Hi all. Back again with some more of our trip. Don't forget to double click the photos for a better view.

From Andalsnes, we headed to Alesund, a larger town that was built across several islands. We walked up to a look-out and here are some photos of Alesund.

After Alesund, we retraced our steps somewhat and caught a vehicle ferry from Linge to Eidsdal and onwards to Geiranger on the Geirangerfjorden. The drive to Geiranger is superb as is the location of Geiranger at the head of the fjord surrounded by towering mountains. It is a stop-off for the large cruise ships that ply the fjords of Norway. And why not. It is a beautiful location for a cruise. Approaching Geiranger from the north, the highway goes through a famous part that is called Dalsnibba.

View from the top before descent to Geiranger via Dalsnibba

The drive towards Dalsnibba before the descent

                                             
                                                Our first glimpse of Geirangerfjorden

Janeve and I took a cruise on the Geirangerfjorden but the guys decided to forego the pleasure. The caravan park that we stayed at was right on the water and we were able to watch the cruise ships dock and all the associated activities. Some of the ships carry over 2000 passengers and you can imagine what the small town is like after all the passengers have disembarked and headed in for some sight-seeing. There were 2 smaller cruise ships and 1 big one docked while we were there.

Geiranger in the bottom of the photo with the mountains behind that we have to cross to continue our holiday

                                       The waterfall that roars through the centre of Geiranger

                          This is the most common roofing in Norway. Yes! That's right! Grass!

              We walked up the mountainside to a waterfall and met some friends along the way.

       This is the goal for our walk. There are a couple of people about to walk behind the falls.

                                                        Just about to walk behind the falls.

                                         View from the walk of the mountains above Geiranger

                                    The 3 cruise ships with the big one on the right heading out.

After a couple of nights here it is on the road again heading for Briksdal Glacier in the Jostedalsbreen National Park. See you then with some more piccies.

Our little motorhome is going great and feels like home. I was concerned that it would be too small but not so. Paul and Janeve have an identical one so it is twins on the road every day.  For those that are following the itinerary, don't bother. We have reversed the order and the finish became our start. We were to have caught a ferry from Hirtshals at the northern tip of Denmark to Kristiansand in Norway for the start of the Norwegian part of the trip.We could not pre-book the ferry as we didn't have the rego number for the motorhomes. In the 2 weeks leading up to our expected departure with the ferry, the price had gone up from about Euros240 to Euros440. Not a chance!! We will catch the ferry back instead and  can get the journey at the moment for Euros 125. What a con!! Despite this, there is no getting around the fact that this is a truly spectacular country. Awesome views around every corner, waterfalls and raging torrents as plentiful as ours are scarce and  fjords that are nothing short of amazing. I am wondering if we will end up with scenic overload. Our starting point, Kristiansund, is in the north-west and our first amazing sight was the Atlantic road. This road south from Kristiansund has been built in the ocean and crosses from one small rocky out-crop to another, some of which are only metres long. In bad weather the waves have been known to almost crash over the road, but alas, for us, an uneventful crossing. Our next stop was Andalsnes and a campground located in the most picture-perfect location on the Romsdalsfjorden with the fjord on one side and towering mountains on the other 3.                                         View from the campground  This is also the area where the Trolls  can be found?? hence the names of the 2 most well-known attractions in Andalsnes, The Trollvegen wall (the tallest vertical cliff face in Europe) and the Trollstigen Road with it's 11 hair-pin bends twisting it's way up 850 metres. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good on the day we drove down the valley to see the Trollvegen wall but we were luckier with the Trollstigen Road. There was some cloud around at the start of the drive but we managed to get some good views from the top before the weather quickly detereorated and clouds obscured the whole road. Trollvegen clouded in. Was once very popular for base jumping but this was banned in 1986 because of the number of deaths. Now used for climbing. We have to cross that wall of mountain in the background and that is Trollstigen                                    Janeve at the look-out at the top                 Looking down on Trollstigen from the look-out before the clouds rolled in.      View from the top. The clouded area in the centre is the top of Trollstigen Once we were at the top and continued on a short way, the views were awesome. A beautiful valley surrounded by snow and ice-scattered mountains.   I look at the mountains here and I can't help but compare them to those of Switzerland. But what I find so hard to get my head around is that the ones in Switzerland are 4000 metres high and here they are similar with snow and ice at only 1000 metres. This is because Norway is so much further north and much colder (and probably wetter). Everything is going great and I am feeling much better than when we started. Even have done a few short easy walks. Internet is still iffy and when available, it is usually only for 1 hour. Cheers for now and will blog again soon.

Well what a start to the holiday!! Our flight was due to depart at 2.45pm on Monday and at 8.00am that morning I was at the doctors with the doctor on the phone to a Cardiologist. Not feeling good at all and I knew that I should really have cancelled the trip. I was finally given approval by the cardiologist to go, loaded up with medication and strict instructions that any exercise or activities were strictly forbidden. So it is a day by day thing at the moment to see if I finish the trip.

We are doing our trip with friends Paul and Janeve. When we originally decided to do the trip together, it was agreed that we would do our own thing regarding flights. Ray prefers the quickest route and Paul prefers the cheapest. Paul and Janeve decided to fly with Air Asia and booked well in advance. However, about 4 months out, Air Asia cancelled one of the flights as they are no longer doing that route. They had to reschedule with another airline (Emirates) who also cancelled on them as they discovered when they arrived in Singapore. They were put on another flight and overall, they left home 18 hours before us and arrived in Munich 8 hours after us. We met at a hotel in Munich and when they arrived they were completely stuffed. 'Never again are we doing cheap flights' said Janeve when we met in Munich. We had an enjoyable afternoon looking around the small town where we were staying but the enjoyment didn't last long. As we were getting ready to go down to dinner, there was a knock on our door. It was Janeve in a panic. She had lost their passports. She was about to make sure they were put away safely, couldn't find them and couldn't remember where she had them last. Was it at the airport or on the train? If at the airport, where? The hotel receptionist made some phone calls and left messages but no-one had them. We could not go anywhere without them. We could not even pick up the motorhome. A call to the embassy said that travel documents could be issued but she and Paul would have to travel to Berlin to get them. So we started making alternative plans and did not have a good night worrying about the passports. Next morning, Paul checked his emails and discovered one from Emirates saying that they had found their passports. Whooohoooo!!!! At last!! Something going right!!

                                                                 Say 'Hi' to Janeve.

We bought an imitation Webber Kettle for NKR49 (AUD8) to save cooking steaks etc in the van. This is Ray and Paul intent on the assembly.

                                                               At the rental station

We picked up the motorhomes in Munich on Wednesday afternoon and have just spent the last couple of days making our way north to Norway. We are camped tonight in a tiny place called Hjerkinn in Norway, north of Oslo. It is in snow country (some snow and ice on the mountains not far from our camp) and at this moment, is very cold and very wet. This morning was beautiful and clear but has come in very ugly this arve. Long days of sunshine here with daylight until probably about 11.00pm. Last night I went to bed at about 10.00pm looking out the window of the motorhome at the people next door cooking tea. Broad daylight!

They also have some different ways of doing things at the campsites here. They lock the gates into and out of the caravan parks at night and don't open them until a specified time each morning. This time differs with every park. We weren't aware of this. After our first night of camping, we were ready to rock'n'roll by 7.15am. We got into the motorhomes and went to drive out but the boomgates were locked shut. I walked off to see if there was another exit but with no luck. I was walking back when I saw Paul coming for a look as well. We were nearing the motorhomes when Janeve started shouting at Paul to get in the car and to hurry up. She was really agitated and I was puzzled as to what was going on. Ray had found the key to the boomgates and had unlocked it just as the owner came out. World War 3 ensued and there was much screaming and abuse from the owner as we quickly dashed to our vehicles and drove off in a mad rush with her threatening to give us a ticket. Can you believe that they lock you in at night so that you can't get out? Well, I think it is more so that campers can't come in after lock-up. But how bizarre is that?

Also, none of the caravan parks have water hook-ups to the vans. They often have only one hose outlet in the park and campers have to walk to the water hose and fill up their containers (usually watering cans) and take them back to the van. They do this over and over until the van is full. How dumb is that? So, obviously none of the vans here have showers. Not sure about toilets. Thankfully our motorhome has both.

Internet access is going to be pretty unreliable in Norway so there won't be a daily blog. 'Thank goodness for that' I can hear you say. Talk to you again soon with some photos.