Norway 2022 – All the Waterfalls

To wrap up epic travel spring, it was time to head to Norway. A mystery illness that was not covid attempted to take Greg out at the knees the week before we were leaving. Thankfully he felt better by the time we had to leave and seeing that I love Greg even more than I love travel, I let him make the call on if we should travel. He decided he could handle it.

Flight to Montreal was uneventful, but it took a while for a gate to be ready for us, so our two hour layover where we were hoping to have supper turned into less than an hour where we managed to get a tea from the zombies working at Starbucks (if you’ve been the the Starbucks in the domestic section of YUL any time lately, you’ll understand… I get it, the whole world is understaffed – I’m mostly just being funny) and some random junk from a Relay, one of the few things open in the international section. I normally bring snacks and did not this time and I should have. The couple of restaurant type places that were open literally had lines with 50 people in them.

Flight to London was also uneventful – scored extra legroom seats and we didn’t have to share the row with anyone. Watched movies, arrived a few minutes early, breezed through passport control (I love being able to just scan my passport and keep going… catch up Canada), luggage arrived, driver was waiting, and off we went to Canterbury. We’d never been and it’s close to Dover where we needed to be the next day, so we figured we’d give it a go. We were checked into our hotel (Hampton Inn) there around 9am, and since the room was ready, napping was in order. We were both exhausted on this one and opted to not just push through like we normally do.

Our hotel was in a perfect location to be able to walk to all the interesting things (and it’s also a very nice Hampton Inn btw). First stop, the Foundry for lunch and tasty beverages. After airport and airplane ick food, it was nice to have a real meal. With nothing planned until we had to be on a cruise ship the next day, we just spent some time exploring in lovely weather. We wandered through Westgate Gardens, admired the architecture of some of the city gates and churches, plied ourselves with caffeine, grabbed something light from a M&S for supper (at that point we were more sleepy than hungry), and called it a day.

We had arranged a taxi to pick us up at 11am to take us to Dover, so we decided to take advantage of our time in the morning to visit Canterbury Cathedral before we left. But first, caffeine at Lost Sheep Coffee & Kitchen. Christ Church Gate, as well as a good portion of the cathedral itself, were covered in scaffolding – but the inside is amazing and it’s definitely worth a visit (even with the admission price). Post cathedral visit, back to the hotel to grab our luggage and meet our taxi – off to Dover we go (about 30 mins).

This was Carnival’s first visit back to Dover since the pandemic and it was our first trip back onto a larger ship (though not super large – a little over 2000 passengers). Check-in was fairly smooth, considering all the things being checked. Carnival was using Verify to help speed things along, which helped. It probably took about an hour. Once on board, had a sandwich and a beverage waiting for the rooms to be ready.

We opted for a balcony for this cruise – always a nice to have when doing any kind of itinerary that involves ‘scenic cruising’. Unloaded our backpacks, sat on our balcony and admired the white cliffs of Dover and Dover castle, and headed up top to watch sailaway.

Fast forward to dinner and it was finally time to see our awesome friends from Germany! It was so nice to spend the cruise with them and to see them for dinner most nights. Their kiddos are adorable and we loved spending time with them all. At night, we pretty much do nothing – hot beverages, chilling, and off to bed (because time zones). Occasionally we had a drink with our friends. Expect no further commentary on night life.

Day one of our cruise was a sea day. We spent the morning getting our steps in, exploring the ship (we’ve sailed this class before, but not this ship), and getting some work done. Played a little trivia, had some tasty beverages, enjoyed our balcony, and essentially did a lot of nothing. We take part in pretty much nothing going on when cruising port heavy itineraries in Europe, so I have nothing to add about any of the shows or activities. When the sun went down on our sea day, it was a while before we saw it again. We didn’t see darkness again though either – Norway is north enough that in the summer, it’s pretty much eternal daylight.

First stop – Stavanger. We had nothing specifically planned for this port since it’s easily walkable and we wanted to have a couple of stops where we didn’t spend the day on a bus. Once we docked, we headed out in the rain to explore. I’m a big fan of street art and Stavanger had a lot of it. We walked around the port area, including Ovre Holmegate (a cute area of colourful shops and restaurants) and Gamle Stavanger (neighbourhood of preserved white houses on cobblestone streets). Sat out a bit of heavier rain in a Starbucks, went back to the ship to dry off a bit, and then headed back out to find a tasty craft beverage and some lunch at Lervig Local Brewery. We may have been distracted by a tasty baked treat at Kanelsnurren Eiganes on the way. I’d definitely come back here – especially to hike up to Pulpit Rock and to visit the swords in the rock.

Next up, Skjolden and cruising the Sognefjord. Cruising into Skjolden, which is at the end of Lustrafjorden (a branch of Sognefjord), is lovely and I was so thankful to have a balcony for these scenic portions. Even though it was a bit cold, we just bundled up and enjoyed the view. In this port, we did a Carnival excursion and it wasn’t a great one admittedly. It didn’t really deliver on what it was supposed to and we spent too much time in a bus, but we did see lovely scenery and we got to visit an old stave church, which was pretty cool. Once we got back to the port, we explored the village. It’s home to only about 200 people, so there’s not a ton going on – but they do have waterfalls, which are always worth seeing, and they do have a little pub where we stopped for a drink. The village has a coop grocery store and I suspect they had a very busy day when we were in port. Cruising back out the fjord was stunning – so many waterfalls, cute house, beautiful mountains – highly recommend.

Our next stop was Ålesund. It looks to be a really pretty city and it would be easily walkable from the cruise port. We barely saw it at all as Ålesund was our gateway to seeing the Troll Road on a tour booked with Norway Excursions (who I highly recommend). This was a long day on the bus but it was worth every second. Our guide was Danny (who was actually from Spain and not Norway) and he was excellent. We stopped in a few scenic lookouts, at the Rose Church in Stordal, and at Gudbrandsjuvet (cool ravine/waterfall). Then we continued on to Reinheimen National Park to the Trollstigen plateau. The Troll Road had just opened for the year a few days before we arrived and part of the visitor center had been damaged by a snow slide earlier in the spring, so we were lucky the viewing area was open at all. There was still plenty of snow up there and it was also bonkers windy and pouring when we arrived. Driving down the 11 hair pin turns of the Troll Road in a big bus was pretty interesting and the stop at the bottom for more waterfall viewing was awesome. Next up, we visited Trollveggen (the Troll Wall – Europe’s tallest vertical rock face), stopped for lunch at a mountaineering/visitor center, and then it was back to Ålesund.

Moving on – our next stop was Molde – city of roses. Our plan for the day was to go out and see the Atlantic Road with Norway Excursions. Sadly, they cancelled our tour the night before as they were having issues with their vehicle provider. They were incredibly apologetic and professional and refunded our tour immediately. We rebooked something similar with Carnival so that we could see it. Our Carnival tour wasn’t until the afternoon, so we spent some time exploring Molde in the morning. We did much walking, found a cute bakery (fole godt) to visit, walked the path along the ocean, saw the stadium, and admired houses and gardens. On our Carnival tour, our guide was pretty dull and very concerned about the clock at all times and a bunch of people on the bus spent the entire time complaining. But the Atlantic Road is pretty cool (I’d seen a picture of it ages ago and I just wanted to see it in person) and for our entire visit, it wasn’t raining! We had a little bit of free time here to explore and a bit of time at the small fishing village of Bud as well.

Moving along – Olden! My favourite stop of the trip. Cruising into Nordfjord to get there was incredibly beautiful and I can definitely get down with some scenic cruising. We had another tour booked here with Norway Excursions and we had Danny as our guide again. Before our tour, we had a little time to walk around (in the rain), so we went over to see the area where the Princess ship that was tendered near us was bringing their passengers. On our tour, we stopped to view Lake Olden (so beautiful) before carrying on the Briksdal glacier. We had a few hours here to hike up to the top. I am currently very unfit and I was so proud of myself for making it all the way to the top. It was worth every step and so incredibly beautiful. Waterfalls, time spent outside with not too much rain, a glacier lake, and a great day with Greg – so awesome. After that, it was back down to Olden where we had some time to explore. I was completely done with assholes on buses at this point and happy to have some time to just walk around. The sun even came out for a little bit. Olden Brewery was closed (Norway – people like to drink beer during the day in tourist areas!), so we stopped for lunch and drinks at Molla Gjestehus near the port. Greg tried the local beer and I tried a local cider and both were very good.

Last stop – Bergen. We had no tours booked in Bergen and I’m so glad. We went out pretty early in the morning, which worked out pretty well because it gave us a couple of hours to explore before it poured for the rest of the day. We were drenched rats when we got back to the ship. Found some coffee, visited the tourist office to mail some postcards, and explored all around. I loved visiting the colourful buildings of the wharf (a UNESCO site) with their cool alleys lined with shops and uneven staircases. We had some lunch at the fish market, had delicious vegan treats at a coffee shop, and found some local beer at bar (because yet again the local brewery was not open), before calling it a day.

We had one last sea day to round out the trip and it was sunny! We probably worked a bit (we both had to throughout the whole cruise) and relaxed the rest, packed our stuff, sadly said goodbye to our friends, and that’s a wrap. The Pride is an older ship (over 20) and she’s starting to show her age and her decor is pretty old school, but she has received some upgrades and she’s a perfectly good vessel for getting you from place to place. Carnival is operating short-staffed in some areas and we knew that in advance, but we had amazing service from everyone we dealt with.

Disembarkation the next day was easy peasy. Got off the ship, found our bags, and off to the bus – no customs or additional stops. It was about a 2 hour bus ride to Heathrow, which put us there in plenty of time for our early afternoon flight. Once in a while Air Canada status helps with something, and this time it meant no line for us for check-in and priority security (probably about 30 minutes). Some breakfast at The London’s Pride in T2 (Fuller Brewery’s spot – a favourite of ours), a frustrating attempt to get a decent coffee, and some sitting around waiting for a slightly delayed flight. Flight to Montreal was uneventful (we watched movies, as per usual). We had 4 hour+ layover in Montreal, so we had some lunch and spent some time in the lounge. Add four more hours of delay and call it a day. Finally made it home, luggage did too.