We had one more day at sea before arriving in Norway. The seas had calmed down a bit, so Karl was able to move about the ship. We slept in (until about 8 AM), had breakfast in the Lido and then I worked on my blog and Karl read for most of the rest of the morning. We had lunch with the Cruise Specialists (our travel agent) cruise hosts, Henk and Lucia in the dining room. We really weren't very hungry, so Karl had a sandwich and I had soup and an appetizer for lunch. Cruise Specialists provided wine or beer or soft drinks (I had red wine). Henk and Lucia are both from the Netherlands, but live in California now. They have been hosting cruises, mostly grand or world cruises, for Cruise Specialists about 15 years, I think. The hosted cruises are pretty nice -- they have cocktail parties, host exclusive shore excursions, gave us a couple bottles of wine and a tote bag AND Henk and Lucia are onboard to help with any issues or answer questions. It was nice to meet them.

We left lunch a bit early to go to the geologist's talk about fracking . She is a good speaker and I like hearing about the science. We lost an hour at noon so dinner time in the dining room came way too soon -- and it was a formal night and Karl just hates to dress up. So we stayed in our casual clothes and had dinner in the Lido. Surprisingly, they had lobster and filet mignon, so we got the "formal" dinner without dressing up. The show was Stephen Clark, an excellent flute player whom we have seen on other cruises. He plays a variety of music and we really enjoyed the show.

We were to lose another hour overnight before we arrived in Norway, so we tried to go to sleep at 11:00, which was actually midnight. With the time change we both had trouble getting to sleep. We got up at 7:30 AM just as we were passing the "Suitor" (or "Bachelor") waterfall which is located directly across from the famous Seven Sisters waterfall in Geiranger fjord.

I had bought tickets online before we left home for the Geiranger Fjordservice RIB/Mountain Combo tour beginning at 12:30 PM . The tour included both the Mountain Highlight Bus tour to Mt. Dalsnibba and a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) Highlight Tour. With the relatively late start for the tour, we had lots of time for breakfast and tendering in to Geiranger. I even had enough time in Geiranger to find the Norwegian flag my son wanted before the tour started. The weather in Geiranger was rainy and about 50 degrees, with lots of clouds. The fog kept coming and going in the mountains around the fjord, so we weren't sure how good the view would be from the Flydalsjuvet and the Mt. Dalsnibba viewpoints. When we were here last June, the view from Flydalsjuvet was okay, but you could not see 10 feet in front of you at Mt. Dalsnibba because it was snowing like mad! We were taking this bus tour to hopefully see the view this time.

When we got on the bus, it was still drizzling and it continued as we traveled up the mountain. There was a recorded narration along the way that gave us some history as well as explaining what we were seeing . Geiranger and Geiranger fjord are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and are considered to be one of the most scenic destinations in the world. The Seven Sisters waterfall is cited as a natural wonder of Norway. Geiranger has only 230 year-round residents, but hosts up to 600,000 tourists per year. Most of those tourists come via cruise ship and at times there are up to 5 cruise ships anchored in the harbor. In addition, there are overnight accommodations in Geiranger for 2,500 people. Ferries arrive several times each day as well. Cruise ship travel to Geiranger began with the arrival of the first ship in 1869. People then, as now, traveled up to viewpoints to see the beautiful scenery, but travel was by horse and carriage rather than by bus. When we arrived at Flydalsjuvet, it was still kind of rainy, but you could see the town and the fjord below. Flydalsjuvet is best known as the ideal spot to take pictures of the cruise ships. It was just a.short stop there and then we were on our way to Mount Dalsnibba which, at 4,600 feet is one of the highest peaks you can reach by vehicle in Norway and, if it is clear, you can see across most of the World Heritage area with the fjord in the distance . Although we had traveled this road before (last year when we cruised in Norway we had taken a bus tour from Helleslyt to Geiranger), we were much more impressed this time with the waterfalls and mountain scenery. What we think made the difference was the viewpoint -- the views were better going UP the mountain roads than DOWN them. As we climbed higher and higher, we saw more and more snow and fewer and fewer trees. Eventually, we were above the tree line -- and it had stopped raining. :) When we got to the viewpoint, it wasn't clear, but it wasn't raining and we could see much more than we saw last year.

The weather continued to improve as we traveled back down the mountain. There were some breaks in the clouds, so we even saw a bit of the sun. We were happy about the improving conditions because the next part of our tour was the RIB ride on the fjord. Our group for the 3:00 PM tour met at the Visitors Center. We were led to a building where we changed into waterproof suits and were given life vests . I looked like a spaceman in mine! Then we were led to where the boat was docked. We were lucky that there were only 9 of us in the 12 passenger boat, so Karl and I had a row of seats to ourselves. After getting instructions from our captain, Erika, we were off! The boat was fast, but very smooth. Along the way we made several stops: at the Seven Sisters waterfall, at the Suitor or Bachelor waterfall (across from the Seven Sisters), at the base of a high plateau where a trail led to the farm at the top (the farm was established there as a way for the family to escape the plague). Being right at the base of the waterfalls was amazing -- best was the Suitor because of the volume of water.

We got back to the ship before 4:00 PM, so had dinner in the dining room for the first time in a while. The ship stayed in port until 11:00 PM so they brought in the Hellesylt
Folklore Group, a group of young people whose goal is to insure the continuation of Norwegian Culture. The show was very good -- they wore traditional costumes and did several traditional dances. After the folklore show was the ship's show, a repeat performance of Stephen Clark, the flute player, and Kennedy, the mind reader. Both of them were as good as they were the first time we saw them, so we enjoyed the show. We needed to get an early start the next day, so we called it a night after the show.