Ålesund, Norway: Part 3 - Day 3: Geirangerfjord cruise

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 3

5/7 Day 3: Geirangerfjord cruise

Costs

(1) Ticket for Geirangerfjord cruise - NOK1860 

(2) Ticket for Geiranger visitor center - NOK135 (cheaper by NOK20 when bought together with the cruise ticket)

 

Food

(1) Coffee on the ferry NOK30 (SEK29,12)

(2) Lunch from Fiskekaka - Fish cake NOK60 per piece x 2 = NOK120 (SEK119,46), Bacaluo NOK120 (SEK119,46)

(3) Ice-cream 1 scoop NOK40 (SEK38,82)

(4) Dinner from Jaf - Fish burger NOK115 (SEK111,60)

The Story

05072025 - Today, we go on a ferry cruise to Geirangerfjord, the reason for our trip. It is a whole day activity. The ferry leaves at 8.30am and reaches Geiranger town at 11.30am. We have 3 hours to check out the area. Then, we get back on the ferry again at 2.30pm and reach Ålesund at 5.30pm. During our discussions about the trip, we talked about staying in Geiranger and renting a car from this town but car rental and accommodation options were limited hence expensive. So, we agreed on Ålesund being our base. Geiranger is a lovely place for hiking. We could have stayed a night here to hike, if we had an extra day. 

As we were unable to have breakfast at the accommodation, we were given packed breakfast. Initially, we thought we had to book the packed lunch as we will miss breakfast but the staff told us that this is our packed breakfast so we did not need to pay. They offer packed lunch for NOK60. 

We drove to Ålesund town and parked at the open parking lot, the same place we parked on the first day, at Parkgata 18B. It is free today as it is a weekend! We had our packed breakfast in the car. We received four slices of bread, butter, jam, some slices of cheese and ham. I wished we got egg. 

From the parking lot, it was a 15-minute walk to the harbour. We were definitely not the first ones. Look at the weather! Blue skies and sunny! The ferry departed exactly at 8.30am.

The ferry is very clean. Toilets are cleans too. There were 3 toilets, where 1 of them is for handicap. We sat on the upper deck during the entire journey since the weather was good. Initially, many people sat at the upper deck, and when the view got boring as it was the same, and it got cold too due to the wind, many people shifted downstairs.

Many people took chairs and booked their spot on the upper deck. But this lasted for the first 30 minutes and soon everyone was moving around.

We got coffee. It was good coffee. No complains.

The initial views reminded me of the archipelago in Sweden. However, the houses here look very modern and huge. I prefer the yellow and furu-red cottages in Sweden.

45 minutes later, we caught sight of the mountains. The wind was blowing so hard. I fastened my cap to my head.

We ate our strawberries that we got from Kiwi grocery store yesterday. Norwegian strawberries. Sweet and juicy. I prefer them than Swedish strawberries.

There are many lone houses on these mountains. I am impressed by how the people live here. The staff on the boat explained to us that nowadays, these lone houses are only occupied during summer. Most houses on the mountains are abandoned too. I don't think I can survive here during the long summer. I mean, I will run out of provisions and I need to have a boat to buy groceries. That is really tough. Yes, being close to nature is great but one has to be self-sufficient to live in isolated places. 

This is a town that produces frozen pizza. Stranda. Fascinating how pizza is an unofficial national dish in Norway. The brand produced here is Grandiosa pizza. 

At 10.45am, we entered into Sunnylvsfjorden where the mountains get larger and the river gets narrow, but still wide enough for several ferries to pass through.

The view in the photo looks almost fake. 

We passed by The Seven Sisters waterfall. There were seven waterfalls, hence the name.

And opposite is is the Bridal Veil waterfall. The ferry stopped here for a while for photo sessions. I found out that another ferry cruise, Cruise Service, stops at this waterfall to collet the water and let the passengers drink it. I found that out as that ferry passed us and I was curious on its cruise package. Oh well. I had the experience of drinking from the waterfall during my Milford Sound fjordcruise in New Zealand in 2012 and I really enjoyed it.

That ferry, Cruise Service.

We reached Geiranger town at 11.45am. There were signs for hikes and we headed towards the Visitor Center as we had tickets.

Along the way, we stopped at a fish shop, Fiskekaka, that sells fish cake and bacalao. It is a recommended place so I got a fish cake and we shared bacalao. The bacalao that we had were mashed potatoes and fish together but somehow, articles online are describing bacalao as salted cod stew. I am confused. Anyway, both dishes were good. Probably because I was hungry.

We walked towards the Visitor Center and was greeted by strong-rushing waterfalls along the way! The way to the Visitor Center is by going up steel stairs, unfortunately. I saw vehicles at the Visitor Center, though, so I suspect that there is a main road that can bring one to the Visitor Center and see the waterfall from the top.

The UNESCO sign!

I wonder if the waterfall rushing down comes from the waterfall in the moutains in the photo below. So cool if this waterfall from the mountain flows down to the fjord.

A museum in the Visitor Center.

We finished the museum in time to get back to the ferry. It is really a beautiful view from the end of the fjord, standing in Geiranger town.

While waiting to board the ferry, I got myself an ice-cream. 

Back on the ferry! It was the same route back. We approached The Seven Sisters waterfall again.

For dinner, we went back to Jaf again and I had fish burger. Yesterday, I had a piece of fish. Take away this time too although there is no rain but there were so many seagulls swooping by and landed on tables and the floor, trying to peck at the leftovers. One customer even fed a seagull. Stupid. More seagulls came after that.