Norway - The Fjords

Thursday, May 21, 2015
Geiranger, Møre og Romsdal, Norway
We still use airBnB but for ethical reasons we only stay in places where the host is present -- otherwise you are depleting the supply of rental housing.  There are some ambiguous cases where the room on offer is semi-independent.  I figure if you are using the same fridge as the host, it's all right.  Anyway it is much more interesting to have a chance to talk to a local person.  Conversations we had in Stockholm, Oslo, Stavanger, Kristiansand, and Aalborg were memorable.  Best of all was in Copenhagen, where our host gave us loads of advice for our visit, got us into Tivoli using his pass, and explained the local housing situation and the political system. (I am a big proponent of proportional representation, which is in effect in almost every democratic country except Canada, the US, and the UK).
We also stayed in hotels at times.  Norway was less expensive than we had assumed based on popular warnings, as was the trip in general.  We were able to average around CAD $100 per night.  To be sure, Frances works hard at this.
We took the bus from Bergen, which crossed four fjords by ferry, to the lovely town of Alesund.  It probably would have been even prettier if the sun had come out.  Cod is a specialty, but it was several times as expensive as the very good cod dishes we had had in Spain, so we ate Chinese food instead.  As we made our way south during the next few days, we used a combination of local buses and ferries, and finally the short steep train from Flam to Myrdal, and the main route train back to Bergen.  All the buses and ferries accept credit cards, even the school buses that double as passenger service.
Geiranger is a famous spot that does not disappoint.  And here you can appreciate the fact that cruise ships are not only as necessary as prisons, but serve somewhat the same purpose, by physically concentrating people who could make life a nuisance if left free.  At times there were three or four cruise ships anchored at the end of the fjord, and the dock area was teeming with tourists, there must have been thousands of them (a tour guide in front of us at the snack counter ordered 47 hamburgers).  But they didn't roam very far, even though they were not shackled together.  (Viewed from our chalet up the slope, you could easily imagine they were).  When we booked, the longish walk up the hill sounded troublesome, but that is where you want to be.  Hardly any of the cruise people can survive at that altitude, that's where the views are, and the trails are nearly empty. This was at the end of May.

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