Trollstigen to Geirangerfjord

On Tuesday morning, we woke up early (still jet lagged) and drove down the other side of Trollstigen to Geirangerfjord.

But we didn't make it down to Geiranger before the cruise ship came into port and 10,000 people overwhelmed the tiny town.  

We did get on a ferry from Geiranger to Hellesylt, and we saw the fjord from a ferry boat.

Trollstigen

Mind you, we are still talking on Monday - it is daylight here the entire time and it only gets slightly darker around midnight to 3-4 am.  So, at 8:00 pm, we decided that we could drive up Trollstigen - the troll road that switchbacks up the mountain.  Here is a view at the bottom of the road.

And here is a view from near the top.

The clouds then rolled in again at the top and spent the night in the car at the top of Trollstigen.

Hike above Andalsnes

At Andalsnes, we had lunch and made the decision to hike the Romsdalseggen trail up to the Rampestreken, which is 580 m above sea level.  While it wasn't raining, we did not reach the overlook before the clouds rolled in.  So we couldn't see anything.

But, then on the way down, this was our view...

And, then we started on our way to Trollstigen - the troll road.

Atlantic Ocean Road to Trollstigen

We are in Bergen today (and have internet access), but here is what we have been doing the last few days.  

We left Alesund on Monday morning & headed up the coast toward & onto the Atlantic Ocean highway.  It was pretty cool, but it was raining most of the day.  Here is a video of it.

And we went onto Andalsnes...

More on Aalesund

The town of Aalesund was completely destroyed by fire in 1904.  It was entirely rebuilt between 1904-1907 in the Art Nouveau style. 

Early morning run in Aalesund

Ugh.  We woke up at 3:30 am here (curse the jet lag and the fact that it never got dark) and could not return to sleep, so we got up and went for a run up to the Fjellstua to the Kniven viewpoint.  We were literally cheered (or possibly jeered) by the locals who were all leaving the bars at about 4:00 am.  What we didn't know is that it was the day of Aalesund's summer solstice celebration and they set afire a huge tower of pallets (it is the world's largest bonfire - literally, look it up)... so they were all celebrating.

Instead of watching the world's largest bonfire, we ran (and walked) up 418 steps to the viewpoint. Here is the view, with the smoke rising from the bonfire.

In Aalesund

We arrived in Aalesund yesterday about 4:30 pm local time.  We took Flybussen (express bus) to the town center, checked into the hotel, and wandered around town center for a bit before calling it a night.  Here is the view from our hotel room.

We are checked in...

Our flight leaves for Alesund, Norway tomorrow.  We are checked in for the flight, and the dog is not sure what is going on:)