The bus from alongside Crown Princess took us initially up to Loen, a small village which these days includes a skylift as a popular tourist attraction for those who don’t want to stray too far from where the cruise ships dock. Travelling eastwards from there we drove along the Loelva, the river that connects the Nordfjorden to Lovatnet, a glacier-fed lake, and that would be the first stop on this organised trip.

Our cruise excursion would involve three parts: the first would be a boat trip on the Lovatnet with a snack at the end of that; this would be followed by a visit to a nearby glacier; the day’s activities would conclude with a bus ride back and a stop at a spot with traditional Norwegian buildings. Our boat hadn’t arrived at the lake when we arrived, though, so we had ten or more minutes to stand around and admire the gorgeous scenery in this part of the world.

With the sound of our boat approaching, all of the other passengers on this excursion started to wander back from where they’d been taking a look around. This whole taking a trip abroad thing was still pretty virgin territory for us at the time (there’d been such a long period between our first cruise and this one that we’d effectively reset the clock on it) so we’d stayed close to the bulk of fellow tourists during the wait, not wanting to be those people who stroll off and get lost or cause delays, and even sidled to where we knew the boat would have to stop in order to ensure we couldn’t possibly miss it.

We could see that the boat had seating inside and on top, and with me being the sort of person who likes to take photos of everything (it’s true) I mentioned to my wife that I’d like to head up top for uninterrupted views of the landscape. However, a couple of things scuppered this plan: firstly, there are a lot of selfish people in the world and, without wanting to dip my toes into the waters of stereotyping but being unable to avoid it, the older and whiter and richer American cruising demographic seems to have more than its fair share of them; secondly, I’m introverted (all the time) and polite (when I’m sober). This combination of factors saw our prime position near where the boat was about to tie up get overrun by jostling, careless, more experienced arseholes, and the pair of us shoved away to the back of the queue. We ended up sitting inside.

As it turned out, sitting inside the boat proved to be a positive thing. We could see the people who’d rushed forward and grabbed the outside seating were suffering quite badly with cold, lake spray, and the edge to the temperature in the exposed environment (it wasn’t very windy at all but it wasn’t warm by any means either) was forcing everyone to wrap up as much as possible and bury hands in pockets. It didn’t seem like the best place to take some photographs after all.

Our location in the boat put us close to the water level of the lake and with a window that could be slid open I was able to get some lovely shots of the view ahead and to the starboard side of the vessel.

Our boat trip took around forty minutes and as is the way with excursions we had not only the views to take in but also a running commentary to listen to. This covered geological and historical aspects of the location, and in this particular lake’s case those two aspects were firmly linked. Lovatnet is a glacier-fed lake (actually fed by two glaciers, one of which we’d be visiting next) which accounts for the turquoise colouring, and the surrounding mountainscapes have been prone to landslides in the past.

In 1905 a rockfall triggered tsunamis over forty metres high to travel along the length of Lovatnet. Two villages along the southern shore – Bødal and Nesdal – were hit with the loss of sixty houses, over seventy boats, hundreds of animals, a bridge, and half the population (over sixty deaths). One boat ended up being found three hundred metres inland. A monument was built to honour the dead.

Geologists concluded that such an event was unlikely to happen again so the villages were rebuilt and repopulated but in 1936 a far larger landslide occurred. The tsunamis this time reached a height of over seventy metres, washing away sixteen farms, destroying a hundred houses and other buildings, bridges, a power station, and all the boats. The boat that had previously been deposited three hundred metres inland was moved by the tsunami another one hundred and fifty metres. The 1905 monument was also destroyed, seventy four people lost their lives this time around, and the area was subsequently abandoned.

Our Lovatnet lake boat trip terminated at the southeastern end where a restaurant, Kjenndalstova, was located. This was an opportunity for those who needed to use the restrooms to do so and for everyone to enjoy some waffles. The restaurant itself offers a lot more than just waffles, including trout from the lake, and it’s possible to hire boats to head out and do your own fishing if that’s the sort of thing that floats your boat.

After our snack stop we made our way outside to wait for the bus to arrive and take us on to the next part of the day’s excursion. From Kjenndalstova it’s possible to look across Lovatnet lake and see a pretty impressive waterfall, Ramnefjellsfossen. While its height isn’t known exactly it’s currently considered to be the eleventh highest waterfall in the world.

Time then for the second part of our excursion and the main reason we’d picked this trip, but first an apology.

If you’ve read about our hike in Geiranger from the day before then you’ll already know this and I can only apologise even further for repeating myself. Then again, the likelihood of you having read about our hike in Geiranger from the day before is microscopic because people don’t use the web the way they used to so I feel fully justified in saying this again. Just prior to taking this Norwegian fjords cruise I’d made an impulse buy on the web for some cheap, graduated, neutral density filters as I thought they’d be ideal for getting properly-exposed photos of dark mountains against bright skies. A great theory flawed by not factoring in jagged mountain shapes and choosing the cheapest of cheap options from eBay. The result was dreadfully-exposed pictures with mountains half-under and half-over-exposed, and magenta tones flooding the highlights and shadows. It was also impossible to mount the filter on the lens without leaving a thumbprint somewhere so problems that already existed with a dirty sensor had extra imperfections added to the mix. Anyway, all this is to say that I’m sorry that the photos aren’t better here; I’ve cleaned them up as best I could in limited time and I’ve tried to desaturate the wrong colouring but to do a proper job would take months and the effort’s not worth the result. I’ll just have to go back and take better shots some other day.

Kjenndal Glacier – our destination – is an arm of Jostedal Glacier, which just happens to be the largest glacier in continental Europe. It was also the first glacier we’d ever seen (which, considering this was only our second trip abroad and the first had been to Asia, shouldn’t be that big a surprise). We’ve seen a few more glaciers since then.

There’s not a lot to say about Kjenndalsbreen (its Norwegian name) that you probably can’t guess or that you won’t get told if you see almost any other glacier in the world. The ice is retreating because the world is warming up so if you want to experience glaciers at their most impressive then you need to do it sooner rather than later. Kjenndal’s glacier is actually maintained by snowfall rather than low temperature but that means that any change in climate that alters snow conditions could affect this glacier more quickly than a gradual heat rise over time.

From the point where the bus dropped us off to where we allowed to walk to (we couldn’t get too close to the glacier because the risk of rockfall in the area was too great and the Norwegian authorities sensibly want to keep people a reasonable distance away from natural wonders that are susceptible to tourism damage) was little more than five minutes’ walk and our time in total at this picturesque spot was about forty minutes. This gave us plenty of time to take plenty of photos of the Kjenndal Glacier and the nearby waterfalls cascading over the egdes of the mountains but photography was tricky because the sun was behind the glacier for the most part. Dark rock in the foreground, blue-white ice on the peak, and sunshine diffused through hazy cloud behind was quite a challenge to work with and if you’re keen on taking some great pictures in this part of Norway then take some time to consider where the sunlight’s coming from at the time of day you’re visiting.

You can really get a sense of the difficulty in taking pictures in this video near Kjenndalsbreen, and you’ll also be able to get a sense for how the wind was being funnelled down the canyon leading to the foot of the glacier.

The walk back to the bus took us along a glacial stream. As has already been mentioned, Lovatnet lake is fed by two main glaciers; Jostedal (and its arm here at Kjenndal) being one of them.

While the Ramnefjellsfossen waterfall on Lovatnet had been remarkable because of its height I found the waterfall thundering off the northern face of the rocks near Kjenndal Glacier far more impressive.

With everyone back at the bus on time we then left Kjenndal Glacier behind and started on our return towards Olden where Crown Princess was waiting for us. We wouldn’t be taking the boat along Lovatnet for this as we’d be stopping in a small village along the way and that will be covered in the next post in this cruise travelogue series.

Not a lot done here. Dark and light layers to pull out more detail in the land and clouds then a boost of colour saturation and vibrancy. This was overlaid twice on the original image in soft light and lighten modes to still allow some of the original smoothness through and ensure that not too much detail was lost in shadow in the foreground areas of land.

Olden is situated at the southern end of the 106-kilometres long Nordfjorden and early in the morning it was cast in shadow from the imposing landscape, the sun not yet high enough to do anything other than illuminate the peaks of mountains on the western shore of the water.

The scene was one of serenity and if you were deaf then you can imagine it still would be, but as the short video clip (temporarily removed) below shows, it wasn’t quite the spot of tranquility you might imagine from the still photography.

We spent a little time out on the balcony taking in the view, remarking how spectacular it would be to have the fjord water and mountain around you all year long, and taking numerous photos. If you’re looking at some of the photos below and thinking There are an awful lot of very similar shots of the same thing there then welcome friend, you must be new around here. I’m Mark and I take lots of photos of the same thing then post them on this site.

Crown Princess was docked opposite a few buildings, one of which offered souvenirs for anyone who fancied picking some up. Tour buses were parked outside it and there was a land train too. To our right, southwards on account of the direction in which the ship was facing, we could see a building which appeared to have once been a guest house although looked to have been converted to provide tourism services. A popular place to visit not far to the south of Olden is the Briksdalsbreen glacier and there were plenty of options available for anyone fancying a trip to see it, from taxis to hiring cars, or taking the scheduled shuttle bus, or going on a more guided tour. Our plan while in Olden was to visit a glacier too but we would be travelling east of the village on an organised excursion through Princess Cruises to the Kjenndal glacier instead.

Our excursion wouldn’t be for a while so we had time for breakfast then headed up to the top deck for more views of Olden and its position in the Nordfjorden. Olden doesn’t have anything worth mentioning historically but geographically it’s in the Jostedalsbreen National Park which accounts for the breathtaking vistas in every direction. Flat fjord water reflecting the Norwegian landscape was mesmerisingly beautiful.

The time came for us to head to the meeting point for our glacier trip, and, since this was only our second ever cruise and everything was even more exciting than it still is, I couldn’t help but fire off some more photos as we passed through Crooners. You can read about the organised trip portion of our day docked in Olden in Lovatnet Lake And Kjenndal Glacier Excursion.

First up was the spot at which the tragedies of the tsunamis along Lovatnet (explained in the previous article) was memorialised. A white cross on one side of the road sat opposite a metal plaque on which the names of those who were killed in the two natural disasters was listed.

The views were idyllic; a poignant contrast to the events behind the reason for our stop here to take photos. Across Lovatnet we could see Ramnefjellsfossen waterfall cascading down towards the lake.

Also visible was the remains of Lodalen, the boat which had been unceremoniously deposited inland on the first tsunami, then lifted up again and slammed further up the hill from the lake when the second disaster occurred.

We reboarded our bus and continued along the road towards Loen for about another twenty minutes until we stopped for the final time on this day’s cruise excursion. This was Kjenndalen, a traditional Norwegian farming village for want of a better description, and a picturesque spot right by the shore of Lovatnet with more of those spectacular views of the landscape we’d been spoilt by during our time on land; glacial lake, mountains, waterfalls: what more could you want?

Kjenndalen comprised a number of wooden buildings all sporting grass on their roofs, similar to one we’d seen during our previous day’s hike at Geiranger. Stone bases for sturdiness and wooden fences added to the rustic look impressively. With the vista of one of Norway’s turquoise lakes and a chain of ice-capped mountains to look out on, with the lush green of the late summer on the landscape, and with the pleasing temperatures of this time of year and gentle sunshine it was easy to see why this location had been settled. I could almost see myself living here until I remembered how much it typically rained in this part of the world and that I couldn’t recall having passed a pub on the drive.

That brought our Princess Cruises-organised excursion to an end so all that remained was to return to the ship in Olden. As is fairly traditional with fairly fresh-faced cruisers (and we were, at this time; more weather-beaten these days) there were some traditional photos of Crown Princess before boarding and passing through security.

Crown Princess let go her lines at 17:10 (look at me sounding all nautical when all I’m doing is quoting from the log of cruise) and made her way along the fjords towards her next port of call, Flåm, where we had another packed day planned with a long excursion and where we’d discover a very welcome surprise in the port itself. We stayed out on our balcony for quite some time because, well, it’s Norway and it’s fjordy and it’s pretty.

Just because we didn’t have any firm plans, it didn’t mean that other people didn’t, because there were a load of excursion options for those who fancied the idea of letting Princess or one of the local businesses whisk them away to see other sights. Ordinarily, we’d have done the same but there was nothing that really grabbed our eyes from the offerings; we’d seen a glacier before, we had no desire to spend a few hours in a bus to a waterfall or church, and the popular skylift at nearby Loen might be something we do one day but we simply weren’t sold on it on this occasion. You’ve got to be in the right mood. We opted to simply have a bit of a stroll around, as much as we could, and that meant we could be sensible and let everyone with schedules get off the ship first and do their things. To eat up some time before the queue for the tender operations eased off a bit we took a gentle amble around the top deck of Sky Princess to get the 360 degree view and snap a few photos.

Olden is a stunningly beautiful port in Norway.

We weren’t the only ship in port on this day, with the MSC Preziosa also visiting and snatching the dockside area ahead of us for easier embarkation and debarkation of her passengers.

The bright sunny day and surroundings of steep, ice-topped mountains around the fjord valleys of Olden meant there were no shortage of incredible views and photographic opportunities to explore. As we completed a circuit of Sky Princess we could see other individuals and couples doing almost exactly the same thing.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be ashore and going for a walk around the port of Olden where, if you’re lucky, I might just have taken some pretty photos to share.

A pretty Norwegian port would have to suffice, we decided, and luckily for us the weather was utterly glorious.

In the previous post in this series there are photos of Olden from the top deck of Sky Princess, if you’ve missed that and want to see even more Norwegian landscape gorgeousness.

We gave the organised excursions enough time to get most of their passengers ashore before wandering down to take the tender boat from Sky Princess to the small pier at the end of the fjord. Olden can accommodate a cruise ship berthing alongside, but the space was already taken up by MSC Preziosa. Not a major problem when you’re cruising in fjords, though, as it would take some very odd weather to affect the typically still waters, so tendering tends to be a simple and quick process.

The photographs of Olden in this post generally follow our very gentle, very slow stroll from where the ship’s tender boat dropped us off, heading southwards and clockwise around the shoreline of the village and up one side of the fjord until it looked like we were running out of sights to see, then retracing our steps back, past the pier, forming a large U-shaped route up to where Preziosa was docked, which just so happened to be alongside a pub. What are the odds of that!?

The pretty church we initially passed, then doubled back to venture inside (since we saw it was open), was the Old Olden Church. Built on the site of former churches that themselves dated back as far as the thirteenth century, this building was built and consecrated in 1759 and served as the parish church in the county until 1934 when a new church was built to take over the role. The Old Olden Church was left as a museum and site of interest for tourists.

After leaving the church, we followed the shoreline road over the Oldeelva river. This river runs into the Nordfjord off the Briksdal Glacier; a popular destination for cruise visitors to Olden. It’s only the fact that we’ve seen other glaciers and my wife’s old hip and knee injuries were flaring up a bit that chose not to head to Briksdal on this port visit, but I suspect that if we were to return to Olden on a ship in the future then we’d likely either book an organised trip or take the land train to it if the port wasn’t absolutely heaving with tourists on that particular day. The clear blue skies helped the spectacularly beautiful views look even better.

Our walk in Olden took us to some decent vantage points from which to see the stunning Norwegian landscape and the two cruise ships in the fjord on that day. It’s a wonderful feeling to suddenly grasp the size of everything around when you see the vessel you arrived on dwarfed by nature. I know that there will be people who’ll look at the photos below and think that the ships spoil the views of the fjords and the mountains and the green hills, and I understand that point of view, but fortunately for me there are few enough cruise fans who visit this site as it is that I don’t think I have to worry about anyone who actually doesn’t like cruising popping along to leave a derogatory comment (that I likely wouldn’t allow to be published anyway; dictator of my domain, and all that).

We headed back around to the opposite side of the fjord, passing back over the river and through the village (with a quick stop to look for souvenirs as we always try to spend some money ashore, even if it’s on some right old tat, when we cruise around the world), making our way to where we knew a pub was located. This was right where MSC Preziosa was docked.

The pub was the Mølla Gjestehus and it was fairly quiet when we arrived. We soon guessed that because most of the MSC ship’s passengers were filing aboard it might be leaving soon (and, indeed, it would leave before Sky Princess). We found some seats on the terrace near some officers of the Italian vessel who were making sure to spend money in the port on food and drink (we approve of this), and grabbed ourselves some locally-produced beers and ciders.

I won’t lie: the drinks were… not great. Or, let’s say that they weren’t to our taste. The important thing for us when we try local drinks, though, is not that they’re nice, but that they’re local. You don’t have to like a thing to appreciate a thing. I’m thinking of having that printed up on my business cards.

More of those beautiful Olden landscape views accompanied our short walk back to the pier and a small wait in a long queue to take the tender boat back to Sky Princess.

I hardly need tell you again that Olden is incredibly beautiful, but it is, and we were fortunate enough to have good weather for this visit. It is, however, a village, and if you’re not a hiker or looking for things to do ashore that don’t involve trips to nearby lifts and glaciers or more distant waterfalls and churches then you might struggle a little for interest. Oh, the struggle of being in Olden with nothing but those views.

In the next post in the cruise travelogue series I’ll share photographs of the sail away from Olden along the Nordfjord, and it’s an absolutely beautiful one that the photos don’t do enough justice to.

But first, we had to wait for all the passengers to board Sky Princess. We could tell from the fact that tender boats were still heading from the ship to shore that not all of them had; cruise ships track who is on and off the vessel at all times. We waited and watched, and our scheduled departure from Olden came and went.

After MSC Preziosa had made her departure, our captain turned Sky Princess around to face out of the fjord and present the tender boat boarding side towards the pier in Olden in order to shorten the time needed for boat trips. We could still tell that we were waiting on people, though, as the view from our balcony (now, thankfully, out of the direct sunshine) allowed us to look back to the village where the Princess Cruises gazebo and some members of the crew were still hanging around. That suggested to us that whoever was late was on an organised trip because cruise ships don’t wait around long if you wander off on your own and don’t get back on time.

Eventually, we saw a couple of buses pull up, a queue form on the shoreside, and everyone – including the crew on the pier – pile aboard the final tender boat. There was a small amount of ironic cheering from some of the balconies on the ship. But not from us. We’re very reserved.

Sky Princess departed from Olden a fair bit later than planned, but with this being the height of summer in Norway there was plenty of bright sunshine to show off the Norwegian landscape as we gently cruised along the fjords. Green hills, snowy mountain peaks, flat water, pleasantly warm, supremely tranquil. If you’ve not cruised the Norwegian fjords then make the effort to do so.

It’s not true that you can ever get tired of viewing the fjords in Norway, but it is true that you can get hungry so we interrupted our balcony-staring time to head down to the dining room for dinner. The food on this particular cruise was of a high standard and this meal was no exception.

We are creatures of habit on cruises – we’ve discovered what we like to do and keep doing it – so with dinner out of the way we would typically head to some lounges in the evening on a Princess Cruises ship, take part in a quiz if one’s on, enjoy the music if not. However, the light, even fairly late in the evening was superb, the scenery was superber (shut up), and we decided we’d risk heading to the bar at the aft of the ship. This isn’t a location we’d normally visit at any time on any ship because it can get busy on pleasant sea days plus you’re forced to drink from plastic glasses like a child and, depending where you end up, you might be near filthy, stinking smokers too. But the aft bar on Sky Princess was quiet with only a few other passengers around and we got to experience some incredible views in relative solitude.

Yes, that’s a 24K Gold Margarita and a Dirty Banana. Cocktails of champions.

Eventually returning to our cabin and heading out to the balcony we became immediately aware of a lot of noise. This turned out to be some fast boats with groups of Norwegians on them waving flags and shouting. Our first thought was that this might be some form of protest against cruise ships because Norway is a bit funny like that, but this actually just turned out to be happy, possibly drunk, fjord party types. Much loud music and whooping and waving ensued. And that answers the question of what Norwegian locals get up in the evenings in the fjords.

The day’s sail away along the Nordfjord and out to the open sea concluded at well past midnight when the sky was ablaze with post-sunset colours. Sky Princess turned northwards. In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be visiting Ålesund where we had a far less lazy day planned.