Our first stop in Norway was the tiny village of Eidfjord, population 962 per Wikipedia.  It did not disappoint.  Our frantic planning the day before told us that we wanted to visit a waterfall, a church built in 1309, and then to hike the blue and/or yellow route.  More details on this later.

So the ship docked bright and early at 7am, which means thetwinsontour had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to make it to breakfast when they opened.  Gotta beat the masses to breakfast so we don’t have to wait in line for our sweet potato waffles and omlettes.   Anyways, we made it off the boat right on time– just a few minutes after 7am.   The tourist information office is about 20 feet from the boat.  And then…we had to wait in line for them to open.   They didn’t open until about 7:30am, but at least the other people in line were friendly.   So the lady at the info desk told the 2 ladies in front of us that she was waiting for confirmation on the bus to the waterfall, but that they could take a taxi instead.  She said that the bus was, I think 350 krona/person and the taxi was 270 krona per person with 4 people.  And these ladies, said, but there are only 2 of us.  And since I was desperate to get to the waterfall after having wasted a precious half hour of shore time waiting for tourist info to open, I, of course, said we can join you.  So, off to the waterfall we went with Carol and Cindy from Virginia.  

For those of you wondering on the conversion rate, there’s about 10 Norwegian Krona to the dollar. So it cost $27 each for a round trip taxi ride to the waterfalls.   The only bad thing is that you get half an hour at the falls, which is not NEARLY enough time.  There’s lots of stairs (and lack of stairs) to get to the various viewing platforms.   And then you have to take a bunch of selfies, a video of the falls, and just bask in their glory.   We took about 35 minutes because we overestimated our ability to quickly climb the steep trail back to the parking lot in the rain. Our taxi driver was a little testy, but we got some great pictures.  All the taxis and busses only allow a half hour there because they have to get back for the next round of people.   I read this on tripadvisor, too. 

After that, we did find the church in Eidfjord built in the 1300s, which is pretty old.  It’s just a small little church.  You just have to be sure to shut the door so the birds don’t get in.  

Then, after a few missed turns (who else but thetwinsontour would get turned around in a village of 962, but we are good at getting lost!) we found our way to the yellow hiking trail.  Mind you, we didn’t have a map or know where the yellow trail went, or how long of a hike it was, but I had read a review on tripadvisor that mentioned the blue and yellow trails.   There were lots of people on the trail.  After a while, I noticed that all of the people were going in the same direction, and no one was coming in the opposite direction.   Finally. I asked someone if they knew where the trail went, and he said it’s a mile walk to the beach, and we were at about .8 miles.  He also mentioned some burial grounds further up the mountain. It seemed like we had been walking much longer than .8 miles, but it’s impossible to walk very far in Norway without stopping for photos.  Everything is so beautiful and picturesque.  It’s literally just amazing.   And there are mushrooms!

We did make it to a beach on a fresh water lake. The views were amazing. Interpret this as “lot’s of selfies were taken.” Then we had to decide– complete the loop or backtrack? By my calculations and map reading skills, it was only a smidgen further to complete the loop. And we hate backtracking!

So we walked for what seemed like miles (with our new friend Carol from the waterfall taxi in tow), but the trail did lead us to the ancient Viking  burial grounds.  You wouldn’t really know that it was something important if it wasn’t roped off with a sign in front of it.   The sign said that there are probably hundreds in the area, but burial mound styles changed over the years, so some are bigger than others.  Really, for thetwinsontour, the exciting part was the horses grazing on the luscious green grass with the hills and gently rolling fog in the background. Worth the whole treacherous hike on the nice and wide and beautifully paved path.

Later we read that the hike was supposed to take 75-90 minutes.  We did not time ourselves, but needless to say thetwinsontour took more than 90 minutes to complete the trail.  Besides, Norwegians are pretty tall, so they have longer legs and walk faster. 

To close out a perfect day in Eidfjord, we had a Norwegian ice cream!  It’s ice cream, in Norway.  We got a soft serve in a cup (cones are too messy).  This may be the most delicious soft serve thetwinsontour have ever eaten!  Somehow, it tasted like if Dairy Queen and Costco creamy, fluffy cake icing had a baby, it would be soft serve ice cream in Norway.   So delicious! 

All aboard time was 2:30 today, so it was a short but magical day in Norway.  Of course, thetwnsontour took advantage of every second!

The cruise ship did a slow scenic cruise out of Eidfjord so that we could again bask in the glory of the Norwegian Fjords from our balcony and then a frantic trip up to the deck so that we could see the largest suspension bridge in Norway (and maybe beyond?).  I do not have enough adjectives to describe the grandeur of the fjords, so I will end for now.

Love,

thetwinsontour