Olden, Loen, and Beautiful Fjords

This morning, we woke up around 5am to watch a portion of our sail in to Nordfjord and on to Olden. It was already very bright at 5am, as it never really got dark last night. That is taking a bit of getting used to. The fjords were sheer cliffs, snow capped mountains, and gorgeous waterfalls. Even with some low clouds and a bit of drizzle, it was beautiful to witness.

We gave the weather a bit of time to clear and then headed to Loen by a shuttle to the Loen Skylift, a gondola lift that took us up 1011 meters to a viewpoint from which many hikes and other activities start. I was super excited about this until I saw how steep the incline was. Of course this made Austin even more excited.

Nevertheless, we did go up and it was totally worth it. They had beautiful viewing platforms all around to see great distances. We found lots of snow, which made my little Texan happy. After a bit, dad and I went inside the restaurant to warm viewpoints surrounded by huge windows and warm coffee while Austin hiked to the top of the mountain and played in the snow.

Once back to the port, Austin and I went for a walk around the town of Olden. The Scandinavians love their licorice, and we found some licorice tic tacs which we look forward to trying. We also saw the old church, some beautiful scenery, an even a cat that let us pet her.

Once back at the ship, we watched sail away from Good Spirits bar. It is the best coffee on the ship, so Austin and dad are frequent flyers there. I might have had a martini myself.

Tonight will be our last "sunset" for the next 5 days, though it hasn't gotten truly dark for a couple of days now. Tomorrow is a sea day, so we will have some time to relax until we get to Tromso Saturday.