Tuesday 2 June 2015

DAY 64-69. The Norwegian fjords

The 1st port of call was Olden.
Olden is a village and urban area in the municipality of Stryn in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. Olden is located at the mouth of the Oldeelva river at the northern end of the Oldedalen valley on the southern shore of the Nordfjorden. The 0.57-square-kilometre (140-acre) village has a population of 498, giving the village a population density of 874 inhabitants per square kilometre. Olden is located about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the village of Loen, about a 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) drive southeast of the municipal center of Stryn, and about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of the village of Innvik.
Olden is a major tourist area. The cruise port in Olden had 61 cruise ship arrivals in 2003. The Briksdalsbreen glacier, a popular hiking destination, is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Olden, at the end of the Oldedalen valley. It is a small arm off the main Jostedalsbreen glacier.
It was my favourite port of call.











The 2nd port of call was another small place.
Flåm is a village in Flåmsdalen, at the inner end of the Aurlandsfjorden—a branch of Sognefjorden. The village is located in the municipality of Aurland in Sogn og Fjordane county. The name Flåm is documented as early as 1340 as Flaam. It is derived from the plural dative form of the Old Norse word flá meaning "plain, flat piece of land", and it refers to the flood plains of the Flåm River.
The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden is the largest and most well known fjord in Norway and the third longest in the world (behind the Scoresby Sund and Greely Fiord). Because the other two fjords are often ice-covered, the Sognefjorden is the longest open (ice-free) fjord in the world. Located in Sogn og Fjordane county in Western Norway, it stretches 205 kilometres (127 mi) inland from the ocean to the small village of Skjolden in the municipality of Luster. The fjord takes its name from the traditional district of Sogn, which covers the southern part of the county. It was amazing!!!







The next port of call was Alesund.
Ålesund is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre, and the center of the Ålesund Region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture.
The town of Ålesund is the administrative centre of Ålesund Municipality, as well as the principal shipping town of the Sunnmøre district. Ålesund Municipality has a population of 45,033 as of 2013, while the greater Ålesund urban area has a population of 48,460.
The port of Ålesund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. It was completely surrounded by Borgund Municipality. The port of Ålesund received town rights in 1848. On 1 January 1875, part of Borgund Municipality was transferred to the town of Ålesund. In 1922, another part of Borgund Municipality was transferred to the town of Ålesund. On 1 January 1968, most of the neighboring municipality of Borgund was merged into Ålesund. This merger more than doubled the population of Ålesund, the island of Sula and some small surrounding islets were separated from Ålesund to form the new Sula Municipality.








The final port of call was Stavanger.

Stavanger is a city and municipality in Norway. The city is the third-largest urban zone and metropolitan area in Norway and the administrative centre of Rogaland county. The municipality is the fourth most populous in Norway. Located on the Stavanger Peninsula in Southwest Norway, Stavanger counts its official founding year as 1125, the year Stavanger cathedral was completed. Stavanger's core is to a large degree 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses that are protected and considered part of the city's cultural heritage. This has caused the town centre and inner city to retain a small-town character with an unusually high ratio of detached houses, and has contributed significantly to spreading the city's population growth to outlying parts of Greater Stavanger.

Stavanger is today considered the center of the oil industry in Norway and is one of Europe's energy capitals and is often called the oil capital. Forus Business Park, located on the municipal boundary between Stavanger, 
The highlight of the day was the Lysefjord cruise.

Lysefjord is a fjord located in Forsand in Ryfylke in south-western Norway. The name means light fjord, and is said to be derived from the lightly coloured granite rocks along its sides.

The fjord was carved by the action of glaciers in the ice ages and was flooded by the sea when the later glaciers retreated. The geology of Lysefjorden was thoroughly investigated and described by Professor Bjørn G. Andersen in his Master's thesis (1954)  End to end, it measures 42 km (26 mi) with rocky walls falling nearly vertically over 1000 m (3,000 ft) into the water. Because of the inhospitable terrain, the fjord is only lightly populated and only has two villages on its length - Forsand and Lysebotn, located at opposite ends of the fjord. The few people who live or lived along the fjord are only able to leave their homes by boat, as the slopes are too steep for roads.

Lysefjord is an extremely popular tourist attraction and day trip from nearby Stavanger, from where cruise ships travel the full distance of the fjord. As well as the extraordinary scenery of the fjord itself, two points along its length are popular side trips. The rock of Preikestolen, located above a vertical drop of 604 meters, can be seen from the fjord, but is more impressive from above. At the end of the fjord lies the Kjerag mountain, a popular hiking destination with even more spectacular drops.

Not only is the fjord long and narrow, it is in places as deep as the mountains are high. Only 13 m (43 feet) deep where it meets the sea near Stavanger, the Lysefjord drops to a depth of over 400 m (1300 feet) below the Preikestolen.













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