Norwegian fjords cruise - Olden

On the fjords cruise, the next port after Stavanger was Olden. I had passed through the town on the 2018 coach tour, when we spent the night in the nearby town of Loen. 

Early morning, looking back as we sailed up Innvikfjorden, which is an upstream arm of  Nordfjord. Nordfjorden is the sixth longest fjord in Norway, 106 km long and 565 m deep at the mouth. I was excited to see the snow.

The town of Loen

Approaching Olden and the sun came out -

The new cruise ships can turn around on their own axis, so it was no problem for our monster ship to turn at the end of the fjord. The population of Olden is approximately 500; our ship was carrying 3650 passengers plus well over 1000 crew. In May 2022 cruise ships will be there 15 times. Hopefully the locals will benefit from the income. There is a new jetty close to the town, opened in 2018. The tour buses were waiting for the first lot of passengers.

Some trolls to welcome us

The village is surrounded by farms.

After lunch, I took the open top glacier bus which goes to a view point, from where we could look towards the Briksdal glacier, which is one of the many ‘tongues’ of the Jostedalsbreen. The  Jostedalsbreen is the largest glacier on mainland Europe - part of it can be seen on the above map, shown as the white areas. In 2018 I had visited the Glacier Museum and saw the Boyabreen, Boya Glacier, at the south end of the glacier. 

On the bus we stopped at a river, the water comes from the glacier, flows through Oldevatnet lake and into the fjord at Olden. 

The waterfalls coming off the mountains were still frozen

The lake looking towards the glacier -

Looking back at the glacier from the ship -

When it was time to leave, we had a lovely farewell from the locals - typical "sailing" songs were played at full volume from the pub at the jetty and many people were waving flags from their houses. I'm surprised they still have the enthusiasm to do this with so many cruise ships calling each month. Onboard many passengers were waving Union Jacks and the Welsh flags from their balconies.   -

Sailing out of the fjord

A salmon farm, and the sun is setting as we apporach the open sea

Norwegian fjords cruise - Stavanger

Although I have seen quite a lot of the fjords in Norway on land tours, in April 2022 I did a cruise to the fjords. It was a beautiful time of year as there was still snow on the mountains and the sun was shining and the sky was blue most of the time. However, as expected, it was rather cold, especially when there was a wind blowing through the valleys.

The first port was Stavanger, which was new to me. Stavanger is in southwest Norway and is best known for the oil industry. It is the "gateway" to the fjords. The town seemed quite small and surrounded by water and bridges. 

Normally on cruises I like to do independent tours rather than take the more expensive ship's excursions. So as soon as we landed, I hurried along the jetty to catch the tour boat to the Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock. It was a very scenic tour. On the way out we went in between various islands. We saw lots of holiday homes, salmon farms, and an old mussel farm.

This hill near Forsand resembles a sleeping elephant -

We went under the Lysefjord bridge and into Lysefjord. This suspension bridge is about 50 m above sea level and apparently won awards as it was constructed with minimal damage to the environment.

The entrance to Lysefjord. This fjord is 42 km long and 500 m deep. The name means light fjord, and is said to be derived from the lightly coloured granite rocks. 

In places we were able to sail very close to the cliffs. Pulled up to Fantehala or Vagabonds Cave

At one place there were lots of ducks, I think they are the common eider

Next was the highlight, Pulpit Rock, Preikestolen. It looks so small from the water, 604 m high. I couldn't see anyone dangling their legs over the edge!

A waterfall near Pulpit rock

We wento the Hengjanefossen, a waterfall (400 m) -

From here we made our way back to Stavanger. After a quick lunch, I went to  explore the town. Firstly I went to Gamle Stavanger, the old quarter with some 200 white wooden houses, built in the 18th to early 19th century. The the Norwegian Canning Museum is here, but it was closed, likewise the Petroleum Museum across the water. 

Part of the Maritime Museum -

Across the dock is a row of colourful buildings with more restored white buildings behind -

Valberg Tower was constructed from 1850 to 1853 and was the former observation tower of Stavanger

The cathedral was completely covered for restoration work. And as mentioned, all the museums were closed despite there being 2 cruise ships in town.

After Stavanger, our next port of call was Olden.