Trollstigen to Geiranger - Norway (Day 4)

While the visitor center felt like a winter wonderland, further drive beyond that led us to an unbelievable landscape with greenery in the foreground, streams of water along and tall snow covered mountains around. Norwegians had constructed roads to places that seemed like they just wanted to drive around for enjoyment as we could see no other purpose for it (okay, that’s an exaggeration!). 

At this point, it is really difficult to describe the roads going through the landscapes that kept changing from icy tundra to a regular snowy mountain. These roads have just been opened for the season and can really see the pure whiteness of the snow all along that was sometimes scary due to the wilderness we were driving through. But everywhere there were cabins/structures indicating that there is hardly any space in this region that is too far away from civilization.

 

The majority of the drive towards our next destination, Geiranger, was so enjoyable that we didn’t really feel tired of the lengthy drive.

We had to take another ferry on the way to cross a fjord and as we approached Geiranger, there is another deeply steep road with so many turnarounds that is seemed no less than the Trollstirgen road! 

Geiranger is a UNESCO protected town that is at the end of a fjord. The drive into the town is on a road along the edge of the fjord with ocean water on one side and steep mountain on the other side.

Huge cruise ships come to the very shores of these towns indicating how deep the water is in these areas. The very town of Geiranger was on the slopes of that mountain with waterfalls running through the center and reaching the fjord. 

The drive into the town is also on windy road climbing up the hill with the fjord behind you. There is a viewpoint on the top of the hill that gives a view of the waterfalls, the town of Geiranger with the fjord behind the town. The cruise ship anchored in the waters seemed like adding to the beauty.

Hole Hytter is the place we stayed and it is on what seemed like a small one lane road on a hillside. Actually, it can be a bit challenging if there is a vehicle coming on the opposite side. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any other vehicles. 

The hostess at the Hole Hytter is apparently an Italian tourist who got hooked to the beauty of this town and has started coming every year to tour Norway. The rest of the time, she was working there, leaving to Italy in winter! She mentioned that there are couple of trails and a small waterfall in the area. So, we decided to take a walk after checking in, as it had been a long drive all day and it felt good to be on feet.

As we walked on the trails, we spotted a lot of leeches on the wet ground. There were sheep everywhere grazing the summer grass to their hearts content. 

At the end of one of the trails was a teeny tiny little restaurant Westeras, that apparently had a reputation for its log house building dating from 1603 at the edge of the hill with views of gorgeous landscape all around and serving local food freshly prepared.