cod and trout among many other fish here.

On the way to the Flam Railway, we drove through a tunnel cut through one of the many mountains that was 5 miles long. The longest tunnel is 24 miles long. They are very dark and somewhat narrow. It gets a little scary after you have been in one for a while. We experienced some of the same type of think on the railway. We went through numerous tunnels and would come out the other side to spectacular scenery. We stopped at the Kjosfsossen Waterfall where music began playing and a beautiful woman dressed like a fairy came out dancing around. The story is that was a troll woman. They are really into to trolls here and you find statues of them everywhere and there are lots of smaller trolls that you can purchase for a souvenir.

At the end of the train ride, we got back on a bus and drove up the steepest road in Norway the Stalheimsklevia. There were 13 hairpin switchbacks, basically one lane and extremely small rock walls to help keep those HUGE buses from going over the side. More than a little scary!! At the top was the Stalheim Hotel where we had a buffet lunch. There was fish, fish and more fish. You think of a way to prepare fish and they have it. It was delicious and we had a Norwegian beer with our lunch. We had a little time to take additional pictures from our perch up on the mountain and to possibly buy a little trinket from the gift shop (they always allow time for that!!) and then we got back on our bus for the ride back down the mountain but took a safer road this time.

We had one more stop on our tour and it was at the Tvinde Waterfall. We thought we had seen plenty of waterfalls until we got to the Tvinde. It was HUGE. We were able to walk right up to the base of it and took plenty of pictures and got kind of wet from the mist. Time to head back to the ship docked in Eidford. We drove through the countryside where we saw the homes with sod roofs, sheep and cows in the pastures and the “tractor eggs” where the farmers harvest their grass and wrap it in white plastic to cure leaving white “eggs” scattered all over the fields.

What a fantastic day. We absolutely love Norway and almost convince ourselves that we would love to live here – in fact one town will give you land to build your house on and $200,000 kroners if you move there – until we remember that this is their very short summer season and the winters are brutal.

Tomorrow we have a day at sea to rest up. Then we will have one more stop in Amsterdam before we head back to Harwich and the end of our cruise. The time has flown by and we aren’t looking forward to it ending yet we are looking forward to a couple more days in London and then the start of our land tour. I have already taken over 600 pictures and we still have more than 20 days to go in our travels. Will be taking pictures of our ship tomorrow in between the gym and a couple of naps.