[ Geiranger port information   LotMS 2012 ]

Land of the Midnight Sun - Ocean Princess - 2012
Geiranger excursion

We took the Mount. Dalsnibba, Flydalsjuvet & Fjord Centre excursion.   This was mainly a coach ride with photo stops and a coffee break and an excellent slide show in the Fjord centre.   The coach ride is not for the nervous or those who suffer from vertigo, as there are a lot of hairpin bends and steep climbs.   We were offered the chance to wait at the cafe if we were nervous about the final ascent but no one accepted the offer.   Our guide offered us the advice that if we got a bit scared at the corners, we should shut our eyes like the driver did! (I think he was joking).   He told another joke about a priest and a layman who died at the same time, (non p.c. joke).

We had a photo stop on the way up where we could look back over the town below with the cruise ships in the fjord.   You can only see the upper part of the town, the lower part and a good part of the fjord are hidden by the high ground in the foreground, note the German ship hidden by the trees.   There were three of us in that day, Splendour of the Seas - Royal Caribbean and Mein Schiff - Celebrity, plus us.

We were lucky that the view from the top was not clouded out which can happen.   We could see the ship down in the fjord, but it was not sunny enough down there for good photos, as there was a lot of cloud about that day.   It did snow a bit while we were up there, but just as we left the clouds rolled in and our guide remarked on how lucky we were with the timing.

Our guide was very good, and being an inhabitant was able to tell us what it is like to live in an isolated community, with a doctor who visits once a week and a priest who visits once a fortnight. They do have an ambulance, but it is a journey of several hours to the nearest hospital, assuming the roads are open.   We stopped at the cafe for a coffee and Danish and had time for photography at the lakeside.   There was another stop on the way down at the hanging rock which is now fenced off as it is becoming dangerous.   We spotted that Splendour of the Seas had already left and was on her way out, no doubt wanting the best berth at the next port.   Our final stop was at the Fjord Centre just before the main town.   There was a slide show, a bit like an Imax with three screens.   The aim was to show Geiranger through the seasons and the quality of the photographs was very high.   After this there was time to browse the excellent gift/souvenir shop or get a cup of coffee.   The diagram on the right shows the elevation profile for the journey.


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