Day 2

Hurtigruten- Day 2

Our first night's sleep was surprisingly very comfortable with no real outside noise. The ship calls into various ports throughout the night loading and off loading cargo, people, vehicles etc with 2 big ramps that electronically get lowered at every port.

We had a scheduled stop into Alesund from 8.45 to 9.30am which allowed us enough time to get off the ship and have a quick walk around the town. Quick it was as nothing was open at that time of morning... 10am seems to be the usual opening time in this part of the world! We did find a supermarket open and we managed to top up our Coke supplies. It was drizzling rain which didn't help!

At 9.30am we had a talk by the "Expedition" team on the various excursions on offer up to Kirkenes which is the halfway mark and turning point. We have already ear marked some tours that we think we might like to do.

We had an early lunch as our meeting time is 1.30pm to go on our excursion to Geiranger and the Trollstigen Road.

This tour required us to transfer to another boat to be taken into land at Geiranger where we transferred to a bus to experience the world famous views of the Geirangerfjord and the eleven hairpin bends of the Trollstigen mountain pass. We then drove onwards to the town of Molde where we had dinner before reboarding the ship.

This was a long day as we didn't get back to the ship until after 9.30pm.

Thankfully we were nearing the end of the outdoor activities when the rain came but it didn't help for taking photos from the bus! They will have to stay in my memory....

Day 3 should be a rest day as no external excursions are booked so we can take our time.

Arriving into wet Alesund

The waterfront area

Lots of fishing boats

The harbour

The very quiet and wet main street

I found a troll! and the obligatory souvenir shop....

Our ship and one of the ramps

Cruising toward Geiranger from the Expedition lounge at the front of the ship

Pancakes served at the back on deck 7

Beautiful peaceful scenery cruising through the fjord

Lunch... buffet and open seating. The food on this ship is AMAZING!!!!

We found other ships in Geiranger.... waiting for our bus which had been delayed due to another tourist bus getting stuck on one of the hairpin corners!

A view point of the Geirangerfjord

A very cold waterfall that the guy with the towel stripped off and had a compete shower!

A raging river

The ramp to the viewing area

Walking to the viewpoint for the Trollstigen Pass

A view of the Trollstigen Pass and hairpin bends

The counter levered viewing platform.... it was about here that it started to rain! Made going down the Pass a bit interesting but not so good for any more pics and a wet walk back to the bus!