Flossbolna
Sea days are just so relaxing!
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2006
Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View - Part 3
Our plan for this day was to go hiking. As a German you do not travel to Norway without going for a hike. Actually, Germans are the largest group of tourists in Norway. For whatever reason Germans love travelling to places that are as empty as possible and they have a lot of appreciation for the great outdoors. Not every single German of course, but it definitely is a trend here. If anyone read my California trip report, you might remember how I commented on that it seemed that in Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP and in Yosemite NP it seemed that we met more French and German people than Americans. The same reason why you can find Germans in the US National Parks is why they come to Norway in such large numbers.
And Katharina and I are typical Germans in that regard. We both love hiking. So, it really was something that we knew from the beginning that Geiranger would be the port where we would go hiking. We had done some research and hand found a map that was detailing several hikes in the area.
Geiranger Map Link
Our plan was to combine the A, B and D hike. This would first take us up to Vesterås Gård, the on to a view point called Vesteråsfjellet and then back and up to a waterfall called Storsetterfossen. Fossen is the Norwegian word for waterfall. As you see, hike A starts at the Geiranger Fjordsenter, which is kind of like a ranger station in a National Park in the US. The whole Geiranger Fjord region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and administrated similar to a National Park.
There was an official DCL excursion doing a very similar hike. At first I thought it might be worth it to go with that as it seemed to start from Vesterås Gård and therefore would have saved us the part of the hike that looked the least exciting. That was before prices were released. This is the description for the excursion:
“Hike To Storseterfossen Waterfall And Westerås (GE05)
Hike through the green meadows of Westerås to the thundering waters of the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Afterward, sit down at one of the area’s oldest cafes and enjoy a snack of traditional Norwegian waffles.
On this adventure you will...
Board a motorcoach for a brief, 15-minute scenic journey to Westerås.
Start the approximately 75-minute hike at Westerås Café, one of the oldest buildings in the area, with a beautiful view of Geirangerfjord. The hike begins with fairly steep terrain that leads to the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Note: Hiking shoes are required.
Arrive at the 100-foot waterfall and enjoy 15 minutes of free time to rest and explore on your own. Walk along the footpath that allows you to safely walk behind the cascading waters and enjoy the lush beauty of the Geirangerfjord.
Continue your hike by way of Westeråsfjellet Mountain for a spectacular view of the village of Geiranger, some 700 feet below, as you journey back to the Westerås Café.
Arrive back at the Westerås Café for an approximately 30-minute break that includes a serving of traditional Norwegian waffles with strawberry jam and sour cream along with some coffee, tea or water.
Head back to your motorcoach for a scenic drive back to Geiranger and the port.”
So, a 15 minute coach ride, a hiking guide and waffles with jam. Sounded good, even though we were thinking that we prefered hiking at our own speed. What do you think the price should be for this? Even for an overpriced cruise line shore excursion? It is 104 $! The Path of the Trolls excursion the previous day was 107 $! How can this be the same price as a whole day going places? Well, with that it was quite clear that we could hike up an additional 900 feet instead of paying 100 $.
Once we had packed all our things and had put on our hiking boots, we started out onto the sea walk.
Our first stop was the tourist information office where we looked whether they were selling any useful maps. The “map” above really is not what Katharina and I would consider a useful hiking map.
They had quite a lot of useful information available at the little tourist info though. Some general info:
All the activities available:
And they even recommended some hikes!!
So, our hike was recommended!! We were going to combine the green one with the first red one. And since we would not go all the way back, our calculation was that it would take us about 4.5 to 5 hours to do both of them together.
This was the view from the tourist information:
And then we started. Our first destination was the Fjordsenter. To get there one should follow the Waterfall Walk. That’s the one I pointed out in a previous picture. It was very well signposted from the tourist information:
We walked through the very cute little village:
A look back to the ship:
We passed a little supermarket:
So, if you would not want to bring food off the ship, you could pick up lunch here. However, in that area was also a little shop that was selling baked goods. We made a mental note to return there for a treat after our hike.
You follow the stream upwards, directly next to the waterfall. It is really pretty there with wonderful views. I tried to select the best pictures, but there are still plenty:
This sign was quite drastic:
We had already climbed up quite a bit:
We got to the Fjordsenter and I think we had a restroom break there. A young lady asked us if we had time to answer a survey about our plans on how to spend our time here in Geiranger. It was not long and they asked for an email address and sent us another survey once we were back home.
From the Fjordsenter we crossed the street in front of the Hotel Union and then took a little road next to the hotel leading away from the street. I think there were sign posts here as well and it was much easier to find than I had feared.
This seemed to be the bottom of the valley:
But soon enough we were climbing again.
We soon got into a forest and here was quite steeply uphill.
Some tiny waterfall:
While it was steep, it was definitely manageable. If you have ever done some hiking in mountainous areas, it was as one would expect when one is climbing up a mountain.
When we got out of the forest however, things became more tricky as it had been raining here for quite a bit over the last few days and the trail had become rather muddy and slippery.
We had definitely gained some hight:
But it was really pretty up here despite it being so grey and drizzly:
We came across a shelter for sheep:
And briefly after that we met the sheep who felt that the weather was not bad enough to seek shelter:
This is one of the sign posts that we followed and there were plenty:
Continued in Part 4
Our plan for this day was to go hiking. As a German you do not travel to Norway without going for a hike. Actually, Germans are the largest group of tourists in Norway. For whatever reason Germans love travelling to places that are as empty as possible and they have a lot of appreciation for the great outdoors. Not every single German of course, but it definitely is a trend here. If anyone read my California trip report, you might remember how I commented on that it seemed that in Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP and in Yosemite NP it seemed that we met more French and German people than Americans. The same reason why you can find Germans in the US National Parks is why they come to Norway in such large numbers.
And Katharina and I are typical Germans in that regard. We both love hiking. So, it really was something that we knew from the beginning that Geiranger would be the port where we would go hiking. We had done some research and hand found a map that was detailing several hikes in the area.
Geiranger Map Link
Our plan was to combine the A, B and D hike. This would first take us up to Vesterås Gård, the on to a view point called Vesteråsfjellet and then back and up to a waterfall called Storsetterfossen. Fossen is the Norwegian word for waterfall. As you see, hike A starts at the Geiranger Fjordsenter, which is kind of like a ranger station in a National Park in the US. The whole Geiranger Fjord region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and administrated similar to a National Park.
There was an official DCL excursion doing a very similar hike. At first I thought it might be worth it to go with that as it seemed to start from Vesterås Gård and therefore would have saved us the part of the hike that looked the least exciting. That was before prices were released. This is the description for the excursion:
“Hike To Storseterfossen Waterfall And Westerås (GE05)
Hike through the green meadows of Westerås to the thundering waters of the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Afterward, sit down at one of the area’s oldest cafes and enjoy a snack of traditional Norwegian waffles.
On this adventure you will...
Board a motorcoach for a brief, 15-minute scenic journey to Westerås.
Start the approximately 75-minute hike at Westerås Café, one of the oldest buildings in the area, with a beautiful view of Geirangerfjord. The hike begins with fairly steep terrain that leads to the Storseterfossen Waterfall. Note: Hiking shoes are required.
Arrive at the 100-foot waterfall and enjoy 15 minutes of free time to rest and explore on your own. Walk along the footpath that allows you to safely walk behind the cascading waters and enjoy the lush beauty of the Geirangerfjord.
Continue your hike by way of Westeråsfjellet Mountain for a spectacular view of the village of Geiranger, some 700 feet below, as you journey back to the Westerås Café.
Arrive back at the Westerås Café for an approximately 30-minute break that includes a serving of traditional Norwegian waffles with strawberry jam and sour cream along with some coffee, tea or water.
Head back to your motorcoach for a scenic drive back to Geiranger and the port.”
So, a 15 minute coach ride, a hiking guide and waffles with jam. Sounded good, even though we were thinking that we prefered hiking at our own speed. What do you think the price should be for this? Even for an overpriced cruise line shore excursion? It is 104 $! The Path of the Trolls excursion the previous day was 107 $! How can this be the same price as a whole day going places? Well, with that it was quite clear that we could hike up an additional 900 feet instead of paying 100 $.
Once we had packed all our things and had put on our hiking boots, we started out onto the sea walk.
Our first stop was the tourist information office where we looked whether they were selling any useful maps. The “map” above really is not what Katharina and I would consider a useful hiking map.
They had quite a lot of useful information available at the little tourist info though. Some general info:
All the activities available:
And they even recommended some hikes!!
So, our hike was recommended!! We were going to combine the green one with the first red one. And since we would not go all the way back, our calculation was that it would take us about 4.5 to 5 hours to do both of them together.
This was the view from the tourist information:
And then we started. Our first destination was the Fjordsenter. To get there one should follow the Waterfall Walk. That’s the one I pointed out in a previous picture. It was very well signposted from the tourist information:
We walked through the very cute little village:
A look back to the ship:
We passed a little supermarket:
So, if you would not want to bring food off the ship, you could pick up lunch here. However, in that area was also a little shop that was selling baked goods. We made a mental note to return there for a treat after our hike.
You follow the stream upwards, directly next to the waterfall. It is really pretty there with wonderful views. I tried to select the best pictures, but there are still plenty:
This sign was quite drastic:
We had already climbed up quite a bit:
We got to the Fjordsenter and I think we had a restroom break there. A young lady asked us if we had time to answer a survey about our plans on how to spend our time here in Geiranger. It was not long and they asked for an email address and sent us another survey once we were back home.
From the Fjordsenter we crossed the street in front of the Hotel Union and then took a little road next to the hotel leading away from the street. I think there were sign posts here as well and it was much easier to find than I had feared.
This seemed to be the bottom of the valley:
But soon enough we were climbing again.
We soon got into a forest and here was quite steeply uphill.
Some tiny waterfall:
While it was steep, it was definitely manageable. If you have ever done some hiking in mountainous areas, it was as one would expect when one is climbing up a mountain.
When we got out of the forest however, things became more tricky as it had been raining here for quite a bit over the last few days and the trail had become rather muddy and slippery.
We had definitely gained some hight:
But it was really pretty up here despite it being so grey and drizzly:
We came across a shelter for sheep:
And briefly after that we met the sheep who felt that the weather was not bad enough to seek shelter:
This is one of the sign posts that we followed and there were plenty:
Continued in Part 4
I think Katharina and I were debating exactly this while watching him, too!
But in our defense. Lunch was early and not very large as we were thinking there might be an opportunity for a stop to have some nice waffles or so. That never came, so by the time we were back on the ship we were starting to get quite a bit hungry. And you might have noticed that we at least skipped dessert that night!
