Eidfjord, Norway

             Wednesday, 27 Jun 2018 – Today our ship docked at Eidfjord, Norway, not originally on the ship’s itinerary.  Because our ship sailed southward to avoid a storm, our at-sea days and stops had totally changed.

          At breakfast, we shared a table with Jim & Stephanie of North Carolina (the very far western part of the state).  They have done a lot of river cruises and highly recommended Vantage, which we hadn’t heard of previously.

          The Prinsendam was nestled against the dock right beside the village center of Eidfjord – which is a great advantage held by a small ship.  When a schedule was distributed two days earlier for excursions in Eidfjord, Sally told Jesse immediately that she was not interested in taking another trip. Leknes was the last one for which we had a paid for a ship excursion and, after all, it is always possible to simply walk around in a village.  When she finally did look at the two excursions offered, they both listed departure times of 8:30 AM.  An early morning excursion must be exceedingly enticing in order for Sally to choose it.  (After all, this is a vacation!)

          The main sight in this area (and the destination of ship excursions) is the Vøringsfossen Waterfall, which cascades almost 600 feet.  Norway’s largest national park is nearby.  Also, the Sysen Dam, the main reservoir for the Sima Power Station, is one of Norway’s largest embankment dams, having a 260-foot high stone wall.

Statkraft Display

          For about an hour we walked around the central part of village, visiting a few souvenir shops and taking photos of the picturesque scenery.  Encircling the village are mountains with small patches of snow still visible.  Today was a mostly sunny day (69 degrees when the sun shone), though it quickly became somewhat brisk if the sun went behind clouds and the breeze picked up.

          We walked by the point for boarding a “Trolltrain” (like the “street train” in Tromsø), but the downtown area in Eidfyord is extremely small and didn’t seem (to Sally) to offer a lot to see.  However, we read a sign by the Trolltrain sales booth that indicates that the Trolltrain would pass by western Norway’s largest ancient burial grounds from the Viking- and Iron-Ages, with 350 graves dating to 400-1000 AD.  Now, Sally thought the burial grounds might have been interesting to see! 

          At about 1:00 PM we went to the Lido Market for lunch, during which, we discussed possibly walking to the ancient cemetery (if we could find it); however, we spent so much time talking with our next door neighbor, Charlie, from North Carolina, that it was after 2:00 PM by the time we left the buffet.  Rather than take a chance of missing the ship’s 3:30 PM all-aboard time, we decided to forgo the cemetery visit.  

Sally had suspected that it might not be worth a trip back to the burial ground, which is why she hesitated – and her suspicions were verified later by comments found on Tripadvisor.com.  One person wrote, “nice walk” but the mounds were not marked, which made it difficult to appreciate the historical value; and another said, “not much to see” and that it was a disappointment because it was just a “clump of stones” with no information supplied.  So, Sally won’t plan a trip back to Eidfjord to visit the graveyard!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the cabin working on chosen projects.  Also, Jesse did a little laundry and went to daily Mass at 5:00 PM.  (Mass might be at a different time and place every day; Fr. Paul says he reads the time and place in the morning’s announcements just like everyone else.)

After setting sail, the captain told us that he planned to take us on a tour to see some beautiful scenery.  Therefore, we didn’t rush off to dinner, instead we watched the scenery out of our stateroom window until 6:30 PM.  At one point the captain stopped the ship and rotated it a few times, so all of the passengers could get a good view of the scenery.  Someone talked about the cherry orchards (Norwegian fresh cherries are in the markets now).  We could see lines of fruit trees seemingly coming down almost to the water in very neat, straight lines.  During the ship’s stop, apparently someone came aboard with some Norwegian cider; at one meeting room onboard, people were given samples of the cider to drink.  (We didn’t hear all of the details, but heard about the cider samples later while waiting for the elevator to take us to dinner.) 

After dinner, we danced for a few minutes before returning to our cabin to watch more picturesque scenery from our window.

Of all the cruises we’ve taken, this captain (Captain Dag Dvergastein) seems the most personable, which is often apparent in his announcements with little bits of off-the-cuff humor here and there.  Sometimes, he has ended the day with a poem or spiritual thought over the loud speaker, and he once referred to himself as our “driver!