Introduction to the fjords of Norway

I hadn’t realized how unstructured the coast of Norway is. It is peppered with islands, peninsulas, rocky outcroppings, inlets, seas, fjords, straits, mountains and hills. Most of it is covered in trees, but in many places it is just bare rock. There is nothing like a beach. The towns and villages are built along the waterfront where there is enough room to build a wharf. We saw isolated farm houses in the mountains above the water, but most of them were abandoned. There are roads, but much of the travel is done by boat. Sometimes our ship sails out in the North Sea, but most of the time it is sailing in the channels between islands. At some points it goes inland along a fjord and then must come out again. The coast was formed by melting glaciers. A fjord comes about when the glacier retreats leaving a steep U shaped valley which is filled with salt water. Some of them are extremely deep.

 

Now, I will tell you about some of the ports we have visited. The first one was Alesund, where we arrived the first morning after we set sail, on Saturday, August 31. We docked close to the city center. This town is known for its art nouveau architecture. That is because the town burned down almost completely in 1904. Architects were hired to rebuild the town and they chose the new building style of art nouveau. I am not quite sure what that means because the buildings were all kind of boxy and not too interesting. They did have some lovely decorative elements which you can see in the picture!

Alesund Norway, August 31, 2013

The main point of interest is that this town is at the entrance to the West Country fjords. If you look at the map, you will see a whole maze work of fjords. We spent the day sailing in and among these waterways, ending up at Geiranger, a town at the end of the fjord called Geiranger.

The town of Geiranger Norway

There was no place to dock, so a tender came out to take passengers off and on. Then the ship turned around on its thrusters and we proceeded back the way we had come, ending up at Alesund, nine hours later. This trip was a beautiful introduction to the fjords.

The last stop of the day was the town of Molde. It was 9:30 at night, but there was still enough light to see. We had a short walk along the waterfront to look at the modern hotel and the soccer stadium. Molde is known as the city of roses, and the home of an annual jazz festival. We only had half an hour at this stop.